This session was quite a doozy but I’m getting ahead of myself
In our last session, the party had traveled through the “Moon Door” and had discovered the small town of Tepes in, presumably, a different plane of existence. They took shelter for the night in the only building that appeared inhabited, the Silvery Eel Inn. Here, they encountered a night of horror and rats that culminated in a harrowing battle against a pony-sized rat. They defeated this monstrosity just as a massive way of regular-size rats was about to wash over half of the party. The death of the “queen” rat also resulted in the death of all of the other rats in (and below) the inn. This is where we pick up things below the break.
Rachel missed this session and so Riordan and Morgraen were missing. Theo joined us again after having missed the last couple of sessions and so Aramil and Gurdis rejoined the group. Because of the various comings and goings of the players, we are just “hand-waving” all of this. Characters simply will or will not be involved based on player availability. It will be the responsibility of each player to keep up with the happenings of sessions that they miss…plus we recap our prior session at the start of each session anyways.
As usual, any GM comments are in [italics and brackets].
With the immediate threat of the rats ended with the death of the “queen” rat, the party set about with their original task at hand…finding the topaz that Rowena Greyraven had hired them to find. Although they had no idea if the gem might be in the inn or even in the town of Tepes…in fact, they had no idea where it might be…they hoped that it might be hidden in this secret “temple” below the Silvery Eel. Leaving the temple for a more thorough search later, they descended the spiral staircase to the stench and horror below.
A little less than a dozen cells were along the hallway at the bottom of the spiral staircase. The bars of each cell had been broken or bent so that they wouldn’t effectively hold any prisoner. There were no prisoners but there were many bones filling the cells…many, many bones. And, of course, the ever present rat feces and urine. Cursory searches of most of the cells revealed nothing but filth. The last cell to the right, however, was found to be the nest of the queen rat.
While the others continued with some cursory searching and/or maintaining a watch, Callie and Lavinia set about searching this last cell. They quickly turned up some gold coins and so they steeled themselves to the disgusting task of thoroughly searching the nest and cell…going so far as to move every bit of bone and debris to another cell to make sure that they would miss nothing. Their labor was well rewarded as, in addition to numerous coins, they also turned up a gold chain, a pearl ring, a silver chain necklace with an aquamarine opal, and, much to their relief, a rather large topaz that definitely fit the description that Rowena had provided.
During this time, Ander and Elena discussed their future together which largely meant that Elena stated her ideas for the their future and Ander stammered and stuttered. The innkeep’s daughter made it quite clear that she did not wish to stay in Tepes and wanted to go back to Ander’s home. Elena explained that the townsfolk would most likely want to burn the inn to the ground (to prevent a plague from spreading from the thousands of rotting rat bodies) and might have burn her alive, thinking she might be a witch and somehow actually responsible for what had happened. Elena pressed to go back up the spiral staircase and go to her room to pack her belongings but Ander insisted that they wait in the rat and reek below until the whole party was ready to climb back up.
Back up in the temple proper, Gurdis’ suspicions and concerns regarding the skeletal demon’s claim that it would soon be taking a new host [as happened in our prior session] came to the fore. Fully confident that he was one of Dumathion’s favored, the dwarven priest surreptitiously placed a sympathetic pat on Elena’s back as she lamented her situation…a pat with a hand holding his holy symbol. As Elena did not flinch in pain, immediately burst into flame, or the like, Gurdis’ suspicions were allayed at least a bit.
Even though those suspicions were somewhat eased, Elena’s non-stop chattering apparently took its toll on the dwarf. She continued to argue with Ander about their future, her insistence that she accompany them back to their home on the moon, and, as there were some doubts expressed about whether or not they would take her with them and Ander indicating that he was not interested in the “future together” that Elena was mapping out for him, she even began to threaten [somewhat hollowly, of course] that they would all need to immediately leave her inn and leave all of the items that had been found within as they belonged to her. Gurdis took matters into his own hands, sneaking up behind Elena and striking her in the back of the head. Elena dropped unconscious…as did the jaws of most of the other party members.
Pragmatism quickly replaced their shock at the sudden violence against a defenseless and unarmed woman and the more thorough search of the temple was accomplished. Nothing else of value or interest was found on the dais or around the strange, three-faced statue upon it. During the search, there was also discussion over what to do with the unconscious woman. The various ideas bandied about included leaving her, finding the town’s mayor or leader and leaving her in his or her care, taking her with them and selling her to the dwarves of Hell’s Haven, leaving her in the care of Rowena, or seeing of she could get employment at the inn in Hawk’s Nest. It was eventually decided that they would take her with them and do their best to help her to establish a new life (without Ander).
