A different kind of Skogenby (major spoilers)

Torchbearer Expeditions
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Hi all, I am starting Skogenby for my group. However, I am going to run a different Skogenby from the original because one of my players has GMed the dungeon before. The basic premise I have so far is that the evil spirit Haathor Vash is not just a spirit but a vampire lord. Her attempts to achieve immortality were successful, but not in the way she had hoped. HV and her followers conducted the rituals, very bloody rituals, and summoned a demon to assist with the Ascension. The demon tricked HV and cursed her to the blood-thirsty afterlife.

The curse of Skogenby begins when the village children unknowing disturb HVs resting place, thus waking her from a very long, and very hunger-generating slumber. The start of the dungeon is essentially the same: town elders ask for help, give an arm ring, point to the dolmens, etc. I did make one change in that villagers are disappearing and not dying. So far they have all been children.

I am looking for ideas/advice about how to make this dungeon coherent and fun for the group. I have a few major concerns:

  1. How to protect the tomb during the day. My players are pretty savvy and as soon as they find out there are vampires they are going to wait until daylight and stake them. How can I make this a challenge? Some thoughts I have are to protect the tomb with Wolves, bats and tomb guardians, making it difficult to reach HV. I am also planning to change the trap/secret entrance to the actual tomb. Any other ideas?

  2. I am planning to keep HVs possession powers. I have a character that is obsessed with cursed items, so this is right up his alley. I want him to have to choose btw having the items or getting possessed and possibly becoming a thrall of HV.

  3. I haven’t changed the dungeon layout yet; instead I am changing the nature of the two Chambers; successful tests will uncover that a cursed ritual was performed, and can give advantages against HV in Convince or Trick conflicts. I a, not planning for a Banish/abjure since she is not a spirit. Any thoughts on how else I could change up the dungeon to make it different to challenge my GM/player?

  4. I have been thinking that HV has been taking the children to feed. She is newly in her powers and doesn’t completely understand them yet. At least two of the children will be newly converted minor vamps, but Jora will be a prisoner for feeding, for now. That could change.

  5. I like the idea of HV having been a bloodthirsty barbarian who is very possessive of her loot. I was planning to stick with this but if anyone has a creative idea I am open to hear it.

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  1. Isn’t that what thralls are for? Or human mercs/allies.
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That is exactly what I ended up doing. I kept the tomb guardians but switched one out for a minor vampire, one of the children taken from Skogenby.

Also, I got lucky in that the group camped just after entering and rolled a Disaster. The options were either the vampire/guardians attack or the tunnel caves in. I rolled the latter so now they are stuck with no obvious way out. It was a great complication that I would definitely write in to the dungeon.

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Also I was thinking a pack of dire wolves will replace the Bandits outside the dungeon. It fits well with te vamp idea.

I should also mention that cutting off the obvious exit with the cave in has made exploration a priority. It really made the session enjoyable and fast paced.