World of Prime: Campaign Journal #42

Vampire Neighbors, part IV

The party returns to the capital in the dead of night, avoiding the innocent soldiers and townsmen. Their only target is the ruling class.

They return to the Order of the Edge's private keep at midnight. The gates open at their touch; the keep appears deserted, or at least lifeless. Cautiously they creep onto the grounds and begin to search for monsters, prisoners, or just clues. They have prepared by drinking Hide from Undead potions, but in the end this turns out not to really matter, as the vampires generally see through it for the rest of the battle.

After a few minutes of investigating a barn door that is mysteriously barred from within, the Barbarian loses patience. Going to the next building, he pushes open the door, unwraps his light stone, and has a look around. The armory seems to have been used recently, implying that someone in the keep still cares about weapons and armor. Meanwhile the Ranger has climbed into the barn through a 2nd story window (it's only combat rolls he can't make) and discovered the barn is dusty with disuse and neglect. While he's opening the barn door for the rest of the party, the Barbarian comes out of the armory and makes a discovery.

Specifically, he discovers a critical strike from a lance wielded by a vampire on a nightmare. Two more make a pass with the lance, their mounts traveling on clouds of smoke five feet above the ground, and one of them hits. The Barbarian is now bleeding real blood, reduced to merely mortal flesh, and for once in his soon-to-be-brief life, chooses the better part of valor. He runs back into the armory to hide. The rest of the party, caught in the open and watching the three vampire knights wheel around for another charge, rush to join him, leaving the Ranger alone in an empty barn.

The knights land in front of the armory, issuing taunts and laughter. One has his horse knock down the door with a powerful lash of hooves. The others send in swarms of bats, but the Druid foils this with a simple spell while the Cleric and Bard put the Barbarian back into fighting shape. The Cleric then chants, driving two of the nightmares away; the knights, secure in their confidence, dismount to carry out the battle on foot.

A halting melee occurs at the door, with the Barbarian lunging out to attack the nightmare while dodging sword thrusts and hooves. The Ranger is sniping from the barn door, his arrows contributing damage but not revealing his location to the knights, who it must be said were not the sharpest fangs in the drawer. Eventually the nightmare is slain, enraging the knights; one walks around to the side of the building and begins smashing a hole in the shutters. Since the windows are barred with iron, the party wonders what he is doing. When they see him turn into mist so he can float through the hole and flank the doorway, the Druid sends his gaseous form packing with a Gust of Wind. Meanwhile, the party is winning the fight at the doorway; the Barbarian destroys one and the Bard drops another with Magic Missiles. They turn to mist and the Bard immediately follows.

The third knight solidifies on the other side of the courtyard, where the wind sent him, but finally realizes the fight is against him. He flees through a gate, locking it behind him.

The gaseous vampires float into the main building on the second floor, with the Bard following. Rather than deal with the gate and then the main hall door, the rest of the party decides to climb up to the second floor. This is easy for the Cleric, who Air Walks; the Ranger, who can climb; and the Druid, who cheats and uses a Spider Climb potion; but it is comically difficult for the Barbarian who fails his first attempt and falls to the ground. His second attempt is more successful, and he smashes open the window the Ranger was attempting to unlock.

The party climbs through onto a balcony over a perfectly dark room. The Barbarian throws his light stone into the darkness, only to reveal an empty hall.

"Try that again," comes a voice from the end of the hall. The Ranger does, hurtling his light stone in the direction of the voice.

This reveals a line of seven vampire knights waiting for them, along with their old foe Palek the sorcerer. The Cleric rebukes four of the lesser knights, driving them into the corner. Another one picks up the lightstone and puts it into his pocket while one summons a wolf and the others begin crawling up the support pillars to attack.

The Bard takes solid form, leaving him on the far side of the room from the party. He casts Sunlight on the nearest support pillar, thus solving the party's vision problems, but winds up in a fist-fight with a vampire. Somehow he manages to avoid losing any levels while still getting beaten unconscious over the next few rounds.

