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I was flipping through the Monster Codex last night, and the Enlightened Vampire (a vampire monk) really intrigued me. So I noodled with the concept a little bit.
What if you had a remote artist's colony run by vampires? The leader would be a dread vampire nymph or Leanan Sidhe who is a major patron of art and knowledge. She is an immortal, and when she sees a person who is dedicated to becoming the ultimate in his craft (artistry, performance, artistic crafts, knowledge or even martial arts), she brings him to her colony. If he is truly talented (or has the potential be truly talented), she makes him a project ... and then she gives him the gift of vampirism so he can spend many, many lifetimes pursuing his art. She is named "The Mistress of Beauty"
There are multiple layers of secrets and evil here:
* The colony is home to a number of mortals known as "Aspirants." These individuals are sublimely talented artisans, many of them kidnapped from their homes. They are kept in conditions of supreme luxury and encouraged to create their greatest works. They labor away, their every need attended to, in hope that they will attract the patronage of the Mistress of Beauty. If an Aspirant fails to impress the Mistress of Beauty, he suddenly becomes acquainted with the ugly side of the colony, as he his pressed into slavery as a guard, part of the herd, or as a servant.
* The colony maintains a "herd" of people who are regularly drained of their blood to sustain the immortal artists. Some of the herd are failed aspirants -- their artwork did not please the Mistress of Beauty. Others are mortal descendants of artists.
* The Mistress of Beauty cares only about artwork, beauty, and the perfection of craft. She cares nothing about mortals or others who might "visit," and nothing about the care and feeding of "lessers" who sustain the colony when its vampire artists are working. These tasks have fallen to a tiefling administrator named Vagyro and a cruel vampire warrior named Tetch. They rule over servants, guards, the mortal herds -- really, any aspect of the colony that is not artistry -- with an iron hand. As long as the Mistress of Beauty's golden cup is full of blood and her artists produce works of great beauty and perfect her craft, she does not care what they do.
* Some of the "younger" vampires are quite well taken with this opportunity, and they do their darnedest to work. Some do so for their own sake, but some do so because they hope to further please the Mistress of Beauty. As vampires, they have become indifferent to any suffering created in the progress of their art. All that matters to them is pursuing knowledge or art and earning favor from the Mistress of Beauty.
* Many of the "older" vampires no longer love their art or the pursuit of knowledge. They have been at their task for so long that they have grown bored. Yet, they are directly under the Mistress of Beauty's domination. They continue to practice their craft because the has compelled them to do so.
* The Mistress of Beauty will often become quite interested in a new artist for a time. She will lavish love and attention on him. In short order, she will grow bored and send him away. It may be months, years, or even centuries before she shows interest in his work again.
You may want to look into Dreamscarred's Lords of the Night for vampire colony ideas. What you've got is pretty rad looking to this point, very oWoD Toreador.
Some more spitballing.
As I think about it, the Colony should be a smallish town.
The smallish town would have an inn, a tavern, and a couple of the usual stops for adventurers. But it would also have far more performance venues than most places do. And the Colony itself would consist of several richly appointed villas (for the Aspirants and junior artists), and there would be a central palace inhabited by the Mistress of Beauty and her immediate favorites and sycophants.
The Monster Codex refers to (somewhat) civilized ghouls. If a ghoul hasn't allowed his hunger to completely overcome him, then the Colony of Immortal Arts gives that ghoul a chance to at least pretend he's not a cannibalistic, bloodthirsty fiend. So I think the ghouls are a credible "middle class" for the colony -- creatures who are above the herds and below the Artists and Aspirants. I picture these ghouls being not just thugs and merchants, but also hoteliers, innkeepers, cooks ... you name it, there's probably a ghoul doing it.
The more intelligent (and more theatrically inclined) ghouls mostly enjoy their roles. Through their "middle class" roles, they get to stay tied to mortal life. They also receive semi-regular "food" in the form of failed Aspirants or other mortals who were foolish enough to displease the Mistress of Beauty or her immediate sycophants.
Despite their civilized trappings, the ghouls are still savage, cannibalistic killers. But they've learned that if they behave, the Mistress of Dreams and her artists will occasionally provide them with food. Interestingly, a cult has developed among the ghouls. Several of these ghouls have gotten in their mind to seek the favor of the Mistress of Beauty by practicing "the Art of the Meal." So far, these bloody works of performance art have not gained her attention.
Still ...
