Vampiric 'ventures
Hello everyone, and welcome to vampire month [editor’s note: I was joking, guys. There’s really no vampire month. You can quit that now]. It being vampire month, I feel that it's only right to make sure you all have some vampire-related adventure hooks and plot ideas to work with, so this week’s Grave Plots is designed to accomplish just that. Below are three vampire-themed hooks to get your game going as well as some suggestions for how to develop those hooks into various scenarios involving blood sucking undead. Of course, this column is really only here to give you some ideas to work with and you should remember that ultimately what your adventure looks like is up to you—I wouldn't have it any other way. I hope you enjoy this week’s Grave Plots and wish you all the best in your DMing endeavors.
1) The Hunter
For some time now, the town of Edendale has been plagued by a particularly elusive vampire called Elena Rowan, and they have finally decided to deal with the problem by hiring a notable vampire hunter by the name of Edmund Crag. However, even the great vampire hunter seems unable to find the elusive vampire and has decided to enlist the aid of the PCs. Where you go from here is up to you; perhaps their investigation leads the PCs to Elena's hideout where they confront the fearsome undead head-on, or perhaps there never was an Elena Rowan and all the town’s troubles are the fault of a gang of thieves who invented the vampire stories to cover up their crimes, or perhaps it was all the work of Edmund Crag looking to stir up a little business. Maybe Crag is working with Elena to lure the PCs into a trap as revenge for some past adventure. Maybe you want to approach the adventure from another angle: instead you could have Elena hire the PCs to protect her from Edmund Crag, who she believes is closing in on her. She may try to convince the PCs she's a good vampire who would never hurt anyone and that she should be allowed to live, or she could approach the PCs first and ask them to protect her from a dangerous assassin who has decided she will be his next target.
2) The Scholar
Damin Preacher, a scholar of some renown, has hired the PCs to acquire for him a rare tome located in an ancient ruin rumored to be occupied by dangerous monsters and devious traps. Unknown to the PCs is the fact that Damin follows the Sanguine Path, a dark discipline that teaches its followers the dark secrets of vampirism, and the tome he requested contains the secret of the terrible ritual he needs to continue his descent into evil. This one could play out in a number of ways: perhaps after a dungeon crawl, the PCs just grab the book and return it to Damin Preacher, no questions asked. Perhaps they read the tome and decide to destroy the book so that no one may ever follow the dark path described therein, or maybe after reading the book they decide they want that power for themselves and so set out to discover more about the Sanguine Path. Or perhaps after studying the text, they confront Damin about just what kind of research he's doing and try to put a stop to his evil plan to become a vampire. Perhaps they encounter another, more adventure inclined vampire disciple who is after the same text, and attempts to steal it from the PCs either by attempting to earn their trust and absconding with it in the night or by attacking them and attempting to take it from their corpses.
3) The Tomb
The PCs have been defeated by a vampire and turned against their will into his undead minions. They awaken in their master’s tomb to find his influence suddenly gone and their free will restored. How this happened and where you go from here is up to up you.
Perhaps their master, off somewhere far away, was slain by a vampire hunter and the PCs decide to pick up where they left off in life—only this time by nightfall. Perhaps they decide to pick up where their master left off instead, spreading terror throughout the world.
Perhaps their master fell within the tomb and now a group of heroic adventurers is kicking down the door in order to slay the master’s spawn. This hook is primarily designed as a way tokick start your vampire campaign or to pick up the pieces in a campaign where the PCs fell to a vampire.