Relena: DM/Dungeon Master (loves the group, but often wants to TPK them)
Heero: Drow Ranger (Quatre had to make his character for him)
Duo: Tiefling Bard (likes to play up "that bard" to Relena's annoyance)
Trowa: Tiefling Rogue (dresses "like a bard/clown" to confuse enemies)
Quatre: Aasimar Cleric (lone healer of the group and all that prevents a TPK)
Wufei: Dragonborn Monk (extremely particular about his character)
Hilde: Tabaxi Barbarian (used to grapple the others as needed)

[One DM + Six Chaotic Adventurers] + Moody RNG Dice Gods + (Homebrewed) D&D Vampires = ?

"So...my tiefling is a vampire now?" Trowa asked in what those who were closest to him knew was genuine confusion mixed with a very healthy dose of "are you kidding me right now?".

"Do...uh, wait. Let me check my notes here." Relena said as she flipped a few pages in her notebook to a 'lore section' specifically for the vampires that she had created for this quest line. She had written up something relating to vampire creation and if certain races were immune to it, hadn't she? "I...can I also see your character sheet, Trowa? I want to double-check some things."

At the sometimes-clown's nod, Quatre promptly passed the sheet across the table to Wufei who passed it the rest of the way to the diplomat, who started scanning the paper with a critical eye as if to see if what had just occurred was even possible. Relena frowned in thought. "If everyone wants to take a quick bathroom break, you're free to."

"You didn't plan for this possibility?" Wufei asked as he could hardly believe that something had happened in game that had managed to stump Relena. Normally she had everything planned out for every possibility, and if something went chaotic (due to the rolls of the dice or just Heero, Duo, and Trowa being themselves) she could improv a fitting response quite quickly.

"I didn't say that, Wufei. I have notes for something similar happening...but, so far, I haven't found if my notes allow for tieflings to become vampires."

"So Quatre's cleric could become a vampire too? Cool." Duo chimed in...only to let out a quiet 'oof' when Hilde to gave him a firm bop on the shoulder. "Don't make fun, Duo. Trowa's character only got bitten because of your botched seduction rolls offending the vampire ladies."

"Hil'-!" Duo started only for Heero to shrug and interject with a far too calm: "No. She has a point."

"You're supposed to be on my side." Duo grumbled, casting a glare in Heero's direction, only for the other former-pilot to give another shrug as if he were completely dismissing the whole thing. "Usually, yes. In this case? No."

"Besides, my cleric cannot become a vampire, Duo." Quatre said, unintentionally cutting off whatever retort the long-haired pilot was about to fire off. The blond frowned some in thought as he skimmed his own character sheet. "I have a 'bloodline trait' as an aasimar that protects my character from "curses of blood" like vampirism and lycanthropy in any form."

"How did you get something that awesome?!"

"Uh...Relena, duh?" Hilde said with a small shake of her head at her boyfriend's forgetfulness. "When we were creating our characters, she told us we could pick one of the homebrewed 'bloodline traits' that she came up with for our races, you know, to try to give everyone a better chance of not dying early? Remember? You kept trying to convince her to give you a homebrewed version of Gambit's power set and she told you that you'd have to shave your head and dance through Preventers HQ in a pig pink tutu?"

"Oh...right." Duo gave a weak laugh at that before leaning towards Heero and, in a stage-whisper: "...I completely forgot all of that end stuff. Did that happen?"

"Yes." Heero deadpanned, expression as perfectly serious as ever. "You screamed 'no' so loudly that, if we had neighbors, we would have gotten a noise complaint."

Duo opened his mouth, ready to recreate that particular scream of 'no'...only to be cut off by Relena speaking up.

"Okay everyone, so I checked the notes and it looks like I didn't include tieflings in this, admittedly, short list of races immune to vampirism in this setting, and Trowa you do not have a 'bloodline trait' that would prevent you from becoming a vampire so..." Relena passed the character sheet back towards the former pilot before rearranging her notes once more. "...how do you wish to proceed? Do you want your character to become a vampire?"

In all honesty, she wanted Trowa to have the freedom to choose his character's fate...especially since it wasn't his fault that his dice rolls had gone poorly and lead to the rogue being bitten to begin with. If he told her 'no' right now, she would 'deux ex machina' whatever she needed to in order to handwave the possibility out of existence. Sure...she said 'no' to some things and tried to make plot hooks enticing enough to convince the group to actually pursue the plot, but she refused to force and/or railroad Hilde or any of the guys into something that they truly did not want or were uncomfortable with.

"I...do not know. Is there a cure for vampirism?" Most would probably try to claim that this was "metagaming", but really...there was no harm in asking, especially if the questions would let him make a more informed decision, right? He genuinely liked the character that he was playing in the game and, the more that he thought about it, the more that he didn't want to have to kill the rogue off because of something like this.

"I will say that I do have a possibility for a cure in game...and if you would like to, we can play out the vampirism affecting your character in stages while you seek the cure. The ending for that possible quest hook, however, would still need to be left up to a dice roll because there is a chance that the cure would not work." Relena explained, being careful to say enough to let Trowa make his decision, but also trying to keep enough back to prevent any important spoilers. "If you do want to give it a try, you and I can work together to come up with the stages and how you can best portray them with your character."

Trowa gave a small nod at that as he began considering his in-game options; on the one hand, he did not like that his character had been bitten to start with, but the dice had not been kind in the battle and he knew that he couldn't be too angry about that. On the other hand, however...the idea did seem somewhat interesting and he was curious about how the entire side quest, as he deemed it, could play out; he could be sure that Relena would make certain that it wouldn't be disappointing. It could even be fun? Maybe. "What if I attempt to follow that plotline, but change my mind?"