Any good artist needs an audience. So I imagine that there would be somewhere between a few hundred and a couple thousand mortals not directly associated with the artists of the Colony. Their job is to do the menial tasks (farming, etc.) of the colony. Taking a page from the Stephen King short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band," the mortals are required to be an audience every evening. Music concerts, art gallery showings, operas, musicals, plays. Every night, Aspirants and Artists (both mortal and immortal) perform or exhibit their works. And the mortals are herded in to validate the Aspirants and Artists. If an Aspirant or Artist is displeased with a mortal's reaction to his work -- indeed, if the mortal causes an Aspirant or Artist distress in any way -- then he is potentially food for ghouls.
Where to put the Colony of Immortal Arts?
I don't think you can get away with putting this in Absalom or any civilized land that is home to good people who study magic. Too many arcane and divine casters there who would quickly figure out there's a vampire art colony in their midst and shut it down. On top of that, the Mistress of Beauty doesn't care about maintaining mortal pretenses, and the rest of the community could take her cue from them. I think this rules out a lot of the more civilized areas of Golarion as well. Is anybody really going to let a colony of bloodsucking fiends exist
Geb and Ustalav are both obvious locations, given the proliferation of undead there. An undead art colony would be part of the scenery. And Nex, with its manifest magical weirdness, could provide a backdrop for the Colony of the Immortal Arts.
I also think that "uncivilized" lands could provide an interesting location. If you're in Belkzen, the Mana Wastes, or Numeria, then the Colony of the Immortal Arts -- locally known as a vampire colony -- might make a weird sort of sanctuary for mortals. Once you're at the colony, you're mostly safe from monsters who don't want to tangle with a dread vampire and her servitors. The price is that you have to attend art performances and be on your best behavior so you don't become food.
Of course ... the question is how long humanoids could bear this existence before going more than a little insane.
If you want to go extraplanar, the Colony of the Immortal Arts may also be a place in the First World.
Stylistically, I think you should have the art swerve into decorative, baroque, formalist, conceptual, and decadent art. Art's engagement with culture, history, social justice, love, and truth will be pretty unpopular with this crowd.
I misread the thread's title as "Colony of Immortal Ants"
Darigaaz the Igniter wrote: I misread the thread's title as "Colony of Immortal Ants" No, no. It's the Colony of Immortal Aunts. Filled with kindly ladies who pinch your cheek and make you sit on really uncomfortable floral couches.
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Art sometimes is born from strife, pain and suffering; once these are gone many artists become a shade of their former talent, trying to imitate themselves or not accepting their lack of vision.
In undeath, this could happen too. Or it could give a new tonality to the strife insde.
Thought it could fit with the idea :)
Excellent, Errant Mercenary. I haven't written this up into a full adventure or anything. It's just an idea I had the other night and wanted to post. It sort of grew on me.
I deliberately haven't posted any stat blocks. But in my head, the Colony of Immortal Arts is best suited for a series of adventures that begin around level 5 or 6 and end when the party is about 10th or 11th level.
What is the Mistress of Beauty? I read through creature descriptions, and I think that a Leanansidhe with templates makes the most sense. I'd add the Bard Creature simple template (giving her bardic abilities and some flavorful spells), and stack the Dread Vampire template on top of that. This gives her a CR of around 14.
In my mind's eye, the Mistress of Beauty is a remote creature, quite proud and encouraging, but easily bored. She seldom drinks blood directly from people and instead has it brought to her in a goblet.
On a whim, she will occasionally venture out among her people, disguising herself with her Change Shape ability.
Her private apartments, a large complex of rooms deep beneath the colony, are decorated with outlandish pieces of art, many of them quite avant-garde. These apartments are home to the Mistress of Beauty and her currently favored artists -- typically 4-5 vampires or vampire spawn with the Expert class, heavy Craft or Artistry skills, and a token from the Mistress of Beauty. There are also typically ghoul spellcasters and guards in the apartments, as well as body servants to attend to the Mistress's needs, whatever they might be.
Scattered around her apartments and elsewhere in galleries in the Colony's inner sanctum are pieces of art. If the PCs wish to permanently slay the Mistress of Beauty and forestall her Dread Rejuvenation ability, they must find the five pieces of art that mean the most to the Mistress, and destroy those pieces of art.
Historians at the colony note that the Mistress of Beauty has gone through five different phases of the sorts of art she patronizes. The players, over time, would need to learn of those five different phases, and, using either skills (Appraise or Artistry) or gathered clues.
Alternatively, simply destroying the artworks may not be enough. Perhaps the players must find the artists (most of them now vampires) and convince them to destroy the artworks themselves.
Creepy side plot: The Mistress of Beauty keeps a group of pet basilisks to preserve beautiful mortals forever ...
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