We started as we ended, surrounded by Dire Wolves and Wolf Spirit Swarms with a legendary Fog Giant lurking in a fog cloud. The only change was that the battered wizard was replaced by a fresh ranger due to player attendance. For the most part, the wolves continued to attack who they were attacking last time. With the tight quarters and the swarms on top of people, it was hard to see and target. When the Giant finally went, he crit and then hit Loki. He took 70 hit points and was down to 12 before he ever even got a chance to act. So much for being fresh. Brian critted 3 times in that first round at which point we had very little chance of surviving. Duke Q only survived long enough to get in one action since he got racked last time. Loki disengaged and fled into the forest.
So, we fought on. Kharn beat on Dire Wolves recklessly against which he at least did full damage. The Swarms were immune to cold and resistant to weapons so he did less than half damage to them. Kaladin could make his hands a fire attack, thus getting full damage, so he worked on those. We found that a Swarm formed each time 4 Dire Wolves were killed. Loki used his bonus action to Hide using his cloak. That diminished his damage output but kept him alive. The Giant spent an action casting Fly and then came after Kaladin. The Monk fought bravely, hoping for a successful stun attack but to no avail. Unfortunately, his usual hit and fly tactics would not work against a Giant with reach, flying 60. Kharn got a berry into Duke Q and they fought Dire Wolves. One of the Swarms tried to find Loki but he was rolling just enough on his Stealth roll to evade it. So, much like the fight against the demons, we were whittling down the minions but doing nothing against the villain. Another invisible flying legendary villain, by the way.
So, then Kaladin finally went down. Plummeting to the earth with an automatic death fail. Loki rushed to his aid, once again hiding from the Giant. The Giant then moved 60 and exactly got into hand to hand with Kharn. He survived the first hit but not the second. At that point, we had 2 players with 1 hit point, 1 with 0, and 1 with 12. Parley? At the other players' insistence, Duke Q started to talk. He congratulated the Giant on his excellent fighting prowess and suggested we simply go our separate ways as equal forces. That, of course, was mostly a bluff since he’d been barely touched and we were mostly dead. However, we did take out 15 of his 16 Dire Wolves. As payment, he demanded both Duke Q’s and Kharn’s great swords, being a great sword user himself. Q told him that we needed the frost brand if we were ever to defeat Strahdanya. That did not move him however he did ask for a counteroffer. After the email exchange about miscellaneous magic items that we might have forgotten about, people started offering their “junk”. However, Kharn’s useless Wand of Conducting was argued to be of actual interest to a Giant. A magic stick that made music. A poor Persuasion roll was inspired into a better roll and the deal was made. We traded Duke Q’s backup weapon and a magic item we’d never use, for our lives. A fair trade. Thus ended another ass-kicking encounter.
As we took a short rest, we debated following him so that we could avenge our loss (after a long rest and with a bigger party). But since he was flying, we’d be tracking a single Dire Wolf which seemed highly unlikely. And the last thing we wanted was to find him too early. So, we quickly gave up on that idea. We pressed on, reaching a river feeding into the lake. The current was a little too swift to swim (67% on a d100), despite two swimmers, a flyer, and a super athlete in the party. We decided to have Kaladin fly a rope across the chasm. Brian wanted a “rope skill” roll and opened it up for what DnD skill that might be. While suggestions were thrown about, Dan created a Rope Use skill on his character sheet and rolled an 18. (The old Captain Kirk cheater method.) Brian let that stand but demanded a similar roll to untie the superior knot and save the rope. He rolled a 17 and we moved on.
We came across a bigger, steeper river just before nightfall. We took a long rest. Kharn did his Commune with Nature ritual and could sense a small hut on the other side. And a lower-than-normal population of fish and animals in the area. In the morning, we were told it was too far across to use the rope this time. We almost swam in the lake to get around but people were worried about that Lake Demon. It would be a 30-minute swim. We chose to go upstream to look for a better place to cross. It was hilly and rocky so we had to do some climbing. But again, Loki had a climb speed, Kaladin could fly, DQ could Levitate and Kharn has a +many climbing roll. So, no problem except that we passed a cave along the way.