Palek the fire-sorcerer is blasting away at anything and everyone, and missing. Several vampires are on the balcony slogging it out with the Barbarian, Ranger and Cleric (who has successfully paralyzed one with Hold Person), when a wraith comes through the wall and strikes the Cleric. This is CON drain, not damage; another hit like that will suck the life-force out of the Cleric and leave him a rotting husk!

The Barbarian demonstrates his tactical wisdom by grabbing the cleric in one hand and throwing him off of the balcony. Sure, he takes damage from the fall, and sure, he lands sprawled at the feet of the vampire sorcerer; but neither of those is going to immediately kill him like the wraith might.

The Druid is equally concerned about the wraith, but has a different solution. He turns into a giant bear with the constitution of, well, a giant bear. Having previously cast Magic Fang on himself, he easily shreds the wraith (and the wall it is partially occupying). The Barbarian does the same for a second wraith that lunged out of the wall but fortunately missed.

The vampires realize they are not winning. Their leader crawls to the middle of the room, clinging to the ceiling like a bat and summons another wolf. However, the wolf is limited in its targets; only the Ranger is open to its attacks (the others are still protected by the Hide from Animals cast by the Druid back in the armory). Instead, the wolf grabs the paralyzed vampire and throws it off the balcony, thus damaging it and breaking the Hold Person spell. The Druid leaps from the balcony (which trembles but does not collapse) to a pillar near the leader (which also quivers but holds) and claws him into bits, using that Spider Climb potion to good effect.

But the Cleric is in trouble; he's on the ground, surrounded by vampires, and Palek finally manages to scorch him with a ray. The Druid-bear drops to the ground, where Palek futilely blasts it before being eviscerated by a flurry of claws.

Just as it looks like the heros are winning, the main door flies open and two nightmares charge into the room! Then the Barbarian obliterates them in two rounds with Whirlwind attacks, incidentally taking out a poor vampire who happened to get caught in the carnage.

At this point an invisible rogue stabs the Druid-bear in the back twice, but even her advanced Level Drain has no hope of affecting the bear. Still, her daggers do real damage, and he has to turn his attention to her, leaving the Cleric open to a level-draining sucker-punch from vampire that already beat the Bard unconscious. This turns out to matter because the other vampires that had been previously turned are now rejoining the fight, and the Cleric's new turn attempt is rendered totally ineffective. Perhaps you can't intimidate vampires when you are on the ground, bleeding, smoking around the edges, and pathetically low level - who knew?

The Druid-bear finally finishes off the rogue, whom by deduction must be the Marichoness, and by observation is clearly a vampire rather than a prisoner, and the Ranger has brought the Bard around with a healing potion, so the remaining low-level vampire knights have no real chance. The Barbarian and Druid-bear crush them in short order.

The mist forms of the Marichoness and Palek float up and out a window, while the others float down to the floor. The party discovers ten graves crudely concealed beneath the flooring, and stake the Order of the Edge's vampiric inhabitants while they are still reforming. The Bard, for once, does not go chasing after wisps of smoke, because he knows where they are going (the royal castle) and he fears following them in his depleted state.

Next comes the assault on the throne, as the evidence for Ragnar's corruption is no longer questionable. The party debates waiting for Theodoric's arrival and his allied armies, but is swayed to immediate action by two concerns. First, that Theodoric's civil war will kill hundreds of innocent soldiers on both sides; and second, that waiting for Theodoric's help means splitting the loot.

World of Prime: Campaign Journal #41

Vampire Neighbors, part III

The party heads for the last county of unknown status: Iochoarr, home of the Earl Theodoric, a paladin of high rank. They know him as the leader of the War Party back in the days of the Spice Wars.

