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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flynn" data-source="post: 3986297" data-attributes="member: 1836">Good Afternoon, All:Last night, we had another exciting session in our Savage Worlds fantasy campaign. In this session, we began a new adventure, and I explored one of the most complex monsters, stat-wise, within the Savage Worlds system. We were down one player due to Real World isssues, but we plod forward. Needless to say, it was fun...The Synopsis:When last we left our brave adventurers, the Magus Chrysander had gone on alone to visit the High Priestess of the Lady of the Vale, hoping to trade the Blood of Meritus for the healing he so desperately needed. He was well received, being a hero in the recent battle, and the High Priestess heard his pleas.Rather than take the artifact, as it was not of her faith, the High Priestess offered to heal the young Scholar-Mage in exchange for completing a small quest. The villagers of Amberglen, which lay on the northern-most outskirts of the Vale, reported villagers that had gone missing at the last new moon. The Defenders she had sent to investigate the matter died in the Time of Scything that occurred in the early hours of Midsummer Day, and so the High Priestess needed to send others in their place. As their forces were currently stretched thin, the High Priestess requested the services of Magus Chrysander and his friends to investigate this issue, recover the lost villagers if possible, and stop whatever or whoever might be causing the problem.Needless to say, the Magus accepted and was healed. Returning to the others, he explained his quest and the others elected to join him, so off to Amberglen they went. It was a two day walk, the latter spent hiking through the rough hills that bordered the Vale, before they arrived at the Valefolk village.Upon their arrival, the party witnessed the beginnings of a riot, as the local Priestess Doreen tried to prevent starving and dehydrated villagers from drinking from the poisoned waters of the town's well. Wading into the midst of the Valefolk, the party quieted down the situation quickly, and discovered that the well had been poisoned for almost a week now. When the party revealed that they had come at the request of the High Priestess, the Chief Speaker Tuathal took over the discussions.Tuathal informed the party that the village had begun losing villagers a month ago, during the last new moon. Six had vanished, all around the area of the old abandoned Weeping Tree Cemetery, so he had closed it off as a safety precaution. Tuathal alone had visited the cemetery during the day and found a large pit within it, and noted that the sacred willow that protected the area was missing. The land had surely become desecrated and the villagers now knew to stay away from the old burial site.Magus Chrysander asked in his scholarly way why the village had an old cemetery, as the Valefolk now burned their dead in pyres, much like the humans of the Kingdom of Synovia to the south. Tuathal spoke then of a vampire cabal that attacked the region twenty years ago, and would have overcome the village had the Priestess at the time, Kaerna, slain them all. Alas, she died in the undertaking, and the new priestess that had come after her had brought word of funeral pyres as a means of stopping the spread of the undead. Chrysander remembered similar tales back in Synovia, as the vampiric menace spread up the River Ith from the coastal regions into his homeland a century ago.The villagers offers a meager reward, which the party declined. As it was close to evening, the party settled down to camp outside of town, between the village and the cemetery, in order to avoid any further disappearances. It was late into the night when Magus Chrysander, alone on watch, heard the stealthy approach of two shadowy forms. Stepping forward to identify them, the Magus was somewhat surprised when two vampiric Valefolk surged forth from the shadows. Before the two could react, the Magus had cast a spell in an effort to entangle them at the edge of the fire's light, waking most of the party in his efforts. One undead creature was temporarily restrained, while the other avoided the entanglement and rushed to attack the mage.While Calyt the Shade slept, the rest of the band rose to fend off these two foul assailants. Yngvar Stonewall planted himself firmly in the path of the vampires, stopping them in their tracks. Although disturbed by the primal unnatural nature of these creatures, Warlord Andrus moved in, ready to do his part. The elven priest Anzjin the Stave whirled his staff menacingly, striking the vampire to no avail. In the light of their seeming resistance to attack, Chrysander dug deep into his memory and recalled a number of ways by which vampires could be slain. Once the team began to operate together using this knowledge, they were able to quickly turn the tide of the battle and drop the two vampires.Having established the nature of that which was causing the disappearances, the party spent a good part of the next day working with the Priestess Doreen to create holy water. Late that afternoon, they took their blessed libations and made their