From it, 11 Swarms of Bats emerged and attacked. Again, we were doing half damage but we didn’t have too much trouble. Once half were dispersed, they went back into the cave. Meanwhile, Kharn who was fighting in the cave entrance for better footing thought he heard something big and clawed in there. Kaladin noticed that the stone was unnaturally flattened, as if it had been melted by great heat. And at the end, Loki noticed claw scrapes at the entrance as if something had been climbing out of it for decades. So, likely a Red Dragon. We debated stopping there so that we could go in with a fuller party, however, a good Arcana roll from our Dragonborne revealed that based on the claw width, we’re talking about a massive (i.e. ancient) sized Dragon. We decided to run away (quietly) like little girls and move on. So, yet another unbeatable foe. When we first arrived in this realm, Kharn warned us to stay on the road and avoid the wilderness. After a legendary Fog Giant and an Ancient Red Dragon, it appears he was right. I think we stopped there. I don’t remember if we crossed the river or not. We did not level up but we didn’t really do anything either.
This session began with a reduced cast. The thief, ranger, and paladin had real-life events to deal with. Slackards! Poof! They never existed in our little slice of an alternate reality. PMS (player missing syndrome erupted.
We dug a few and gold from the magical bonfires that the devil detectives had turned into upon death. We then made our way to the Valaki encampment, only to get challenged by the guards. They were alert due to the camp being attacked by a massive tiger. Apparently, an undead hunter (who’s camp/tower we had found earlier) had sicked his pet tiger onto the gypsy camp and it had done some damage before it was slain. I am unclear how many, if any, died but they did express appreciation for how nice the fur coat was. We idled a few minutes testing if this was a magical beast or were-beast but all clues pointed to it being a normal, if large, animal.
Later we headed off to find the Mad Wizard on the other side of the lake. We immediately got distracted by a sign from Blynsky’s Toys stating it was giving tours of the lake. Over this poster was a sign saying it was closed due to issues. We guessed the issues involved a sea monster with aspirations to godhood. The one that we had fought before when it tried to eat the ungrateful smart aleck gypsy girl.
So, the barbarian did some rituals to allow him to commune with nature and found there was an island a few miles off. We talked about exploring it but couldn’t think of a reasonable way to bring the entire party. Ideas like shoving everyone into the portable hole and having the monk (me) fly over prolificated but the cowards were concerned over minor issues such as suffocation. Obviously, the real men who knew how to take a few teeny risks were out this night. Back to finding the wizard! We shortly found a lone tree in a clearing surrounded by ravens watching it. The barbarian did another ritual to speak with animals and we found out it was a tree of life. Or perhaps THE tree of life. It wasn’t clear. He talked to a few other animals but got nothing more relevant except animal type stream of thoughts.
Patrina volunteered to go and explore the tree, apparently wanting to be a real girl. Or come to life, despite the fact this would then mean she couldn’t live in her hole or create more wine. She tried communing with it, then communed with spirits. The barbarian communed with nature. I thought I was surrounded by hippies. Nevertheless, he discovered that the tree was actually two trees merged together with one of them dormant. We didn't get anything more out of the experience, so we decided to leave and maybe come back later when we had a better clue on how to proceed.
Off to see the wizard again! We had barely resumed our journey when we heard a hunting horn throughout our journey. We also found we were being stalked by a giant wolf. Perhaps invisible, since we only saw indirect signs it was there. Soon we found ourselves surrounded by a giant with more than ten dire wolves. He demanded to eat Lord Q in order to let us go. Naturally, we found this reasonable but decided to kill him anyway. Knowing Patrina would be out next game we initiated combat so she could get one attack out. Patrina did some sort of sickening cloud zone and we fought for one round, then 2, then almost 3, killed several wolves, and found the giant was planting fog banks around us to obstruct our vision. The dead wolves formed ghost wolves that in turn merged and formed a swarm of wolf spirits. The giant is pulling out legendary actions, so it's a decent-sized villain.