He welcomes them into his castle and takes their news about Irlyd well; he never thought much of Baron Darcio anyway. Mostly he seems intent on sounding out their views on possible contenders for the throne, should something untoward happened to King Ragnar. He gets as blunt as preparing to challenge any of them to a deadly joust if they do not recognize his superiority.

Surprisingly, none of the party wants the job of king; they’re happy to let Theodoric do it. This ends what could have been a potentially dangerous encounter on good terms. When he receives the news about the utter devastation of Ieppyxoox, his words begin to border on treason. For one party to seize the throne from another is just life as usual; for an entire county to be exterminated is a failure of royal duty.

The party then leaves for the capital, promising to report back to Theodoric on the state of affairs therein, and potentially with evidence sufficient for Theodoric to declare for the throne. As they are leaving the Earl happens to mention that his fellow paladin Count Kird died at the beginning of the demon war, a fact that grieves the party as he was a true ally.

The capital seems healthy enough, having suffered only moderate despoilment in the on-going demonic attacks. Rumors abound, though, such as the conflicting claims that Ragnar’s sister has been abducted by or sought refuge with the Order of the Edge, a knightly house even more powerful than the Order of the Tower. Faced with three options – seek an audience with the king, investigate the Order, or call on the new Minister of War to pay their respects – sees them choose the least committal of these actions. After all, they know how to get into the royal stables where the Minister holds court, having visited Kird there many times.

They are unpleasantly surprised to find the stables full of Dire Wolves instead of noble war horses, but this is the least of the unpleasant surprises for the night. When they meet the new Minister in a barn full of large dangerous canines, he turns out to be none other than Payson Graylek! (Long-time readers will recall him as the demon-summoning sorcerer from the start of their adventuring career – they arrested him and turned him over to royal justice, only to see him wriggle out from consequences. Well, other than the fact that they burnt his house down.) To see this vile creature in the office of the noble Count Kird is an insult.

But Graylek is not alone; the Minister of the Arcane, Yeron the Skald, is also in the barn. He quizzes the party on their adventures, and interrupts their war of words with Graylek to have a side-conversation with the Bard. At this moment things are put into motion that will have far-reaching consequences.

The Bard has suspicion only for Graylek, and thus is completely unprepared with Yeron stares into his eyes and crushes his will with vampiric domination. Only the Cleric notices that something has changed in the Bard’s manner. He can tell that something has happened, but cannot distinguish whether it is arcane enchantment or supernatural domination. Smoothly he maneuvers next to the Bard and places his hand on his shoulder as if to say, “Time to leave,” but in fact he casts Protection from Evil, risking everything on a choice between two spells, one to foil arcane and the other to foil vampires.

He makes the right choice. The Bard immediately begins casting a defensive spell, aware that only seconds ago Yeron was in his head. Yeron begins a spell, Graylek notices and starts his own, as does the Druid, and the Barbarian leaps into the middle of the room attacking an entire knot of Dire Wolves. The Ranger also decides to stab a random wolf because it seems to be the thing to do.

Then the wolves start biting. And they bite hard! Mirror Images save the Bard, but the Cleric takes a tremendous bite and eats a heat ray from Graylek. One round into combat and the Cleric is already facing death. The Barbarian saves him by stabbing the attacking wolf, and then in an astonishing feat of swordsmanship uses the attack to cleave into the rest of the wolves, killing them all. This frees the Cleric to Rebuke Undead, which sends Grayson cowering into a corner. Yeron responds by dominating the Cleric and ordering him to kill the Barbarian.

The Bard and the Barbarian attack Yeron, but the man is now protected by several layers of magic and all they succeed in doing is eliminating a few of his images. Yeron’s response is to dominate the Barbarian and order him to kill the Cleric! Fortunately the Bard strikes an enchanting note on his lyre and breaks the curse before the Barbarian can carry out the command. Yeron then attempts several area-effect spells, none of which have any effect on his foes, while the Barbarian simply ignores the Cleric’s feeble attacks and the Bard whittles down Yeron’s images.

