Strange things are afoot. Nights seem to last longer than they should. People are going missing. An alarming number of bats have been seen around the cities. There's really only one thing it could be: vampires. The capital of the Ghol Empire, Igzo, and its surrounding area has had a vampire problem for nearly a year now. The king should have dealt with the issue by now. The only problem is, no one can seem to locate the manor in which they reside. As a result of this infestation vampire hunters, like yourselves, have become a frequent sight. Former adventurers, soldiers bored of just being guardsmen, and people from all other kinds of backgrounds have started to hunt vampires and anything related for the bounties put out by the king.
Welcome to the Von Nichts Manor Campagin! This is a homebrew campaign about vampires made by myself over the past few months. This campaign will have 5 players and use 2014 rules. Each character will start at level 3, and we will use an XP leveling system. Standard array and point buy are both fine for attributes. Use starting equipment instead of gold. I would prefer that you didn't make an evil character, but if you have a compelling enough backstory we could make it work.
To apply to be in this campagin, reply to this thread with each of the following: Name of the character, species, class, and backstory.
Applications will close sometime in the next week or two, and I will add all the characters I choose to a new thread. See you out there, hunters.
Backstory. Ozappa is half noble elven half human rapscallion but completely a self-made master of blood. His body long ago embraced a sort of quickening, his reputation grew as he exposed and shut down bars where vampire wanna be’s were competing to be chosen to be turned. He has yet to square off with a real vampire but his folk hero status has grown and it’s only a matter of time.
When Sunsuma turned 12 he left his home and joined a crew of sailors on a ship called the Kraken’s Wake, the ship belonged to an Order of ghostslayer blood hunters. Though his duties on board kept him busy he learned by keen observation and found a new home years ago in Igzo the capitol, obviously he found his calling.
Ulcu- ráca. Cursed by the bite of a werewolf in service to a vampire, Ulcu was forced from his tribe as he was unable to manage he rage during the full moon, often transforming and killing local livestock. He now hunts other were creatures and their dread lords the vampires, seeking vengeance...
Race: Werewolf (Leonin. Leoning Languge swapped out for Elvish.)
Beast Barbarian (Though will multiclass into Fighter later)
Vadania was originally a half-elf, born to a human woodcarver and a elven monster hunter. One night, their small village in the woods were besieged by a pack of werewolves. Her father and his trusted dwarven friend sprung into action and repelled the monsters and protected the town. However, the father was bit. The next full moon, when Vadania was still an infant, her father transformed and attacked his family. Due to the intervention of the dwarven friend, the family survived the attack but Vadania was injured and cursed as well. Over the years, she was kept chained in the basement while her mother and the dwarf tried everything in their power to find some kind of cure. It is unclear why this happened, whether it was all the different cures they were constantly trying on her that somehow interacted with each other, or if Vadania having had the cursed since she was an infant had somehow acclimated to it, or if it was some combination of the two; but Vadania at the age of 13 somehow regained her senses. Somehow her body had mutated under the curse and now she was permanently stuck as a werewolf hybrid and in control of her own thoughts and feelings. She lacked the invulnerability of a normal werewolf but she also did not have their weaknesses either. She would spend the next decade of her life as a woodcutter and a protector of the village given her curse had made her quite physically imposing. She did however, believe that someone monstrous like her should make use of her curse to protect those that need it. And this brings her to where she is now. At the age of 25, Vadania has left her village in response to the rise in vampire activity, looking to solve the infestation and bring back peace to both her own village and to the rest of the empire and to prevent the infestation from spreading further.
Backstory: Born in the shadows of a forgotten temple deep within the Shadar-Kai enclaves of the Shadowfell, Vannithos was raised among the silent, robed faithful who served the Raven Queen with solemn devotion. One fateful night during meditation, his astral form stirred and reached out of his body, guided by the Queen’s whisper. From that moment on, he was marked by her favor. His training as a monk began soon after, taught to channel his ki into spectral manifestations of his soul.
He left the Shadowfell when visions sent by the Raven Queen urged him to walk among the living and witness their suffering firsthand. Now, he moves through the world as a quiet sentinel of fate, hunting those who cheat death or cling to it beyond their time.
