Eberron! We open in Korth, capital of Karrnath. The group enters an apothecary, have a chat with the young man at the counter, and then go to the back room to meet Yulia’s contact, the coal-black Tabaxi spy, Midnight. Midnight informs them of some stuff, and suggest the meet their benefactor, and Yulia’s mysterious patron, both of whom will be at the manor of Vidanya’s family.
I had up to 3 encounters ready, but they rocked the group stealth to move unnoticed through the city.
They make it to the manor, and as the old butler is greeting them, assassins strike!
With Vidanya’s whole family there, and 4 different fighting NPCs along for the ride, I narrated part of the fight to introduce the idea of there being 3 separate fronts to the battle.
A flank by Emerald Claw knights and assassins from the eastern streets is blocked by the Rogachovyas and a family friend.
On the rooftops, Khalid the Shadar-Kai monk, Inigo the halfling sniper ranger, Midnight, and Dame Uldrana the former Emerald Claw cultist who now follows Vidanya were on the rooftops keeping snipers and flanking manuevers under control.
the party and Yulia are at the steps of the manor.
A mysterious stranger is impossibly dark black armor with silver highlights and a circlet engraved into his skull helm wielding a sword made of darkness flies out of a window in the manor, apparently one of the family’s dinner guests, to meet an equally enigmatic figure who seems to be leading the assault. They have a very anime sword fight on a the very steep rooftop of a nearby cathedral.
The commander of the forces is in dark red armor with a helmet that features draconic back-swept horns, as are his lieutenants.
About half the assassins seem to hear aberrant Dragonmarks, while the others seem to be Emerald Claw zealots and mercenaries.
As the tide turns in favor of the team, the lieutenant leading the frontal assault uses an action to return 2 dead assassins to the fray as burning undead, who burn with a dark red flame. The lieutenant is engaged with Vidanya, and suddenly her smites are doing more damage, indicating he become undead himself by using that ability.
The fight continues, cools stuff happens. The burning undead seem to be animated by the dark red flame.
As the lieutenant gets more hurt, he begins to burn with the same dark flame and become more like a wraith. The commander has also become a dark flame wraith by this point, and flees saying, “The Dark Flame will return, and the Onyx Skull will die!”
When the fight is over, Vidanya’s family (who are Vryloka, which I’ve built in a way where they can turn into either wolves or mist) go on a hunt in their special forms, hunting down the fleeing assassins.
We fade to black and return in the manor’s parlor, a couple hours later. The mysterious ally removes his helm to reveal that he is King Kaius of Karrnath, and also revealing that he is a vampire (his visage hadn’t quite returned to normal). Finally, he approaches Yulia, kisses her forehead, and tells her, “Well done!”
We leave the session with Vidanya yelling “what the naughty word have you been doing!?” at her little sister.