Meanwhile the Ranger and Druid finish off the rest of the wolves. The Druid then charges the cowering Graylek, hoping to destroy him in a single attack. The Barbarian, frustrated by so much magic defense, pauses to intimidate Yeron. Much to everyone’s surprise, it works: Yeron simply disintegrates into a cloud of smoke. Graylek follows suit and soon both of them have gone down a drain pipe.

Not to worry, because the Bard goes gaseous and follows them (apparently forgetting that both of them are in fact still combat capable). However, he comes to fork in the pipe; choosing the left hand, he soon runs into a sealed end. Going back and choosing the other fork dumps him in a small basement room with an old servant whiling away the time whittling and half a dozen pipe entrances; the servant appears to be waiting for a signal from the cloud of gas, and when it doesn’t come, he places an end-cap on the pipe behind the Bard’s gaseous form.

The Bard becomes solid and easily bluffs the servant into answering a few questions. He finds out there are several rooms like this under the castle, staffed by other servants, who close or open the pipes according to signals from the clouds of gas that sometimes pass through. He also confirms that no other gas has appeared in this room tonight, meaning that the vampires the Bard was pursuing went to a different room and shut the pipe behind them. Foiled, he returns to the stable, where the party is planning their next move.

At some point the Protection from Evil spell lapses… but no one remembers. The Bard is now secretly under the command of Yeron the vampire, as is the Cleric. (Notes are passed under the table between the DM and a player!) The Bard suddenly goes from arguing for a hasty retreat to arguing for an immediate assault on the Order of the Edge. Since his arguments about maintaining the element of surprise are sound, he wins the day, and the party quickly rushes through the night to the gates of the keep.

It is there, just as they are about to assault another tranche of vampires, that the Druid asks the Cleric what actually happens when the Protection from Evil spell expires. In response… the Bard casts Doom on the party and the Cleric summons a hammer to kill the Barbarian. A full-on party on party fight begins, with comic results. The Cleric Air-walks towards higher ground, trying to get room to hammer the Barbarian to death; while the Bard and Barbarian begin chopping at each other with swords and halberds. The Druid turns into a bear and unleashes a deadly blizzard of claws and fangs on the Cleric, only to be foiled at the last second by the Bard blinding him and causing him to miss (the Druid had rolled a critical hit and would have killed the Cleric outright by accident!). Then the Bard casts Fear and drives the Barbarian into the night.

The Druid turns his attention to the Bard and knocks him out easily, remembering at the last minute to switch to non-lethal damage. The Ranger follows the misty form of the Cleric through the streets, firing arrows up at him while he vainly tries to find the fleeing Barbarian and complete his command. Eventually the Ranger manages a bring down the Cleric, although another critical hit provides a momentary bit of drama.

Now that both their dominated fellows are unconscious, the party binds them and makes a total retreat, running all the way back to the safety of Earl Theodoric and his Curate. They stagger back into the Earl’s hall in terrible shape: one member blind and two raving of vampires. The Curate puts them all in order pretty quickly, and then Theodoric calls a war council.

It is clear that King Ragnar must be a vampire; it is impossible that two members of his retinue are vampires and he, a high-ranking cleric, does not know. It is not yet certain whether the Order of the Edge is compromised, though the party strongly suspects they are. The party considers fleeing once again, but realizing that any foes they face now will be just as dangerous and at least here they have some allies, decide to try again. They load up on potions and precautions (making the Curate very happy and very rich) and plot to return to the Order and determine the truth. Meanwhile, Theodoric will travel north to county Dearl, make his peace with the Vicar, and recruit the man to rebellion. For rebellion it must be; a vampire king cannot be allowed to stand!