Backstory: When a slave trader was attacked by a monster, he ordered all his slaves to fight it while he escaped. Fran was called by a sentient sword stuck in the ground. When she drew the sword from the ground, it granted her abilities with both magic and sword. With that she was able to slay the monster, though not before it killed everyone else, including the slaver. Obsessed with becoming stronger, Fran is now specificlly hunting monsters with the aid of her magic sword. Vampires are just new prey for her...
{Hexblade has a sentient sword be the patron, but doesn't give any mechanical benefits from this, so talking to her sword is just flavor.}
Backstory: A conscript who took to the life of a solider better than expected. He struck out as a mercenary/bounty hunter once his duty was concluded, wanting to put those skills he’s honed to use. It paid off when his hometown experienced trouble with a necromancer, and he was one of several who put a stop to that menace. It left him with a distaste for the undead, and so when he heard there was vampiric trouble brewing and that the king he’d once served wasn’t doing much to stop it, he came to offer his services. Surely the basics of tracking zombies will apply here, he thinks.
I have another character. Instead of a werewolfsince we are hunting vampires....I give you a vampire lord.
Name: Súce- hráve
Customer Lineage
Illrigger Bloodknight
A dark creature of blood sent by the lords of hell to help the `Vampires of the Ghol Empire. For many years he served them, partaking in all manor of evil and filth, rising high in their ranks. Finally a blood sacrifice was brought to him, an Elvin Maiden named Lenore. Blinded by her beauty he took her and wooed her. The other vampires found her and murdered her. He took a terrible vengeance on some of them, before he was forced out. Now, he is consumed with with a thirst for revenge, even to the point of disguising what he is and hunting the creatures himself.
Backstory: Engelheart was seen as seen as a necessary evil by those his his tribe because of his link to the flames. Fire can cleanse and sanitize as well as destroy, like wildfires which then allow new growth. Engelheart lived apart from his tribe originally for the tribes safety as he learned to control his abilities and impulsive nature. By the ti.e he could have safely returned, he had already become accustomed to his secluded lifestyle. Now there are more and more disturbances that disrupt nature's balance with the infestation of the vampires and Engelheart has heard the calling to burn out this infection on the land.
Class: Ranger(is it ok if I use a custom one that I made 'cause it fits the backstory)
backstory: Lived as a hunter in his home forest but one day a vampire snuck into his house and drained his wife who was always too quick to trust those who appeared poor or ill. When he caught up to the vampire, the vampire lit fire to the forest and Devian was trapped under a burning log as he slowly lost consciousness. His child died in that fire and so did his compassion. He would find that find that vampire and slowly make him suffer, draining him of his blood one limb at a time. His rage and his hunting skill allowed him to control the ash that clung to him and use it to see feel, attack, suffocate, and defend himself and others around him. His life's goal is to eliminate all vampires so that none will have to suffer the pain that he did. He killed 4 weak vampires by trapping them with bleeding animals or in some cases his own blood using silver and iron traps to drain them before slowly watching them burn in the sunlight. He took this job because he found himself uncontrollable after all his isolation and plotting and people with similar goals should help him feel better than before.
Don't have character sheet yet but the moment I do I''ll add it.
Backstory (the character concept was give life a long time ago, for a magnificent Curse of Strahd campaign I played on Discord. I wouldn't mind giving old Olgha a swirl at the vampires. :) )
The Ember in the Night
Olgha Rubyhair was born beneath Barovia’s ever-weeping skies, her auburn curls a rare splash of color in a world choked by mist and despair. Though the land around her was steeped in sorrow and silence, Olgha’s spirit defied it. Her childhood, though humble, was filled with laughter and mischief. She adored her parents, and they returned her affections in kind. Together, they made a modest life in the gray-crusted streets of Vallaki. But Olgha—quick-footed and wild-eyed—always had a hunger for more. She was a street urchin by day, gleefully taunting merchants and stealing fruit with a thief’s grace. Her friends marveled at how she could disappear into the fog with only a wink and a giggle.
But even in those early years, the night called to her.
Olgha roamed after sundown, dancing through shadows with unshackled joy. She delighted in following strangers through the lamp-lit alleyways, lifting purses without guilt and eavesdropping on secret meetings between thieves and killers. It was all a game, and to her, the thrill was better than gold. She didn’t yet understand how those dark adventures shaped her soul—how they whispered of a fate far crueler than the one she imagined.
