2023 Advent Calendar Day 12: Vampire Penguins (monster/encounter)

Blocking your path is a frozen pond, and in the center of the pond are one dozen vampire penguins. On the far side is a cache of wooden stakes and holy water. The penguins move much faster than you on the ice, but you move much faster than them on land. How can you avoid them long enough to get to the vampire-killing weapons?

A player that moves more than half its speed on ice must make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. Penguins waddle 10' per round on land but can slide on ice or snow at 60' per round. The pond is 300 feet across.

Penguin (2d6, 30' swim, immune cold)

Vampire (+3d)

Life Absorption. The vampire's attacks deal necrotic damage, and the vampire regains an equal amount of hit points.

Charming Gaze. A creature that looks at the vampire must make a DC 10+HD Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by it, regarding it as a trusted friend. The vampire can use its action to force a charmed creature to make a Charisma saving throw against the same DC; on a failure, the vampire decides the creature's action on its next turn; on a success, the charm ends until the creature's next turn. A creature can choose to avert its eyes at the start of its turn, avoiding the effect for the round, but it is effectively blinded with respect to the vampire, and must immediately make the save if it looks at the vampire in the meantime. The charmed condition lasts as long as the vampire maintains its concentration; if it concentrates for one full hour, the charm last for the next 8 hours, when the charmed creature can save again; if the second save fails, the charm lasts until dispelled.

Eternal Undeath. When the vampire is reduced to 0 hit points, it turns into a black mist and flies back to the location of its coffin, where it returns to unlife with full hit points at the next midnight. This trait does not function if the vampire is killed in a specific ritualized way, such as being impaled by a wooden stake, drowned in holy water, or cutting off its head.

Sunlight Sensitivity. While in direct sunlight, the vampire takes 5 radiant damage per round, and has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Inspired by a silly goof related to an advent calendar project for another game. There's a mathematical puzzle with a similar setup, with a slow-moving swimmer and a monster that patrols the shore ready to eat you - there, the solution is to swim in spirals, getting it to chase you, and make a break for it when you get to the shore. Here, I don't know what the solution is; probably just to kill the penguins and have yourself a goofy encounter. Otherwise, luring them onto land and just walking away seems effective, if you can avoid being charmed.

Obviously having a literal cache of vampire-slaying gear right next to the vampires is contrived, but it makes the setup easier to explain. Really, the goal on the other side of the lake should be continuing down the road, or whatever location the party is looking for.

This vampire template puts a lot of emphasis on the Charming Gaze trait, making for a more classic genteel Dracula-esque vampire than the rat-summoning shapeshifter of standard D&D. It's mechanically inspired by the medusa, and might be a bit too complicated to run 12 of them at once. But I like bringing in concentration on more monster abilities, and it would make for a great moment when the last uncharmed player gets a lucky hit in that frees the rest of the party from the vampire's thrall at once.