Before the combat, aside from some bluster, we found that the giant’s daughters had been kidnapped by Baba Lisaga. Telling him we killed her didn’t buy any goodwill, but we found that his daughter's name coincidentally matched our horses, Petunia and Daisy. A clue! A clue no one understood but a clue nonetheless.
The last few months have been pretty hectic. I joined the "Great Resignation", got a new job and now I am moving. Actually, I've been gradually moving for weeks, but it's finally close to the time of cutting the cord, so to speak. Since the new place is smaller, I have been clearing out a huge number of things. Rather than throw them out I have been putting them out on the sidewalk with a "Free" sign. I have to say it is remarkably effective.
One thing that might happen is that my webpage may go down for a short time. Or I hope it's a short time. It took me a while to get the port forwarding and setting to work with AT&T. Now I am moving to a place with a new internet service I will have to work with the Xfinity service. I have to admit it felt like a crapshoot the first time and years later I am not sure I remember the best way to set things up. Here is hoping for the best.
As a side note, Shepard: Discover the best books, offered me a spot on their website. I'll go into a bit more detail on my WordPress blog, but here is the link. It's a pretty cool premise. https://shepherd.com/best-books/that-inspire-the-creation-of-worlds
We explored the monastery. We found half-dead, disfigured insane people and decayed furniture. Finally, while exploring we encountered a large lumbering figure. An assemblage of human body parts. As we approached the area, we heard chanting screaming etc. The creature did 20-30 per hit. Worse it exploded after it died.
Afterward, we further explored and found room after room packed with mutant surgical experiments. One room had a guy holding a shiny sphere, another with a group singing around a statue. Another room with a brawl (fight club). Another room full of hungry mongrels. The last had rabbits and turnips. Ambrus almost fled in terror. We retreated to have a long rest before we decided what to do with them. The flesh golem was the guard and the guy to give the inmates food. We then spent time figuring out how to feed them without the flesh golem.
Irina had a guilt trip about the dream pastries incident and insisted on staying at the Abbey and becoming the Abbess. As a reminder, there was a riot because the people of the city couldn’t get their cookies made of murdered children, since we killed the child-killing hags. Because we didn’t think to warn her brother of the sudden lack of opiates, the town rioted and people died. Fortunately, few children died since their parents had already sold them to the hags to be made into cookies. For some odd reason, no one in the party cared about the deaths of the rioters. She was the only person that had healing and cooking so in her head it seemed to have made sense.
We left the Abbey and soon met with Serena Lousyrescue (or so it sounds). She was the NPC we rescued from the demon at the cost of Brian’s original character. Later she was kidnapped by Strahdania. She had a chain around her neck, that boded ill.
Notes from the GM:
Poof! The Racoon faded out and the berserker gypsy suddenly existed. Exploring the house we found a room full of mirrors. Inside one of the mirrors, Ambrus saw the placard hanging on the wall. He sent his mage hand into the mirror world, grabbed the placard, and pulled it out of the mirror. Meanwhile, his mirror image stepped through and attacked him. Kharn ran in to attack the image and then an image of him stepped out to fight us. Patrina cast darkness and Kharn vanished but her own was still there since she can see in her darkness... oops. Patrina’s image dispelled the darkness and mirror Kharn reappeared. Then Lord Q cast fog cloud. During this, the monk stayed out of the room and did a fog horn imitation allowing the people inside the fog to navigate without activating the mirrors. Someone got the idea to cover the mirrors and Kharn then covered the mirror with a billowing cloak. In the next few turns, the party scavenged moldy tablecloths, blankets, and curtains to block all the mirrors in order to negate the mirror images. Once most were covered the fog was disbursed and the remaining mirror had a second crest. Ambros cast invisibility and went in the mirror and grabbed it while everyone else stayed outside the room. So we seem to have two crests.