One moonless night, when she was just fourteen, she met him.
He stood beneath an iron lamppost like a statue from some forgotten century—tall, draped in finery that shimmered with shadow, and eyes that glowed faintly red beneath a velvet hood. He called himself Leopold Sengor, a reclusive baron with knowledge of the “gifts born in darkness.” Mesmerized, Olgha listened as he spoke of hidden truths and whispered powers. To her, it was poetry. She followed him like a stray pup, spellbound by his promise of freedom and mystery.
Leopold, of course, was no mere noble. He was a vampire, a quiet monster in service to the Devil Strahd, and he saw something precious in Olgha’s rebellious soul. At first, he lavished her with silks and gemstones—treasures she’d once only glimpsed through merchant stalls. He told her she was special, different from the others, that the world would one day kneel to her. For a while, she believed him.
But her father noticed. His daughter no longer came home at night. She avoided the sun and spoke in riddles. And so, one night, he followed her.
What he found shattered Olgha’s world. He caught sight of Leopold embracing his daughter beneath the old gatehouse and, in his rage, confronted the vampire. Without hesitation, Leopold snapped his neck like dry kindling. The next morning, Olgha found his body in the mud of the marketplace—cold, broken, and nameless in death. She wept for him, begging Leopold to find the murderer. The vampire, lying through gleaming teeth, promised justice. The killer was never found.
Olgha moved into Sengor Castle, unaware of the blood on its stones.
A decade passed. Now a woman of 24, Olgha believed herself in love with Leopold. He courted her endlessly, feeding her dark stories and poison-dipped promises. Yet, she often woke feeling hollow, her skin pale, her heart erratic. Unbeknownst to her, every night, he slipped droplets of his vampiric blood into her wine, eroding her will. She began to crave things she couldn’t explain—raw meat, red wine, eventually... blood. When she asked him, he smiled and told her it was a sign: she was becoming “one of the night’s true children.”
She believed him. Until the truth revealed itself.
One restless night, while Leopold slumbered in his sealed coffin, Olgha wandered deeper into Sengor Castle than ever before. She found a hidden passage beyond the old library and followed it into the earth. There, beneath the stone walls, she discovered a network of catacombs and iron-barred cells. And within those cells were dozens—perhaps hundreds—of young women, pale and starved, chained and drained.
One of them reached for her and whispered: “We were like you… once.”
The truth ripped through Olgha like a blade. These women had been Leopold’s lovers, protégés, promises. He had used them all. Fed on them. Discarded them.
She had been next.
Her heart shattered, rage boiling over, Olgha broke the locks and freed every prisoner she could find. As the women fled into the cold dawn, she poured oil through the halls of Sengor Castle and set the fortress ablaze. The fire burned until the stones cracked and fell. But when she searched the crypt, hoping to find Leopold’s ashes, there was nothing. He had not slept in his coffin that night.
He had escaped.
Olgha fled into the wilds, a fugitive from the very man she once called beloved. But her body still bore the marks of her near-transformation. The bloodlust had not vanished. She feels it in the moonlight, in her dreams, and sometimes, in the way her mouth waters when someone bleeds near her. Leopold's curse lingers in her veins, and she knows he still hunts her—somewhere in the black heart of Barovia.
Now, she walks the world with fire in her soul and steel at her side. Olgha Rubyhair is no longer the curious girl who danced in shadows—she is vengeance, loss, and fury given form. And she will never again be fooled by the promises of the dark.
Thank you all for applying, I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about all of your characters over the past few days. As for my selection, I have chosen the following hunters:
Strange things are afoot. Nights seem to last longer than they should. People are going missing. An alarming number of bats have been seen around the cities. There's really only one thing it could be: vampires. The capital of the Ghol Empire, Igzo, and its surrounding area has had a vampire problem for nearly a year now. The king should have dealt with the issue by now. The only problem is, no one can seem to locate the manor in which they reside. As a result of this infestation vampire hunters, like yourselves, have become a frequent sight. Former adventurers, soldiers bored of just being guardsmen, and people from all other kinds of backgrounds have started to hunt vampires and anything related for the bounties put out by the king.
