Tuesday, February 24, 2026

10 Vampire Adventurer Items

Vampires are incredibly powerful magical creatures; however they have several unique traits that sets them apart from other fantastical beasts like dragons, ogres, beholders, and so on. That being that they are intelligent, humanoid and/or ex-human, capable of using tools, similar in size to a standard adventurer, and have a limited ability to blend in with normal humans. Depending on the exact mythos they may also be able to control themselves when it comes to feasting on blood; either as a rule or as long as they are kept well fed. For these unique traits vampires are among the most common types of monsters that might actually become adventurers, and may even be driven to do so given the more inclusive nature your average band of misfits instead of superstitious townsfolk or for those unfortunate vampires not rich enough to impersonate a long line of (strangely similar looking) landed nobility throughout the generations.

Consider adding this loot table for vampire player characters to find which help mitigate some of their vampiric weaknesses. Alternatively, if you end up slaying a traveling vampire, they'll likely have at least one of these along with them as a bit of worldbuilding and a fun item you yourself may find a use for.

10 Vampire Adventurer Items
[1]
 Unrequited Invitation
Gold trimmed silk envelope containing a very fancy looking piece of perfumed paper within. Upon opening the letter and reading it it will be a very clear invitation to whatever event or household the person receiving this letter is a representative of; addressed to the owner of the invitation. This does not allow the vampire to enter the premises freely, as they have not been invited, but can trick a door guard to silently open it or call for a servant to take your coat which then count as having been invited. Even to non-vampires, this can make it much easier to enter a party uninvited or with lax security.

The ink is enchanted and takes about an hour to "defrost" and disappear. If accidentally handed to the wrong person can also reveal its a trick. For example, if a lowly stable boy handles the letter first it may instead read "COUNT SO AN SO IS FORMERLY INVITED TO THE SHIT SMELLING HORSE STABLES ON THE DUKE'S LAND!" because the stable boy isn't really considered a resident or having access to the party himself. Because the paper within and the envelope are enchanted together; after using this item you will need to recover the invitation and preferably before the ink disappears revealing your scam.

[2] Telescopic Parasol
Dark gray and black umbrella with red highlights on its bottom side. Styled to look like a vampire squid. Designed to slide open as a modern umbrella and protects the user from the sun. Any vampire standing under this parasol while its open during even the brightest day takes, at maximum, one Hit-Point worth of damage per hour of being awake in the day. Arrows or attacks that cut holes in the parasol can negate this protection and naturally getting pushed out from under it will cause the unfortunate vampire to take full damage from the sun when their protection is gone.

By pressing the buttons along the handle you can expand the parasol up to 9 squares/size of a small campsite. At this size it's very unwieldy and requires both hands and can get blown away by the wind; but can be planted in the ground with an optional soil spike at the far end of the handle which can also be used as a d4 hidden weapon. Close inspection of the parasol does not reveal any enchantment or magical effects; it is simple a work of very high quality and mechanical complexity. Any repairs or modifications would require the greatest of skilled craftsmen.

[3] Heartfelt Stakeguard
Small piece of dull gray metal fastened with a long black satin strap. Shaped into a stereotypical Valentine heart. Designed to be worn around the chest underneath other clothing or armor. It never comes loose, slips, or chaffs and isn't apparent the wearer is wearing it unless you touch their chest directly and feel the hard spot where it is fixed. Provides +1 AC in combat and protects you from being staked in the heart; crucial for vampires but also effective for mortals as they usually don't enjoy getting stabbed in the heart either. "Heartseeker" arrows, vampire slayer stakes, or similar instant death attacks prioritizing the heart instead are either deflected, do maximum damage but are not lethal, or grant an additional save vs death bonus; whichever is most fitting to the attack.

The reverse side of the Stakeguard (the side you're supposed to have pressed against your chest) is scratched with the names of a hundred vampire lovers; either their human lovers or ones found after death. The oldest scratching are written in hieroglyphs that slowly progress to the modern language. Despite how many cold hands this object has passed through, there is always just enough room to scratch one more name on the back of the metal plate.

[4] Bloodstow Ring
Golden ring with a large brilliant blood red ruby inlaid within. Very close inspection while swirling the ring around reveals it is actually liquid; the gem is actually a very cleverly designed glass vial set in the ring with a tiny needle that can pressed to rapidly inject its blood into the finger of the wearer (if full) or drain some of their blood to fill the ring's vial (if empty). The ring is enchanted and can store a bit more blood then it appears, and the blood within never goes bad and is perfectly preserved, but it's still only a ring. In gameplay terms, activating the ring will cause the vampire wearing it to receive a blood injection equal to about as much blood they could feed from a human in a single combat round with a successful bite attack; restoring that amount of HP, stamina, vampire power points, granting the benefits of a fresh feed, etc. The benefit of the ring is you can feed your vampire nature in secret and it count as a bonus or free action; not requiring the danger of trying to grapple and bite an enemy.

Secondly, as a store of blood, it can also be very useful for keeping a piece of a party member even if they would otherwise be totally devoured or eradicated for a revival; or even as a way to keep an elder vampire's blood stored safely to turn yourself into a vampire without needing to submit to a vampiric sire and so on.

