For More Than Glory

[Memnus]

(( Hey, look, a tavern thread! ))

While the others scry or otherwise check for answers about Valdir, Fleck spends the next day working out the kinks in Stone To Flesh, and separating Tatania's shards from his stuff. He also runs a few tests on various bits of reconstituted vampire: holding them in the sun, slicing them up with silver, sauteeing them with garlic, and dunking them in water... just to see what happens. He also cooks up a few more bottles of silversheen for Fahlias.

(( Treasure: 1085 gp, +2 Spiked full plate 4700, +3 Heavy flail 18315, 2x Beads of force 3000 each, Ring of the Ram 8600, 2x Scroll: Word of Recall 1650 each, Ring of the Master ( DC 25 Will save vs. Calm Emotions, 20 vs. Suggestion, 15 versus Dominate) ... any claims? Any guesses as to what happens when ou read someone else's Word of Recall? ))

 

[Dragonwriter]

Fahlias spends time hunting in the woods with his wolf, and trying to help out with Nocturne (Prepare and Cast "Speak with Animals"), and as Fahlias is not skilled in the mercantile arts, he leaves that to whoever wants to take it on.
He also gratefully accepts the bottles of silvershen from Fleck (How many?)

(( Well, the +2 Spiked Full Plate was damaged, so it is actually 2700. I don't care about any of the stuff that accursed orc had, so sell it all I say. As to that Word of Recall, I think it would warp you to whatever sanctuary the creator of the scroll made. ))

 

[firehorse]

After several scientific, at times disgusting and often smelly, tests, Fleck discovers most of the ins and outs of the effects of various elements on vampire flesh.

Fahlias, despite his best efforts and a couple of speak with animals spells is unable to get Nocturne to snap out of his funk. After about two days, Nocturne takes flight to hunt mice only to never return...

Zerash, upon entering one of his nightly meditations with his diety, is visited by an avatar and informed that although Valdir's soul visited the gates to the Death Dragon's realm, it did not enter. In fact, it went back to the plane from whence it came, somewhat to Naeron's chagrin... No other attempts to locate Valdir with scrying result in anything other than the darkness and silence of a tomb.

((In case you didn't catch it in game...1800 xp each))

 

[firehorse]

Several days pass with very little news.

After three weeks, news is heard of an outlying small town on the Mittendien border being attacked and razed to the ground. Although tired and barely recouperated from the Giant War, several squads of regular Mittendien army are sent to investigate and repel the invaders if possible.

Two days after news of the attack on the small town an alarm sounds in the middle of the night in the capital. Upon reaching the manor, the party and the gathering crowd are halted by several guards. Before too long, Valdorane approaches and tells the guards to let the party by. Once inside, they are led to the High Priest's chamber. The Kaiser is there along with his elite guards. Inside the room, moonlight shining through an open window shows the bed, the bloody sheets accentuated by several arrows sticking out of the mattress below. Upon close examination, the arrows have a very familiar fletching, although all black in color now. The High Priest, assumed murdered, is nowhere to be found.

The Kaiser, ashen faced, pulls one of the arrows out of the mattress and turns to the party, "What have you to say about this?!"

 

[Memnus]

((Damn... I knew I should have gotten to this earlier...))

After a few days of experiments, Fleck invites the Kaiser and the High Priest to Tatiana's demise. Just outside the city walls, he has arranged her shards in a neat pile in the blazing sun. He tosses one of the beads of force onto the pile, encasing it solidly in pure force. "Other than that, what's left of her is dust already. And..." He casts the spell to return the stone to its original state. The gray stone turns pink and oozy for just a few seconds, suddenly steaming and evaporating into a thick mist. The mist lurches for the nearest shade, only to be caught up short in an airtight prison. The angry cloud roils back upon itself, searching in vain for cover, but finding none. After almost twenty seconds, the mist coalesces to ash, a pitiful dusty mound atop several scraps of clothing.

(( The question then is - would Zerash have known what Valdir's absence implied? If so, no way in hell would we have stopped looking for him, let alone for a few weeks... ))

 

[firehorse]

((I assumed you wouldn't quit looking for him. You just couldn't find any traces of him other than occasional flashes of complete darkness and silence.))

 

[Dragonwriter]

Fahlias attempts to determine whee the arrows came from (the window or elsewhere).
Afterwards, he searches for signs of where the High Priest could have gone (Would Track work, or has the room been to disturbed?)

 

[firehorse]

By their angle, the arrows seem to have come from inside the room. Somehow, the priest must have been extricated from the bloody pincushion while the arrows remained. Tracks, other than what are likely the priest's and those others who have tramped about the room since the discovery, are non-existent. Oddly, upon examining the walls, bootprints are found about midway up and only in one spot. No tracks leading up to it or away from it are found.

 

[Memnus]

Fleck looks at the arrow the Kaiser holds, and turns pale. "No," he whispers, turning to look at the others in the bed. "No, no no!" He runs to the window and stares off into the night, desperately, then whirls to stare down Zerash. "Why didn't we see this? How did... how didn't..." He sputters and switches unconsciously into Gnomish for a few seconds before regaining himself. His next words come slowly, haltingly, as if he has to pick them extremely carefully. "Is there ... any way to, ah, reverse this? Otherwise... I may need your help in the lab..."

(( Fleck would go on to cook up an anti-vampire cocktail ... Here's a second draft. DMly thoughts? ))

Holy Blood

A foul-smelling, glowing mixture of garlic paste, holy water, and alchemical soup, this potion is the vampire hunter's best friend. When swallowed, the Holy Blood makes the drinker immune to negative energy, energy drain, or death attacks for one hour. Any vampire attempting a blood drain attack on the drinker immediately suffers 5 hp of damage. The vampire is also affected as a living creature would be by poison (DC 20, primary damage 2d6 DEX, secondary damage 1d6 DEX).

Moderate necromancy. CR 11th, death ward, bless water, disrupt undead, Brew Potion, Craft (alchemy) 10 ranks. Price 1500 gp.

(Price is derived as follows: 1400 gp for a theoretical potion of death ward, plus a bit for a powerful but limited poison)

 

[Dragonwriter]

"Great," Fahlias says, "we either have a flier or a wall-walker. Either one isn't good. Say, couldn't Tatiana walk on walls? And didn't she fly? We could be dealing with another vampire."
Fahlias goes to fetch his wolf.