Troubleshooting Whispers of the Vampire's Blade (Player's keep out!)

[starkad]

Ok, I need some help. If you're a player in the module, or will be a player - stop reading here. Spoilers are included, and it's a good module - don't ruin it for yourself!!!

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Players gone? Good.

My players are at the end of the module, and are now fighting Lucan the Vampire... And are getting their butts handed to them on a silver platter. They didn't prep very well, having role-played their characters very well. They're now 5th level (there are 5 players), and can't seem to touch Lucan's AC, and when they do, aren't doing enough damage to take him down. They are headed for a TPK tonight, and I don't want the game to end this way.

I need some help/suggestions on how to avoid this. I don't want to coddle my players, but I do think the endgame series of encounters are rather tough. The vampire has a fast heal of 5, and a really good damage reduction. Couple that with his sneak attack ability, the ability to dominate, and the confusion ability of the soul blade... Let's just say that the party is grossly overmatched in this particular scenario.

Party consists of:
Warforged fighter 5 (longsword/shield)
Shifter Barbarian 2 / Ranger 3 (prefers natural weapons)
Human Ranger 2 / Druid 3 (uses a valenar double scimitar)
Dwarf Artificer 5 (good with magic items)
Human Cleric of the Silver Flame 5 (bow specialty, bad melee)

The Enemy:
Lucan, human vampire, rogue 6. (possesses the Soulblade, a powerful magic item - +2 keen longsword; AL NE; Faerie Fire 3/day, Cure Mod Wounds 3/day, Confusion burst (15ft) at will). The major drawback is that the blade is trying to overcome the willpower of Lucan, and bend him to its will. Therefore, if Lucan disobeys the whims of the sword, it refuses to use powers for him, and can even use them against him. The problem with this, is that the cure moderate wounds ability by itself is not sufficient to allow this particular party to overcome the incredible weight of the defenses. The book lists Lucan as a CR8 (6 levels of rogue, +2 for vampire), but doesn't take into account the soul blade, or lucan's other magic items. I'd peg him as a CR9, especially given the atmosphere around him... A CR9 encounter is going to be extremely difficult for 5 characters at 5th level...

Some thoughts I had to try and fix this:
- The Soulblade, in addition to hitting him with its Cure ability, keeps a constant stream of energy flooding into the vampire, negating his damage reduction (but not the fast healing)
- The Soulblade negates Lucan's damage reduction AND fast healing, but doesn't hit him with cure spells (I think this would be too easy)
- The Soulblade, because of the cure ability, negates the fast healing, but not damage reduction
- The soulblade refuses to use any special power at all, and functions only as a keen longsword


I'm open to suggestions... But I'd like an innovative way to avoid a TPK.

 

[Torm]

Maybe the Soulblade has been damaged at some point - not anything that limits its powers, but something more or less cosmetic, and it wants the Lucan to leave a particular party member alive because they have the skills necessary to repair that damage (probably the Artificer, but you know your characters better, so maybe not..). The vampire is disinclined to oblige, and every time he goes to attack the party member the blade wants off limits with any sort of lethal damage, it pops him with something - confusion, CMW, etc - escalating with each time he disobeys it.

 

[dravot]

I'd say that the sword has decided that Lucan is a waste of ... not oxygen since he's now undead, but you know what I mean and wants a new host to dominate, and will do whatever he needs to do to defeat Lucan and get into someone else's hands.

How did the rest of the module go? I wasn't that impressed with it, and decided that while I might pull out elements of it, there's no way I'd ever run it as is without serious re-work. I felt like I wasted $10.

 

[drnuncheon]

The soulblade can act against the vampire if it wants - but what does it want?

Is one of the PCs (the warforged?) better suited to the soulblade's plans than the vampire is? It might try to engineer being transferred to that person.

Other questions: is there a way for the PCs to retreat/regroup and come back better prepared?

How long until dawn?

Are the PCs remembering to spend their action points?

 

[starkad]

They actually enjoyed most of the module pretty well. The main complaint so far, is the 'defeatist' mentality the module took. That is - throwing them up against Lucan several times, only to have him get away or kick their butts. They don't like futile encounters much.

The aerial battle was the best they'd had to date. We did it out with full tactical combat - tact-tiles, miniatures, the whole shebang. They loved it, and couldn't stop talking about it for a week. Of course, the warforged took a header from 160 feet up...

drnuncheon - Brilliant! Dawn (why hadn't I thought of this... it seems so obvious. I feel rather like an idiot now), and allowing them to retreat/regroup. Dawn wasn't that far off.. The only problem is they are inside. I'll just have some cracks in the roof and allow the party to back off and regroup. Thanks!

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Played this module as well, & our group had a hell of a time with it.

First off, we drove him downstairs quick w/ a daylight spell. We were at a loss during the fight, since we just dealt with the centipede swarm before. We rested, then went downstairs & dealt with the ochre jelly & Lucan.

We probably could have made a better attempt at fighting him if the jelly wasn't there--if we didn't have to worry about that, we could have closed & dealt with him earlier.

Our major spellcaster who could really hurt the vampire (a warforged cleric) was dominated & turned against us. Many of the PCs were hit with the confusion effect, & at least 1 PC was down & out. I was one of the few PCs remaining, drained from 5th to 3rd level, desperately pelting him with vials of holy water, and everyone else was dealing with the confusion effect or our own warforged. However, during the entire fight, Lucan never wielded the sword.

So, as a desperate gamble, my bard grabbed the sword. I made the Ego test, got healed, and started to use it against Lucan (and using the holy water as a ranged attack). We took him down & staked him.

The endgame was unpleasant for the PCs, since one of the PCs spilled the beans to his house, violating our oath of secrecy & costing us the reward (and we made a point of taking him back "alive," per se). The PC responsible was jailed, my PC quit (I saw him being a bit corrupted & demoralized from his use of the Soulblade & from all of the travails of the pursuit, and a little bothered by the fact that he adventured with an Evil PC [who was the group's leader], and another, supposedly "Good" PC wound up screwing over the group; plus I was a bit tired of playing that character).

I have 1 term for you to consider: touch-based Armor Class. It's what our group could hit him with.

 

[dravot]

How'd the game session turn out?

What did you wind up doing?

Who died?

 

[Tzarevitch]

Did the PCs know they were facing a vampire? I don't understand why they are having such a hard time breaching the vampire's DR. Are you saying that a 5th level cleric of the Silver Flame does not have a silver weapon? Was he sleeping through the inquisition? What about the fighter? Any sane fighter should have a whatever weapon he is most effective with and backup silver, adamantine and cold iron weapons to cover all contingencies as cash permits.

Honestly, it sounds like you are correct that they went into this fight unprepared. Have Lucan pull every dirty trick in the book on them within the rules and totally wipe the floor with them if he can. When the party gets TPKed, have them "wake up" at the last point that they rested the night before and replay the day again so they can learn to prepare better. If you weaken the opposition they will never learn. Let them get destroyed, then let them wake up and play it again with proper preparation so they can see the difference. My DM did this to us once and we have tried to never make the mistake of being unprepared again.

Tzarevitch

 

[dravot]

*Bump*

What happened?

 

[Wraith Form]

What about the fighter? Any sane fighter should have a whatever weapon he is most effective with and backup silver, adamantine and cold iron weapons to cover all contingencies as cash permits.

....*sniff sniff*..... Do I smell munchkin on the breeze?

He said they did more role-playing than "roll-playing". A 5th level warrior may or may not necessarily know that he's going to need weapons made of all those metals.