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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flynn" data-source="post: 3998223" data-attributes="member: 1836">Session Notes - 01/16/08Good Morning, All:Yesterday, we wrapped up "The Weeping Tree" adventure, and saved a halfling village from the rampages of a spurned vampire priestess. It was a fun adventure, and the big fight against Mistress Kaerna went longer than I expected for Savage Wordls, but was exciting nonetheless. Before I get into too much more detail, let me give you guys a quick synopsis.The Synopsis:Our brave adventurers, having just dispatched what they assumed was the last batch of young vampires in this underground next, decided to explore the side passage from whence the attackers came. At the end of the passage, they found a small chamber filled with four coffins and two makeshift coffins. One of the older coffins was chained shut, yet the adventurers found holes cut into the bottom. At a loss to explain it, they destroyed the other coffins and preserved the chained one for later.Turning their attention back down the hallway, they followed the increasingly louder maniacal laughter to a small chamber, Yngvar Stonewall travelling ahead of the band as he could see more easily in the darkness with his dwarven sight. As he approached the chamber, Yngvar noted that a halfling vampiress, Mistress Kaerna, was finishing her ritual to poison the well of Amberglen. As the dwarf slipped back towards the party, his departure did not go unnoticed, and so Mistress Kaerna turned her attentions towards the party.Immediately, Mistress Kaerna called on dark forces to conjure a fiendish wall of thorns in the passageway, trapping the Warlord Andrus and Yngvar Stonewall with her. Frantically, the Magus Chrysander attempted to dispel the barrier, as Anzjin the Stave beat against the barrier. Calyt the Shade took a different approach, exercising his newfound magical abilities to burrow through the earth, bypassing the barrier and heading to the small chamber, hoping to surprise Mistress Kaerna. He did, indeed, but the bolt from his crossbow merely scratched her thick hide and did not penetrate to hit her heart.Yngvar and the vampiress fought at the entrance to the small chamber, the dwarf defending his allies from the vampire's onslaught, as Anzjin broke through the barrier and rushed to the aid of Yngvar and Andrus. Mistress Kaerna called once more on infernal powers in an attempt to bind these adventurers within the passage, yet they deftly dodged her entangling trap. Angered, the vampiress turned her attentions back to the somewhat frail Calyt, rushing over to tear at him. Through good fortune, young Calyt did not fall, but was wounded by the vampire's onslaught.Reunited, the party pressed their advantage against Mistress Kaerna, beating her down to a wounded state, before she resigned to transform to mist and attempt to flee. As the Warlord Andrus, Yngvar Stonewall and Magus Chrysander fled down the hallway in pursuit of the misty vampire, torches in hand, the elven priest Anzjin focused his healing magics on the poisoned well, spending most of his magical might to clear it of its poisoned state. Calyt remained by the priest's side, rummaging through Mistress Kaerna's altar as he waited the chance to be healed.Further down the hall, the pursuing party members were able to trap the mist between them, using their torches to corner the vampire. Mistress Kaerna changed back to solid form, making a last ditch effort to assault the Warlord in the hopes of moving beyond him. She failed, due to her wounded condition, and was quickly vanquished by the party. Many a cheer arose from the three beleaguered adventurers.Meanwhile, the elven priest, having cured the waters and healed Calyt moved to join his brothers in arms. Calyt remained behind, curious as to what he might find on the altar among the reagents. Indeed, he found a small onyx skull inscribed with infernal runes. When he picked it up, he thought he heard a whisper behind him, but after assuring himself it was nothing, he tucked the skull away for safe keeping.Soon, the party came back to gather up the wayward Calyt, and under the dwarf's guidance set about collapsing the chambers and tunnels as they worked their way out. They stopped in the coffin chamber to investigate the chained coffin, recovering some treasure from within it before destroying it as well. Within half an hour, they had finished their work and returned to the base of the pit. Weary, they climbed up to the Weeping Tree cemetery, to find that the willow had returned.A deep and somber voice cut through the air as the willow asked what had happened to his mistress. Calyt pointed to Yngvar and announced that it was all his fault, while Andrus stepped up and told the ent, "I killed her." With a rage-filled roar, the corrupted ent moved forward to lay two limbs down upon the party. The Warlord dodged the slow-moving branch, but Calyt, who had been standing near the Warlord at the time, took a branch full on, nearly dying from the brutality of the assault. As the Magus Chrysander assisted Calyt to move away from the ent, the other three took to the willow with torches and weapons in hand, burning and beating the creature until it finally collapsed from the severe wounds it had received.Tired and bedraggled, the band drug themselves back to the valefolk village of Amberglen, to collapse into the only tavern's stable. During the night, Colin, the tavern master, found the party asleep in the stable. Yngvar, who stood watch, gave the man water and a potion of healing for his family. The next day, they broke the news that the well was purified to the rest of the village and there was an impromptu celebration (after the quenching of everyone's thirst, of course). Spending a day with the villagers, the party helped as they could, explained their discoveries to the Priestess Doreen, and enjoyed the peace that they had brought to this northern Valefolk village.While distributing the treasure, Calyt the Shade took the opportunity to ask the Magus Chrysander about the onyx skull. After handling it and hearing a voice within his heart whisper to him, the Magus Chrysander asked to examine the Onyx Skull for a little longer, placing the item quickly away in a belt pouch and securing it with double knots. The seeds of corruption, perhaps, had been planted.Next session, they start back to Synovia...Commentary:The battle with Mistress Kaerna went long. She was a Wild Card Ancient Vampire with some spellcasting ability, so she brought a lot of flavor to the battle. Her magics, tactics and special abilities helped draw out the combat to the point of a D20 scenario, lasting about an hour in duration, and was the longest conflict I've run yet under the Savage Worlds rules system. The complexity of the monster added to the number of things she could do, and it was a rough fight. Only one person took serious wounds (Calyt) and the priest fixed that up easily.The fight with the corrupted ent was also fun. Huge creatures are very easy to hit, and ents have a low fighting die, so it was only the fact that the ent's fighting die exploded against Calyt that he got hit in the first place. Given the extreme strength of the ent, and with some good die rolls, Calyt suffered a particularly vicious blow.The ease of hitting the ent allowed me to demonstrate the incapaciation rules to the party. At one time, due to the use of fire and some good damage rolls on the part of the party, the ent dropped to incapacitation with five wounds above and beyond what was needed to drop it. The ent was already at three wounds, so a soak roll would have had to absorb all five wounds to avoid incapacitation. Rather than try to soak the wounds, I used one of the ent's bennies on reroll the incapacitation Vigor check, and got a raise. That allowed the ent to stay up at only three wounds and just be Shaken. Of course, the party beat it down the next round, but they got the message that sometimes, it's better to say the bennie for the incapacitation roll instead of trying to soak a large number of wounds.The session was fun, the players appeared to have a good time, and they got to face their first magical opponent, as well as a huge monster. I felt the session went well and continued to explore the ramifications of the Savage Worlds rules set.The next session is likely to focus on some good plot development, but I still hope to provide some interesting encounters and scenes that allow us to continue to explore these wonderful new rules. Of course, as always, if you have any suggestions or requests, I'm definitely open to them.With Regards,Flynn</blockquote>

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