Absolutely filthy with rat urine, feces, and who knows what, the decision was made to leave the inn and head to the nearby beach to wash up and then head back through the moon door. As they left the inn, the fog was still just as thick as it had been when they first arrived earlier that evening. A woman’s scream could be heard off in the distance…reminding the party that this was a land where the night held many terrors, including vampires, werewolves, and undead, and that people do not travel at night.
Gurdis did his best to wash up Elena as he had been tasked with her care since he had knocked her out. He also brought her back to consciousness with gentle slaps and splashing of water on her face. As Elena regained consciousness, Gurdis explained that a stone had fallen from the ceiling and struck her on the hand. She was much less concerned with what had happened and much more interested in resuming the prior conversation of her future and her future with Ander. The conversation grew heated, at least on Elena’s part, and after Ander made it clear that he was not interested in a future together with her, she ran off into the fog back towards the inn.
With various party members expressing different degrees of relief, resignation, and concern about her departure, they decided to continue to the moon door and return back to their own plane of existence. As they started down the beach to where they had first stepped through the door, Ander realized that there was a small problem with their plan. The moon had moved during the few hours that they were inside the inn! It was no longer low on the horizon and assuming that they could still touch it and use the key as they had earlier in the night, the moon was now simply out of their reach!
Realizing that it would like be very dangerous to simply camp outside [vampires, werewolves, zombies, goblins, oh my], they decided to go back to the inn and see if they could either reconcile with Elena or overpower her and force her to let them stay. The door, however, was locked and also apparently barred. Instead of forcing their way in, they decided to seek shelter for the night elsewhere as they did not want to clean rats and their, um, accessories to have a place to sleep or to face Elena’s barbed tongue. The party also decided that they didn’t want to force their way into any of the other buildings at the risk of pissing off other locals and so, instead, decided to head to the ship that they had spotted moored at the town’s docks when they first arrived.
The ship, like all of the town’s buildings, was dark and there was no sign of life. A gangplank gave access to the ship from the dock. As they approached the gangplank, they noticed that the portholes on the ship were boarded up…not just closed but actually had boards completely covering them. [Yep, that was a bit of a warning.] Boarding the ship, they saw a hatch leading to below decks as well as doors for cabins to the fore and aft. They decided to first check the aft cabin. There was no answer to their knocking and the door was locked.
As they approached the forecastle to check that door, Ander noticed that the fog was behaving a bit strangely. A portion of the fog was swirling about even through there was no breeze! It then began to coalesce into the form of a man, a man blocking the gangplank! As his long, black cape swirled about him, he welcomed them to his home and expressed his delight as he so rarely had guests these nights. As Gurdis and Aramil took up defensive positions, the others ran for the aft cabin, and the man insisted that they remain for dinner.
Lavinia picked the lock on the aft door. As she opened it, candles flared to life within to reveal a rather comfortable and lavish sitting room. Aramil and Gurdis attacked. Aramil wielded the shiny halberd that had been found in the hidden temple and opened a massive hole in the man’s abdomen. The response was a delighted laugh and exclamation about so loving prey that have both spirit and spunk. To their further horror, the party watched as the hole simply closed, leaving their foe no worse for wear.
A rather drawn out, running “battle” then began. Although it would be hard to truly call it a battle as the, yes, vampire, simply toyed with the party, like a cat playing with a caught mouse. Gudris and Aramil resolved to give their lives to allow their companions to flee the ship. And, for Gudris, that is exactly what happened. The vampire mesmerized the dwarf before ripping the priest’s throat out with his fangs. Most of the others fled down the dock towards the closest building. Ander, who had fled to the deck of the sterncastle, jumped into the dark water. The vampire, mockingly laughing, transformed into a bat and disappeared into the thick fog. Aramil took the brief respite as an opportunity to behead the corpse of Gurdis and skewer him through the heart.
As the bulk of the party was pounding on the door of a nearby building and shouting to be let in, the vampire reformed a short distance away and laughed. He asserted that no one would open a door for them as they all feared what the night might hold…and rightly so. Apparently a bit rusty in terms of fighting the small folk, the vampire had difficulty getting his hands on either Callie or Lavinia. The pair of them, plus Grim, made all due haste for the door of the Silvery Eel…the next building over. As they fled for it, Callie pulled her crowbar out of her pack so they could leverage the door open.
The vampire, however, reached the inn’s door before they could. Mockingly, he asked if they were trying to get inside. When they replied yes, he kicked to door open, daring them to get by him. That is exactly what both of the halflings did much to the vampire’s surprise. Grim fled but then was able to duck under the vampire’s attacks and narrowly escape into the inn.
Meanwhile, back at the ship and in the water, Aramil recovered Gurdis’ holy symbol to Dumathion and then headed down the dock to go to Ander’s aid. He cast light to provide a beacon for the wizard to move towards. Ander, however, had more serious concerns. Something had brushed against him in the water and then he heard a large splash behind him. As Ander began to climb a ladder that he fortunately found, a fishman type creature started climbing the ladder behind him! The creature reached out and tried to grab Ander’s leg but the wizard shook free and scampered the rest of the way up the ladder.
