Lets say you're a swanky Vampire Lord/Lady and some humble and less than annoying adventurers did you a favor by...

A katana made of blood.

Give them some gold. Murderhobos love gold, right? Or some +1 flaming longswords of dick waving.

BJ maybe if they're hot

Once one reaches a certain level of power, money becomes meaningless, and individuals turn to bartering in favours instead. This is especially true between individuals with no common currency, such as mortals and spirits.

In this case, I offer the adventurers a favour, to be redeemed at any time. If the adventurers don't redeem it immediately, I give them a small token of favour, imprinted with the seal of my household, and tell them that they if they present the seal to me at any later date, I will assuredly honour it.

This kind of open-ended gift is way, way more interesting than money or magic relics, and encourages players to remember your NPCs, if only as debtors.

Didn't read the thread.

Give them a magic item and/or gold. Or offer then some political help or some plot assistance of some kind. And of course consider them for future work.

I want to Junko Junko's Junkos

...

Butt Love

...

Thralldom.

depends on how important the item is.

if it's something that i could've gotten at anytime but it wasn't a priority to get at the time then gold or something like a magic item.

if it's something that i can't get due to magical protection or i've been actively searching for they're hired on my court

if it's something like rescuing a family member or loved on then vampirism for everyone

Where's the Oprah for vampirism.

>some humble and less than annoying adventurers did you a favor by retrieving something you needed.
>The party indirectly heard that they were looking for said item and thought they might get it in good with the lord

This is cool, I want to encourage more people to do this. Reward them!

First-pass lazy answer: Give them money equal to somewhere over half of what it would have cost me to commission/acquire a new something. (If it would mostly have taken me time and effort, pay them based on what I'd charge for my own labor.)

Some less lazy ideas:
Token of vampire favor, mindless undead won't attack the bearer, and other vampires will generally have the courtesy to also refrain from doing so
Information on some of our mutual enemies
Chits (like company scrip) redeemable for items, services and other stuff within my domain, to encourage them to make nice with my minions too
Alternatively, if they seem overly dangerous and unpredictable, a chest of currency from a faraway land to encourage them to go be over there instead of here

If cosmology and my power level and whatever allow it, possibly a vampire-imitation-emergency-escape device: when used, it draws on my power to turn them into mistforms and rematerialize them at my castle. First use is free as their reward, then they can keep the device, but I'll want a favor from them each subsequent time they use it.

Second for the idea of giving them a Token to be redeemed for a favor later on.

Secondly vampire themed reward items.

Weapons that drink blood for bonuses
Cloaks that do something at night
Maybe a health draining spell

I'd give them one favor they can call in.
Thinking from a vampires POV, that way they give up nothing but reward them with something of value at the same time.

How strong are they? Do I need retainers? If they're weak, I either thrall or kill them and take their shit.
Otherwise if they're strong and I don't need more servants, I give them the bare minimum so they fuck off and leave me in peace but also tell them about a powerful artifact that my enemy has while underestimating said enemy. If they decide to go for the artifact, I shadow them and once they start punching my enemy, I try to fuck both of them over and take enemy and adventurer's shit for myself.

If I need servants I try to hire them or somesuch.

Depending on value of 'something' I'll give them some amount of money/magic items or some other things whatever is the most convertible around these lands.

And I'll also give them an Igor. He is cousin of my Igor. He is good at medicine and sewing people together after someone tried to detach their valuable body parts through application of sharp objects. He will also allow me to stay in touch with adventurers if I'll need their help again.

Depends on how they went about it.
Did they mean to bring the thing to me? Out of the goodness of their hearts? Well damn, I owe them a turn of good favor and should see about their other interests to see if I can help them in kind and send them on their way.

Did I contract them to go get the thing for me?
Fucking pay them as per the contract, business deals are stupid to renege on when you can build up a good reputation and make the betrayal really count when you need it to.

Did they bring it by pure accident and just don't care about the thing? Well that's cool and all, and I can offer payment in trade for it, but I'm getting the thing whether it's easy or bloody as apparently I need it.

Did I trick them into bringing it to me? Well then I try to keep up the facade that made them think it was a good idea and send them on their way as soon as possible. If others knowing about it is a problem, and for some reason the bluff doesn't extend to the people they might speak with, better dispose of them on their way out. Still, living people lying unwittingly is better than corpses that cause questions.

Did they bring it to bait me out of safety?
That shit's not gonna fly you arrogant fuckers, I get volunteer bloodbags and run a great health insurance program for the local village you bet your ass I do less harm than good around here.

Did they bring it specifically because I need it but mean to haggle? Fine, I'll outlive them and their accounts, can always get the gold back after you stingy jerks but time is money and I need the thing.

