Early Access
A vampire creates a new vampire by feeding on a person for three nights and allowing the person to consume some of the vampire’s blood each night. A transitional vampire is someone in the middle of this process (sometimes intentionally left incomplete), alive but corrupted into a creature of the night.
A transitional vampire usually serves as a guardian, consort, or spy for their master, especially during the day when the vampire must hide from sunlight. They can be restored to normal by slaying the vampire who bit them or performing an ancient ritual.
Motive: Hunger for blood
Environment: Anywhere, usually solitary but sometimes in groups of two or three
Health: 12
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound
Movement: Short
Modifications: Athletics and stealth as level 4
Combat: A transitional vampire can maintain a human existence during the day without any of a vampire’s powers or weaknesses, but they dislike garlic and direct sunlight.
At night they take on all the characteristics of a vampire. If confronted by any of the traditional vampiric weaknesses (a wooden stake, a holy symbol, and so on), they flee unless their master is present.
Interaction: Transitional vampires are utterly devoted to their master.
Use: Transitional vampires lie in the intersection of foe and victim. A loved one or trusted companion who has been turned into a transitional vampire will try to betray, defeat, and kill the PCs, but the characters are motivated to save them rather than destroy them.
A vampire can turn a fresh corpse into a transitional vampire, creating a thing that is truly undead and cannot take on a human guise during the day—a pathetic creature permanently trapped in a lesser state.