Baron Keiza the Vampire
Back to the Campaign: Time of the Green Star
What we have gathered about the vampire so far in no particular order:
The vampire was not a foreign knight , as local stories tell (clearly a polite obfuscation), but an ancestor of the last Baron who went bad. It is not known how the baron became a vampire. One view is that on Crusade in the land of the Turbans he entered haunted pyramids and was bitten by a vampiric ghul. Others suspect that the sickness is a blood taint, inherited from an even more debased ancestor. At any rate, after returning from his Crusades with much treasure and many honours, the Baron turned the Keep of Farkeep into a Tower of Evil. Eventually the monarch reluctantly sent a force against him. Not realizing his vampiric state, the King's force withdrew when the Baron appeared to die, along with his army of wicked followers, in pitched battle. The vampire had the sense not to manifest again for many years, and skulked in his pre-prepared tomb lair until he was able to prey on the living again from his hiding place.
Baron Keiza was a powerful knight. His vampire self, if it is has not decayed, will be a force to be reckoned with. Too powerful for your current force (about CR7-you wouldn't number it, but you'd have that sense!)
Some accounts by a previous local steward warn that the vampire is cunning and kills only as many as he needs to. His power seems to wane over generations, so he appears less and less.
Glixi also recovers the standard stuff in the srd about vampire powers and weaknesses. So we know the basic stuff shown in the SRD about vampires.
There is an artefact for killing vampires, a holy crossbow , in the Cathedral at Guildtown, the city which lies nearest to Farkeep only 2 day's ride away. A single well-placed shot to the heart would destroy the fiend. The group was able to retrieve this holy hand crossbow:
holy crossbow, vampire's bane: Vampire's bane is an exquisitely crafted +1 hand crossbow, a highly specialist weapon (i.e. -4 for those not proficient). A blessed (as in affected by a bless, magic or align weapon spell) quarrel fired from the crossbow serves as a bolt of slaying (vampire).
Aware that the crossbow exists the Dread Baron attempted to subvert a member of Guildtown's Protection Society that was known to be a master of the crossbow, this attempt was thwarted by the persistence of Friar Kel Ventas.
The vampire's 'blood lodge', now discovered in the grim deep woods:
