Okay! So I know it's been a while, but we got another 4-hour session in! We've worked out a new schedule, and we'll probably get about 4 hours in once every two weeks. Better than nothing! Anyway, play report below (and it was an interesting one).
(Quick refresher on the four level 8 PCs: a Dwarven Knight/Paladin of Kord, a Mul [surface dwarf] Warpriest of The Raven Queen, a Wilden Scout/Druid, and a Half-Elf Ice Elementalist/Bard [NPC])
[sblock]So, the PCs had gone through a lot. They'd faced a mind flayer and two thralls (and had a short rest), then faced twisted far realms creatures and used their daily healing spells (and had a short rest), and then gone to close the rifts to the Far Realm on a 12/3 skill challenge, but the Warpriest had to use his Medallion of Death Deferred to bring himself back up and then used both encounter heals on himself. So, they had beaten the skill challenge, but it had been tough on them, and now a new challenge appeared as the rifts closed: three twisted copies of the Knight appeared, two copies of the Scout, and one copy of the Elementalist.
We began by starting with the combat. They had no time for a short rest, had a small number of surges left (anywhere from 2 to 4 each), and had no encounter healing. It was a brutal combat, with the twisted versions of the Knight really tearing the PCs up. They managed to drop a copy of the Scout early on, but after that they were mostly on the defensive. The PCs went defensive, desperately trying to bring up any PC that dropped by any method they had: potions, Heal checks, the Elementalist using her Bard's daily heal. The Elementalist was trying to give out Temp HP with her basic attacks, the Knight used a daily to give everyone 14 THP at one point, and the Warpriest gave everyone 5 THP at one point. The Elementalist even used a couple of cold dailies from her theme to help make some difficult terrain and block off one side. They really pulled out everything they had against the copies. The Warpriest's feat to give +5 to death saves to his allies brought two of them back up, and saves some of them from getting death strikes.
It wasn't enough. I crit three times in the fight, and I killed the Warpriest. Without his feat, the PCs started wracking up death strikes. The Elementalist died next, followed by the Scout. The Knight was alone against five opponents, and while two were bloodied, he went down and was beaten to death. Total party kill.[/sblock]
Ouch, right?
[sblock]After this had happened, the players were a little in shock. Before I let any discussion of what to do next kick in, I told the Knight that he was waking up. Another wave of shock took the players at that, but they went with it (none of them wanted it to end here, I could tell). He woke up next to his dead comrades (the copies were nowhere in sight), and he had a near-overwhelming need to consume blood.
See, the Knight PC had been infected with vampirism. Though the Warpriest had plans to heal it after their next extended rest, he'd never had the chance. The Knight rose again as a vampire (I had his stats for him as a Vampire class; he was happy about the regeneration to just above bloodied, but not happy about the loss of defenses and HP). He decided that he had enough control as a newly-risen vampire to collect his fallen comrades and drag them back to the dwarven city (he made a Hard Dungeoneering check to get back, so he made great time). I rolled to see if anything interfered, and something happened. At one point along the way, a thought entered his mind from what he assumed was the Mind Flayer he had worked with: "We have succeeded in stopping reality from reasserting itself." The Knight -er, Vampire kept going without replying, and he heard "I have no need to harvest any more dwarves." The dwarf was happy about that, and I let the PCs know that their major quest, which had been "stop the Mind Flayers" was complete, giving everyone enough XP to level up... Yay, right?
Anyway, the dwarf made it back to the city, where he was stopped by a patrol outside. Still inside his plate armor (The Invulnerable Coat of Arnd hadn't left him), they didn't know he was undead. They asked him if he wanted help bringing his fallen comrades in, but he said he wanted the honor of taking them in himself, and said he needed someone to help raise them. They nodded and let him in, with one leading him to the temple of Moradin in the city. All along the way, dwarves stopped to solemnly watch this adventuring dwarf, newly of Kord Clan, drag his dead companions to the temple. Once reaching the temple, he began to walk up, but he was hit for 10 radiant damage (I rolled) when he tried to enter the sacred ground.
He backed up a step, and all the dwarves tensed, with many drawing weapons. The Vampire explained that he was a vampire now, but that he wanted to see his friends raised, and that the Warpriest, if raised, could reverse the condition (he was mistaken, but he really thought as much). The dwarf that was leading him went inside to speak with the high priest of Moradin. When he returned, he said that the high priest said that no such reversal was possible from the Warpriest's magic. He told the Vampire that he would need to be disarmed, and when the dwarf started to put his weapons on the ground, the soldier approached and asked the Vampire to hand the weapons over (since that was more honorable). He asked if the Vampire wished to be put down. The player decided that he still had enough honor this early on to say that yes, he wanted to get put down. He asked to speak to Gortha, the Kord Clan ambassador. She arrived, and they spoke of the best way to do so. According to Gortha, Kord respected Moradin, so the Vampire could step onto the holy ground and let it take him if he wished. However, Kord preferred his followers die as warriors, so perhaps dying to a weapon of war would be better. The dwarf opted for the latter, and removed his helmet. He laid on the ground, and Gortha took her lightning craghammer to his head, killing him.
