Rhenny
Adventurer
~~Travensburg Campaign – Part 17 – 4/6/14
“Hunt for Spiro Vangar Continues”
We played for 3 ½ hours…4 players (+1 DM NPC) –– 5th level PCs – Continuing our Campaign
T’rissril Eilsndar the Drow Bard
Fid (the Dwarven Fighter who transformed into a Warforge Fighter)
Fawnsworth the Gnome Illusionist ex-jester
Nalcon the Noble Cleric of Pelor
Darhgel the Tiefling Evoker
The party recovered from their fight with a barbed devil, 2 wights and a wraith, and stood at the nexus of three underground tunnels. The wights and wraith came at the group from the west, and it seemed as if the barbed devil had come from the north. At that point, Nalcon spoke, “I think we need to rest. If we fear that we shall encounter a vampire, I’ll need Pelor’s assistance to turn the evil creature when it is in mist form or we shall not be able to kill it.”
For once, the group listened to Nalcon and as they rested, they recharged slightly, and Fawnsworth studied his spell book to recover a fireball spell. (Fid was out of HD of healing and the others were down to only a few HD left).
After their rest, Fawnsworth pulled out a scroll of stoneskin they had found earlier. He decided to cast that spell upon Fid to fortify the warforge for 1 hour. Then, Fawnsworth told the others to look for a rat or mouse or other small animal. As luck would have it, Fawnsworth saw a rat squeeze from a crack in the wall. The Gnome held it some cheese and asked it to scout the eastern tunnel for them. The rat agreed and set off into the darkness. The group waited patiently for a little while, but the rat never returned.
Soon after, Triss scouted ahead to the south and saw a cave with 3 coffins and an urn of blood. Then she moved back to the group and scouted the east tunnel. As she got closer to the cave at the end of that tunnel, she could see more coffins and another urn of blood. Unbeknownst to her, the party was stealthfully attacked by a wight and a wraith that had been disturbed by her. The monsters followed her back to the group and nobody was aware (bad perception rolls). Surprised, Fid was attacked by the wight, and it dug into him draining him of life energy. The wraith floated over to Nalcon and grasped for the cleric, but missed. Once the others reacted, the battle was joined. Fawnsworth created a phantasmal image of a warrior of force that attacked the wraith. Nalcon engulfed the wraith in radiant flames, and hearing the clamor, Triss snuck back and fired a crossbow bolt that ripped through some of the spectral creature’s form. To finish the wraith, Darghel fired 3 magic missiles at its incorporal form, putting it to rest.
Meanwhile, Fid was locked in combat with the wight, and he had a tough time hitting it with his first few attacks. The wight hit Fid another time and drained the Dwarven Warforge a bit more. Just as Fid used his silvered longsword to hack the wight down, Fawnworth saw a ghastly sight. Only 15’ from him to the east, he now saw the undead form of the rat he had sent ahead, followed closely by another wight. This scared the Gnome half to death, and with a pang of conscience, he backed away after errantly firing a ray of frost at the wight. Fid shifted over toward the rat wight, and brought his blade down upon it, cleaving it in half. Then the party tackled the other wight, which was able to hit Fid once again, draining more of his life force. (Lucky for the stoneskin…which saved Fid a lot of life drain and damage over the 3 hits he sustained). In a short while, the group put down the wight.
Eventually, the group searched the west cave and found 6 wooden coffins and an urn of blood. Fid walked over to each coffin and kicked the lids off one by one. The first 4 had only skeletal remains with nothing of value. When Fid kicked off the lid to the 5th coffin, a vampire spawn lurched forth and tried to claw him. Fid was ready for it so he slashed at it with his sword, cutting it once. Then the others joined the fight and before long, Darghel’s and Fawnsworth’s rays of frost, Triss’ rapier and Nalcon’s radiant flames incapacitated the creature long enough for Nalcon to drive a stake into its heart.
