THE BL DY RELUCTANT

A ‘GOOD’ VAMPIRE CAMPAIGN CONCEPT

Designed to be played over 4 Sessions/Adventuring Days, by 4-5 Characters of Levels 10-12

This adventure is designed for 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons ™ and refers to rules, statistics and creatures
found within those sources. However, the NPC’s and storyline could easily be moulded to fit other TTRPGs.
It’s a horror themed ‘whodunnit’ that is (clearly) inspired by the great ideas in ‘Vampire: the Masquerade’™,
making them more compatible with D&D Character Creation, and the vast amount of D&D content available.
Story, design and art by Benjamin M. Cadenza. @ArtistBenjaminM. Designed on Homebrewery.naturalcrit.com
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in the USA and other countries. All characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wiz-
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Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the
express written permission of Wizards of the Coast. ©2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA
Life After (Un)Death - Player Info.
Y
ou are Vampires. With a conscience.
Yes, you must drink blood to survive, but you
must do it in most moral way possible, perhaps
by finding ‘evil’ people to feed off, or confronting
the sickness of feeding on monsters and beasts.
You have got to at least try... Don't you?
Campaign Aims...
The jugular.
To find out who or what caused your vampirism.
To cure it, or...
To create a trusting and mutually beneficial situation in
which you and your group can sustainably and ethically
receive enough blood to survive as vampires.
Player (Mis)Creation
Characters are created normally, with the following abilities:
Undead. Your creature type is Undead.
Undead Power. You get a +2 bonus to Strength, and one
pther Ability Score of your choice. Maximum of 20.
Unholy. Healing Spells / Potions / Scrolls do not work on
you, nor can you cast them or touch them. You cannot gain
temporary hit points. You cannot enter Holy Temples. You
gain resistance to Necrotic Damage.
Blood-Drinker. You gain HP by drinking Humanoid blood.
Gaining 1 HP requires one ‘Quantum’ of blood (100 mls).
You can drink Beast and Monster Blood, (with conditions).
Shapechanger. If you are not in sunlight or running water
you can use your action to polymorph into a Tiny bat.
While in bat form, you can’t speak, your walking speed is 5
feet, and you have a flying speed of 30 feet. Your statistics,
other than your Size, Speed and Strength are unchanged.
Anything you are wearing transforms with you, but
nothing you are carrying does. You cannot cast spells
while in bat form.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity. You takes 10 radiant damage
when you start your turn in sunlight. While in sunlight,
you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Harmed by Running Water. You take 10 acid damage if
you end your turn in running water.
Forbiddance. Vampires cannot enter a residence without
an invitation from one of the occupants. Because you are
not a full strength vampire yet, this rule is not fully in
effect. Thus the invitation can be loosely affirmed. A
disguised vampire getting a positive response to ‘I would
love to come for dinner some time’ would be enough. You
may enter a residence without invitation, but until you
receive it, you have half speed, disadvantage on ability
checks, attacks and saving throws, and you cannot cast
spells or use your 'Shapechange' ability.
Stake to the Heart. If a piercing weapon made of wood is
driven into your heart (requires a natural 20 while you are
conscious and not incapacitated), you are immediately
reduced to 0 hp.
NOTE: You are not a full strength vampire yet, so you do
not regenerate HP, or gain resistance to non-magical attacks.
Blood Consumption.
Drinking blood effects both the drinker and the victim.
1 Quantum (100mls) of Humanoid Blood heals 1 HP.
Consuming blood from Beasts gives Half HP, rounded
down (minimum of 1) and the player must make a
Constitution Saving Throw (DC = 8 + the total quanta of
Beast Blood drunk within the last hour) or be Poisoned
until they finish a long rest. Consuming Monster's blood
has the same effect as Beasts, but the Constitution Save is
made at disadvantage. You cannot drink from Undead,
Constructs, or Elementals, or creatures without blood.
DM has discretion on Total Blood Quanta of creatures.
Whether you need Healing or not, you must drink at least
10 Quanta of Blood before each Long Rest. At the end of
that rest, you must make an Intelligence, Wisdom, or
Charisma Saving throw (DC 10 - the number of Quanta
you have consumed that day) or roll on the Madness Table
in the Dungeon Masters Guide. The number of Blood
Quanta you must drink each day is cumulative, as is the
DC of the saving throws. E.g. If you only drink 2 Quanta in
one day, the DC for that evening's rest will be 8. The next
day, you must consume 8, plus 10 for the new day. If you
don't, the Save DC will be 18.