Another moment of unsure shifts from the players, and I told them that the Warpriest woke up. He was on some sort of altar, and Gortha was standing over him. The other dead party members were also on nearby altars. The Warpriest spoke with Gortha about raising the others. Apparently Gortha couldn't do it again today, and by tomorrow too much time would pass. The Warpriest could raise one, and the high priest of Moradin could raise one, and had agreed to raise one of the Warpriest's choosing. The Warpriest immediately chose to bring "his brother" back, and moved to the Knight's corpse. He asked the high priest to raise the Scout after some debate, since he had been here longer, and since the Elementalist had previously warned that she might be called away at any moment.
The high priest was ready to raise the Scout, and told the Warpriest that perhaps he could speak with The Raven Queen about putting a stay on the Elementalist's soul passing on. Gortha was a cleric of Kord, and he was a priest of Moradin, so neither had much chance of pulling such a feat off. The Warpriest prayed for it while waiting for his extended rest (necessary for his resurrection spell), and rolled a Moderate Religion check. He knew that The Raven Queen had agreed to his request, but he also knew she was angry about something, and that there was a catch, but he wasn't sure what it was yet. The Scout and Knight were raised (and the Knight was no longer a Vampire), and were moved to private temple housing for now. After staying for another 24 hours in the room, the Warpriest raised the Elementalist as well.
The PCs planned on resting at least three days to recover (to get rid of the resurrection sickness of -1 on attacks, skills, saves, and attribute checks). The catch with the Elementalist, however, was that her -1s were going to stay until she had achieved three milestones. It was The Raven Queen's way of taking out her anger for the Warpriest. The Warpriest spent the next two days alone, feeling guilty about failing his friends and his goddess, and meditating on why she was angry. A Hard Religion check later, and he knew that she was angry that he had died (she'd raised him once before as part of his Background), and angry that he'd let those marked to live (the party members) be killed. She was also upset that the Warpriest had used a gift of Vecna (the Medallion of Death Deferred) and still died; she didn't mind that he used it, but if he was going to use such a tainted item, he'd better live and carry on her will.
After the Warpriest's short self-imposed exile, the PCs met up, and decided to report to the dwarven king in the city. As they prepared to leave, darkflame sprang up from the door, and Votan, the Death Knight, stepped through. He asked the PCs how they were doing (mainly to the Warpriest and the Knight, since the other two had never met him in person, only heard of him). They were a little hostile, asking him what he wanted. Votan asked them if they were interested in knowing how Dawn's training was coming (the gnome monk former PC with the Infernal Prince theme that had been kidnapped by him some time ago). The Warpriest didn't answer, but swore that he would kill the death knight, who laughed it off. Votan lightly warned the PCs that Bazzalth's (the white dragon they killed) siblings had learned of her death, and might be looking into finding the adventurers. With that, he left. The PCs were worried that this meant an attack on their Frost Giant castle back home might happen, and considered heading back.
However, they went to the king of the dwarves, who saw them in his throne room in front of many spectators. The Knight took the lead on speaking (since he was a dwarf), and he told the king that the Mind Flayer problem had been taken care of (while leaving out that the Mind Flayer(s) were still alive). The king was happy, and told them that he would craft their teleportation circle from the city to their castle, as promised.
The king then said that the high priest of Moradin had approached him, and had expressed that there was some discontent in the Warpriest's mind due to an item he carried with him. He offered to trade for it (he offered six items/enchantments, most of which would be enchantments on their castle back home), but the Warpriest decided to keep the Medallion (since it might let him save himself or the party later).
The PCs then let the king know that dragons might attack the dwarven workers, and the king said he wasn't sending many guards with them, so if the PCs wanted them protected, they'd have to go themselves. However, he'd be willing to send formidable guards, IF they wanted to accept another mission from him. After some discussion and negotiation (a Hard Diplomacy check from the Elementalist), they agreed to take the mission for the reward he offered: there was a vampire infestation near the city, apparently, and the dwarves suspected that a nearby drow fortress had something to do with it. Apparently, the drow had acquired The Second Truth (from The Book of Five Truths). Since Lolth wasn't sure how to access it, the drow were looking into deciphering it. In the meantime, Vecna was trying to acquire it, and giving them access to some of his vampire followers in an attempt to bribe them. The king wanted the vampire problem solved one way or another. (The reward was 1,400 gold pieces, a magic item to be specified later, and the six items/enchantments offered earlier; also, during the negotiation, the PCs officially accepted the Elementalist as a full member of the party, with full claim to their Frost Giant castle, too. She was very happy.)
The PCs restocked on some potions and took off to the drow fortress. Their plan was to approach the drow, find a priestess, and make a deal with her. They would help her rise to power and overthrow the high priestess of Lolth in the fortress, and in return she'd break ties with the vampires (who were allies of the current high priestess). Then, the PCs planned to steal The Second Truth and escape before she backstabbed them.
The PCs found an illusory wall (on a Hard passive Perception from the Scout), and passed through it. There were about ten drow on the other side waiting with scimitars / hand crossbows, and one woman in chain with a holy symbol of Lolth. The Elementalist immediately spoke out, saying that they weren't here to fight, and asked to peaceably speak. The cleric of Lolth agreed, saying that maybe that had something interesting to say before being killed. With that, I called session, promising my players a social skill challenge as soon as we picked up again.[/sblock]
Obviously, we ended session there, but it felt good to be back again, and I'm glad the campaign is going strong again, and didn't die on a cliffhanger. Looking forward to playing again in a couple weeks!
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