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Claudia Vesna

NPCs
Vampire · Artificer, Alchemist specialist · Level 7

Claudia Vesna

Pirate researcher and bio-enhancement specialist
“Useful. The left knee is slower.”
AC17
HP58/58
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

At the table

Voice

Her voice has a dry, papery rasp from years of speaking over wind and rigging, with occasional clicks as her sharpened teeth meet. She speeds up when discussing anatomy, but her anger is not quiet: it comes out as blunt, emphatic corrections and a sharper bite to every consonant.

Her speech is quick and exact, with the clipped diction of someone used to dictating notes over the clatter of shipboard work. Technical terms tumble out readily, followed by an absent-minded pause when she realizes others may not know them. She names Claudia Vesna carefully, as if entering it into a record.

Speech patterns

Introduces alarming questions with cheerful academic framing, such as asking whether a person would mind being briefly restrained for comparison.
Uses precise anatomical language, then forgets ordinary social terms and substitutes a technical description.
During danger, calls out observations like a field researcher: 'Useful. The left knee is slower.'
When embarrassed, changes the subject to the condition of her tools or the quality of the light.

How to play them

Claudia is eager to trade practical medical or alchemical help for information, specimens, or access to unusual magic. She responds well to firm, clear boundaries if they are explained as safety protocols; vague refusals only prompt her to ask increasingly elaborate follow-up questions. If treated as a person rather than a curiosity, she becomes unexpectedly loyal.

Goal

Create a stable biological enhancement that allows vampires to endure sunlight, beginning with an explanation of Vesta Lapidana's immunity.

Motivation

To understand vampirism as a living system and prove that undeath can be altered rather than merely endured.

Secret · GM only

Appearance

Claudia has pale skin with the faint, waxy translucence of a specimen preserved too long, and blonde hair pinned up with brass dissecting clips. Her red eyes rarely settle on a face: they flick to wrists, throats, pupils, and the way a person breathes. Every tooth in her smile is a fine, even point, an unsettling arrangement she displays without noticing. She moves with a quick, distracted hitch, as if following an idea that has darted just ahead of her. A small brass specimen case hangs at her hip; its leather has been rubbed nearly smooth at the corner her thumb worries whenever she is thinking. The incongruity most people notice is her immaculate little collection of pressed sea flowers tucked inside its lid.

Clothing

A high-collared, salt-stained burgundy coat reinforced with fitted leather and hidden plates, worn over a cream waistcoat marked with faint reagent stains. Her sleeves have discreet fastenings that allow her forearm weapons to unfold without tearing the fabric.

Body language

Her gaze travels across a room in anatomical order, checking hands, throats, and breathing before meeting anyone's eyes. She taps a brass clip against her teeth while thinking, leans too close when curious, and folds her arms tightly when someone refuses an examination. In a fight she turns her shoulder toward an opponent, presenting the forearm that hides her living blade.

Height
5 feet 7 inches
Build
Compact and narrow-shouldered, with a deceptively sturdy stance and quick, darting movements.
Eyes
Deep red
Hair
Blonde
Skin
Pale ivory, faintly translucent around the temples and knuckles
Age
Adult; exact age undisclosed, though she has spent several decades as a vampire.
Gender
Male
Size
Medium

Distinguishing features

Every tooth is sharpened to a neat point, not just her canines.
Her eyes inspect a room's pulse points before its faces.
A brass specimen case at her hip is conspicuously worn smooth at one corner from constant thumb-rubbing.
Pressed sea flowers are kept in the case despite her otherwise clinical kit.

Personality

15 traits and drives

Claudia is quick-minded but distractible, clinical in danger yet oddly sentimental about small, fragile things. When relaxed, she rambles and loses her train of thought; when challenged, her attention snaps into unnerving focus. She is gentle when tending an injury and heedless when asking how it happened. Her confidence in her research conceals a deep uncertainty about whether her transformation was a choice she still endorses.

Alignment
Neutral

Quirks

Counts a person's visible teeth whenever they smile, then apologizes as though the count were a sneeze.
Labels her own fingers with tiny ink marks during experiments, though the marks wash off within a day.
Collects pressed sea flowers and changes their position in her case according to the tide.
Taps a brass dissecting clip against one tooth when considering a difficult question.
Sometimes asks a weapon whether it is comfortable before using it.