In the coffin, the group found 75 gp and a scroll. Fid tossed the scroll to Fawnsworth, who opened it up. He could not read it so he passed it to Nalcon. Nalcon found that this scroll bound divine magic that could help one of his party members regain lost energy from undead energy drain. Fid had sustained a number of smaller wounds from the wight, while Triss had suffered one horrible wound from a wraith (last session), so as the group decided who would be healed, and Triss turned on her charm, Nalcon decided it best to heal Triss.
Before leaving the cave, Fid tipped over the urn with blood in it and the red liquid spilled and soaked into the earth. The group went on to the south cave and found the 3 coffins with another urn. They found that all 3 coffins were empty, so they tipped the blood urn over and continued to the east passage and cave beyond.
Triss, scouting ahead saw that this was a larger cave with many coffins. She also saw directly ahead, a 20’ tall black stone obelisk that nearly touched the ceiling of this domed cave. Since she was moving quietly, she was able to surprise a wight that was hiding in the room. She drew a magic dagger she found earlier and attacked the creature. The dagger sliced into the undead monster, and with a shout, the other party members came charging in. As the group fought the wight, another wraith appeared from behind the obelisk and attacked Nalcon. This time the wraith penetrated Nalcon’s armor and drained him of some life. The group fought these two monsters, but shortly after they engaged, a vampire spawn burst from one of the coffins. This spawn ran to Darghel and racked him badly. Both claws hit and it was about to sink its fangs into Darghel’s neck when the Tiefling twisted to the side and squirmed away just in time. (That was very lucky…Darghel’s AC was only 11 and the vampire’s bite is devastating). Darghel and Fawnsworth used their rays of frost to freeze the vampire spawn, and Fid drove a stake through the ice into the beast’s heart to kill it permanently.
When the party finally defeated these horrible foes, they checked the coffins and found a pile of 75 gp and a healing potion. Up close, the group could see that the stone obelisk had symbols on it. Nalcon recognized them immediately. They were icons of Bhal, a god of death. Upon closer inspection, Fid saw that there were 6” x 6” x 6” openings going up the entire height of the obelisk, each about 1 ½” apart alternating left, right, left, right, left, right, etc. Fid also noticed that the bottom edges of the openings were warn away, smooth, rounded, not squared like the top edges. After considering what these were, Fawnsworth decided that they seemed to form a ladder of sorts that could be used to climb the obelisk. Triss was the first to climb. She made it to the top, and once she was there, she saw that to the east, over a 5’ gap, was a stone camouflaged curtain that hid a 15’ tunnel opening. She called down to the rest of the group, and then jumped over the gap into the tunnel. She successfully landed on the other side, yet she could not stop herself before she landed on a camouflaged pit. She tumbled down 10’ and landed on some spikes taking a bit of damage in the process. Fid was the next to make it up. He also fell into the pit. The rest of the party made it up and safely stopped before falling into the pit. Fawnsworth, fearing that even the climb and the jump could spell certain danger for him, fished out a potion of flying that he had found before and he flew up and over the pit with ease.
Moving further into the tunnel, the group found an area of rubble and debris. Fid saw that there were a number of glass and metal objects glinting in the rubble. Triss crept forward carefully, navigating the danger, and so did Fid. Nalcon and Darghel both slipped and injured themselves, while Fawnsworth flew over the obstacle.
After walking a bit further, the group heard chanting from a larger cave ahead. Darghel could tell that it was a voice chanting in infernal tongue, calling forth undead. As the party moved closer, they saw a larger cave with 8 stone sarcophagi. Behind an urn of blood, stood a more fearsome looking vampire, Spiro Vangar. Vangar finished his incantation and the ground errupted as 4 ogre skeletons began rising from the dirt and stone. Quickly, Fawnsworth threw a fireball directly on top of Vangar. It exploded damaging him, boiling the blood in the urn and it also damaged one of the ogre skeletons. Two more skeletons moved closer to the party and eventually attacked Fid, but missed. Then Fid and the others engaged the skeletons as Nalcon threw another fireball at Spiro Vangar. This one didn’t hit the vampire as successfully, but it did reduce the injured ogre skeleton to ash. With that, Vangar reached into his cloak and pulled out a potion. After he drank it, he disappeared.