"Then you and I can have a one-on-one session and roleplay your character being cured, then have him rejoin the party in the next group session."

Duo was about to open his mouth to either add something to Relena's words or just say something to Trowa...but Hilde and Heero's hands suddenly covering his mouth proved to be a highly effective gag in the moment. Wufei busied himself with getting up to grab himself a fresh bottle of water; yes, he had his opinions on things, but outside of combat and puzzle-related situations, he did try to not give too many opinions on the others' characters...if it wasn't too important and wouldn't affect his character negatively in any way at least. Quatre placed a comforting hand on Trowa's forearm to reassure him that it was alright for him to think carefully about what decision it was that he wanted to make.

"I...think that I would like to play out the vampirism in stages and seek the cure." Trowa said after a few more moments of thought, tightening his arms briefly around Quatre's middle before resting his chin back on the blond's shoulder. "If anything, the idea intrigues me."

"Alright then, let's both roll a die and we'll sort out how quickly the stages will start to affect you since you were bitten, but not killed, nor did you drink any of the vampires' blood." Relena said with a small smile as she picked up her own die in question. Trowa loosened one arm from embracing his boyfriend and rolled the die that Quatre placed in his palm. He glanced over Quatre's shoulder. "...2."

"And another 2...alright. Trowa, please describe what your character is doing after being bitten after the fight?"

"It...is the bite wound on my neck or...?" Trowa asked, only for Relena to give him a small nod. "I touch my neck where I was bitten to confirm that the bite occurred, then look at my blood on my hand."

Relena gave another nod, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. "As you stare at your blood on your hand, something within begins to shift and change. Is it your imagination or does the blood begin to smell less metallic and...more appetizing? Is the sudden pang of hunger a product of the battle that your party has just won, or is something else the source? Is the burning ache of the bite just from the wound itself, or...is some part of you being slowly torn away?"

Relena looked back at the group and Quatre checked the positions of everyone's miniatures on the map before... "Just to double-check...I can see the rogue, right?"

"Unless you've inexplicably gone completely blind, you can see him, Quatre." Relena said with a gentle, teasing smile that the blond returned with a small laugh. "Okay then, so I go over to the rogue and offer to heal him if he is injured."

"I do not respond to the cleric's offer. I am in shock over what happened."

Wufei checked over his character sheet then looked back up at Relena. "Do I need to roll to smell that the rogue is bleeding?"

"Technically, no...but do you want to just passively smell the blood to realize that he has been injured or...?" Relena asked, tilting her head to one side in curiosity. Wufei rested a fist to his chin. "Considering that my character is a dragonborn and has a fairly acute sense of smell, for technically being a type of reptile I suppose, I am wondering if my monk would be able to smell the vampirism in the rogue's blood."

"That's a very interesting idea." Relena said, giving a small nod before se looked around the table. "Before I make my ruling...how does everyone feel about that possibility?"

"It actually sounds kind of cool." Hilde said with a grin, curious on if her tabaxi could do something similar or not. "If you think about it...if the dragonborn could do something like that, it would almost be like those animals who are trained to sniff out cancer cells and stuff like that."

"That is what made me consider the possibility." Wufei said before taking a sip of his water. "That and the possibility that my dragonborn or Schbeiker's tabaxi both have similar enhanced senses, and logically, our characters would be able to pick up on abnormal scents...at least to some degree."

"It does sound logical and I doubt that it would "break the game" in any way." Came Heero's response, coupled with a barely-there shrug of his shoulders.

"Well, it's not like it would be a constant thing, Yuy." Wufei stated in perfect deadpan. "Just something that could be used as a different form of a perception check to locate something that sight and hearing would otherwise fail to notice."

"I didn't disagree with you."

Duo just nodded, though he was still side-eye glaring at Hilde and Heero for keeping his mouth covered so that he couldn't start making any of the myriad of (admittedly terrible) vampire-related jokes that were running wild in his head at the moment.

"I'm fine with it...what about you Trowa?" Quatre asked, lightly nudging the side of his head against his boyfriend's own, only for the former-pilot in question to give only a quiet noise as his version of "it's fine" rather than say anything else. Relena looked back over to Wufei. "I'll allow it...but when using it as your perception check, for fairness' sake since you'd be able to know that there is an unusual scent, I will need for you to roll to see if you would be able to fully identify the unusual scent...like, for this instance, the 'vampire curse' being in the rogue's blood now, considering that there is still vampire blood around the chamber and such."

"Cross contamination, I'm aware. Do I need to role with a disadvantage since, in his backstory, my monk had not previously encountered vampires?" Wufei said calmly as he reached for his dice with the group looking on curiously to see what the roll came up as.

"Hmm...let's say a minus 1 disadvantage to this and we can say that it applies to both the amount of blood everywhere and the "never encountered vampires before" part." Relena said after a moment of thought-that still seemed fair. "But if you roll a 1, we'll just nix the entire disadvantage, okay?"

"Fair."

The rest of the party watched in varying states of eagerness as the dice fell...after all, their tiefling rogue was now afflicted with vampirism and they had a promised plot hook to go on a side quest in an attempt to cure him, with a possibility that Trowa might end up liking getting to play as a vampiric tiefling rogue and choose to forego taking the cure. Could anyone be blamed for thinking that this whole impromptu thing sounded like a fun idea?

Relena really does try to make things good for the whole gang, no matter how much homebrew she has to whip up each week or on the fly to deal with the chaos.

Wufei tends to have the good ideas...now if only everyone would listen to him more than once in a blue moon.

Now, I gotta wonder just how a vampire-tiefling rogue would play, even if it's temporary.