While exploring the rest of the house Lord Q came across a phantasm figure wearing armor. Meanwhile, Ambross and Kharn had a short rest to heal up from beating themselves up in the mirror room. Since Lord Q had no backup he closed the door. When everyone was ready we all went in but Ezera effectively soloed the phantasm with one 20 HP hit and another critical smite 82 HP. The ghost just wanted to end his life in glorious combat instead of by poison. Hopefully being one-shotted by the paladin counts. Although the monk wanted the armor as a wall trophy, it was finally decided it go to the paladin.
Continuing our exploration we found a magical haversack that finally went to the monk. Later explored the bedroom we originally stayed in during the groundhog cycle and found it full of zombies. One with a big glowing fist. We won after a short combat, partially due to the undead being limited to having to attack through a doorway. The zombie with the glowing fist had a bracer that gave +1 damage and hit to natural weapons and unarmed attacks. The monk got this. It was late but it was hinted that there was only one more room on this floor so we continued. The next room over we found the second half of the bracer set that gave an additional +1 hit and damage (total +2). Yay! At this point, it was after 1:00 AM so we called it a night.
The party woke up find the chickens gone. The house owners had made breakfast and left for the day. So in between the time we woke up and the people in the house cooked breakfast they were gone (eaten). We spent the day looking over the sheep, talking to Luca and then the villagers. No one knew anything. We even interrogated the sheep. Luca was mentally challenged due to a head injury, so was a bit frustrating to talk to. They knew nothing as well. We all knew it was Ilya, the resurrected boy with an unnatural appetite but there was no proof. Patrina even left her book/familiar with the sheep to spy on them. Then we left. After hours of getting the run around it came to a boil when all the sheep went missing at once after we left for a few hours. The familiars were gone and Luca had left the sheep alone after telling them to look after one another. During this discussion, he took out a letter stating that due to his father’s friend he could find shelter and food for himself and his companions. I must have blinked because this seemed a bit contrived. So perhaps the villagers won’t starve? (hint: yes they still will)
The villagers noticed soon after we did that the sheep were missing and formed two mobs. Kaladin tried to reason with the crowd but failed despite a decent roll (14 but no bonuses). As usual, the people without charisma skills shouldn't bother to try to roleplay. Lord Q tried afterward and failed too (with advantage he rolled two 1's. Maybe it was fated.). Just they were about to attack, Ilya ran up, looking obviously emaciated, and demanded food. We all attacked since this was the proof we had wasted two hours trying to get. However, he was a legendary creature. He swallowed random villagers (his mother specifically) to regain hit points, as an interrupt action spat poison area effects and basically two shotted most of the party. Patrina was fairly effective using darkness and chilling touch to reduce his hits and negate his healing some of the time. Naturally, we still mocked him for using an ability similar to his infamous Plant Growth fail. Luca got nailed the first attack and lay dying on the sheep field. It was difficult healing without the goodberries but we had some healing potions, a paladin, and Patrina who had some sacrificial healing abilities. Ilya seems to still have some life to him but after a final attack and health absorption, he ran his house near the sheep fields. Patrina did her sacrificial heal to Kaladin who had gone down earlier and he then flew after Ilya in his house. The heal was well-timed because he was 2 failed death saves down. We charged after him and once again kept going down. It was even worse in the confined space. (It wasn't helped that the map had the two floors stacked on top of each other and kept flashing each floor randomly. Very confusing and frustrating, especially with the wall obscurement of FG that never matched the floor you were on. I would strongly recommend that the GM spread out the maps so they aren't on top of each other even if it needs those annoying gates at the entrances) The warlock eventually claimed the final blow. Most of the others didn’t even get a hit in and were just hit point buffers.
