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Halloween D&D One Shots are always fun. To get into the Spooky Season Spirit, you have a single session, or limited adventure, where you play with classic horror tropes, and make your D&D game scary. Well, I’m in between gaming groups right now, so I asked my wife, Chanel, if she’d like to do a One-on-One game, where there’s a monster she has to kill, like an episode of Supernatural. Instead, she said she wanted to be the monster.
We played Curse of Strahd recently, and she really liked the vampire as a monster, but was curious what is would be like to play as one. As I helped her find what parts of it she liked and wanted to try, the character ultimately became a spellcasting vampire, with a focus on Illusion magic. We agreed that the appeal of Strahd wasn’t just that he was a vampire, but that he was a Vampire Lord, with an army of vampire spawn at his command. So I got to work designing.
The Adventure
Meela is a trusted Lieutenant of the Vampire Lord, Count Rhodar von Glauer. She was sent away from Rhol on a mission, one she succeeded in. Unfortunately, when she returned, she found her home, her master, destroyed by vampire hunters. She fled.
She had all of her essential personal items with her, having been on the road for weeks now, but her resources were low, and prospects lower.
She survived on the road, until she found a sliver of hope in a small failing mining town. Might this be where Meela can survive? Might this be where she can become a master herself?
After talking to Chanel, she realized that to really fulfill the vampire fantasy she wants to, it needed to be a three-session arc.
First I’ll go through the adventure design, then I’ll cover the mechanical changes I made to both allow playing a vampire to be more interesting, and to fulfill the fantasy of growing powerful with more vampire spawn.
Session 1 – I Came
We opened with a brief cinematic of Meela returning to Rhol to discover that her lord Count Rhodar von Glauer is dead, and she has to turn around, to find safety. Unfortunately, she is low on supplies, and she is hungry. Meela had three options on what to do next. This helps me determine how Chanel wants to play the character.
Option 1: There was a roadside inn a little ways back. If she heads there, it will be about 3am when she arrives, so everyone will certainly be asleep. It will be difficult to enter, since she’ll have to get permission first, and there is a chance of resistance, but if she can get past that, there will be lots of possible victims.
The twist is that there are three adventurers in the building as well. A Paladin, a Ranger, and a Wizard, in one of the two rooms with 3 beds in them. Can she be sneaky enough to not alert them to her presence, and if she does, can she get out quickly, with her new possible spawn?
Option 2: Look for a campsite. This will be a DC15 Survival check to find a campsite of travelers. This campsite will only have 1d4 commoners in it, but will be easy pickings.
Option 3: Just get some sleep tonight. No risk, no reward. This isn’t a choice any player should ever pick, but it should always technically be an option.
Then, we have a brief cinematic, where she finds the town where the adventure will take place, Red Hook. Red Hook is a mining town, where the iron veins have started to deplete, and so the town is losing money. Meela will be able to create a safe home for herself in a limited cave system, so it can protect her from the sunlight, and people are unlikely to come by.
Before she can claim it, she has to deal with a minor nuisance, some wild boars are living inside. There is a group of 20 Boar Minions from the MCDM Minion System (mechanically it will be 4 groups of 5 Boar Minions). There will also be a creepy two headed boar, the Doom Boar from the Ghostfire Gaming Monster Grimoire, that is there for some variety.
Once the cave has been cleared, Meela has her new base of operations, possibly a few spawn to help her, and the town she will begin to terrorize.
This was a relatively short session, as she initially picked the campers just to feed, then cleared the mine, then finally went back to the inn and actually recruited (seduced) two travelers to be her first Spawn.
Session 2 – I Saw
I wanted to open with a strong start, so I had a “random encounter” of a hunter passing by, with the sounds of wolves behind him. He is heading back to town at dusk, and passes Meela, and offers to escort her back, so she isn’t attacked by the wolves.
Once arriving in town, we introduce the town properly. Red Hook is built on hooked bank of the Red River, the inhabitants of my setting give very straightforward names. Red Hook was founded due to nearby caves with strong iron veins, and the Wiley noble family quickly built the basis of a town, and funded the mining operation. Now, the mines are beginning to deplete, and people are about to lose their jobs.
There are six main areas to the town. First is the Castle Ward, where Wiley Castle sits, as well as the guardhouse, and other administrative buildings. Right along the river is the docks, where the markets are, and most of the commercial space. There is also the Rusty Hook Inn, a place for travelers and sailing traders to sleep and get a bite of hot food. At the south end is the Old Ward, where the Church of the Seven sits, and the main tavern, Carak’s Place. It is not friendly to travelers and outsiders. The West District is primarily suburban, standalone single family homes with grounds and second floors. Then there is the East side of town, which doesn’t really have a name, and is lower income housing, without proper roads and you have to cross the bridge to get there. Lastly is the mines, where you see a little path at the bottom left of the map, which leads to the base of the mountains. This town is right in between the mountains and the river, very defensible, very safe.
During Meela’s first visit, she learns that tomorrow is a special day, the Name Day (aka birthday) Festival for Lord Peter Wiley, the widower Baron of Red Hook. There is suspicion that tomorrow Lord Peter will announce his Period of Mourning his late wife will end, and he will formally begin considering remarrying. Everyone knows Lord Peter has taken some ladies of the night (sex workers) in secret, but marrying in his position is more political then anything.
