Oriental Vampire

This eastern strain resembles its western cousin but differs in culture, powers and looks. Slightly feral features and faintly glowing skin hint at its nature, and its fingernails, 5 to 12 inches long, regrow during sleep if broken. Most have dark hair and eyes, but the strain, not the person, is eastern, so some look western. It keeps its languages and learns more over centuries. It casts no reflection or shadow and moves silently, the simplest tells for the watchful.

Strength 18/76 gives +2 to hit and +4 melee damage. It almost never uses weapons, slashing twice per round with nails that count as +1 magical weapons for 1d4+5 each, all bonuses included. Three times a day it can gaze at one person to hold them, with a -4 penalty on the save vs. spell, perfect for silencing a guard or feeding quietly. Only its bite drains, taking two life levels and dealing 1d4, without Strength bonuses.

Weapons below +1 pass through it and must save vs. disintegration or corrode uselessly. It regenerates 3 hp per round. At 0 hp it fades into invisibility, still regenerating, and flees to its coffin, using passwall if needed; it must arrive within 12 turns or break apart, and eight hours there restore it fully. Sleep, charm, hold, poison and paralysis fail, and cold and electricity do half damage.

It cannot become gas but uses passwall at will, leaving no trace. Over a full round it can fade from sight (-4 to attacks against it) until it attacks, as the spell; anyone watching who does not know its nature makes a fear check. It summons an insect swarm (arriving in 1d4+1 rounds, acting as the spell) at will, and in the wild 1d4+1 local great cats arriving in 2d6 rounds. It can become a tiger, keeping its defenses and gaze, and levitates at a steady 6 even in high wind, though it cannot climb walls.

A boldly presented mirror or lawful good holy symbol keeps it from attacking but does not drive it off. Garlic is useless, but a garland of rosemary and ivy prevents it from attacking a wearer or entering a warded area. It gets around these barriers by trickery or by sending a summoned cat after the bearer. It needs no invitation to enter a home, yet burning rosemary and myrrh incense keeps it out.

Direct sunlight leaves it powerless, and two rounds later it crumbles to dust. It sleeps on a cubic foot or more of its burial soil; sprinkling rosemary and myrrh over every cache spoils that earth, and nine days without proper rest destroys it, but it hides caches with great cunning. A bamboo shaft through the heart neutralizes it until pulled out. To end it, place blessed rosemary in its mouth, then stitch its lips and eyelids closed using gold thread on a silver needle.

It favors austere, lonely homes amid grand but bleak landscapes, such as moors, jagged peaks and deserts, rather than graveyards or churches, provided it has burial soil to sleep on. It always stays near trade roads or settlements so food is close. Most are found in an island domain of feuding eastern lords and in a jungle realm, though some lurk in the heartland domains. Some pose as hermit sages, and many pilgrims seeking wisdom find only death.

Solitary, it spends its time in meditation and study, yet these vampires keep a strict hierarchy only they understand, shown in painted, jeweled nails: the plainer the decoration, the higher the rank. It views mortals as cattle and ignores pleas for mercy.

Any human slain by its drain rises the night after burial as its servant unless never buried, so suspected victims are cremated. It keeps nearly all its skills from life, and vampire wizards are fearsome. Whatever its former alignment, it becomes chaotic evil within weeks. Nails cut from an immobilized vampire make +1 arrowheads, dagger tips and similar small weapons. Over the years it gains Hit Dice, drains more levels, needs stronger weapons to hit, imposes a harsher gaze penalty and grows stronger.