Dimitri (Ilya’s father) was informed of the news rather brutally by Patrina (she was criticized by the rest of the party for being far too blunt, though it was amusing), then again by Ezera (who was just as blunt, he just worded it differently. It could be questioned who was nicer). His mind snapped, then he recovered and they did it again. I was actually wondering if they were trying to drive him mad. He ended up catatonic and disavowed by the village mayor. The paladin was disgusted by this attitude (nobody else was happy with it though they didn’t want to take responsibility for it either...even though it was pretty much Patrina and Ezera that drove him mad) and righteously washed his hands of the whole matter. Leaving the entire village to starve while we head off to explore the dead Luca’s inheritance and its stash of food. That’s Ravenloft. Even the paladins are evil.
So, after a brief discussion about whether we should even go down this hole, we started piecing together a plan. Not only would our Darkvision not work but none of our heritage artifacts would either. The last time that happened was in the church so we postulated that maybe this was holy ground. Druid holy ground? Ezra sent more rope up. Kharn hauled up Loki, gave him a lit torch and lowered him back down. It turns out, the pool wasn’t that big nor was the chamber. With an athletics roll, he managed to swing Loki to the dry land. He tied the rope to some roots and Loki did the same onto some rocks. Eventually everyone came down and reequipped. The dim light seen in the distance turned out to be a Driftglobe which Loki took. (Eventually it ended up with Kharn.) At this point, characters started disappearing. Along with our rope. What followed was a series of induvial encounters as we wandered the maze of The Between. One background oriented and one combat oriented. Some worthwhile information was gained but I’ll probably forget some of it. In no particular order.
The Between
We started with Loki. He encountered his mother raccoon. She advised him to get rid of his evil bag of bones. When his turn came around again for his second encounter, he fought Wintersplinter. He only lasted two rounds before dying. Kharn fought and died at the hands of the legendary Yeti. His other encounter was a ghostly Vastini girl. I don’t recall what she said.
Lord Q got a visit from the Raven Queen. She said that this place was outside of Stradhanya’s control and any auguries he had done came from Stradhanya. Dave was a bit perplexed since his Warlock powers come from the Raven Queen. Or do they? She told him to get rid of the bird cage as it was controlled and powered by the Kraken/Drowned God/rival evil power in this land. I believe she hinted that the means to destroy it was down here. When Lord Q requested proof she was the Raven Queen and not Stradhanya again, she gave him a Light cantrip and recharged his spells. I’m not sure that was proof but no one else got so much as a lousy t-shirt. For his combat, his fateful servants came out and demanded that he sign a new contract, pledging to the Drown God. They had been secretly working for him all along. Dave did his usual arguing and they eventually attacked. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any real powers so it didn’t really go anywhere. I think the Kraken then arose from a pool and swallowed him whole.
Kaladin fought Granny Momo. She pumped Magic Missiles into him and he tried to entangle her in her own dress. That got a little weird, with Brian playing the part of an old woman. I think he was killed eventually. On his next spotlight, he encountered his grandfather, a silver dragon. He demanded to know why he hadn’t returned to his castle in Barovia. Kaladin asked where it was. I can’t remember the name. He said it was a castle that hosted the silver knights which protected this realm before Stradhanya came. Grandad suggested he restart those knights. Pointing out that he was a Monk and not a knight was dismissed with a wave. Kaladin asked about the dream telling him to kill his friends. He was told that the evil gold coin was messing with his head. He advised he should destroy it. He asked how. In this land between realms, it was possible to do so. Evidently it has been enhancing his dragon powers.
Ambrus saw that human lady that was once his friend, Esmerelda. She was concerned that he was dead, in the land of The Between. It was clear, they were once very close. She was glad to see that he had rid himself of that “awful dagger”. The dagger other visions had indicated had the ability to kill the vampire. With Ambrus’s memory loss, he was at a loss. She told him his lock and key tattoos had the power to break the connection assumed that’s how he did it. So maybe he could do the same for the rest of us. He already did so for Zolton? She awaits him in Kresh, evidently. Now that the wine has returned, maybe we can get in there. She, and several others, advised us that the only way out was down. His combat was against the demon we encountered in the sewers; I think. Again, he had no chance although Brian seemed to enjoy beating on everyone regardless. Ambrus was one of the few that actually got away.
