The matriarch sets up her ambush behind one of the first pillars after the door. Hopefully she could get at their back line from this angle.
The newer adventurers consider Vlad's words for a bit. Then the wizard-looking one says, "Well, if we attack, we can have all our spells cast ahead of time."
The others nod in agreement, then the wizard and oracle start spellcasting.
"Alright then, cast away. And can someone lend me a spare weapon?"
The oracle casts protection from evil on Vlad, his party's fighter, and the archer. He also casts divine power on himself and blessing of fervor on the group. The wizard casts shield and then casts fly and invisibility on the crossbow-wielder.
The oracle looks at Vladimir. "Did you need healing?" Meanwhile, the fighter offers him his third-best polearm, a glaive.
"Beler" picks the glaive with a smile, giving the thumbs-up to the fighter.
"No, thanks, they didn't have the courage to fight me face to face. Blasted vampire knocked me out with some sort of sleeping spell. Are we going?"
Protection from Evil
Blessing of Fervor
The adventurers group up and get ready to move out.
The archer asks to borrow a bow, and the polearm-wielding dwarf hands him one, pulling it out of a bag on his belt.
The party advances cautiously, the crossbow-woman leading, cautiously checking around each corner before advancing again. She's quite stealthy.
Bolt Ace stealth: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (7) + 22 = 29
Tikkik Perception: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (18) + 13 = 31
Matriarch Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (10) + 20 = 30
Cephalon Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11
Tikkik and the Matriarch, however, notice her peeking around the corner.
Cephalon Init: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 1 = 14
Tikkik Init: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
Matriarch Init: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19
Vlad Init: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
Party Init: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
The Matriarch disappears into the Ethereal and moves to get behind them. If the lady looks again, nothing is there. The Matriarch is fully trusting that TikTik will sound the alarm.
Channeling his will not to erupt in an evil chuckle, Vladimir follows the party a step behind, savoring the moment the adventurers will realize the trick.
Tikkik cackles quietly to himself, biding his time until the adventurers entered the room. As fun as it would be to catch them all clumped up in the hall, that would result in too much damage to his dragon.
Cephalon hunches down, ready to pounce.
Most of the party charges into the room, not noticing until too late that Vladimir is hanging back.
The oracle and the wizard slip and fall as the floor underneath them is suddenly covered with slick grease. The dwarven fighter and the slayer look shocked for a moment, both coming to a halt where they are. The slayer lifts his bow, shouting "You're not Beler!" He looses a single arrow at Vladimir
The alchemist steps around the corner to get out of Vladimir's line of sight, while the crossbow-woman immediately turns on him and begins firing her crossbow more quickly than should be physically possible.
But her shots all deflect off of Vladimir's defenses.
Gleefully, Tikkik sends his W.M.D. roaring up to the adventurers, flying low in the spacious room. He lands nearby, and then hits the purple button in his cockpit, causing the W.M.D. to dose the whole group of still-clustered adventurers with Sleep breath.
"Naptime! And then death!"
The only arrow that manages to strike Vladimir's flesh leaves a small flesh wound that closes almost instantly, and the vampire finally manages to let out a rich, echoing laugh. Removing the hat of disguise with a flourish and a bow, he resumes his usual aspect.
"I vould like to thank you for falling into my trap so easily, all of you. It had been a long time since I could perform in front of an audience. You there, vith the crossbow, surrender and submit to my vill if you vish not to be destroyed."
After making his offer, Vladimir steps forth, performing a monologue on how courage, friendship and bravery will bring to an incredibly gory death.
As soon as the wizard hits the ground the Matriarch materializes right on top of him, appearing to pounce on him from mid air! Blood starts flying everywhere and the man's screams echo in the excellent acoustics of Vlad's hall.
Cephalon rushes forward, his massive legs carrying him across the length of the chamber in what looks like an instant, and he's upon the adventurers the very second they see him.
The oracle, wizard, and slayer all fall asleep as the W.M.D.'s soporific vapors wash over them. Before he can even hit the ground, however, The Matriarch tears the wizard to shreds. Then the Many-Headed Lord is upon them. He annihilates the oracle, but finds the dwarven warrior a harder target, scoring only two more hits on him.
The alchemist, it seems, has decided to just give up on this whole dungeon. He drinks the contents of a small vial and fades into a vaguely humanoid-shaped cloud that begins to drift down the hallway. The dwarven warrior, stubborn as only a dwarf can be, steps forward and smashes Cephalon three times with a lucerne hammer.
