We started with leveling up to 14th. There were new spells to pick and daily spells to memorize. We also divvied up the potion found last time. Everyone got a health potion in case of being poisoned and a healing potion of various strengths. Of the good ones, Patrina and Ambrus got the Speed, Loki and Kaladin got the Heroism. Ezra got the Fire Giant and I think the Invulnerability although I don’t think he used it. By the way, Brian was not using the potion-mixing danger rules which were optional anyway. We got a long rest and reloaded guns, etc., and then were teleported into the library at the Amber temple. Some long-term spells were cast like Ambrus’s See Invisible. Esmerelda sent her Arcane Eye down the stairs. In there were 3 pillars of amber, the southern one looked to be somewhat damaged. And 6 innocent yet ominous-looking crates. We headed down with Ambrus sneaking in the lead. We rolled initiative to get things moving. He snuck across the room and could see a half-woman half-spider in there. And then two vampire spawn popped out of the crates. One was in his Sun sword sunlight and attacked him. The other was not and avoided it. She used her climb on walls to get behind us on the stairway and attacked Patrina in the back. Ezra charged in to help Ambrus as well as Esmerlda. 5 more spawn came out and 4 avoided the sunlight and attacked those on the stairs. It got very tight there. Loki got stuck between a couple and was the only one to take any serious damage. King Q showed up in the back in the middle of the fight. Once the two in the room were out, those characters came to help as well. But with the sunlights, it only took a round or two.
Patrina started the ritual while Loki took a short rest. Just before she was done with the 10 minutes, we took our potions and cast our spells. Vampira appeared in the center of the room and went first. She got 3 actions a round in addition to her legendary actions and lair action. She tried to dominate Patrina but she had advantage on Arcana rolls now at 14th and Counterspelled it. But Dave pointed out that Counterspell used a straight Int check so she failed. But she used a luck point, rerolled, and succeeded after all. She also attacked with a web whip that missed and then jumped onto the ceiling. Ambrus Misty Stepped up, hung there on his immovable rod, attacked, and then dropped to the floor. Patrina did the first skill roll of the second ritual. Something with water. Brian tried a straight skill roll but the GM wanted some sort of spell or power as well. Ezra pointed out that she had a wineskin of plentiful wine. And wine was mostly water? The GM was iffy on it but then Patrina said that water and wine was a religious thing so she should get a Religion roll. It was allowed and she succeeded.
Soon after, the lair created 6 Wights from Vampira’s blood splatterings on the floor. They instantly went, charged, and got an attack. And then went again on their regular initiative. Their to hit was low as was their AC but they drained hit points. They did get disadvantage while in the sunlight which helped. Mainly they had hit points to grind through and added chaos. The villain did a variety of things that did damage but people saved against the worst of it with Paladin bonuses, help from spells, and inspirations. Esmerelda dispelled a Web and thankful Patrina dispelled a Darkness that overpowered our sunlights. At the end of round one, a couple of Wights were down, she had taken some damage but most importantly, we had one success on the ritual.
The next round, she put each player in a mist cloud which blinded them. (Except Loki who had Blindfight.) That gave the Wights and the new lair action vampire spawn advantage. That hurt. Those spawn were tougher with 100+ hit points. Free grapples and bites that drained. For the mist, on your turn, you got a save for half damage and if you missed it, you got a level of exhaustion. That would be significant since it gave disad on skill rolls. But again, I think everyone saved. She did another Web which was mostly an inconvenience both to us and them. In the middle of all that, it was Loki’s “turn” to push the ritual along. It was an earth and plant stage. But first he had to save against the mist and against the Web. Thankfully he was near Ezra. DG wanted to use his Goodberry to augment the plants with some goodly Druid magic. That was met with general approval but Brian wanted more than Goodberry. But Loki only had two since the rest were distributed amongst the big party. Partina suggested just recasting it but that would remove everyone’s Goodberry since they can’t stack. Brian allowed it to not and gave Loki a survival roll with advantage for his good idea.
The round continued and more damage was dealt. However, at the end of round two, there was still 1 very damaged Wight and 5 mostly undamaged vampire spawn. If the lair was going to add a half dozen of increasingly tough minions a round, we were falling behind quickly. Next was Air so the obvious answer is KQ’s Gust of Wind. However, he’s near the bottom of the order so if he fails, there were only a couple of characters after him to pick him up. It’s a risk. After Air is Fire and then after that is some sort of Arcana, I think. So, we’re doing good. Two successes and no failures with 3 more needed. No one is seriously hurt or incapacitated. And since it’s only been 2 rounds, we have plenty of powers left. However, between the characters, minions, webs, and zones, it is very crowded in here. And likely more curves to come.