Lastly was Ezra. He encountered the vampire Father Lucious. With his smites and save bonuses, he managed to get some significant damage onto him. But then Wade started using his legendary actions and Ezra was killed. His back history encounter was with that lady from his past. She encouraged him to continue the fight. I’m not sure what else. She did ask him to visit her final resting place. When he asked where that was, it turns out she was that spirit that raised us from the dead so that we could defeat that child stealing demon. That is where we got the Holy Avenger sword. I’m not sure if anyone but Wade had pieced that together.
Eventually we all ended up in the last room with a pit going down. Some were prepared to just jump in as a leap of faith but it was pointed out that it was climbable. It was 120 feet down. Kaladin had 100 feet of rope which would give us advantage on the first 3 climb rolls with 1 without. We took a long rest first since those that were killed earlier were at 1 hit point. We had Good Berries to eat and 3 magical lights so that wasn’t a problem. Kharn went first, forgoing the rope. The rest went in turn. Ezra fell and took 6d6. Irena fell and took 9d6 and was knocked out. Ambrus fell and took 6d6 and Lord Q fell and took 4d6. Love those skill challenges. Kaladin stowed the rope and flew down. Except that it was too tight so he had to make a roll as well. He missed and used 2 inspirations to succeed.
The Gone.
That got us down to another plateau with another 50 foot climb. This time we were smarter and had Kharn lower us down, one at a time. And then he climbed down. And then Kaladin was to fly down but when the light sources had all left, he was attacked by the darkness. (Dan: Yeah. That happened. If I had magic missile I would have attacks the darkness back) He then flew down. There were millions of bones, littering the floor of this vast chamber. We could hear dogs howling in the distance. We started along the cliff bottom, staying together. We passed stairs going up but we were told to go down to get out. Eventually we were attacked by dogs, charging in from the darkness. There were those 2 headed Death Dogs with 2 attacks of small damage but a poison save. There were two Death Heads that flew, did damage and restrained on a failed save. And there was one Death Hunter caster. He did a Death Bolt which did 4d8 plus a save for something. He Counter spelled Lord Q’s Fog Cloud. He finished off Ireena with a Chill Touch. So, it was a fight. We did a decent job, concentrating fire on injured ones. We could not see the caster so he was untouched for several rounds. Kaladin was paralyzed (restrained) by a Death Head and fell from the sky. But he saved the next round and avoided being turned to stone. Loki was poisoned by a dog, giving him disadvantage on attacks but the tide had turned by then so it wasn’t a big deal. Ezra cured that disease with his Lay on Hands. Ireena started low due to her long fall and was out fast. But she made several death saves until Loki could get a berry into her. After 3 rounds, it was just the caster and a dog. We pummeled him but he used a Dimension Door and got away. There was no treasure, of course.
Brian said that it was possible to finish the dungeon in another hour but no one believed him so we stopped there. Ezra did a Prayer of Healing, Ireena used her last two healing kits, Loki loaded his last shots and we took a short rest. We’ve been told that 6th level awaits us on the other side. The means to destroy these artifacts may be Ambrus and the key may be that this place, beyond her reach, is the place that it can be done. It seems pretty obvious we are to get rid of them. I, for one, will be sad to see mine go. It’s the best thing about my character. (Dan: So far the only thing I used from my heirloom was the 10 feet addition movement. Now its only 50' instead of 60'. On the other hand no one is mind controlling me or trying to turn me into an Illithid, so I guess I came out aghead.)
Jon has started a 1st edition D&D campaign after having a bout of nostalgia. Hello and welcome! Brian has had an unfortunate case of death, brought on by a virulent bout of Balorism. Goodbye!
Our trusty raccoon-shaped plucky hero went to Disneyland, so the half-dragon is narrating the night events. As is typical, when a player is missing we enter an alternate reality where they never existed. We really missed the berries and the gunpowder.