[5] Sanguine Scrying Dish
Deep bowl made of a dark, stained silver with bat motifs. Regular scrying bowls can be used by Wizards to spy on distant places or people, usually requiring something of personal importance to the person or a pinch of something natural from the location and filling the bowl with clear water. The level of the practitioner is used to scry more details more clearly and to see things that are attempting to be "hidden", such as individuals who change their names or move to a big city to go unnoticed.

The Sanguine Scrying Dish allows vampires to exercise the same power as diviners; except using blood instead of water and substituting their vampiric status and age instead of MU level. It is especially good at finding victims or people of special bloodlines, though it would require a drop of blood of someone related to them to show the image correctly. Using this, you can locate with great certainty any living, mortal individual.

[6] Dawnstone
Wrapped in black silk; this white stone looks as though it came from a holy place. One side of the stone is flatter then the other and has natural veins of golden ore within it that exactly match the symbol of a rising sun. This artistic symbol naturally occurring is clearly the sign of a divine miracle; and this stone is consecrated with holy power meant to prolong the day and ward against the coming night. However, it was stolen from priests or paladins of a holy order, and is being used for its opposite intended purpose. It is wrapped in many layers and handled carefully as it is still holy and deals 1d6 damage to vampires when touched; but it must be carried to have any effect.

Whenever sunlight is created from the result of a magic spell, released from a vial or jar, or created by "upgrading" another light source (like a torch), it is instead drawn into the Dawnstone, safely containing it. The Dawnstone can also prevent sunlight from entering a small room through windows or a crack in a cavern wall for one turn; safely absorbing the rays into itself until reaching maximum capacity. This would give a vampire time to find a dark place to hide before the morning comes and slays them. It cannot do anything about the sunrise itself, as it is simply too much light for it to handle, so being caught out in an open place as a vampire grants no protection. Every night at Dusk, the Dawnstone releases all of its stored up light around itself becoming a true sunlight lantern for 1d6 turns. By placing it in a sealed box or behind several closed doors by a trusted servant the Dawnstone can be safely discharged each dusk while carried around at night to offer some small protection against sunlight magic.

[7] Tickwand
Magic wand shaped like a pair of spiraling eels with several fattened ticks and maggots carved into its handle. While held, the user may convert any prepared spells/one mana point/one daily use power slot/etc. into a casting of Magic Missile which appear as little red hardened blood crystals which fly out to damage your foes. Despite shooting hardened blood crystals the projectiles created by this wand "taste stale" and have no nutritional value for vampires.

Alternate ability; fires actual magic ticks that seek the target, latch on for one turn before dealing damage, then return to the caster in another turn (floating slowly enough to get knocked out of the air since they're fat with blood). I kinda like the idea of this being a way to steal blood in combat at a distance but I also think an edgy vampire wizard would just outfit their magic wands and staves with bats, leeches, mosquitos, and other cool blood-sucking animals because they think it's cool. Maybe they got turned as a teenager so they stay in that mindset for all eternity. Maybe you could rework this into a cool "raid boss" mechanic where the ticks heal the vampire lord for 1d4 hp so if you swat them out of the air before they reach her you can prevent her healing during this phase or whatever.

[8] Nosering Ward
Magical nosering. It's a septum piercing that installs itself; dealing 1d2 damage the first time you bring it within a hand's distance of your face. After that, it deals no damage and can be removed or placed in your nose whenever you want. When worn, the Nosering Ward provides the user an additional saving throw against toxic or poison gas, miasma, stench of decay and so on by dulling the sensation of smell and protection the nose from foul magics.

Vampires are already mostly immune to those things and just use it to prevent smelling garlic.

[9] Portable Bridge
Appears as a small golden stick. If you place one end of it sticking out over a chasm, it will slowly grow out and become larger and larger until it touches the other size; at which point it will thicken up and become a bridge. Slowly it grows from a simple fallen log style bridge, to a basic wooden bridge with even footing, to something with extra supports and a wider path and parapets on the sides; until it eventually gains lanterns that glow and a wide, strong path that can support heavier and heavier weights. Placing this over a river is an easy way to cross one.

Each transformation roughly takes one exploration turn and increases the carrying capacity of the bridge by one person or general size/weight class. So one turn one person can cross unsafely. At two turns multiple people can cross unsafely or a heavily armored fighter can cross the rotten beams unsafely; but one person can cross safely. At three turns it has guardrails so multiple people can cross safely and can support the weight of a horse & rider. At four times, you can move a company across it. At five turns, you can move elephants across it, etc.

[10] Riding Mosquito
Exactly what it says on the tin. Flying mount, fragile, and lacks affection towards its rider. Required to drain the blood of a large animal, like a horse or cow (or a few people) to sustain carrying a rider any significant distance; the creature will end up as a shriveled husk and the bug will be gone by morning. If you try to ride this creature two nights in a row or a very long distance without accounting for its source of blood it will turn its proboscis on you instead. Wears a harness of black leather and red heraldry belonging to some far off vampire clan. 

Matching heraldry can be found on a little bone whistle shaped into a skull. Sounds like an Aztec Death Whistle or makes a high pitched sound too high for humans to hear which makes dogs go crazy and horses stampede; whichever you think sounds cooler. Blowing this calls the beast to you, but it can only come to open outdoor areas and only at night. This is what you actually find on the adventurer, with a little note that reads "his name is Eustace and his favorite food are elephants".

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