A creature below half its Max HP counts as one size
smaller when determining its Blood Quanta. If the
creature is Tiny, the numbers on the Blood Drinking table
are halved (rounded up). When a living creature regains
HP, it also regains that many lost Blood Quanta.
You can extract 10 Quanta of Blood from a willing or
incapacitated bleeding target with a Survival/Medicine
check of 10. You get 1 extra for every point above 10.
Blood stored for later must be airtight to avoid clotting.
Bite Attack: To consume the blood of a creature that isn't
incapacitated, you must use an Action to make an
unarmed strike (range: 5ft) against the target. If it hits, you
deal 1d4+2 Necrotic Damage, drinking that many Blood
Quanta, and gaining that many HP. This attack is made at
disadvantage unless the target is charmed, willing, or
grappled by you or an ally. If the creature is incapacitated,
you can drink 6 Quanta per round. While biting an
incapacitated, willing or charmed target, you may spend
an action to continue drinking without additional damage.
The following table describes how much blood creatures of
different sizes have, and how much they can lose before
certain effects occur. E.g. Taking 1, 2 or 3 Exhaustion Points
(E.P.s), or going to 0 HP and starting Death Saving Throws.
Target Total No E.P. E.P. E.P. Death
Size Blood Effect. x1 x2 x3 Saves
Tiny 20 2 3/5 6/8 9/10 11+
Sml. 40 4 5/11 12/16 17/20 21+
Med. 50 5 6/14 15/23 24/30 31+
Lrg. 60 6 7/18 19/30 31/40 41+
PAGE 1 | PLAYERS INFORMATION |
CREATED BY BENJAMIN M. CADENZA
@ARTISTBENJAMINM 1
 Locations and NPCS - GM Only.
T
his campaign idea can to be used with any
sizeable city within the D&D lore, or within
your own homebrew world. You may already
have NPCs in your own homebrew city who
are appropriate for certain roles here. If not,
you can use the ideas outlined below to
generate a set of NPCs within the city.
City Locations
The city requires at least one of each of the following places -
A Graveyard with crypts.
A Hospital or place of healing.
A Townsguard and guardhouse/jail.
A Library, with information on the city, lore, and vampires.
A Sewer System, connecting the city underground.
A large, well known/reputed tavern. (The Dripping Chin)
A small, less known/reputed tavern. (The Rusty Musket)
A Castle, Fort or protected residence of the Leader.
A Theatre or place of public entertainment.
A Temple, or place of holy worship.
A Museum, or place for art exhibitions.
NPCs
The city will need the following NPCs. These descriptions
use 'You' to mean the players, and reference 'Events and
Encounters' on the next page.
N/S/A: The suggested Name, Statistics, and Alignment.
The Graveyard Groundskeeper lives in a hut at the
graveyard, spends nights digging up dead people to talk to
and/or grave-rob. They tell you the crypts were searched
stright after the first murders. They can tell you are
vampires, but will keep your secret, if you keep theirs.
N/S/A: Alga(o), Necromancer, True Neutral.
The Head of Medicine is a practical, no-nonsense ex-
nurse, who wants to become a Vampire for immunity to
contagious diseases, like the plague which regularly
troubles the city. They will trade half their blood and
sanctuary in the hospital, for being turned into a Vampire.
N/S/A: Tia(o), Priest, True Neutral.
The Head Detective is good-willed, determined but
exhausted. They are forced to follow the law, and cannot
be seen to help you in any way. If they can be convinced of
your innocence - with hard evidence - they may turn a
blind eye to your acts if nobody is around to witness it.
N/S/A: Det. Colson, Knight, Lawful Neutral.
The Museum Owner has sided with the vampires,
because they want to hedge their bets. If confronted, they
will 'woefully confess' they paid off the vampires to protect
themselves and their child, and the museums reputation,
which is their only income since their partner died.
Secretly, they believe the vampires will lose, but is willing
to shift the danger to someone else to stop their museum
being tarnished by any safety concerns. As payment, they
gave the 'Eclipse Stone' magical item (see appendix) .
N/S/A: Sir/Lady Selespa, Conjurer, Neutral Evil.
