Curing a vampire

[thaumonuclear]

I want to have my heroes go up against Dracula, who has turned a number of other prominent heroes and villains into his vampire servants. In standard comic-book fashion, I don't want this to be a permanent change. What are some good ideas on how to change a vampire back to human after the heroes have defeated Dracula?

A standard one is destroying the parent vampire (possibly within a short time window), but I also might want to keep Dracula around for later.

[imfarias]

A standard one is destroying the parent vampire (possibly within a short time window), but I also might want to keep Dracula around for later.

Yeah, but Dracula always comes back. "Killing" him releases his immediate thralls and disintegrates him into vapor which dissipates, only to reform sometime later as part of his contingency plans.

Or you could do total blood transfusion: all the bad, vampiry blood out; all new, good human blood in. That's how they did it in the movie Near Dark.

Option 3: trial by fire (not literally... maybe). Have the vampire servant trapped in close proximity to something that normally repels vampires: locked in a closet full of crucifixes, submerged in holy water, or even tied down on a roof as the sun comes up. And, yes, even surround them with an encroaching fire. The sunlight one might kill regular vampires but we can assume servants are not full vampires and, like these other methods, it may simply hurt them (badly) and eventually force the vampiry part of them to "leave."

Also, if you have magical PCs/NPCs, you could do it as a spell (created or found) that literally separates the vampire from the human. You get your human back and an insatiably bloodthirsty spirit of evil for your PCs to fight. Win/win.

[JetstreamGW]

Simple exorcism could work fine.

[Doctor Devious]

Probably depends on your particular campaign's take: is vamperism a virus, a magical or spiritual afflication etc?
Are vamprires themsleves truly "undead"? Are vampire-thralls (un)dead yet? Do they need to make a first kill for permanacy? Or a time-period? Or is it if they die after being infected? And so on.

If a mini-vamp did actually die before rising again, then its going to be a bit tricksy as you''ll need some form of resurrection. If it's just a thrall-affair (before the permanent state kicks in), then breaking the thrall or curing the 'virus' should be a lot easier.

Dead boss-vamp and/or total blood transfusion are "classic". A small transfusion from a strongly regenerating super might also do it too, or from an angel or suitabley devine type (even just priestly blood if you want to make it 'easily' available), or their own blood, extracted, blessed, then replaced.

Frankly, there's a lot one could do: I'd probably allow the players to think of one or two themselves and just let one of those work (probably the second, possibly third - depending on the pace of the story). If they can't, then summon up a library, monk, old priest or whatever to give them some pointers.

[Kevin_MacTaggert]

Probably depends on your particular campaign's take: is vamperism a virus, a magical or spiritual afflication etc?
Are vamprires themsleves truly "undead"? Are vampire-thralls (un)dead yet? Do they need to make a first kill for permanacy? Or a time-period? Or is it if they die after being infected? And so on.

This Hard to offer suggestions with limited data ...

[JThunder]

I like the idea that the heroes are under Dracula's thrall but maybe not yet transformed. Perhaps they've been bitten and are showing early signs (pale from blood loss, discomfort but no actual pain from sunlight or crosses, desire to drink blood and do Dracula's bidding), but just freeing them and breaking Drac's hold over their wills will keep him from transforming the would be vampiric heroes.