The festival itself goes through multiple parts. First, at High Noon, the Baron makes his appearance outside his castle, and there is a simple parade, complete with music, as he is brought down the main road, to the Church of the Seven. Inside, the Priest blesses the Baron under the gods, so that he may have a good year of health and prosperity. This usually takes 15 minutes. The Baron walks out onto the steps of the Church, and gives a speech to his people, almost like a State of the Union address. He comments on his official beliefs of the previous year, the current health of the town, and what the town should look forward to. Then he parades back to his castle. The festival then continues as two separate events, the one outside on the streets for the common folk, and the one in the castle’s ballroom, a much more formal affair. It is in the ballroom that the Baron does indeed announce his Period of Mourning is officially over, and he is open to dance requests from attendees.
During the outside festival, someone else’s adventure is just beginning. A small group of adventurers, the three from the Wayside Inn, arrive to town.
Unfortunately, one of Meela’s spawn was eager to claim a victim, got sloppy, almost got caught, and left a dead and bloody victim behind a house in the West District during the festival. The adventurers recognize the signs of a vampire attack, and begin their investigation.
Session 3 – I Conquered
The adventurers finally locate Meela’s hideout in the caves, and go there to defeat her. This was fun because I gave Chanel full control over her spawn, and she had set traps in her cave, so we almost switched roles for this fight. I played three qualified adventurers, going into a monster’s lair, and she ran all the traps and monsters inside.
The three heroes were fairly generic and Level 10, the Paladin, Oath of Devotion, with a +3 Longsword, a Evocation Wizard, with a focus on Storm/Area of Effect spells and a Staff of Lightning, and a Hunter Ranger, with undead as a favored enemy and a +3 Longbow.
This was a very tough fight, and Meela won, but only just. Playing a one-on-one fight, on a battle grid and minis, where both people are running multiple characters/monsters feels like a chess game. It was very fun.
After Meela won, she cast Disguise Self, to appear as the Paladin, and went into town to declare the vampire threat defeated, but at great cost. Lord Peter Wiley offered congratulations, but was devastated when Meela’s disguise melted away, and offered Lord Peter an ultimatum. Either he can publicly marry her, and become her puppet, or she will kill him on the spot.
So now, in my setting, the town of Red Hook is known for mysterious disappearances, and if any party ever investigates, they will learn the Baron is held hostage in his own marriage with a Vampire, and the members of the court are all vampire spawn.
Cool Mechanics
I made a couple of adjustments to the Vampire, specifically for this one shot. These aren’t meant to be balanced or sustainable, just to fulfill the fantasy of this adventure.
First, I reduced Sunlight Sensitivity. Meela is not damaged by sunlight, but while in sunlight she will not have access to her vampire abilities, including:
- Misty Escape
- Spider Climb
- Children of the Night
I also fully removed Regeneration, because I want her to get healing from Biting victims, or fleeing to her resting place, both very much part of the vampire fantasy.
Next, I created the Hunger mechanic. I want there to be a sense of urgency with killing victims. At the end of each Long Rest, Meela must make a d6 Hunger check, where the DC is equal to how many days it’s been since she’s fed. So if she fed the previous day, the DC is 0, as she is well fed. If she goes 7 days without feeding, she is guaranteed to go into a Frenzy. When she goes into a Frenzy, then every d20 roll Meela makes will have a negative modifier equal to the DC of the failed check. So if she hasn’t fed in 2 days, all d20 rolls will be made with -2 modifier. Every check, that is, except for her Claw and Bite attacks, which instead will be made with +2, as she is more aggressive than normal.
If she feeds on non-humanoids, such as animals, then the Hunger DC does reduce to 0. However, if she fails her Hunger Check, and her last meal was from an animal, then the consequence to all d20 checks is doubled, meaning if her last meal was an animal 2 days ago, all of her d20 checks will be -4, except for Claw and Bite which will be +4. You can hold on through animals, but when you break, you break hard.
This mechanic didn’t come up very much, as it was such a short adventure, but if a player ever wants to play as a vampire, I am definitely going to bring this back.
Lastly, the appeal with Strahd, and this specific adventure, is the building of an army of Vampire Spawn. With her being a spellcaster, based on a Wizard class, I wanted to tie her spellcasting to the size of her nest. Before the adventure starts, she is a high level Wizard, knowing dozens of spells. When she finds her Vampire Lord has been killed, she loses that power.
At the beginning, when she has 0 spawn, she can only cast Cantrips. As she grows her nest, she will quickly “Level Up” and gain an amount of Spell Slots equal to a Wizard of that level.
| # of Spawn | Wizard Level Equivalent |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 6 | 4 |
| 9 | 5 |
| 12 | 6 |
| 15 | 7 |
| 20 | 8 |
| 30 | 9 |
| 40 | 10 |
She ended up getting 9 spawn, and was a Level 5 Wizard. Again, in a longer adventure, this could be more useful.
The Nerdd 