He causes a grievous wound in the hydra's chest. The crossbow-woman, seeing this, fires on Cephalon as well.
But her bolts simply bounce off of his tough scales and armor.
"And now for more death! You look like you have a lot of metal on you, I can always use more!"
Tikkik directs the W.M.D. in an ferocious attack on the dwarf.
"Grrrr... targeting must be assuming you were taller..."
"HEY! Don't you ignore me! Is that how you repay my offer of eternal life? Vell, more like eternal undeath."
Scowling, Vladimir punches the crossbowwoman.
The matriarch joins vlad in his attempt to remove the crossbowwoman from play.
Several of Cephalon's heads howl in pain, but the wounds quickly begin to seal one more.
The W.M.D.'s attacks mostly scratch harmlessly off the dwarf's armor, though one claw and one wing buffet hit solidly enough to bruise even through the steel plates.
The crossbow-woman just barely manages to duck aside of Vladimir's blow, but the Matriarch tears into her quite effectively. She doesn't quite fall unconscious, but as the Matrairch seizes her arms, it's clear she's near death.
Cephalon tears into the dwarven warrior, causing him grievous wounds, but he just can't seem to find any purchase on him for actually grabbing him. Still, he seems to be on his last legs. Still, he stubbornly continues on, dropping his lucerne hammer and drawing out a bardiche with startling speed. Dark energies swirl around it as he slashes at Cephalon.
Only one strike hits, but the dark energies seem to draw at the dwarf's life energy as well as Cephalon's.
The slayer continues to sleep as the crossbow-woman struggles to escape the Matriarch's grip.
Almost she slips free, but the Matriarch's grip is just too strong, too practiced for her to escape.
The alchemist, in gaseous form, drifts down the hallway and away from the battle.
"Matriarch, if you please, I'd like to finish her, so that I may reanimate her as my spawn. I admire her aesthetic. Meanvhile, vould you turn the rotating corner counterclockvise? That vay ve vill trap our gaseous, slow, slippery friend."
Cephalon's foul blood sprays everywhere, the wounds appearing too quickly for his body to heal them.
His heads roar in unison, but he backs away, carefully withdrawing to let his allies finish the fight.
The matriarch holds the woman still for Vlad like some kind of demented punching bag, then drops her and moves to activate the trap.
"My, that is a lot of polearms! Well, I've been thinking about adding some more sharp bits to my masterpiece. Now just a moment while I kill you so I can take them from your cold, dead hands...."
"AHAHAHAHA... Oh, and don't forget that sleeping person over there!"
Tikkik finally finishes the dwarf off, while Vlad's strike is enough to kill the crossbow-woman. All that remains is the snoozing archer.
Whom the matron, after returning from trapping the cloudy adventurer, quickly implants with and shifts to the Ethereal plane to die with her two comrades. She was now expecting quite the brood.
Figuring that someone else should be able to handle the sleeper (Cephalon could certainly just eat the archer if nobody else got around to it), Tikkik drives his dragon in pursuit of the gaseous alchemist.
Taking a circuitous route, running around the grease to the location opposite the passage, and then hitting the boosters and taking a short flight over the grease (and people) into the passage beyond. (probably scraping the walls with the W.M.D.'s wings in the process)
"Don't think you're getting away that easily! My creation is much faster, and I'll burn your silly cloudself away with its fire! Once the pressure tanks are recharged at least..."
Cephalon spends a moment licking his wounds, but since he hadn't been hit that many times, he still had a chance to talk.
"You know, all this healing makes me hungry... mind if I have just a little snack?"
With a focused grimace and a noise like a sneeze, Vladimir splits into a cloud of bats, following after the gaseous alchemist. "Vait a bit, Cephalon, before you eat some treasure, then you can dispose of them. And please don't eat the voman."
The matriarch kicks a free choice bits of the wizard over. You can eat all of him. Just don't eat his stuff, ok?
The Matriarch then starts collecting gear.
When he finds his line of retreat cut off, and the W.M.D. pursuing him... or is it a her? It's kind of hard to tell. Anyway, when she or he hits the dead end, they turn back to solid form, turn around, and raise their hands in surrender.
Tikkik is noticeably disappointed. "Surrendering? I guess I don't have any good excuses for crushing you then... I'm not sure I've ever had anyone surrender to me before. Usually it's all fighting and smashing and yelling and dying... Eh, I'll just pick you up and figure something out."
Tikkik has the W.M.D. grab the alchemist, and then heads back to the others (assuming no resistance).
