Moor Bride

Frontier lands are full of stories about devoted wives who followed their husbands to remote homesteads and died there, of hardship or of neglect, and whose restless ghosts now walk the ridges hunting hardy men like the ones who failed them. Whether or not true ghosts roam the moors, the legends have given rise to the moor bride, a beautiful vampiric spirit that feeds on shepherds and solitary explorers.

She appears to be in her twenties, wearing a ragged gown meant for a city ballroom, not the wild. Grime streaks her face and hands and her hair is a tangle, yet she glows with an undeniable beauty.

Meeting a lone traveler, she plays the stranded innocent, weeping with joy at finding a rescuer at last and reaching out for an embrace. A character who accepts it must save vs. paralyzation or be swept into a close, clinging dance with her. While they dance she draws blood straight through the skin by touch, costing 1d4 points of Constitution each round.

Even someone not bound by her touch may not realize what is happening until too late, because the drain is painless. The victim only grows faint and dizzy, taking -1 on attack rolls for every round of draining, and at last passes out. At Constitution 0 the victim dies for good, and only a wish can bring him back. Since she is not a true vampire, her prey never rises as undead.

Shamans of any alignment may deal with a moor bride. She favors female shamans automatically and will treat with males only under a charm spirit spell. Binding a relationship takes three pints of blood poured over a shrine raised to her, built of wood or stone that clearly shows a craftsman's work.

Her single demand is to be carried out of the wilds and set down in a city, moved the same way one relocates a guardian spirit, and she grants spells only while progress toward that goal seems real. A crafty shaman can keep her waiting for quite a while.

In the wilderness she offers 2nd- and 3rd-level spells of the solitary shaman list. Settled in a city, she can sponsor the entire spiritualist list as well as the lower solitary spells. She remains a murderous blood-drinker all the same, and good characters would hardly loose such a thing on an unsuspecting town for power, though many spiritualists would feel no qualms.