PAGE 2 | LOCATIONS AND NPCS |
CREATED BY BENJAMIN M. CADENZA
2 @ARTISTBENJAMINM
The Sewer Worker has sided with the vampires, on
promises of power once the Vampires have taken over the
city. They will tell you they know where the vampires are
hiding, and then will lead you into an ambush of vampires.
N/S/A: Skyla(o), Assassin, Neutral Evil.
The Well Known Tavernkeeper is an ex-adventurer
turned vampire hunting vigilante after arriving home to
find the initial murders and their family and friends dead.
If they can be convinced - with hard evidence - that it
wasn't the party, they'll join you against the Bad Vampires.
N/S/A: Teresa(nce), Champion, Chaotic Good.
The Less Known Tavernkeeper has sided with the
Vampires. If questioned, they will lie, saying they knows
nothing about how the Vampires got in to stage the Night
2 murders. If confronted further, they run to the cellars, to
a vampire ambush , then flees. After you leave (either way)
they message the Well Known Tavernkeeper, saying 'the
murderers just left (are in) their tavern. Come now.'
N/S/A: Poldra(o), Thief, Neutral Evil.
The City Leader is a cowardly, power-hungry tyrant, who
locks themself away immediately 'for safety' when the
murders begin, declaring a 'kill vampires on sight' law.
They immediately turn-coat and side with the bad
vampires when they infiltrate their residence on Night 3.
N/S/A: Lord Kastrid, Blackguard, Chaotic Evil.
The Theatre Owner is clearly a few pages short of a
manuscript. They have apparently not even heard of the
killings, as they have been too busy with preparing for the
show. If the players can persuade the Theatre Owner they
mean no harm, (probably with bribery) they can search
the theatre before the show, and talk to the 'actors' who
are turned into vampires during the Night 1 Murders.
N/S/A: Cerala(o), Bard, Chaotic Neutral.
The Librarian has been researching Vampires since the
murders and knows their lore, e.g. Forbiddance, returning
to coffins to reform, that turning someone is what will
make you a permanent, full-strength vampire. They will
trade information, safety, and half their blood for being
turned into a vampire (for time to read all of their books.)
N/S/A: Merissa(i), Mage, Chaotic Neutral.
The High Cleric is the head of the Holy Temple (or at
least one of its more militant sects) is one of the most
powerful antagonists who isn't evil. They are sincere in
their wish to protect of the people of the city, and have no
ulterior motives. Their ability to Turn Undead, and
Protection from Evil spells mean that characters may have
to run away when the High Cleric and their acolyte
bodyguards arrive. Killing them is an unforgiveable crime
in the city's eyes. N/S/A: H.C. Solomar, War Priest, Lawful
Good.
The Lead Vampire is an elvish treasure hunter wearing a
cursed ring, turning them into a powerful vampiric puppet
of the vengeful Necromancer trapped in the ring. N/S/A:
Baron D' Vloss. Vampire Spellcaster, Chaotic Evil.
Events and Encounters - GM Only.
Y
ou don't need to follow the Starting Scene or
these suggested events. You may wish to make a
more free-form, sandbox campaign with no
adversarial vampires or nightly murders, where
only the final 'Campaign Aims' are relevant.
However, for more of a guiding storyline, use
these prompts for nightly events.
Starting Scene (Read to Players)
The story begins with an experience band of travelling
adventurers, following clues to the next big prize, who find
themselves in a large, well known city, taking a night's rest in
its largest, most well known tavern - The Dripping Chin.
After a night of well earned revelry, you wake up early, not
long before sunrise, with nauseous stomachs, a heavy
headache, and zero recollection of the evening before.
Opening your eyes, you look around to find your mouths,
chins and chests are covered in blood, and your canine teeth
are unnaturally long and sharp.
Searching the nearby upstairs rooms of the tavern, you find
the other guests dead in their beds, their necks punctured
and bodies drained of blood.
Then, you hear a bellow of the tavern-keeper, returning
home from holiday to find his spouse, child and patrons dead.
"Guards! Guards! There's been murders!"
Then comes the clanging of alarm bells...
ROLL INITIATIVE!
The party are on the 3rd floor, with the Well Known
Tavern Keeper and 2 Guards on the ground floor,
and moving up a floor per turn using dash actions.
Each turn another 2 guards arrive outside the
building armed with spears and heavy crossbows.
At round 3, the Head Detective calls from outside:
"We have the tavern surrounded! You might as well
just surrender and come outside while you still
have a life to negotiate with."