The party tussled with the remaining ogre skeletons. Fid switching to warhammer, pulverized a few, and right after the last one was put down, Vangar appeared right behind Darghul. The vampire struck with both claws and a bite, dropping Darghul. Since Nalcon was close, he utttered a prayer to Pelor and protected Darghul from a hideous transformation (I had actually forgotten that a PC reduced to 0 hp would rise as a vampire…oops). Fawnsworth also used a turn to attempt to bind Darghul’s wounds. Then the others struck at Vangar as Fid moved close. Fid took out his silvered longsword and hacked at the leader of the Skulls, Spiro Vangar. He hit once and then redoubled his effort (action surge), hitting solidly 2 more times (double crit). The last blow caused the vampire to assume gaseous form, and since Nalcon had spoken with the Priest in Freehold prior to their assault, he knew that he needed to use the power of Pelor to turn the vile creature. With his holy symbol held confidently before him, Nalcon uttered his prayers, turning the undead, reducing it to a pile of ashes.
After healing Darghul with one last healing spell, the group inspected the room. Nalcon and Fid, tipped the blood urn over, while Triss went to the back sarcophagus that had a large iron chest atop it. She inspected the chest finding it both locked and trapped. Then, she pulled out her thieves’ tools and tried to disable the mechanism (she rolled a natural “1”). An arc of lightening surged through Triss, hit Nalcon and Fid too. Although it hurt them all, they were able to stand the pain. Triss, said, “I disabled the trap,” and then she used her tools to open the lock in one try. Inside, the group found a fortune in platinum pieces and gold (897 pp and 982 gp). Triss also found a jar of ointment, which she smeared on her electrical burn. This made her feel much better. In fact, she found that this salve would heal 4d8+6, but it only had 2 more uses. Once the group put the coins into a bag of holding they had, they were able to open the sarcophagus below. This one was lined with velvet and inside the group found a pair of slippers and a pearl. Fawnsworth spent 10 minutes to identify the items. The slippers were slippers of spider climbing and the pearl was a strange item indeed. It was a gem that muttered what seemed to random nonsensical words and phrases to whomever held it. But, it also gave that person, when attuned, the ability to recall 2 levels of spells per day. Fawnsworth was not sure if the muttering would drive him mad, but he did like the new power it gave him.
The group was able to leave the Crypt of the Hidden Guild, and make their way back to the Duke’s palace. The bard had a great adventure to write songs about. They all had a lot to tell the Duke. They had acquired riches, and they had more power (Level 6!!!) so it was time for a well deserved rest.
Comments
Well, I guess I’m a softy DM. I don’t like how being killed by a wight or vampire instantly turns that PC into an undead creature. For one, I forgot about the vampire being able to do it, but I really think it should not be an instantaneous transformation and there should be a way to stop it from happening…so I invoked Pelor’s help.
Other than that, I really like how this set of sessions went. I was able to drain the party of hit points and spells and other abilities, and get them to a very vulnerable feeling in the end.
It was very satisfying for me and the players to use potions and scrolls that they had found. Without the stoneskin, Fid would have been in a lot more trouble. I also like how Fawnsworth used the flying potion to overcome fear of climbing and falling, but also as a roleplaying choice. The scroll of restoration really brought Triss back into the game as well since she had previously been drained to 19 hp max by a wraith. Also, it was essential that Fid had a silver weapon and Triss had a magic dagger or the wights would have been too much for them too.
Vampires --- I made up the spawns. They couldn’t dominate and they didn’t turn gaseous when reduced to 0 hp. When I ran Spiro Vangar (he had 88 hp ), it was tough to decide what to do. After getting hit hard by the two fireballs, he abandoned his attempt to dominate so that he could just disappear. He was waiting to see how well his skeletons would do while he crept into position to deliver a lethal attack against the nearest party member (that was Darghel). I also invented the need to stake the hearts of the vampire spawn. If the group didn’t turn Vangar’s gaseous form, the gas would have flown into a nearby sarcophagus and he would have begun regenerating at the rate of 10 hp per round (because he wore a magical amulet that gave his undead form enhanced regeneration), and this would have happened infinitely had it not been for the turning (or if the gas form was exposed to direct sunlight…not likely in this situation).