Habits

On raids, she narrates observations about opponents as if dictating a research journal, then abruptly remembers she is supposed to be fighting.
Before making a risky choice, she opens the specimen case at her hip and checks that the pressed flowers remain intact.
She is gentler with injured enemies than with healthy ones, because the injured seem to remind her of her former work.
When Vesta is nearby, Claudia repeatedly starts a question about sunlight, abandons it, then tries again with a different scientific pretext.

Traits · 4

She explains frightening ideas with the bright enthusiasm of someone showing off a clever tool.
She can be compassionate toward pain while remaining oblivious to embarrassment.
A refusal makes her pause, but not necessarily stop; she searches for a more acceptable way to ask.
She is unusually tender with plants and small keepsakes, in contrast to her clinical attitude toward bodies.

Flaws · 4

Treats people as fascinating evidence when they need empathy instead.
Her curiosity, especially about Vesta, overwhelms her sense of boundaries.
Can become so absorbed in a theory that she misses obvious danger.
Keeps modifying herself without allowing enough time to understand the consequences.

Fears · 3

That her experiments will make her incapable of recognizing where her own body ends and her tools begin.
That Vesta's daylight immunity is a one-of-a-kind miracle Claudia will never understand.
Being reduced to a weapon by Baroness Nivarra Valeschi rather than valued as a researcher.

Wants and needs · 4

Access to Vesta's daylight resistance research, with or without Vesta's cooperation
A stable living weapon that will survive salt water and repeated use
Someone willing to tell her plainly when curiosity has crossed a line
To preserve her former partner's memory without admitting how much she misses them

Combat

AC 17 · HP 58 · 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

Claudia opens from cover with faerie fire or a crossbow shot, then uses web or a living blade to isolate an enemy. She prefers to disable and study opponents rather than finish them, but becomes brutally efficient if Vesta is threatened. She avoids daylight, keeps a route to shade in mind, and uses her spider climb to attack from rigging or ceilings.

Claudia Vesna

Medium humanoid (vampire), neutral
Armor Class17
Hit Points58
Speed30 ft., climb 30 ft.
Level7
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsConstitutionIntelligence
SkillsArcanaInvestigationMedicinePerceptionSleight of Hand
SensesDarkvision 60 ft. from goggles of night; passive Perception 11
Languages
Common,
Vampiric cant,
Goblin
Custom vampire lineage. Claudia is undead, does not need to breathe, and regains 10 hit points at the start of her turn if she has at least 1 hit point and is not in sunlight or running water. Radiant damage and damage from holy water suppress this regeneration until the start of her next turn.
Custom vampiric weakness. Direct sunlight deals 10 radiant damage at the start of each of her turns and imposes disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until she is out of sunlight.
Spider Climb. Claudia can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Vampiric bite. Claudia can make a bite attack against a willing creature, or a creature that is grappled, incapacitated, or restrained. The target takes piercing and necrotic damage; Claudia regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt.
Artificer Spellcasting. Intelligence is her spellcasting ability. Spell save , spell attack bonus +6. She has four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots.
Infusions. Enhanced Defense is applied to her coat, giving it a bonus to AC. Repeating Shot is applied to her hand crossbow. She also knows Replicate Magic Item and uses it to maintain a pair of goggles of night.

Spells

Faerie Fire (level 1, evocation). A flash of motes outlines creatures in a 20-foot cube. Affected creatures shed dim light and cannot benefit from being invisible.
Shield (level 1, abjuration). Creates a brief magical ward that grants a creature a bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and prevents magic missile damage.
Web (level 2, conjuration). A creature's shadowy tendrils grasp at nearby targets. Each creature in a 20-foot cube must make a Dexterity saving throw or be restrained until the spell ends or it escapes.
Mending (level 1, transmutation). Claudia magically repairs a break or tear in an object she touches, provided the damage is no larger than 1 foot in any dimension.
Cure Wounds (level 1, evocation). A creature touched regains hit points. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.
Invisibility (level 2, illusion). A creature touched becomes invisible until the spell ends or it attacks or casts a spell.