Welcome to the Von Nichts Manor Campagin! This is a homebrew campaign about vampires made by myself over the past few months. This campaign will have 5 players and use 2014 rules. Each character will start at level 3, and we will use an XP leveling system. Standard array and point buy are both fine for attributes. Use starting equipment instead of gold. I would prefer that you didn't make an evil character, but if you have a compelling enough backstory we could make it work.
To apply to be in this campagin, reply to this thread with each of the following: Name of the character, species, class, and backstory.
Applications will close sometime in the next week or two, and I will add all the characters I choose to a new thread. See you out there, hunters.
Ozappa Sunsuma 5bar.
Half-elf.
Bloodhunter.
Backstory.
Ozappa is half noble elven half human rapscallion but completely a self-made master of blood. His body long ago embraced a sort of quickening, his reputation grew as he exposed and shut down bars where vampire wanna be’s were competing to be chosen to be turned. He has yet to square off with a real vampire but his folk hero status has grown and it’s only a matter of time.
When Sunsuma turned 12 he left his home and joined a crew of sailors on a ship called the Kraken’s Wake, the ship belonged to an Order of ghostslayer blood hunters. Though his duties on board kept him busy he learned by keen observation and found a new home years ago in Igzo the capitol, obviously he found his calling.
Wise as a serpent and sly as a fox.
Ulcu- ráca
Mountain Dwarf
Form of Beast
Ulcu- ráca. Cursed by the bite of a werewolf in service to a vampire, Ulcu was forced from his tribe as he was unable to manage he rage during the full moon, often transforming and killing local livestock. He now hunts other were creatures and their dread lords the vampires, seeking vengeance...
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/149696725/m8MONt
Interested.
Name: Vadania Ambereyes
Race: Werewolf (Leonin. Leoning Languge swapped out for Elvish.)
Beast Barbarian (Though will multiclass into Fighter later)
Vadania was originally a half-elf, born to a human woodcarver and a elven monster hunter. One night, their small village in the woods were besieged by a pack of werewolves. Her father and his trusted dwarven friend sprung into action and repelled the monsters and protected the town. However, the father was bit. The next full moon, when Vadania was still an infant, her father transformed and attacked his family. Due to the intervention of the dwarven friend, the family survived the attack but Vadania was injured and cursed as well. Over the years, she was kept chained in the basement while her mother and the dwarf tried everything in their power to find some kind of cure. It is unclear why this happened, whether it was all the different cures they were constantly trying on her that somehow interacted with each other, or if Vadania having had the cursed since she was an infant had somehow acclimated to it, or if it was some combination of the two; but Vadania at the age of 13 somehow regained her senses. Somehow her body had mutated under the curse and now she was permanently stuck as a werewolf hybrid and in control of her own thoughts and feelings. She lacked the invulnerability of a normal werewolf but she also did not have their weaknesses either. She would spend the next decade of her life as a woodcutter and a protector of the village given her curse had made her quite physically imposing. She did however, believe that someone monstrous like her should make use of her curse to protect those that need it. And this brings her to where she is now. At the age of 25, Vadania has left her village in response to the rise in vampire activity, looking to solve the infestation and bring back peace to both her own village and to the rest of the empire and to prevent the infestation from spreading further.
Sheet: www.dndbeyond.com/characters/149707870/ezN3RO
Name: Vannithos
Species: Shadar-kai
Class: Monk, Way of the Astral Self
Backstory: Born in the shadows of a forgotten temple deep within the Shadar-Kai enclaves of the Shadowfell, Vannithos was raised among the silent, robed faithful who served the Raven Queen with solemn devotion. One fateful night during meditation, his astral form stirred and reached out of his body, guided by the Queen’s whisper. From that moment on, he was marked by her favor. His training as a monk began soon after, taught to channel his ki into spectral manifestations of his soul.
He left the Shadowfell when visions sent by the Raven Queen urged him to walk among the living and witness their suffering firsthand. Now, he moves through the world as a quiet sentinel of fate, hunting those who cheat death or cling to it beyond their time.
