Why does he think that Durkon would willingly join him? Just because he got vamped, and all Evil creatures are on the same team?
A lot of the problem is that we don’t know how Burlew’s going to treat what getting vamped does to the victim’s personality. Is any of the original Durkon left? If so, when alive, he really didn’t like Nale, and since Durkon hates the undead, he probably also hates everything associated with putting him in this condition. Nale took care of the first part, but Malack was on Nale’s team when he did it, right? Why wouldn’t Durkon lash out at Nale too? At least, if I were Nale, I’d really worry about that.
If there’s nothing left of the original Durkon, then Nale just killed off his master. I dunno whether a thrall would like that or hate that. Nale’s got a sky-high Charisma though, and maybe he can Bluff the Count with something like, “Your party abandoned you, left you alone in that pyramid to die. Why don’t you go return the favor?” Something like that. Seems risky though.
The Count’s a great weapon, as long as you’ve got Big Daddy around who can keep him on a leash. If Malack were still around, then yeah, turn him loose on the Order and start popping popcorn as their former team mate wrecks shop. But that’s not the case now.
Evil Durkon is lawful. Maybe he’ll see being on the LG as his current commitment, and Nale as his leader. Malack was his master, but Malack (to Durkon) served Nale. Or maybe Durkon understood that Malack really served Tarquin, so lawful Durkon might see Tarquin (show he show up) as the local authority.
Note that Nale gets pretty scorched by the wind of a burning vampire (he’s got some injuries that he didn’t have at the beginning of the panel.) I imagine they just decided to hang out at a safe distance.
Durkon isn’t going to join the “local authority” just because he’s lawful. Much more likely, he’s going to join the team that he knows to be actively working against the destruction and/or subjugation of the world. Which is to say, the Order.
I’ve often wondered if Helga, erm, Hilgya (Damn it, you’ve got me doing it now.) was going to make a re-appearance. Probably not until they get to the Dwarven Homelands though. The LG is probably going to be short one healer once the Count leaves…
FWIW, Nale does know that the Order knows about Durkon’s…new condition. Which removes one reason for Nale to try and send the Count back to them.
With this new and improved update rate, we’ll find out soon.
If I suddenly went vampirically evil, there’s no freaking way I’d suddenly decide this asshole that my friends and I have been fighting/avoiding/bumping into is a good guy to follow.
At the same time, wouldn’t Durkon probably think, “This dude just eliminated my master, I don’t have a coffin or any protection from sin except this staff which has already been demonstrated can be easily forcibly removed. And I’m outnumbered. Now is not the time for a revenge attack.”?
Can Nale successfully use Charm Person on a vampire? I think Nale would find aiming Durkon at the Order and either having him kill some or all of them, or them being forced to kill him, completely hilarious. The jerk.
I think next time we see Durkula as a free vampire, he will be speaking with a Dwarven accent, indicating at least some of Durkon’s personality remains.
I wonder if he has been playing along with the evil gang all along, made his saving throw against being dominated by Mr. Lizard, but faked being dominated.
Per the SRD for Vampire, vampires with 5 or more Hit Dice when alive, created via blood drain, come back as full fledged vampires 1-4 days afterwards, under the absolute control of the vampire that drained them:
So, there wasn’t a save to make: the Count was absolutely under the control of Malack until Malack decided to release him, or Malack kicked it.
As to the coffin, vampires need one in order to regenerate, if they’ve been driven to zero hit points. Without a coffin, they’re destroyed two hours after they’ve been knocked down to zero and forced into gaseous form. The coffin also comes into play if the vampire wants to cross running water. They can cross it if they are within their coffin, or are aboard a ship, and are prohibited from it otherwise. (The ship rule is a little strange—how else is the coffin going to cross the water, if not aboard a ship or a boat? If a vampire can’t ride in a wagon, say, to cross a river, why is a ship different?)
Now, since the Count was created via Malack’s staff, who knows how those rules will be changed? Maybe grabbing the staff fulfills the coffin requirement? I don’t know.
Maybe. Except Nale is badly injured and probably would have lost a straight up fight with Malack. Nale won and Malack died but it wasn’t because Nale was some master fighter, it was because he planned & exploited a cheap shot. If I run up and shove an unsuspecting prize fighter in front of a bus, I don’t think that would make his buddies say “This guy is too bad ass to fight”. Durkon wouldn’t let Nale just yoink the staff away a second time.
I’ve no idea if Durkon will fight, flee or whatever but I can’t see it being because he’s in awe of Nale killing his master.