The party must escape death (or imprisonment with
surrender and/or high persuasion), which is most easily done
when the players remember that vampires are able to turn
into bats. You might allow them to roll History checks to see
if they remember this (or tell them if you're feeling generous).
At the end of the 2nd round, the dead bodies rise as
Vampire Spawn, and (as part of framing the party) cry out
'Flee masters! Take batform and go! We will deal with them!'
and attack the Tavern Keeper and Guards arriving.
After fleeing, the party must find a hideout (or perhaps
more than one) in the city from which to stage their
operations. Then it becomes a 'whodunnit', with players
being fugitives of the same crime they're trying to solve.
That day, the sewer entrances lock, and the drains close up,
causing sewage, filth and rats to begins backing into the
houses and streets of the city. These conditions get worse as
the days pass, causing another quarter of the population to
leave the city each day (mostly the rich and privileged).
Nightly Events and Massacres
Every night, the 'Bad Vampires' stage another mass murder.
The players can attempt to predict and stop them. These
battles should include 2 full strength Vampires, and 4-6
Vampire spawn. Killing one full strength Vampire kills half
the Spawn, and will cause the remaining one to turn to mist
and flee to the sewers.
Night 1. At midnight that evening (after the 'Starting
Scene') there is another mass-murder is at the Lesser
Known Tavern, during a special 'All Evening Happy Hour'.
The scheming Tavern Owner was in on it, put down the
price to draw people in. The H.D. and guards arrive too
late, near the end of the murders (or battle with players)
and the Vampires flee. Detective work reveals that of the
patrons at the Tavern during the murders, 6 of them are
missing afterwards. Further investigation reveals they're
the actors in the show the next evening. The Head
Detective will discover this, and go to the theatre that
evening to question the actors in the play. However, the
lead vampire is there to cast Modify Memory on the
Detective, and they leave believing nothing suspicious
happened.
Night 2. The next evening, there is a show at the local
theatre, and an exhibition at the museum, both drawing
hundreds of people to each. The High Cleric's people will
be surrounding the museum , and the Head Detective's
guards will surround the theatre. The 6 actors have
already been turned into vampire spawn (and 2 full
strength Vampires) the night before. They attack at the
opening scene, and there is a huge battle in the theatre.
The townsguard joins the fight on initiatve round 3.
Night 3. The following evening, the law cancels any public
gatherings and forces people to return to their homes,
making a sundown curfew to stop the vampires. They
inform them not to invite anyone into their home, not even
the law. This is the vampires' plan, and hundred of
vampire spawn rise from the sewers to set fire to the city,
trapping people in their homes. In the chaos of putting out
the fire - which the players can assist to gain the trust and
acceptance of the law - the vampires infiltrate the City
Leader's Residence and take over.
Night 4. The following sunrise, the Head Detective and
the High Cleric and their respective associates are
summoned to the leader's castle, where they have their
Memories Modified to believe they have defeated the
vampires. The leader commands them to give an
immediate public announcement that the vampires have
been killed, and in celebration, there will be a day-festival
in the City Centre (or park), where everyone is to gather
immediately. Non-attendance will be seen as evidence you
are still hiding more vampires. Upon gathering, the
Vampire spawn will rise from the sewers again, using the
Eclipse Stone taken from the Museum to cause a Solar
Eclipse, then begins the Festival Massacre, their final
mass murder of the City, with blood collecting in the
sewers for their own orgiastic festival of feasting.
PAGE 3 | EVENTS AND ENCOUNTERS |
CREATED BY BENJAMIN M. CADENZA
@ARTISTBENJAMINM
Additional Information - GM Only.
Antagonists
The Bad Vampires. They are driven by their vengeful
creator and leader to massacre the City (see below for
more details). They frame the party for the murders while
they gain more Vampire Spawn minions. At first, their
main hideout is in their crypt lair below the City Sewers,
and there is another smaller hideout in the cellars of the
Lesser Known Tavern. They have paid off each locations
respective NPCs with promises of power. If evicted from
the sewers, they kill the Graveyard Groundskeeper and
move into the crypts there. On Night 3 they move to the
City Leader's residence.
The Lead Vampire. The leader of the Vampires is a
spellcaster, able to cast Modify Memory, and who will
attempt to use this on players during battles and then flee
to save themselves. They wear a powerful magical ring,
giving Mirror Image and Blur (the Blur is permanent,
while the Mirror Image recharges with each short rest).
