Can vampirism be reversed?

[der_kluge]

So, this question came up last week, and I told my players we'd resolve it next time (so that I would have a chance to come ask the wonderful folks here what they thought about it)

One of the players IMC quit for RL reasons, so I was left with her PC. So, in the game, her PC wandered around this grove where she occupied her time mapping her surroundings. Behind the scenes, these vampires attacked the grove, and killed her, and a nymph druid that protected the grove, and kidnapped an avatar that had been resting there (long story, don't ask).

So, the party comes back to the grove, and finds the characters PC, who tells the players that they need to hurry into the swamp to rescue the avatar, and that time is precious. So, they follow the (N)PC into this field, and head towards the swamp, and along the way the sorcerer gets suspicious, and detects evil on her, and finds out that she is evil. BTW, only evil outsiders and undead (that are evil) detect as evil, IMC. So, he suspected (correctly) that she was now a vampire leading them into a trap.

He then cast an otiluke's resilient sphere on her, and then cast celestial brilliance (a spell from ghostwalk, or BoEM, can't remember which). Basically, the spell radiates sunlight, and deals damage to undead that are harmed by light. I ruled that sunlight could certainly penetrate the sphere, and thus harm the vampire. Without anywhere to go, the vampire suffered a horrible fate, and crumbled to dust in the bottom of the sphere.

So, fast forward a bit. The sorcerer still has the dust of this former comrade, and in an off-hand discussion about how "resurrection" can revive people who die at the hands of a disentegrate spell (the description mentions reviving someone from a pile of dust), the player asks whether or not they could resurrect the former PC using a resurrect spell, and whether that would reverse the vampirism or not.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

 

[Zappo]

I would rule that it takes a Wish or Miracle to accomplish this, and only if the death was relatively recent. The taint of negative energy makes resurrection almost impossible.

 

[Wanderlust]

The game is a fantasy game. If a resurrection is possible, don't you think that anything is possible? P'raps turn it into an excuse to look for some rare spell component which will be needed to added into the resurrection spell in order to cure the vampirism. Maybe the heart of a vampire...?

 

[Thanee]

Yes. Destroy - Resurrect.

Bye
Thanee

 

[4everdm]

I would allow her to come back via Wish, Miracle or some powerful spell/item you may use in your campaign, however she would come back as a Vampire, perhaps more evil & vile then when she was destroyed, perhaps even possessed. It would then fall upon the party to cure her vampirism or kill her again, but this time no xps if you rewarded them the first time around.
As a side note: If they do cure her vampirism any child she should have in the future could have a major vampiric bloodline. One of my players is starting a character like that; long story short his old ranger fell in love with & cure a vampire who was hunting him down, their grandchild now has the vampiric bloodline

 

[diaglo]

wooden stake.

and then a willing return.

otherwise dead forever.

 

[der_kluge]

I should add that if I can get some sort of interesting side quest out of this, that would be cool.

In theory, there doesn't seem to be anything rules-wise that would prevent someone from decimating a vampire in this fashion, and then just resurrecting them. The cleric just got to 13th level, so that's why this came up.

The vampire was slain probably a week ago in game time.

Requiring the heart of a vampire might not be bad. Maybe even requiring the heart of her master. They'll eventually be encountering these guys, so that might make them think twice before using the same tactic, if it means the heart would be obliterated in the process.

 

[Henry]

You could do it the "Buffy" way - the vampire evicts the soul of the person turned, so once the vampire is destroyed, powerful enough magic (true resurrection) could return the person to life with their permission.

 

[Thanee]

If you want to reverse it, without first killing (well destroying, as it is already dead) the subject, then I'm afraid, this shouldn't be possible.

Why?

Because the subject is dead, otherwise it cannot become a vampire.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Now, of course you could simply rule, that the resurrection is not possible without some special piece (here's your sidequest coming up), which has to be retrieved.

Probably something related to the original vampire's living self.

Bye
Thanee