This was the most unprofitable and dangerous mission the party ever faced, with the potential for a total party kill while there were no actual enemies on the board at all! Everything depended on a few key moments, from the Cleric noticing that the Bard had been dominated to the Druid remembering that the counter spells only temporarily stopped the effect before the next combat started to the Bard blinding the Druid before he murdered someone. It was both frustrating and hilarious at the same time.

World of Prime: Campaign Journal #40

 Vampire Neighbors, part II

The party debates how to convey the sad news to Lady Floressa, ranging from empathy to scientific proof of vampires to simple intimidation (“How dare you question my word!”).  In the end they settle for a business-like approach. In the Count’s throne room they present him with the swords of Viscount Godard (the leader) and Sir Jared (the son) of the Tower.

“Your vampire problem is resolved. We regretfully bring you these tokens of fallen heroes.”

They also hand over the keys to the tower as a sign that they are forgoing any claim on the building or its land.

Lady Kalyn is devastated and retires for the night. Count Forianus is grief-stricken, but duty calls. He explains that it is not just the loss of his son that hurts; but also, the loss of the Tower, which has been a bulwark against the Wild and Varsoulou and its demons.

At this the Bard digs in his heels. “There are no demons,” he repeats. “Just vampires.”

The Count chooses not to argue. “Regardless; the threat from Varsoulou remains real. Many times their raids have been blocked by the strength of the Tower. If the Hammer of the Desert (Varsoulou’s famous troop of high-ranked knights) comes to knock on my door, I will be hard-pressed to answer. And your own lands lie exposed to the East; you too may find yourself disturbed at odd hours.”

He proposes an agreement: should Varsoulou move against either of them, the other will come to their aid. He also suggests that the party travel to the remaining counties, both to introduce themselves as new peers of the realm and to warn of the danger from Varsoulou. His bard Margaretha, however, asks them not to travel to the capital at present, as she wishes some time to best frame the news about the Tower in a way that will not diminish her lord’s influence.

The party finds this accords with their own plans. The Cleric heads home to their keep in Irlyd, as he has no desire to encounter the zealous Vicar again (and also because the player couldn’t make this session). The rest slip north through the hinterlands of County Edersarr to the sea, where they hire House Marconi’s boat again. This time they are welcome to keep their weapons on hand, though, their reputation still intact from their previous dealings. The fee for a quick jaunt up to Ieppyxoox and then Dearl is only 100 gp, a small sum compared to their last travel fee but one the Druid still tries to haggle over.

However, at the port of Ieppyxoox, the crew refuse to dock, doing no more than pulling alongside a pier. The docks are empty of life, to all appearances abandoned. The party investigates first a warehouse and then the town, finding nothing living in the fresh snow. A few clues are uncovered: a headless body that the Druid determines died of smoke inhalation, a wolf-print in a garden, and the tracks of what could be zombies at a battleground with more headless bodies. A barn on the edge of town is stacked with headless peasants; the entire county seems to have been carried off by a series of raids from indeterminate sources over the last year. The party spends the night in the keep, expecting an attack at any moment, but finding nothing but emptiness.

They return to the dock and signal their boat, which comes in to pick them up. A day at sea gives the Druid time to try a new spell: scrying, the art of spying on your enemies. After an hour of intense concentration over a bucket, the water suddenly stills and reflects the image of a beautiful woman in a fine evening gown lying in a satin-padded coffin. The lady does not open her eyes, but she does make a rude gesture with her fingers; for this is Lady Night, and she knows that she is being observed. The Druid is disappointed at how little information his spell reveals, aside from the brute fact that the vampiress is still an active foe. And also that she’s doing quite well for herself, judging from all the jewellery.

In Dearl they receive a more normal welcome. Hustling off the boat at dusk, they march south to the town by midnight, mindful of the King’s Curfew. Announcing themselves as the new rulers of Irlyd, they are greeted by the Vicar, his retinue, and a room full of knights.

As the Bard recounts their warning about vampires, the Vicar’s face turns to stone. It comes out later that someone suggested King Ragnar might be somehow be associated with vampires, and the Vicar considers such talk treasonous. However, a contemptuous mention of alleged demons energizes the Vicar immediately.

