How to cure a vampire?

[psiconauta_retro]

it's explicit that raise dead works once the vampire is slain. A wish can do it without slaying the vampire.

http://dndadventurersleague.org/faq-update-5192015/

Although the solution will vary from world to world it is great to have as reference the official answer of the Adventurer´s League:

"Afflicted characters have the following options:

Lycanthropes. These characters can be cured with a remove curse spell. This spell is available as a spellcasting service for 90gp.
Vampirism. These characters can be cured either by a wish spell cast by a fellow PC (wish is not available as a spellcasting service), or they may be slain and returned to life via raise dead–at the normal cost of 1250gp."​

Compared to lycanthropy the cost in effort and gold needed to cure vampirism is huge, but of course vampirism is a much more serious, drastic and restrictive condition, so it makes sense...

 

[Blue]

I like what you have a lot. I'd add in some way (besides the obvious favor) that the queen will profit from all of this, just because of the archetypes of making a deal with the fae. Something that the paladin can discover and work around (and the Queen will keep her word anyway because that's a point with the fae.)

Perhaps the MacGuffin will trap the released vampiric essence so she can turn something else into a vampire (a different archfey who would normally be immune?), but if the heroes pick up on the clues they could consecrate/bless it so it would destroy the essence instead.

 

[Big J Money]

My advice as as gamemaster is that YES, make this possible. Even if you're leaning towards no with your setting.

Saying yes to players makes the game more fun for everyone, including yourself. Why?

Because of instead of killing a potential storyline, you 're giving yourself creative ground to work with. Now you get to invent the how. How would someone in your campaign world turn a vampire? You aren't telling the player "Yeah you can do this", you're telling them "Yeah you can do this, buuuuut you're going to have to do some research and digging first". And this can lead to an entire chain of adventures.

Now, let's say you're leaning very hard against this idea. Rather than simply saying yes and changing your own view of the setting, ask yourself "Turning a vampire has never been done before, and nobody believes it's possible. So under what circumstances could this indeed be possible, against all odds and beliefs?" There's always an exception to the rule...

Hope that helps.

 

[jrowland]

..."Yeah you can do this, buuuuut you're going to have to do some research and digging first".

QFT - This is what I tell anyone trying on the DM hat: The DM should always strive to say "YES! but..."

It's a simple way of saying the DM facilitates the personal story of the characters (yes) while at the same time propelling the characters into the overall story (but...)

 

[phantomK9]

I'm debating if I should add a McGuffin of some sort that is part of the "ritual."

How about that she has to be killed with some specific dagger/sword/etc. or possibly needing a wooden steak made from a very special tree that grows only in one specific spot in the Feywild. Of course matters would just have to be complicated as the tree grows in the other queen's domain.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

No, there doesn't need to be a way to cure D&D vampirism beyond stake & bake. In D&D you don't become a vampire until you are already dead. Removing the vampirism would return the being to being a proper corpse or possibly a pile of ash. D&D already has ways to revive the dead.