Alright, another session! This one was four hours long on the dot, because two of us had work right after it ended. It's hard to squeeze in these days, but we're going to keep doing it, damn it!
[sblock]So, the party had just been surrounded by six vampires that had fallen from an illusory ceiling. They were here to kill the head vampire in an attempt to weaken the drow high priestess' support while the newly-convinced drow priestess took over. Unfortunately for them, the vampires had gotten the drop on all but one of them (the Wilden Scout, who saw through the illusion just as it dropped).
The fight was fun for my 9th level party of 4 PCs. It was five level 10 soldier minions and one level 10 elite skirmisher (the head vampire). The first round was a surprise round, and the vampire hit the party pretty hard, and the Scout damaged the head vampire. Starting in the next round, the PCs dispatched the minions pretty (as soon as they figured out they were minions). The head vampire laughed, yelling out "five of mine dead but four replacements; not a bad start." The vampire kept dominating (save ends) the dwarven Knight (and occasionally the wilden Scout, having both a couple of times), making it really hard on the party. He even bit both of his dominated PCs (healing him) during the combat (vampirism again!). While nobody ended up dropping, everyone was in the low double digits by the end, and a couple had hit the single digits during the fight. The Warpriest's daily that did 5 radiant every round (save ends) really helped, as radiant damage disabled the vampire's regen for 1 round. Anyway, the Scout eventually skewered the vampire on his magical rapier, killing it, and the radiant damage ate his body away.
The fight over, they decided to heal up and then check out the vampire cave as a group. They didn't find anything valuable or that was magical (only some older bodies, two of which were wrapped in webs). Since the Scout was the only one that saw through the illusion, only he could pass through it (the illusion acted illusory if you could see through it, otherwise it was real). Since only the Warpriest had a mount (The Sleeper's skeletal warhorse), the dwarven Knight climbed it, and then the wilden Scout climbed up both to get a boost through the illusion. From there, he transformed into a medium-sized spider (to "blend in" more) and switched to his spider stance (+5 to climb) and scouted out the only two paths up there. There was a path that led nowhere, and one that led to a small living space. It had six unused cots, and one slightly open coffin with the holy symbol of Vecna on it. The Scout checked out the inside and found a few personal effects and threw them down to the party. The Warpriest told him to destroy the holy symbol of Vecna. When the Scout dragged his blade across the symbol, he heard a scream from the coffin, but it died down almost instantly. The Scout made sure the symbol was thoroughly wrecked and came back to the party.
The personal effects also had four potions of Cure Moderate Wounds! The PCs were happy to see some potions that were better than what they've had (Cure Light Wounds and Healing Potions). The half-elf Sorceress expressed concern about the two newly-bitten PCs, and the Warpriest used a daily to heal the Scout's disease. They then cleared the vampire bodies away and retreated into the former vampire cave, deciding to take an extended rest (they'd been through four encounters in a row, getting two milestones; one more and the Sorceress would no longer be taking a -1 penalty on rolls from her resurrection sickness).
Five hours into their eight hours of resting (the mul Warpriest always gets two hours first, then stays up on watch for six hours while the others sleep), the drow priestess they'd convinced showed up with her ten followers and told them to stay put until she came to get them. They agreed, finished resting, and were fetched five hours later. They followed her back to the entrance to the drow area, and the priestess said a prayer that made the illusory wall real for everyone, trapping everyone inside. The Warpriest hits a Hard DC on Insight passively, and he knew she wasn't betraying them yet. The priestess told the PCs to give her a five minute lead, and headed towards the drow outpost.
They followed at a distance, and eventually reached the outpost. The priestess was there with five of her followers, and there were two bodies in a mostly empty area around the walled mini-fortress. The priestess gave them directions to get to the high priestess, and told them to hurry. In the meantime, this priestess would be making a distraction, keeping reinforcements from arriving.
The PCs followed her directions into the fortress, arriving in a chamber where they spotted the high priestess. She was standing over a huge altar that had a shroud with the symbol of Vecna draped over it. They were put off by that, but put it aside for now. A drow in armor (a protector of hers) stood from behind the altar as they opened the door, and the PCs decided that they were here to kill her rather than talk, so we rolled initiative.
The PCs ran in, and the Scout made it to her, but that's it. The drow protector tied the others up by using the blocking terrain (bookshelves along the walls and the altar) to his advantage. Oh, that, and the giant (large-sized) spider that dropped down into their midst in the first round of combat. It turns out that the player of my warpriest has a great dislike of spiders (something short of a phobia), and didn't like the spider token I had made specially for this fight. The Warpriest summoned a skeletal warrior (with a magic item) to help the Scout fight the high priestess, and the two fought her while the drow protector and the dwarven Knight traded blows (the drow kept marking the Knight, too, basically locking them into a mini-duel while combat raged on around them). The spider started attacking the wilden Scout, and the Scout started trying to convince it to stop (with a Wilderness Knack). It communicated back that it had to do as it was forced, so the Scout kept trying to convince it all throughout combat. After the high priestess went down (she never got a chance to use her drow cloud ability because the Warpriest had used his daily to deal 5 ongoing radiant [save ends], which also makes her unable to be hidden), the spider started attacking both the Knight and the drow protector. One round later, the spider killed the drow protector (who was low from the Knight and Sorceress taking shots at him), then retreated up the corner of the wall.