“Hunt for Spiro Vangar Continues”
We played for 3 ½ hours…4 players (+1 DM NPC) –– 5th level PCs – Continuing our Campaign
T’rissril Eilsndar the Drow Bard
Fid (the Dwarven Fighter who transformed into a Warforge Fighter)
Fawnsworth the Gnome Illusionist ex-jester
Nalcon the Noble Cleric of Pelor
Darhgel the Tiefling Evoker
The party recovered from their fight with a barbed devil, 2 wights and a wraith, and stood at the nexus of three underground tunnels. The wights and wraith came at the group from the west, and it seemed as if the barbed devil had come from the north. At that point, Nalcon spoke, “I think we need to rest. If we fear that we shall encounter a vampire, I’ll need Pelor’s assistance to turn the evil creature when it is in mist form or we shall not be able to kill it.”
For once, the group listened to Nalcon and as they rested, they recharged slightly, and Fawnsworth studied his spell book to recover a fireball spell. (Fid was out of HD of healing and the others were down to only a few HD left).
After their rest, Fawnsworth pulled out a scroll of stoneskin they had found earlier. He decided to cast that spell upon Fid to fortify the warforge for 1 hour. Then, Fawnsworth told the others to look for a rat or mouse or other small animal. As luck would have it, Fawnsworth saw a rat squeeze from a crack in the wall. The Gnome held it some cheese and asked it to scout the eastern tunnel for them. The rat agreed and set off into the darkness. The group waited patiently for a little while, but the rat never returned.
Soon after, Triss scouted ahead to the south and saw a cave with 3 coffins and an urn of blood. Then she moved back to the group and scouted the east tunnel. As she got closer to the cave at the end of that tunnel, she could see more coffins and another urn of blood. Unbeknownst to her, the party was stealthfully attacked by a wight and a wraith that had been disturbed by her. The monsters followed her back to the group and nobody was aware (bad perception rolls). Surprised, Fid was attacked by the wight, and it dug into him draining him of life energy. The wraith floated over to Nalcon and grasped for the cleric, but missed. Once the others reacted, the battle was joined. Fawnsworth created a phantasmal image of a warrior of force that attacked the wraith. Nalcon engulfed the wraith in radiant flames, and hearing the clamor, Triss snuck back and fired a crossbow bolt that ripped through some of the spectral creature’s form. To finish the wraith, Darghel fired 3 magic missiles at its incorporal form, putting it to rest.
Meanwhile, Fid was locked in combat with the wight, and he had a tough time hitting it with his first few attacks. The wight hit Fid another time and drained the Dwarven Warforge a bit more. Just as Fid used his silvered longsword to hack the wight down, Fawnworth saw a ghastly sight. Only 15’ from him to the east, he now saw the undead form of the rat he had sent ahead, followed closely by another wight. This scared the Gnome half to death, and with a pang of conscience, he backed away after errantly firing a ray of frost at the wight. Fid shifted over toward the rat wight, and brought his blade down upon it, cleaving it in half. Then the party tackled the other wight, which was able to hit Fid once again, draining more of his life force. (Lucky for the stoneskin…which saved Fid a lot of life drain and damage over the 3 hits he sustained). In a short while, the group put down the wight.
Eventually, the group searched the west cave and found 6 wooden coffins and an urn of blood. Fid walked over to each coffin and kicked the lids off one by one. The first 4 had only skeletal remains with nothing of value. When Fid kicked off the lid to the 5th coffin, a vampire spawn lurched forth and tried to claw him. Fid was ready for it so he slashed at it with his sword, cutting it once. Then the others joined the fight and before long, Darghel’s and Fawnsworth’s rays of frost, Triss’ rapier and Nalcon’s radiant flames incapacitated the creature long enough for Nalcon to drive a stake into its heart.
In the coffin, the group found 75 gp and a scroll. Fid tossed the scroll to Fawnsworth, who opened it up. He could not read it so he passed it to Nalcon. Nalcon found that this scroll bound divine magic that could help one of his party members regain lost energy from undead energy drain. Fid had sustained a number of smaller wounds from the wight, while Triss had suffered one horrible wound from a wraith (last session), so as the group decided who would be healed, and Triss turned on her charm, Nalcon decided it best to heal Triss.
