Help me flesh out a plot idea

[der_kluge]

So, I'm going to be starting up a RL campaign soon. The campaign is one I ran in PBEM form over a ridiculous timeframe, and I have enough content and stuff to keep them busy for quite a while - though I have to ultimately decide where I want to take it long term.

I decided that I could make it even better by fleshing out some of the NPCs in the town a little further. I really like the idea of creating mini quests based on the NPCs in the town. One such NPC I was thinking of tinkering with is an Innkeeper by the name of Tom.

I'm thinking of making Tom a vampire. But (and this is 5th edition), a Vampire is CR 13 which is way out of line with where I'd rather it be. So, a vampire spawn seemed more appropriate.

But I was thinking of adding a level of cleric to him so that he can sneak into rooms at night, suck the blood of random patrons, and then use a CLW to remove the evidence of his fangs. From the player's perspective, this would all culminate into me randomly rolling to see if anyone is his victim for the night, and then giving them exhaustion or something like that for the duration of the day. "You wake up feeling exhausted!"

And I wouldn't make him evil. Or, if he has to be evil, then I could create some sort of story as to why he shows up as evil in case a paladin does a detect evil, or something like that. "Oh that? That's a long story involving a curse. Bla bla bla, Here have some more stew."

But then I'd need some kind of backstory for why he's a humble innkeeper, and I'm not sure a vampire spawn would be autonomous like he is.

Any ideas?

 

[Tuzenbach]

A vampire plot with no puncture marks on the neck? If I was a player, I'd be mad at you!!!

 

[Dandu]

Why doesn't he open up a healing clinic and ask for blood donations?

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

Make Tom a full blown Vampire... that way if the PCs get rowdy/try to intimidate him he can spank 'em around a bit.

 

[Dandu]

And call him Count Spankula.

 

[iltharanos]

If you're playing true to previous iterations of RL, detect evil/good spells won't work, at least, not the way they normally work.

As for why is this vampire/spawn a humble innkeeper? Maybe ...

• He's just temporarily posing as one because he's waiting for a specific person to pass through town, and that specific person is one of the PCs or someone the PCs know.
• There's a master vampire in town secretly converting the townspeople into his vampire spawn.
• He once lost a loved one to a true vampire and bargained with the dark powers for the power to slay his loved one's vampire killer. His wish is granted by turning him into a true vampire himself, but now he's slowly succumbing to his instinctual cravings for human blood (slowly turning him from good to evil).

 

[Gilladian]

Don't vampire spawn become free-willed if their creator dies? So maybe he's a spawn that survived his master/mistress destruction, but has not yet become a full vampire. And if you don't want to give him cleric levels, instead, maybe he uses keoghtum's ointment or something similar to heal his victims.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

He gets queasy at the sight of blood, so he sticks to red wine.

 

[SunGold]

He's a humble innkeeper in undeath because he was a humble innkeeper in life--he's a new vampire spawn, and hasn't yet accepted that his previous life is over. Which would also explain why he's healing people after biting them ("See, I can do this, I don't have to hurt anyone!").

Your PCs probably aren't going to figure this out without bite marks or detect evil, but you could help them along by letting Tom's delusions about his current state start to unravel. When he really starts losing it and doing actual damage (either because of his own impulses, if you want to say the vampire who created him his dead, or under that vampire's orders if it's still alive), becoming disheveled, etc., they'll put it together (and put him down).

...kinda depressing though.

 

[der_kluge]

Yea, I'd kind of assumed that a spawn, absent its vampire, would remain a spawn. The rules weren't entirely clear there.

I'm not sure this is a quest that *needs* solving. The fact that someone might randomly get a really crappy night's sleep there might be enough for them to want to understand why. Some clues could be present though - Tom never leaves the Inn, like, ever. Tom works all night long, and sleeps during the day. With enough digging, maybe they could figure out that he has a real aversion to garlic, and absolutely never serves it in his meals. And yes, the detect evil thing, should it arise.

The bigger problem is the fact that a paladin runs the town. Maybe I should give him an amulet of nondetection. That would really close the deal. Of course, now he's got a magical amulet hanging from his neck.

Ooh, I know. If any of the party joins the thieves' guild, maybe one of them could casually point out that a routine scan of the crowd at the inn revealed that the innkeeper himself wore a magical amulet. And after casing him for a while, they could figure out that he sleeps during the day. And then challenges the new member to sneak into his room during the day and take it.