Quote Originally Posted by hamishspence View Post
And there have been D&D vampires that come out of the transformation with a hefty chunk of their morality still there. I think Jander Sunstar was one.

Nothing stopping Durkon coming out of it LN rather than LE, invoking the "unique or rare exceptions" clause of Always X alignment.
The point of turning any main character into a Vampire is to have him struggle with that condition. So whatever happens, Durkon will struggle with his new state (should he get it).
I can very much imagine him to "not start out as LE", but I can also see him as becoming LE and doing all kinds of bad things (and losing his cleric-levels at that) and fighting his way back from that (something we call "redemption").

Anyway, becoming a Vampire must be a major plot point or Rich would have gone for something else.
Also note that Durkon is the one character who had no character development so far. If he gets it, there's not much time left (two gates one of them is very probably nearing its end) for that to happen. I doubt we're reading a comic where everyone gets character development (from the Order over Team Evil and the MitD) but one of the main PCs is left out. Does that sound likely? No!