Jander’s Expanded Guide to Vampires: the Dwarven Vampire
Hunter’s Rating: 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇
Dwarven Vampires are a rarity even in the dread domains, although I’m inclined to attribute that to their habit of staying far, far underground, and eschewing the company of even their fellow undead. Few hunters will ever hear of a true Dwarven Vampire, much less encounter one directly. Their high rating here is given less as a measure of their capacity for bloodshed and evil (though both are still quite high), and more to illustrate how damned difficult they are to dispatch.
As with most Vampires, undead dwarves retain their skills and aptitudes from their living days, and quite naturally prefer to be found well below the surface of the earth. They lack any real vulnerability to sunlight, but find it distasteful nonetheless; and being above ground causes discomfort and reduced regenerative abilities, so it’s often a moot point. They also have also exchanged the charm ability common to other Vampires for a fearsome gaze, similar to the one sported by true Elven Vampires, and lack any real skill at shapeshifting. A Vampiric dwarf can summon and command a number of burrowing animals, but moles and badgers lack a certain finesse, in my opinion.
No, what makes the Dwarven Vampire so dangerous is a level of durability much greater than other variants of comparable age. Only weapons bearing significant enchantments or blessings can hope to harm them, and magic seems to abhor them altogether; spells often ricochet off the creature, and magical items will outright refuse to function in their hands. Stone and earth are the Dwarven Vampire’s preferred roads, as they possess an innate stonewalk ability, and fighting one underground is just asking to be grappled and drawn into a solid stone wall. As if this wasn’t bad enough, upon a would-be fatal blow the dwarf assumes the same state and vanishes into the nearest earthen surface, much as a common Vampire would dissolve into mist to escape. The creature is destroyed if prevented from reaching its coffin within minutes, but because of this a Dwarven Vampire is rarely far from such a sanctuary. How is a hunter meant to fight an enemy that laughs at most weapon blows, and can simply melt away into the environment whenever he likes?
By getting very, very lucky. Powdered metal can create a barrier the Dwarven Vampire cannot cross, and natural spring water acts as holy water does on other varieties. Dwellings constructed entirely without the use of stone or earth are impregnable fortresses against Vampiric dwarves, but those with stone floors or walls pose no hinderance whatsoever. And the one surefire means of incapacitating the creature is by impalement with a natural stalactite or stalagmite. Once paralyzed, the dwarf’s heart can then be removed, soaked in oil for three days, and burned completely to ash. Anything less than this runs the risk of the Vampire reviving at a later date, and you’d best hope that happens long after your children’s time.
The one saving grace of the Dwarven Vampire is that they seldom make themselves a problem requiring a hunter’s solution. The creatures tend to sequester themselves far underground, and don’t make a habit of amassing power and social influence the way many Vampires of other races do. Apart from the necessity of feeding, which they do by draining the living vitality of their victims, they tend to live almost entirely solitary existences -- much as I myself once did. Through some quirk of unnatural nature, the dwarven strain of Vampirism requires a more active participation on the part of the sire and is incapable of crossing species lines to infect other humanoids. Thus, a Vampire of this type will only create spawn intentionally, only from other dwarves, and only for a specific purpose. Oftentimes such spawn are destroyed by their maker after a bare few months or years, out of a lingering sense of sorrow and compassion for what has been done to them.
If you absolutely must fight a Dwarven Vampire, do so with the utmost caution and preparation. Expect heavy casualties. And whatever you do, do not target the one that lives in Castle Avernus. Azalin has very, ah, definite opinions about people who attack his staff...