“The Varsouloueans are demon-lovers, always have been. We all know that. And now they send the monsters against us!”

“There are no demons,” the Bard repeats with exasperation. “The courts we cleared out were vampires.”

The Vicar is astounded. “Varsoulou can use their demons to turn people into vampires? We are truly beset by evil! And with the loss of the Tower, I fear they will raid my lands even more.”

A little quizzing discovers that while Dearl has suffered some losses, the Vicar has not in fact actually seen a demon yet. However, he says that every night he and his retinue camp in a different village, hoping to interrupt a demon attack. He invites the party to do the same, offering the tael of the foes they destroy without tax, in addition to his appreciation and a tentative alliance against Varsoulou.

The party, sensing an Adventure Hook, agree. Soon they are standing in a village square, enjoying a small fire against the cold night, with bottles of holy water in their hands. They are certain they will soon be attacked by vampires: the only question is whether the vampires will turn out to be Vicar Dearl and his court.

A scream from the edge of the village sends them dashing to the rescue. What appear to be half a dozen zombies are trying to break into a house. The Ranger begins firing arrows while the Bard and Barbarian rush into battle.

They quickly discover these are not zombies, as their weapons are strangely ineffective and the creatures keep emitting clouds of poisonous gas. The Ranger is rendered helpless almost immediately, and three of the monsters tackle him to the ground, biting and clawing. The Barbarian does enough damage to cut through their strange resilience, but the Bard finds himself also on the ground, sickened and grappled.

The Barbarian destroys the creatures around him. Ignoring both their stench and the danger, he begins chopping at the pile swarming the Bard. He dispatches one, but then his next strike goes awry and he almost kills the Bard!

The Druid turns into a bear. Much to his surprise, his claws bypass their defenses and he begins decimating them at will. The Ranger realizes that innate goodness is the only effective weapon, and promptly punches a monster to death with his bare hands.

And then the real monster shows up. A winged demon drops from the sky and attacks the Druid-bear from behind, unleashing a fury of attacks and ton of damage. When the Druid and the Barbarian attack back, they are discomfited to find the monster is protected by many shifting images. Worse, it breathes spores instead of poisonous gas, and now the two heroes are covered in a web of viny growths that burrow into their skin. They shrug off the damage and its attempted stunning attack, but the images absorb many of their blows. Once they finally dispatch all the images, the monster shrugs and summons more. And then tears huge bloody chunks out of the bear.

Despite all of this, the two of them are successfully inflicting pain on the monster. After only two rounds of combat it decides to retreat, flying out of reach. The Barbarian jumps after it, trying to catch it, but it shrugs him off. However, thirty feet above them, it stops fleeing. Instead it glares at the Barbarian, and he begins to rise into the air!

The Druid catches him by the ankles, stopping his ascent (though the Barbarian was not particularly concerned, as a simple fall from 1,000 feet would probably not kill him). Both the Barbarian and the Ranger hit the monster with arrows, and do damage despite its formidable defense. This is enough; the creature flees into the night. The few remaining lesser monsters are quickly dispatched. A dose of holy water cures the viny growths, though the Bard delays telling the Barbarian this for several rounds, due to a grudge over his indiscriminate swordery.

The party gains little treasure from this encounter as the main foe has escaped, but they have learned much. Lady Night is indeed still a danger; County Dearl is still among the living; and there really are demons that can fly in, summon a horde of lesser demons, and lay waste to whole villages. This was the fate of Ieppyxoox, apparently, and may soon be the fate of Dearl.

Belatedly they realize that the Nightmare-flying vampires of the Tower may have actually protected Aechoamoapp from actual flying demons. The status of the throne is now more urgent than ever. Demons and vampires threaten the realm; is King Ragnar a friend or foe in this existential fight?