way down the dark and twisted path to the Weeping Tree Cemetery. The foliage overhead had become twisted and gnarled, effectively blocking out sunlight, and so the party approached cautiously. At the entrance to the cemetery, two vampire guardians attacked the party, but rather quickly met their doom.Once beyond the black iron gate that blocked the entrance into the cemetery, the party found a freshly dug pit in the middle of the burial site. In addition, rough, overturned ground indicated where the sacred willow once stood. The elven priest Anzjin the Stave, looking over the area, noted quickly that the tree walked out on its own, based on the tracks left behind. This caused a collective shudder among the party members, as Chrysander gave the name of "ent" to these mobile guardians.One by one, the party members climbed down the fetid pit into the depths, finding an underground passage leading back towards the village. Ahead, they heard maniacal laughter in the darkness, and so moved forth in search of the source. Two more vampires attacked the band out of a small side passage, which complicated the party's ability to deal with them quickly given the nature of the terrain. However, using the techniques that had since become time-honored with their success, the band dispatched the two remaining villagers. Now, at the intersection, the party must decide whether to travel forward towards the laughter, or examine the side passage.And that's where the session ended...Commentary:First, why doesn't anyone make a halfling vampire mini? Well, I guess, truth be told, it is a rare enough occurence that you actually need one. Still, you rarely find the various undead in an appropriately small enough size to handle the smaller fantasy races. Maybe someday, someone will find a reason to do so. In the meantime, I had to make do with some regular halfling miniatures, but it worked out fine.We had a player missing in last night's session, as he had to work late, but the rest of us decided to move forward without him. I pulled up his character sheet and made the appropriate rolls for him when needed. It was amazing, in that he did sleep through the entire encounter around the campfire, particularly with a critical failure at one point.The adventure I began last night was another D20 conversion. Some of you may even recognize it, despite the fact that I've changed many of the names and some of the background material. It's a simple adventure, but the reason I chose it was to explore how the system handled complex monsters. Vampires in Savage Worlds are rather complex critters. Most monsters in Savage Worlds have only a few special abilities, which makes them easy to run. Young vampires, the kind that the party has encountered so far, have eleven abilities you have to keep track of. I did make a mistake on implementing invulnerability, which still allows you to render the vampire Shaken (I forgot that at first), and I forgot their Level-Headed edge at first, but I did add a weakness to fire as a flavor item.It seems that the players really enjoyed the encounters. The first one pushed the party hard, and threatened to wipe them out, before they learned how to take them down. The second encounter really demonstrated the mastery that knowledge and preparation gives you in a fight. The third encounter showcased the use of terrain, and so had its own unique feel to it. Naturally, the players dropped bennies left and right, and it was only because of the bennies that the characters survived without taking too many wounds.Somewhere in the next few encounters, the party imagines that they will encounter the head vampire. In the Savage Worlds system, an ancient vampire has fifteen powers and higher stats, although many of the special abilities are shared with the young vampires. Should the players encounter such a creature, it could be quite messy for them, especially if the vampire has friends.And then there's the question about the ent up above. Did it leave because of the presence of the vampires? Will it be back? And if so, whose side would it be on? The players don't know yet, but I'm sure they have their ideas. I just hope they enjoy the actual resolution of the adventure next week.All in all, I am still impressed with the basic ease of converting D20 material for use in Savage Worlds. Despite the complexities of the vampire as a monster, the teamwork involved in fighting them reinforces the generally cool feeling that Savage Worlds brings to the table. The players are definitely appreciating that. While the vampire of Savage Worlds and that of D20 have different abilities, they both capture a similar feel in-game. I liked it.Also, the players have decided that every adventure so far is linked together in some form or fashion, and that there is a single sinister force behind it all. In the next few adventures, I think I will explore that possibility for them, and reveal a bit more of the master plan.In the meantime, if there are any suggestions on Savage Worlds elements or subsystems you would like to see played out in one of our sessions, please feel free to mention it here, and I'll see what I can do.Wish Them Luck,Flynn</blockquote>

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