While we waited for a 4^th player to show up, people leveled up to 13^th.  Jon and Andy worked on choosing their first 3^rd and 4^th level spells, respectively.  Eventually, Dan showed up and we started.  Esmerelda could see into the Etheral Plane with her Gem of Seeing and saw the vampire in the center of the room astride her Nightmare.  She seemed to be casting a spell.  The T Rexes were along the edges of the room due to spacing.  She appeared in a 15-foot Sphere of Antimagic.  No magic would work in there including our polymorph.  She moved out and attacked T Loki.  AShe hit and knocked him prone.  And a bit but at least he made that save.  The horse went next and came out of the sphere, attacked someone, went ethereal, and went back into the sphere.  She went on a legendary action.  And then the lair went twice.  It summoned a swarm of bats and the floor collapsed under T Loki, grabbing and restraining him.  Dave showed up about then.  It was not a good start for our heroes but at least she didn’t get back into the sphere as we feared.

T Loki went next.  Rather than use his action to save against the restrain, he attacked her at disadvantage and hit.  That did damage but also grabbed and restrained her without a save.  T Ezra went next and did the same.  There was some debate if two T Rexes could grab one medium vampire at the same time but we figured the head and the legs.  The bats attacked T Ezra.  T Esmerelda went next.  She grabbed the Javelin of Lighting that was on the floor with a modest Dex roll, ran across the room, avoiding the antimagic and threw it with her tiny arms.  Luckily, Stradanya was restrained and she hit.  And did lightning damage to her, the two T. Rexes and the swarm.  On T Kaladin’s turn, T Loki let go so that he could attack her.  T Q attacked the swarm.  T. Ambrus got left out due to lack of space.  He couldn’t get through the T Rexes and avoid the antimagic.  But maybe we had her on the ropes.  She certainly wasn’t happy. 

But on her turn, she managed to wiggle free thanks to some favorable rulings from Brian.  Since T Kaladin didn’t say he grabbed her, Brian said he didn’t.  Even though it was supposedly automatic or at least free.  He also realized that the T Q. Gust of Wind was still going and ruled it was pointed at the Rexes and the vampire.  T Loki begged him to drop it but Dave ruled that it wasn’t powerful enough to blow a vampire out of the huge maw of a T Rex.  Unfortunately, Brian was running and ruled otherwise.  The rules stated that it ended grapples and she was freed.  From there, she used actions and legendary actions to climb on the ceiling and get near the sphere but not in it.  And cast a Firewall that hit a bunch of us along the way.  But her horse went next and got near enough to put them both into the ethereal plane.  The next thing we knew, she was in the sphere smirking and the horse was gone.  It seemed like a missed opportunity however maybe we were making progress? We were certainly burning through T Rex hit points.

She popped out and attacked and the horse did the same.  Most everyone attacked the swarms (a wolf one was added as well as another bat) since they could and stay a T Rex.  T Loki moved near the sphere and held his action in case she or the horse came out.  And made a decent T roll to appear like he wasn’t.  T Q did the same.  When she came out to cast a Fireball, hitting a bunch, they at least got an attack on her.  Evidently, she wasn’t that skilled in reading T Rex body language.  However, this time she used her “turn to mist” power to get out of the restrain and back to safety.  That readied action tactic got Loki an inspiration for good thinking.  However, the game changer was T Ambrus.  He decided to roll the dice and go into the sphere despite his meager hit points.  He turned into an Ambrus with no magic but discovered that his legendary Sun Sword still worked in there.  That meant, among other things, full damage against her.  He attacked her and then disengaged and backed out.  And turned into a T Rex again.  That was the winning formula.  Inspiration for him to be sure.

T Loki did the same and found his guns also worked.  (Although they were only +1 so not as big a deal.)  He shot the horse instead, not wanting her to plane shift when she got worried.  T Ezra went in and smited her twice for over 100 points. His sword worked too.  T Q couldn’t reach her but finished off the horse which Ezra had shield bashed out of the sphere.  She was worried now.  She came out, grabbed T Esmeralda with her legendary action, and flung a 4-ton T Rex into the sphere.  And the polymorph went out for everyone.  That got a mixed reaction.  It put most at risk due to a lack of real hit points but gave them access to their powers.  She decided to stop concentrating on it.  Despite his merger hit points, Kaladin decided to stay engaged with her so that Ambrus could get his sneak attack dice.  He missed and used an inspiration and missed again.  Lord Q gave him another and he hit.  And killed her with the fated Sun Sword.  Yea!

The swarms sort of wandered off.  She turned to mist and went to her coffin.  But we had destroyed that last time so she headed south to the portal Ramadan had used last time.  Loki, Ambrus, and Kaladin used healing potions.  Ezra used his turn undead power to force her away from the portal.  Lord Q used a Force Wall to contain her and Esmerelda used a Dust Devil to force her into one of the empty potion bottles.  All the while the sunlight AOE kept shining.  After a couple of rounds, her body reformed and was burned up by the sunlight.  Ding dong, the witch is dead. 

The heroes were transported to Turtle Island where they met the 3 ladies.  They thanked them on defeating her.  The curse was lifted and the sun was shining.  They also apologized for the whole “practice run that wasn’t” thing.  They wanted to keep the pressure off.  But we still had to defeat Vampira at the Amber Temple or the whole thing would start again.  We would be allowed to heal up before being sent.  We leveled up again to 14^th.  They also gave everyone the boon of +2 to one stat that can exceed the normal maximums.  Lastly, they gave out individual boons with which Brian did his best.  Loki was named the High (Druid) Priest of the land.  Pretty ridiculous.  And was given the ability to wild shape into CR ¼ critters at will.  Lord Q was proclaimed King Q.  Also ridiculous.  He got the ability to turn into a Raven.  Ambrus got the ability to turn into objects like the True Polymorph spell.  Kharn will be given the ability to turn into a Winter Wolf.  Kaladin was turned into a Silver Dragon wyrmling with the ability to turn into a half-dragon monk and whatever the other half was.  Human? Petrina was brought back to life and regained her position of Queen of the Dark Elves.  I think he said she’d get the powers of a Dark Elf plus the original Undying stuff.  They did not have the power to bring back Ezra’s lady love but could bring back her spirit into a couple of choices.  He picked a Pegasus which came with the mounted combat feat. 

Brian also asked everyone to give some thought on what your character will do after this was all over.  Assuming we survive the battle with the God.  (I think the Druids and Esmerelda was going to share some tips prior.)  With the expectation that we’d narrate our thoughts at the end.