Vampirates are the walking, talking husks of dead pirates who refused to go quietly into the afterlife. They ply the void in their ships, plundering unsuspecting vessels and feeding on the life energy of those unlucky enough to cross their path.
A vampirate appears as a gaunt figure with milky-white eyes and skin as dry as parchment. A vampirate has fangs like a vampire’s but doesn’t use them to draw vital fluids from prey, which vampirates consider an unsavory act. Rather, a vampirate drains life energy from another creature by touching it or by siphoning off its energy from a short distance away. As it feeds on the energy of other creatures, its appearance becomes more robust, although it never truly looks alive.
Vampirates eat, drink, and sleep because they like to, not because they must. They rest in wooden coffins or crates full of grave dirt. In the absence of such containers, they can treat their ship’s hold as one big coffin and sleep amid their cargo. When they’re not sleeping or marauding, a crew of vampirates whiles away the hours by drinking rum and singing grim chanteys.
A ship crewed by vampirates usually has one or more shadows aboard—the Undead remains of some of the vampirates’ victims.
How a crew of vampirates conducts itself depends entirely on the mood and disposition of the captain. The crew of one ship might behave like a murderous mob, while another might abide by an ancient code of chivalry. One captain might allow the crew of a plundered ship to live, while another might leave only flotsam and jetsam in the pirates’ wake.
You have been transformed into a vampirate captain and gain the following straits:
- Vampirate Nature - You are undead, you do not require air or drink, and you stop aging.
- If not already of evil alignment then your alignment becomes lawful evil, neutral evil, or chaotic evil, whichever is closest to your current alignment, your alignment cannot become anything else but lawful evil, neutral evil, or chaotic evil.
- If you are reduced to 0 hit points, you explode in a cloud of ash. Any creature within 5 feet of you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 3d10 necrotic damage.
- You gain Darkvision up to 120 feet.
- You are immune to the Charmed, Exhaustion, and Poisoned conditions.
- You are immune to Cold, Necrotic, and Poison damage.
- You are vulnerable to Radiant damage.
- You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
- You gain a natural armor, when you aren’t wearing armor, your base AC is 12 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
- You gain a Energy Drain attack, a Humanoid reduced to 0 hit points by this attack dies and instantly transforms into a free-willed shadow or vampirate (your choice).
- As an action a ship upon which you stand, along with all creatures and objects aboard it, becomes invisible to creatures not aboard the ship. You must concentrate on this magical effect to maintain it (as if concentrating on a spell), and it lasts for up to 1 hour. The effect ends if you leave the ship.
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