"I caught the alchemist! Now I just have to decide on what to do with it. Seems smarter than most of these people who come down here, and obviously knows a lot about dangerous substances... Hmmmm..."
"An alchemist?"" Cephalon ponders a moment, then another of his heads speaks up. "No, too full of chemicals."
"I only eat organic."
"Does anyone else want it?"
The Matriarch strips the victim of all items. Hold it still. She commands.
A few horrifying seconds layer the alchemist is implanted and shifted to the Ethereal to die.
Returning to his normal form, Vladimir pats the pockets of the various corpses around before dragging the crossbowwoman towards his rooms.
"No need for any alchemy, thank you. Do with him as you vish."
"Hey! I caught the alchemist, I get to decide what to do with it."
"I almost never get live prisoners, you two get tons. That said, I do still need to decide what I'm doing with it, and I do think taking all that shiny gear is a start."
The Matriarch bows slightly. Of course, Tikkik. You are correct. You may do with it as you wish.
After divesting the alchemist of equipment, and anything else interesting looking, Tikkik had the W.M.D. hold it up so that he could look eye-to-eye from his cockpit.
"Hmmmm......Well, fortunately for you, softy, I'm rather fond of dangerous alchemical substances myself. I'll consider not killing you if you can keep up a regular supply of burning, caustic, poisonous death-in-liquid-form. And don't think about running away, or I'll tell the Matriarch over there you're free game."
The alchemist nods very quickly and desperately.
Alchemist:
Potion of Cure Serious Wounds
4x Alchemist's Fire
2x Holy Water
+1 Studded Leather
+1 Shortsword
Ring of Protection +2
Portable Alchemist's Lab
27 gp
Fighter:
+1 cold Iron Dwarven Waraxe
+1 Heavy Pick
+1 Lucerne Hammer
+1 Heavy steel shield with +1 shield spikes
+1 Vicious Adamantine Bardiche
+1 Glaive (that he handed to Vlad)
+2 Full Plate with +2 Armor Spikes
+2 Greatsword
+2 Halberd
Belt of Giant Strength +4
Dust of Dryness
Holy Water
Masterwork Composite Longbow (Str +2)
Masterwork Silver Warhammer
Potion of Cure Light Wounds X2
Potion of cure Moderate Wounds X4
Potion of cure serious wounds x2
Potion of lesser restoration
Ring of protection +1
Universal Solvent
3542 gp
Slayer:
+1 Mithral rapier
20 Adamantine arrows
+2 mithral chain shirt
Belt of Dexterity +4
Cloak of Resistance +2
Ring of Protection +1
1280 gp
Wizard:
Spellbook
Headband of Mental Prowess +2 (Int, Wis, Use Magic Device)
Ring of protection +2
Scroll of fire snake, ice storm, see invisibility, sound burst
Spellguard bracers
Wand of enlarge person (27 charges)
3879 gp
Oracle:
+1 quarterstaff
+2 chain shirt
Amulet of dragon's breath (bronze, 3 charges)
Cloak of resistance +2
Headband of alluring charisma +4
Ring of protection +1
141 gp
Bolt Ace:
+1 silver short sword
+2 light crossbow
20 adamantine bolts
30 cold iron bolts
+1 noqual chain shirt
Belt of incredible dexerity +4
There's also a whole lot of mundane gear
"Good... Vlad, you have someplace we can lock this one up with a lab? I'm sure some of all this ordinary junk will be useful for materials. And maybe I can look into seeing if I can do a few upgrades here... Oooh, is that noqual? And some Adamantine too! I'm sure I could find something to do with that, if nobody has better ideas..."
Sorting and annotating the items on his parchment, together with their values, Vlad absent-mindedly answers Tikkik. "Oh, yes, the cells where I keep those I take blood from. They should still have a lock. Twenty and twenty is forty times the price of Adamantine for an ounce, according to recent market fluctuations..."
"Alright. I'll drop this one off and start looking into doing some work. Finally got enough materials to do something now.... Which one....
Oh, and you sneaky-types can do some scouting or whatever. I'll be in the forge."
Tikkik dropped off the alchemist, with his lab and any raw materials lying around in one of the cells, then went off to the Forge.
"Hmm.... Maybe that one? I've been hanging onto this thing for a bit, maybe make it useful? Heheheh....."
"..and tventy-six. This should be all, except the mundane stuff. I don't really need the Forge right now, I'll look around."
Switching back to the form of a cloud of bats, Vladimir flies towards the dungeon's entry.