Character Sheet: https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/144672937/iibgsI
Name: Fran
Species: Tabaxi
Class: Hexblade Warlock
Backstory: When a slave trader was attacked by a monster, he ordered all his slaves to fight it while he escaped. Fran was called by a sentient sword stuck in the ground. When she drew the sword from the ground, it granted her abilities with both magic and sword. With that she was able to slay the monster, though not before it killed everyone else, including the slaver. Obsessed with becoming stronger, Fran is now specificlly hunting monsters with the aid of her magic sword. Vampires are just new prey for her...
{Hexblade has a sentient sword be the patron, but doesn't give any mechanical benefits from this, so talking to her sword is just flavor.}
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/149755958
Name: Vorin Aldrake
Species: Half-Orc
Class: Hunter Ranger
Backstory: A conscript who took to the life of a solider better than expected. He struck out as a mercenary/bounty hunter once his duty was concluded, wanting to put those skills he’s honed to use. It paid off when his hometown experienced trouble with a necromancer, and he was one of several who put a stop to that menace. It left him with a distaste for the undead, and so when he heard there was vampiric trouble brewing and that the king he’d once served wasn’t doing much to stop it, he came to offer his services. Surely the basics of tracking zombies will apply here, he thinks.
I have another character. Instead of a werewolfsince we are hunting vampires....I give you a vampire lord.
Name: Súce- hráve
Customer Lineage
Illrigger Bloodknight
A dark creature of blood sent by the lords of hell to help the `Vampires of the Ghol Empire. For many years he served them, partaking in all manor of evil and filth, rising high in their ranks. Finally a blood sacrifice was brought to him, an Elvin Maiden named Lenore. Blinded by her beauty he took her and wooed her. The other vampires found her and murdered her. He took a terrible vengeance on some of them, before he was forced out. Now, he is consumed with with a thirst for revenge, even to the point of disguising what he is and hunting the creatures himself.
Name: Engelheart
Species: Human
Class: Druid (Wildfire)
Backstory: Engelheart was seen as seen as a necessary evil by those his his tribe because of his link to the flames. Fire can cleanse and sanitize as well as destroy, like wildfires which then allow new growth. Engelheart lived apart from his tribe originally for the tribes safety as he learned to control his abilities and impulsive nature. By the ti.e he could have safely returned, he had already become accustomed to his secluded lifestyle. Now there are more and more disturbances that disrupt nature's balance with the infestation of the vampires and Engelheart has heard the calling to burn out this infection on the land.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/149781825
Name: Devian Brighteye
Species: Human
Class: Ranger(is it ok if I use a custom one that I made 'cause it fits the backstory)
backstory: Lived as a hunter in his home forest but one day a vampire snuck into his house and drained his wife who was always too quick to trust those who appeared poor or ill. When he caught up to the vampire, the vampire lit fire to the forest and Devian was trapped under a burning log as he slowly lost consciousness. His child died in that fire and so did his compassion. He would find that find that vampire and slowly make him suffer, draining him of his blood one limb at a time. His rage and his hunting skill allowed him to control the ash that clung to him and use it to see feel, attack, suffocate, and defend himself and others around him. His life's goal is to eliminate all vampires so that none will have to suffer the pain that he did. He killed 4 weak vampires by trapping them with bleeding animals or in some cases his own blood using silver and iron traps to drain them before slowly watching them burn in the sunlight. He took this job because he found himself uncontrollable after all his isolation and plotting and people with similar goals should help him feel better than before.
Don't have character sheet yet but the moment I do I''ll add it.
Name: Olgha Rubyhair
Species: Dhampir
Class: Rogue
Backstory (the character concept was give life a long time ago, for a magnificent Curse of Strahd campaign I played on Discord. I wouldn't mind giving old Olgha a swirl at the vampires. :) )
The Ember in the Night
Olgha Rubyhair was born beneath Barovia’s ever-weeping skies, her auburn curls a rare splash of color in a world choked by mist and despair. Though the land around her was steeped in sorrow and silence, Olgha’s spirit defied it. Her childhood, though humble, was filled with laughter and mischief. She adored her parents, and they returned her affections in kind. Together, they made a modest life in the gray-crusted streets of Vallaki. But Olgha—quick-footed and wild-eyed—always had a hunger for more. She was a street urchin by day, gleefully taunting merchants and stealing fruit with a thief’s grace. Her friends marveled at how she could disappear into the fog with only a wink and a giggle.