Before leaving the cave, Fid tipped over the urn with blood in it and the red liquid spilled and soaked into the earth. The group went on to the south cave and found the 3 coffins with another urn. They found that all 3 coffins were empty, so they tipped the blood urn over and continued to the east passage and cave beyond.
Triss, scouting ahead saw that this was a larger cave with many coffins. She also saw directly ahead, a 20’ tall black stone obelisk that nearly touched the ceiling of this domed cave. Since she was moving quietly, she was able to surprise a wight that was hiding in the room. She drew a magic dagger she found earlier and attacked the creature. The dagger sliced into the undead monster, and with a shout, the other party members came charging in. As the group fought the wight, another wraith appeared from behind the obelisk and attacked Nalcon. This time the wraith penetrated Nalcon’s armor and drained him of some life. The group fought these two monsters, but shortly after they engaged, a vampire spawn burst from one of the coffins. This spawn ran to Darghel and racked him badly. Both claws hit and it was about to sink its fangs into Darghel’s neck when the Tiefling twisted to the side and squirmed away just in time. (That was very lucky…Darghel’s AC was only 11 and the vampire’s bite is devastating). Darghel and Fawnsworth used their rays of frost to freeze the vampire spawn, and Fid drove a stake through the ice into the beast’s heart to kill it permanently.
When the party finally defeated these horrible foes, they checked the coffins and found a pile of 75 gp and a healing potion. Up close, the group could see that the stone obelisk had symbols on it. Nalcon recognized them immediately. They were icons of Bhal, a god of death. Upon closer inspection, Fid saw that there were 6” x 6” x 6” openings going up the entire height of the obelisk, each about 1 ½” apart alternating left, right, left, right, left, right, etc. Fid also noticed that the bottom edges of the openings were warn away, smooth, rounded, not squared like the top edges. After considering what these were, Fawnsworth decided that they seemed to form a ladder of sorts that could be used to climb the obelisk. Triss was the first to climb. She made it to the top, and once she was there, she saw that to the east, over a 5’ gap, was a stone camouflaged curtain that hid a 15’ tunnel opening. She called down to the rest of the group, and then jumped over the gap into the tunnel. She successfully landed on the other side, yet she could not stop herself before she landed on a camouflaged pit. She tumbled down 10’ and landed on some spikes taking a bit of damage in the process. Fid was the next to make it up. He also fell into the pit. The rest of the party made it up and safely stopped before falling into the pit. Fawnsworth, fearing that even the climb and the jump could spell certain danger for him, fished out a potion of flying that he had found before and he flew up and over the pit with ease.
Moving further into the tunnel, the group found an area of rubble and debris. Fid saw that there were a number of glass and metal objects glinting in the rubble. Triss crept forward carefully, navigating the danger, and so did Fid. Nalcon and Darghel both slipped and injured themselves, while Fawnsworth flew over the obstacle.
After walking a bit further, the group heard chanting from a larger cave ahead. Darghel could tell that it was a voice chanting in infernal tongue, calling forth undead. As the party moved closer, they saw a larger cave with 8 stone sarcophagi. Behind an urn of blood, stood a more fearsome looking vampire, Spiro Vangar. Vangar finished his incantation and the ground errupted as 4 ogre skeletons began rising from the dirt and stone. Quickly, Fawnsworth threw a fireball directly on top of Vangar. It exploded damaging him, boiling the blood in the urn and it also damaged one of the ogre skeletons. Two more skeletons moved closer to the party and eventually attacked Fid, but missed. Then Fid and the others engaged the skeletons as Nalcon threw another fireball at Spiro Vangar. This one didn’t hit the vampire as successfully, but it did reduce the injured ogre skeleton to ash. With that, Vangar reached into his cloak and pulled out a potion. After he drank it, he disappeared.