The ring is cursed, turning the wearer into a Vampire, and
a puppet for the vengeful soul of a dead necromancer who
was trapped inside the ring by the city's founder, an
ancestor of the current leader, who recently lost it to
thieves. If the ring can be cut off (requires intent and
Natural 20 to achieve), the original wearer is restored, the
thief who stole and unwittingly put on the ring. They will
help destroy the remaining bad vampires.
The Well Known Tavern Keeper. After the murders, they
go straight to the Librarian that day to learn more about
vampires and how to kill them. They will come to ambush
you, along with mercenaries (stats: Thug), after receiving
the tip off from the Lesser Known Tavernkeeper. They and
their mercenaries are armed with a spear-stake, a
crossbow which fires wooden bolts, and 3x Vials of Holy
Water that can be sprayed in a 10 foot cone as an action.
The High Cleric. They and their group of 'Acolytes' will
hunt you down using Locate Object on one of your
belongings (which the Bad Vampires included in their
disguise of the party during the framing), and after
becoming familiar with the party, using Scrying spell. They
will arrive either during or at the end of one long rest in
your hideout. They may also come to the town's alarm
bells (50% chance of arriving).
The Head Detective. Use this NPC and their townsguard
(stats: 'Guard') to ensure the players feel hounded and
remain careful of being seen as suspicious by civilians.
Bad deception checks with civilians, or low stealth rolls
when returning to the hideout could result in the detective
finding them. They can be persuaded to imprison you for
later execution, rather than kill you immediately, and will
only truly accept you are not the killers if more murders
still occur while the entire party is locked away under
watch, at which point he will secretly set you free. After
the first murders the Head Detective checks the
Graveyard, where they search the Crypts and the
Graveyard Groundskeeper's home, and find nothing.
PAGE 4 | ADDITIONAL INFORMATION |
CREATED BY BENJAMIN M. CADENZA
@ARTISTBENJAMINM
Madness
Players know they can go mad from not drinking blood.
However, if they harm the innocent, they must also make a
Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma Saving throw (their
choice), DC 10, to avoid rolling on the Madness table. Players
have disadvantage on the Save for putting someone in Death
Saving Throws. It's an automatic fail if they kill someone. It is
up to you (the DM) whether to use the temporary or
permanent madness table, depending on the situation.
Death
If a character dies, they turn into mist (see Vampire stats) and
move unerringly (at 40ft per round) into the graveyard, and
the nearest body in a coffin. They re-form around it,
becoming conscious and normal again in 8 hours. Escaping
the coffin requires help (the DM may use the Groundskeeper
for this). Unfound characters risk being buried alive forever.
Full strength vampires choose where they go to re-form.
The Cure
It is up to you if or how vampirism can be cured e.g. multiple
Remove Curses, Death & Resurrection, a Wish spell. This
campaign is balanced to have players as Vampires, so there
should be no quick or easy options available to them.
Eclipse Stone
A powerful magical item, only usable once a year. When
activated, it launches skywards unstoppably, growing until it
causes a mile wide eclipse shadow centred on the person
who activated it. After 8 hours, it shrinks and falls back to
earth, to be found again.
Vampire Bat Swarms
In this adventure, when a Vampire's 'Swarm of Bats' hits a
humanoid with their Bite attack, they extract Blood Quanta
equal to the amount of damage dealt. If needed, the Bad
Vampires will bite into the stomachs of these carriers to
extract the Humanoid Blood and regain that much HP.
At the Festival, they summon the swarms into a huge,
swirling storm that surrounds the crowds of thousands.
Moving through it ( 20ft high, 20ft thick) is difficult terrain,
and triggers 4 attacks from the swarms (this should kill a
civilian, not players). Disengaging reduces this to 2 attacks.
The Sewer / Lair Effects
The Bad Vampires spend the early campaign hidden in
ancient crypts, below the Spawn infested sewers. After Night
2, the sewers are cleaned out, ready for the Festival
Massacre. Vampire 'Lair Effects' fill the sewers with fog
(reduced vision), and cause the plants of the city directly
above their hideout to wither. Battling through the sewers to
reach their crypts should be very difficult, but not impossible.
Too difficult for the townsguard to achieve, without the aid of
the the Royal Guard, who are too busy protecting the Leader.
These effects move to the Leader's Residence after night 3 .