Actions

Multiattack. Claudia makes two attacks, choosing from her bio-augmented bite, living blade, or repeating hand crossbow.
Bio-Augmented Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 () piercing damage plus 3 () necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, Claudia can regain hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt. The bite is a custom feature and counts as a simple melee weapon.
Living Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 () slashing damage. A blade of pale, corded tissue unfolds from her forearm and retracts after the strike. This is a custom natural weapon.
Repeating Hand Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 7 () piercing damage. The repeating shot infusion supplies its own ammunition.
Spellcasting. Claudia casts a spell using Intelligence (spell save , to hit with spell attacks). She has four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots.

Reactions

Reinforced Deflection. When a creature Claudia can see hits her with a melee attack, she uses her reaction to gain +2 AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss. She can use this only while wearing her reinforced coat.

Services they sell

Repairing or identifying alchemical and mechanical devices
Preparing basic medicinal supplies
Offering field treatment, provided the patient tolerates intrusive questions

Rewards they can give

A field-made healing draught or a useful alchemical reagent
A temporary bio-augmentation, offered only with the recipient's informed consent
Access to the Crimson Syndicate's medical stores if Vesta approves

Equipment

  • Reinforced research coat (armor)Burgundy coat reinforced with leather and an infusion that grants +1 AC.
  • Repeating hand crossbow (weapon)Infused hand crossbow that creates its own ammunition.
  • Specimen case (tools)Brass case of needles, vials, forceps, and anatomical notes, with a tucked-in collection of pressed sea flowers.
  • Goggles of night (wondrous item)A pair of goggles that grant darkvision out to 60 feet while worn.
  • Field laboratory kit (tools)A stoppered flask of alchemical reagents and a small supply of clean bandages.

Possessions

Brass specimen case worn smooth at one corner
Pressed sea flowers hidden inside the case
Annotated notes on vampire physiology
A vial of her own blood marked for comparison
A folded letter from her former research partner

Background

Before becoming a vampire, Claudia was a medical researcher who studied the boundaries between living tissue and undeath. Her work was methodical, her social instincts less so. When she was offered vampirism as a chance to continue her research from the inside, she accepted, telling herself the choice was purely scientific. The transformation changed that certainty: during her first feeding, she panicked at the sound of her own teeth meeting flesh and spent months refusing to examine her mouth. She eventually returned to her work with grim fascination, developing grafts and alchemical treatments that let her reshape parts of her body into weapons. She serves as a minor member of the Crimson Syndicate and a trusted lieutenant of Captain Vesta Lapidana. Claudia is increasingly fixated on Vesta's immunity to daylight and keeps asking to examine her, despite repeated refusals. Marcus Argentus, Vesta's vampire monk pupil, treats her experiments with wary patience; Cadoc Edern, a vampire warlock, has learned to hide his fingers when she starts discussing anatomy. Claudia is currently trying to perfect a living blade that will not seize up in salt water, while keeping her modifications secret from Baroness Nivarra Valeschi, who might claim them for the fleet.

Role in the story

A strange but capable pirate lieutenant whose experiments can aid the party, complicate a raid, or expose the cost of vampiric immortality. Her fixation on Vesta's daylight immunity can become a source of conflict within the crew.

“Her work was methodical, her social instincts less so.”
From their background
Faction
Minor member of the Crimson Syndicate, serving as a trusted lieutenant aboard Captain Vesta Lapidana's ship.

Known connections

Captain Vesta Lapidana, her trusted commander and the subject of Claudia's persistent, increasingly unwelcome research questions.
Marcus Argentus, a vampire monk and Vesta's pupil, who keeps Claudia from turning every disagreement into an experiment.
Cadoc Edern, a vampire warlock who works alongside her but dislikes her habit of asking what his organs might do under enchantment.
Baroness Nivarra Valeschi, ruler of the Crimson Syndicate, whose approval Claudia wants and whose interest in her inventions she fears.
Major secret · GM only
Minor secrets · GM only

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