The party didn't attack it right away (as they heard the Scout chittering at it throughout the fight before it killed the last drow), and the Scout tried to see what it wanted. The spider wanted out. They let it squeeze through the doorway, but it didn't know how to get out of the outpost, and didn't understand the instructions the Scout tried to give it. He promised to lead it out, and the spider waited for him. The PCs checked the drow for magic or valuables, and found more drow-only weapons, as well as a key ring with two keys on the high priestess; one marked "Gate" and the other "Stables".
The Warpriest approached the shroud, and prayed for guidance from his goddess on what to do with it. He hit a Hard DC Religion, and he was instructed to "lift the shroud and allow Vecna to watch." He did so, and was pleasantly surprised to find a single sheet of paper underneath the shroud on the altar: the Second Truth (from the Book of Five Truths). He read the page in front of the shroud, and the words faded away and disappeared, leaving the document blank. I gave him the Second Truth boon, and told him of what was on the paper: before the existence of the multiverse, there was no such thing as memory. Memory and history belonged to the multiverse, and those who truly understand it can seek to undo it. The Warpriest did not want Vecna to come into any knowledge on this subject, and was glad he got it. When the symbol of the hand and eye on the shroud witnessed this, the hand squeezed shut, splattering the image of the eye on the shroud. The Warpriest then burned the shroud, you know, just in case. I also reminded him that many sessions ago I asked everyone to name a major quest. The Scout's was to find mind flayers (done, and XP already given), and the Knight's was to return the dwarven prince's body (done, and XP already given). The Warpriest had said he wanted to find the Second Truth before Vecna got it, so I awarded XP.
The PCs decided to get the hell out of there before their "ally" priestess betrayed them, not even waiting for a short rest (so no encounter heals for the Warpriest). They decided to make their way to the stables. Getting out was a 10/3 skill challenge, and the first Dungeoneering roll (to navigate a drow outpost) was a natural 20, getting them two successes (a natural 20 is always two successes in my skill challenges if the check would normally succeed). I also gave automatic successes when they needed to enter the stable and when they needed to open a gate (since they'd looted the keys and put them to use).
At the stables, they found many pissed off spiders (thankfully stuck behind wooden boards), and two scared warhorses. The Warpriest calmed them with Nature and the Knight and Sorceress took them. The Scout asked the friendly spider if he could ride it, and it indicated that he would fall off. The Scout got some of the spider gear in the room and asked for permission before equipping it, and then he rode it out alongside the other PCs (who were now all mounted; I gave out the mount stats to the PCs).
A few more successful checks (and awesome rolls) and they had one check left, and had hit the solid wall that led back to the dwarves. An Athletics to break it from the Knight (aided by a Power Strike) ended the skill challenge, getting them out of there. They rode down at a quick pace, and after a while, the wilden Scout barely stopped them before they hit a bunch of webs that blocked their entire path. They quickly determined it was made by one spider (freaking the Warpriest's player out, who was already iffy on the Scout's new mount), and then a large-sized spider made it's way out to confront them.
A bunch of tiny spiders fell off of mama's hide (forming a spider swarm), and four medium-sized spiders also ran up to attack. This combat was tougher, mostly because of lots of ongoing poison damage. The spider was a level 15 elite lurker, so I planned on having it retreat into and out of the webs (with reach 2) to really hurt them. This didn't work due to party tactics, but I'll get to that. The spider swarm was suitably annoying, climbing the walls to avoid the front line and attacking the Sorceress and Warpriest in the back. The four spiders died pretty quickly (minions), and mama was all set to be annoying, but the Sorceress used a daily to place three ice blocks behind her, keeping her from retreating (and dealing 5 cold damage per round, upped to 10 from another daily aura she activated). Still, even with them hamstringing the fighting style of the mama spider, she dished out some major damage (10 ongoing acid and poison damage save ends, and bad save rolls) and had high defenses. They PCs eventually beat her (after a couple dropped), and the Warpriest had had to use his daily heals (no encounter heals since they still hadn't had a short rest. The skill challenge had gotten the Sorceress another milestone, so she had gone into the fight with no penalties, too.
At any rate, they ran from there (after burning the webs down). They made it back to the dwarven city with no issues, and finally relaxed. The king praised them and "gave" them their six items (four enchantments for their castle weren't given here, but the barrel of dwarven ale that refreshed every day and the portrait of holding both were). He had also promised that he'd get an item for one of them that he knew they wanted, and gave a Skeleton Key to the dwarven Knight (use it on a gate, chest, lock, etc. and make a Thievery to open it at +20; nobody in the party has Thievery, so hopefully this comes in handy).[/sblock]
We called session there, as it was a very full four hours (three combats, two skill challenges, and RP). They hit just enough XP to hit level 10 (the combats / skill challenges and the major quest finally being completed). It was a lot of fun, and I have plans for level 10. That's the road that'll lead them to Paragon. Time to put them on it.
