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View Full Version : Vampiric Essence [magic item, 3.5]



Altair_the_Vexed
2010-04-27, 03:05 PM
Amid the detritus of the vampire spawn's crypt, you find a small padded box of crystal phials, each containing a dark, thick liquid, and stoppered with red wax.

Carefully collected and distilled from the blood of vampires, Vampiric Essence can transform the dying into vile undead spawn. Thus vampire lords seek to extend their influence and spread their kind through the lands of the living, without putting themselves at undue risk.

Vampiric Essence is a red-black liquid that can be applied to an unconscious character as if it were a potion. (It could conceivably be drunk by a conscious character, but due to its effect, this is less common. Few would pay such a grim price for continued existence...)

If the imbibing character is dying, he must make a Fortitude save, DC20, or the Essence kills him abruptly. Horribly, he will rise as a Vampire Spawn 1d4 hours later, or at the next nightfall, whichever is later.

Spawn created by Vampiric Essence are not under the direct control of the person who administered the Essence, nor the Vampire whose blood was used to make the Essence, but they begin dealings with those creatures on a Friendly status, and those creatures gain a +4 profane bonus to any checks to influence them through Intimidation of Diplomacy.

The Essence has no effect on a character who is not dying.

(Strong Necromancy; CL12; Requirements: Craft Wondrous Item, plus either vampiric dominate ability and create spawn ability, or Death Knell and Dominate Person and Create Greater Undead; cost: 3600gp)

PEACH!

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-04-29, 02:24 AM
I'm slightly disappointed that no-one felt this needed any comment. Maybe it's perfect? :smallbiggrin:
In any case, let me get the thread back on its feet before it dies off to page three and I have to get necromantic.

Any comments at all?

Jarrick
2010-04-29, 06:41 AM
Alucard: "You instant vampires make me sick."

:smalltongue:Anime references aside, I like this.

I played a lich once that became a BBEG that made draughts of Enervation and gave them away to anyone willing to join the unliving. Commoners would drink them, die, and rise as wights the next midnight. He was an unliving rights extremist, in much the same manner as the lord of blades (Conquer all living), but with a much bigger army. He didn't kill, he recruited. :smalltongue:

Mechanically, it all seems pretty tight. Any rebuking character is going to want a few of these just 'cause.

The Anarresti
2010-04-29, 02:11 PM
Question: if the drinker is over 4 HD, do they become full-fledged vampires instead?

Debihuman
2010-04-30, 10:38 PM
Nasty...I like it.

Debby

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-05-01, 12:34 PM
Question: if the drinker is over 4 HD, do they become full-fledged vampires instead?
No.

Creating a vampire, as opposed to a vampire spawn, is a more deliberate act - pinning someone long enough to drain the victim's CON to 0 is more onerous than just slamming them for multiple energy drains.

This is more designed as a ghastly tool for the ghoulish agents of vampires to turn their victims into spawn for their lord, than it is a potion that wannabe vampires take voluntarily.

Jarrick
2010-05-01, 12:58 PM
This is more designed as a ghastly tool for the ghoulish agents of vampires to turn their victims into spawn for their lord, than it is a potion that wannabe vampires take voluntarily.

But there is a good chance that these potions will be sought after for this very reason. Sounds like the city watch has a new, more deadly than ever drug to crack down on. Vampiric essence, V-S on the streets, is the most profitable and dangerous drug to ever be smuggled onto the black market. At its source: the head of the local crime syndicate, a recently changed vampire lord who stands to make a great deal of profit as he slowly recruits an army of vampire spawn from the underbelly of the city. An unlikely assortment of heroes must stop at nothing to put an end to this plague and bring peace to the night once more. But what of the vampire that changed the crime lord in the first place? Can the heroes find and destroy this problem at its source? Find out, in what will probably be... my next campaign. :smalltongue:

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-05-02, 03:32 PM
... Find out, in what will probably be... my next campaign. :smalltongue:
Cool - glad to be of service.