The night starts with Iribella (bratty seer kid) talking to Zoltan about the link of the amulet to the plane. He further talks about his dreams in regards to the tadpole in the amulet. Using his racial fear resistance he looks inside amulet and sees the tadpole he dreamed about. Yay, at least his dream made some sense. Shuts the lid of the amulet quickly, so the tadpole doesn't escape. Zoltan wanted to break the bond to the item but Jon's character, who started to do so previously, is not there. PMS, Player Missing Syndrome. Afterward, Paul talks about his desire to kill the humans in his dreams and the little seer clarifies how the amulet restricts it.
With the other part of the group, Bray(the child) told Ezera that the guards are looking for Zoltan and Lord Q at the Bluewater Inn. Our paladin casts Gentle Repose and wakes the party. Ernst and Riktavio come to discuss 'donations' for 'clothing' and invites him to discuss what Lady Watcher (Fiona) can do for him and the church. They dress Lord Q in a disguise and Kaladin as well. Meanwhile, Karn wanders over to the church since we never showed up. The sword from the huntress of the Ogre magi reacts as he comes into the church. Ezera realizes it was the sword of his fiancee and Karn and him swap weapons. One of Fiona’s servants goes to get (and disguise) Zoltan so he can join us with the meeting.
We discuss an alliance against the government(Revolution) because Fiona’s daughter, Stella, was driven mad. She now acts like a cat. Zoltan tried to use detect thoughts but found nothing. Karn attempted to communicate with animals and did not get anything either. The brilliant plan is to create a disturbance to “show the town how it really is”, however, the party needs to go to the Abbey before they commit. It's so stupid it just might work! Or not.
During the meeting, a servant ran in to get us. One of the servants was wounded and the Father’s body was stolen. Karne was able to start tracking the scent of the dead body. We trailed behind with a pathetic attempt not to be seen together. We tracked the body back at the church. People dressed “like us”, as in people trying to be incognito, had taken his body and run back through the church to the crypt. Lord Q, who had stayed behind with Fiona, eventually wandered lazily through town with an escort. When we finally break into the crypt Lord Q finds his way there, despite doing his best to avoid going there.
After putzing around for an hour in the crypt(this was the DM delaying things rather than the players), we finally pushed the sarcophagus aside and found a hole under it with a rope ladder leading to a large cavern. We found a stairway down and a stone table where Father Lucian’s body was. Ezera sensed evil so we determined we were too late. He had been turned into a monster in the hour or so it took to catch up to him. When we tried to put him to rest (kill him) 6 wights flew out of the ground. One jumped up and hit Kaladin. Apparently, wight guys CAN jump. After a round Ezera did a critical smite on the dormant Father and did 86 points of damage... it only did moderate damage. His eyes did open though. On his action, he leaped onto the ceiling, only to be grappled on pulled off the ceiling on Karne’s action. Despite being a Legendary creature Karne rolled a natural 20 (30 modified) and Father Lucian rolled a natural 1(modified 5). He did make up for it by biting Karne and healing a little. He then turned into a bat to escape, then summoned 8 swarms of bats.
Zoltan was irritated by this, so he dropped a fireball on EVERYONE. 22 points to everything in the room... almost. The paladin had his aura from the holy sword up which gave everyone an advantage on saves and a few had resistances (Kaladin took 5 points) so it worked out. Father died... but used a Legendary action to make his save. Then immediately died again but used ANOTHER Legendary action to turn into a mist. Kaladin did his breath weapon twice and took a few bats out as well as Zoltan. We had no healing berries, so the paladin had to heal him. Then Karn went down, and Zoltan healed him. We finally got rid of the wights.
At this point, it was 1:30. So we storyboarded Ireena using her vampire lore book to inform us that the misty vampire was using the desecrated table/altar to heal. The solution was to have the cleric and paladin consecrate the altar so he couldn’t recover. Brian gave Ireena the kill. “Well done, Ireena Kolyana that’s the deadliest thing you’ve put down in your adventuring career.” Kaladin’s deadliest enemy is a swarm of bats... ouch.
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