But even in those early years, the night called to her.
Olgha roamed after sundown, dancing through shadows with unshackled joy. She delighted in following strangers through the lamp-lit alleyways, lifting purses without guilt and eavesdropping on secret meetings between thieves and killers. It was all a game, and to her, the thrill was better than gold. She didn’t yet understand how those dark adventures shaped her soul—how they whispered of a fate far crueler than the one she imagined.
One moonless night, when she was just fourteen, she met him.
He stood beneath an iron lamppost like a statue from some forgotten century—tall, draped in finery that shimmered with shadow, and eyes that glowed faintly red beneath a velvet hood. He called himself Leopold Sengor, a reclusive baron with knowledge of the “gifts born in darkness.” Mesmerized, Olgha listened as he spoke of hidden truths and whispered powers. To her, it was poetry. She followed him like a stray pup, spellbound by his promise of freedom and mystery.
Leopold, of course, was no mere noble. He was a vampire, a quiet monster in service to the Devil Strahd, and he saw something precious in Olgha’s rebellious soul. At first, he lavished her with silks and gemstones—treasures she’d once only glimpsed through merchant stalls. He told her she was special, different from the others, that the world would one day kneel to her. For a while, she believed him.
But her father noticed. His daughter no longer came home at night. She avoided the sun and spoke in riddles. And so, one night, he followed her.
What he found shattered Olgha’s world. He caught sight of Leopold embracing his daughter beneath the old gatehouse and, in his rage, confronted the vampire. Without hesitation, Leopold snapped his neck like dry kindling. The next morning, Olgha found his body in the mud of the marketplace—cold, broken, and nameless in death. She wept for him, begging Leopold to find the murderer. The vampire, lying through gleaming teeth, promised justice. The killer was never found.
Olgha moved into Sengor Castle, unaware of the blood on its stones.
A decade passed. Now a woman of 24, Olgha believed herself in love with Leopold. He courted her endlessly, feeding her dark stories and poison-dipped promises. Yet, she often woke feeling hollow, her skin pale, her heart erratic. Unbeknownst to her, every night, he slipped droplets of his vampiric blood into her wine, eroding her will. She began to crave things she couldn’t explain—raw meat, red wine, eventually... blood. When she asked him, he smiled and told her it was a sign: she was becoming “one of the night’s true children.”
She believed him. Until the truth revealed itself.
One restless night, while Leopold slumbered in his sealed coffin, Olgha wandered deeper into Sengor Castle than ever before. She found a hidden passage beyond the old library and followed it into the earth. There, beneath the stone walls, she discovered a network of catacombs and iron-barred cells. And within those cells were dozens—perhaps hundreds—of young women, pale and starved, chained and drained.
One of them reached for her and whispered: “We were like you… once.”
The truth ripped through Olgha like a blade. These women had been Leopold’s lovers, protégés, promises. He had used them all. Fed on them. Discarded them.
She had been next.
Her heart shattered, rage boiling over, Olgha broke the locks and freed every prisoner she could find. As the women fled into the cold dawn, she poured oil through the halls of Sengor Castle and set the fortress ablaze. The fire burned until the stones cracked and fell. But when she searched the crypt, hoping to find Leopold’s ashes, there was nothing. He had not slept in his coffin that night.
He had escaped.
Olgha fled into the wilds, a fugitive from the very man she once called beloved. But her body still bore the marks of her near-transformation. The bloodlust had not vanished. She feels it in the moonlight, in her dreams, and sometimes, in the way her mouth waters when someone bleeds near her. Leopold's curse lingers in her veins, and she knows he still hunts her—somewhere in the black heart of Barovia.
Now, she walks the world with fire in her soul and steel at her side. Olgha Rubyhair is no longer the curious girl who danced in shadows—she is vengeance, loss, and fury given form. And she will never again be fooled by the promises of the dark.
Thank you all for applying, I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about all of your characters over the past few days. As for my selection, I have chosen the following hunters:
Olgha Rubyhair
Engelheart
Vannithos
Vorin Aldrake
Vadania Ambereyes
Again, I want to thank you all for applying.
Thanks for letting us know that the selection has been made. Hope you all have fun!