Well in that case, either money or equipment. Whichever would be more useful to them.

Grant them the gift of death

More called for details; how badly was the thing they're bringing needed? Vital importance? (un)Life saving? Nice little bauble to fill up the corner between the faux religious icons and the commode?

Someone gives me my wallet back I'm keen to say thanks. Someone hands back the keys to my astro-travelling super mecha I'm thinking maybe I better get them a Ferrari or a Fieri or something.

Give the party leader a trinket that will call me to their aid when they are in need. Eventually they will run into something they cant handle. Get called, swoop in, help them kill the boss, Leave with a wink and a "pleasure doing business with you"

Just hope they don't get in a tough fight with a sunlight elemental or a garlic golem.

>humble and less than annoying adventurers

Holy shit it's a group of mythical creatures. Now, depending on how powerful these adventurers are, it could be an excellent idea to have them affiliated with my faction.

So what we have here is that they want to be in my good books, and I want them to stick around and ally themselves with me. Honestly, it's rather a no-brainer, if you ask me. I grant a token of favour and throw a celebratory feast, which they are of course invited to. Possibly some modest lodgings reserved for them near my centre of power, but nothing too fancy. I doubt my other vassals would take kindly to my paying too much attention to a single group of adventurers.

Most importantly, the promise of a mutually beneficial friendship.

They're going to wake up to some cursed immortality.

Because as fun as having players realize that my pet NPC vampire wants to reward them would be, automatically rewarding them with an undead life and seeing how the party Paladin and LG Cleric handle it would be far, far, funnier.

No, I'll turn their blood into katanas.

I'd have my minions discretely ask around to see what they want. Then I would thank them politely. If they're a typical gaming group, then their favorite tavern would throw them a party, out of the blue. Beer and hookers all around. No tricks, no traps.

At the party, one of my senior minions would politely approach the most reasonable member of the group and explain that the Master appreciates their gesture. He'll provide contact information and explain that if there's ever something they need (information, assistance, etc) then he'll be glad to help.

And then he'll fucking do it, because backstabbing nine times out of ten is counterproductive, whereas setting an example of his gratitude is worth ten times the actual cost of fulfilling his debt.

If they ask for minor shit, it won't even discharge the favor. Indeed, nickeling and diming the vampire lord (or, more accurately, his minions) for small potatoes favors that collectively way outweigh the original favor is fine by him. It draws their relationship closer.

If they eventually ask for a big favor, then that will exhaust his debt to them. He'll let them know if that happens, but even afterwards he'll be pleasantly disposed towards them.

If he ever needs help, he might approach them. Especially if it's along the lines of, "Here's my long-time rival. This paper has a list of his known powers, abilities, minions, defenses, and a map of his haven as far as my spies have been able to determine. And a list of known lootable treasures. If you eliminate him, you'll be doing me a big favor and are free to keep all the treasure you can loot. Except for X, which is a powerful item and relic I covet, and which I'll pay you top dollar for if you can retrieve it." He's happy to be the quest giver because fair honest quest-givers who are morally grey enough to suit murderhobo tastes are few and valued and he knows it.

IMO vampire lords in fantasy work best when they're very genre-savvy

They get to serve me

Give them a monetary reward and, if they appear competent, keep and eye on them for future endeavours. Give then each a brooch or some other piece if jewellery with some slight bonus, that carries your symbol and let's other vamps know you have dibs on these guys, but unfortunately is known to a few circles of undead hunters.

Employ them in future and continue to assess their characters. Offer less material gifts, like political standing and the like. Consider carefully whether you want to blood bind them, if any of them are worthy of being vampires, or if they're more amusing/useful as moreals.

Currency. Maybe some gear, if there is anything exceptionally cool in my chests, or some neat spellbook. But yeah, mostly dosh.

You do realise, that most vampires who thought that way are dead? And by "dead" I mean like over dead, like dead dead, when they die when they are killed after they were killed another time.

how swanky are you?
and how dispose are they to swank?

Because giving them swank is probably the answer.
Lesser swank, not as swanky as you wear, but clearly swanky and in your swank style.
Because you want people to know that when give a favor it's with style.

Invite them to stay for dinner, let them have a couple trinkets from my 'people who tried and failed to kill me'/junk closet, send them a magical invite for my next party, let them read for a bit in my library, a favor, stuff like that.

I let them know that they're welcome as my guests should they ever need to stay in an area where I have significant influence. Of course, should they try to take advantage of my generous hospitality I would promptly dispose of them outside of my realm, possibly alive if their transgressions are not too serious.