The party tussled with the remaining ogre skeletons. Fid switching to warhammer, pulverized a few, and right after the last one was put down, Vangar appeared right behind Darghul. The vampire struck with both claws and a bite, dropping Darghul. Since Nalcon was close, he utttered a prayer to Pelor and protected Darghul from a hideous transformation (I had actually forgotten that a PC reduced to 0 hp would rise as a vampire…oops). Fawnsworth also used a turn to attempt to bind Darghul’s wounds. Then the others struck at Vangar as Fid moved close. Fid took out his silvered longsword and hacked at the leader of the Skulls, Spiro Vangar. He hit once and then redoubled his effort (action surge), hitting solidly 2 more times (double crit). The last blow caused the vampire to assume gaseous form, and since Nalcon had spoken with the Priest in Freehold prior to their assault, he knew that he needed to use the power of Pelor to turn the vile creature. With his holy symbol held confidently before him, Nalcon uttered his prayers, turning the undead, reducing it to a pile of ashes.
After healing Darghul with one last healing spell, the group inspected the room. Nalcon and Fid, tipped the blood urn over, while Triss went to the back sarcophagus that had a large iron chest atop it. She inspected the chest finding it both locked and trapped. Then, she pulled out her thieves’ tools and tried to disable the mechanism (she rolled a natural “1”). An arc of lightening surged through Triss, hit Nalcon and Fid too. Although it hurt them all, they were able to stand the pain. Triss, said, “I disabled the trap,” and then she used her tools to open the lock in one try. Inside, the group found a fortune in platinum pieces and gold (897 pp and 982 gp). Triss also found a jar of ointment, which she smeared on her electrical burn. This made her feel much better. In fact, she found that this salve would heal 4d8+6, but it only had 2 more uses. Once the group put the coins into a bag of holding they had, they were able to open the sarcophagus below. This one was lined with velvet and inside the group found a pair of slippers and a pearl. Fawnsworth spent 10 minutes to identify the items. The slippers were slippers of spider climbing and the pearl was a strange item indeed. It was a gem that muttered what seemed to random nonsensical words and phrases to whomever held it. But, it also gave that person, when attuned, the ability to recall 2 levels of spells per day. Fawnsworth was not sure if the muttering would drive him mad, but he did like the new power it gave him.
The group was able to leave the Crypt of the Hidden Guild, and make their way back to the Duke’s palace. The bard had a great adventure to write songs about. They all had a lot to tell the Duke. They had acquired riches, and they had more power (Level 6!!!) so it was time for a well deserved rest.
Comments
Well, I guess I’m a softy DM. I don’t like how being killed by a wight or vampire instantly turns that PC into an undead creature. For one, I forgot about the vampire being able to do it, but I really think it should not be an instantaneous transformation and there should be a way to stop it from happening…so I invoked Pelor’s help.
Other than that, I really like how this set of sessions went. I was able to drain the party of hit points and spells and other abilities, and get them to a very vulnerable feeling in the end.
It was very satisfying for me and the players to use potions and scrolls that they had found. Without the stoneskin, Fid would have been in a lot more trouble. I also like how Fawnsworth used the flying potion to overcome fear of climbing and falling, but also as a roleplaying choice. The scroll of restoration really brought Triss back into the game as well since she had previously been drained to 19 hp max by a wraith. Also, it was essential that Fid had a silver weapon and Triss had a magic dagger or the wights would have been too much for them too.
Vampires --- I made up the spawns. They couldn’t dominate and they didn’t turn gaseous when reduced to 0 hp. When I ran Spiro Vangar (he had 88 hp ), it was tough to decide what to do. After getting hit hard by the two fireballs, he abandoned his attempt to dominate so that he could just disappear. He was waiting to see how well his skeletons would do while he crept into position to deliver a lethal attack against the nearest party member (that was Darghel). I also invented the need to stake the hearts of the vampire spawn. If the group didn’t turn Vangar’s gaseous form, the gas would have flown into a nearby sarcophagus and he would have begun regenerating at the rate of 10 hp per round (because he wore a magical amulet that gave his undead form enhanced regeneration), and this would have happened infinitely had it not been for the turning (or if the gas form was exposed to direct sunlight…not likely in this situation).
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