Back at the inn, the vampire had begun negotiating with the trio inside. He offered to let most of them go free and live if they turned over one [or was it two?] of their companions. It was agreed that they would negotiate but that they needed all of their companions together to make that kind of decision. The vampire agreed and said he would go fetch them but that he would need to have some friends come as well. He then howled like a wolf…a howl that received numerous howls in response.
Aramil and Ander met on the dock with a fishman climbing up the ladder not far behind Ander. However, before a battle began, the vampire appeared from the fog. He claimed that they all needed to gather together with their other companions to discuss their futures. It was agreed and the trio headed back to the inn as the fishman dove back into the water.
Arriving back at the inn’s entrance, the vampire blocked it so that neither Aramil nor Ander could enter. He repeated his offer of letting most of them to go free in exchange for the willing sacrifice of one <[or two?] of the others. Grim [or was it Callie?] made a counter-offer of giving him Elena in exchange for their lives. The vampire agreed. While he and the pair of PCs waited outside (with Aramil having succumbed to the vampire’s charms…so to speak), the trio inside set out to find Elena.
She was not in the kitchen or the family’s quarters. Nor did they find her upstairs. The cellar turned up empty as well. Elena was, however, in the temple below the cellar. Her body was slumped over the dais there. As they approached, they could see that she was dead and that her wrists had been slit. A note sat nearby…her suicide note. It essentially stated that she had lost her family, her home, everything and then had been spurned by the man she loved. So she willing gave up her life and her soul to whatever goddess that the statue represented so long as the goddess would exact her vengeance and curse those responsible for what had happened…in other words, the party and probably Ander in particular.
The trio returned back to the inn’s entrance and broke the news of Elena’s death (but did not mention her suicide note). The vampire, of course, was not interested in her lifeless corpse. He reiterated his original offer and then provided another. They could, if they were willing, provide him five villagers…one for each of the party…instead. While a couple of the “heroes” thought about it however briefly, the answer was no. Aramil offered to provide the vampire with a whole new world to prey upon, starting with the dwarves of Hell’s Haven, the vampire was not interested in traveling to a different world and couldn’t be assured that this group would bring him back the promised meals.
A pack of wolves arrived and spread out around the inn, with a good number around the individuals outside. The pressure was finally too much for Ander and he attacked the vampire, trying to shove him out of the way of the door. Sadly, slight wizard’s bull rush did not budge the vampire in the slightest. The vampire found this to be quite uncivilized and indicated all negotiation were over. The wolves surrounded Ander and the vampire offered him a choice…to be turn to pieces by the wolves or to let him feed upon Ander. The wizard opted for the second choice and was killed by the vampire while Aramil watched, helplessly smitten with his friendship with the vampire.
The trio inside were largely powerless to do anything to help and as they watched, Aramil followed the vampire’s suggestion to go wait for him on his ship. Then their concern for their companion turned to fear as the vampire ordered the wolves to go into the inn and fetch his dinner for him. He seemed unable to enter the inn uninvited on his own but it sounded like his pets faced no such similar limitation. The trio ran for their lives and fled for the cellar. They hoped to reach the temple below and close the flagstone trapdoor, hoping that the wolves would not be able to open it. They barely reached the “safety” of this “sanctuary” before the wolves caught them.
[That is where we stopped for the night even though it was still a bit early.
Needless to say, this was not what I was expecting to happen. I gave the party ever opportunity to run for it and then had the vampire toy with them so as many as possible could reach a “safe” haven. This is an open setting where encounters are not “level-specific” and that’s been made clear. In a game like that, I will always give the characters an opportunity to run if I can.
I also didn’t plan on Elena doing what she did. Her suicide was not driven by loss or depression but by anger. Life as she knew it was obviously over and, as she told the party, she assumed that she’d be killed by the townspeople for being a witch or for having brought a curse upon the town. The party was her only way out. When that did not go as she expected, she knew her life was already forfeit anyways and so why not get vengeance on those that she had recently and quickly come to hold responsible for her current situation. Even better, here’s some hidden, secret temple with a statue to some unknown and probably forgotten ancient goddess. The pieces just kind of fell into place.
I am, of course, a bit saddened that half the party was killed by the vampire but I think it was still a good session. Lots of laughter, lots of tension, and lots of relief…plus a little tragedy and a lot of fun dialogue in game.
Ironically, earlier in the day, I had put together the bulk of the rules that we’d be using for making new characters for the Side Quest if it ever came to that. Little could I have known that it would be so needed that night. RJ and Theo will be finalizing their new characters during the week before we game again on the weekend.
We also used the popcorn initiative again. I think I definitely like it but I’ll post more on my thoughts later in the week in a post of its own.]
