Well here in a few weeks I am going to run the Vampires in Waterdeep adventures for my Rollplaying group :slight groan: ANyways I was wondering about getting some input from DMs who have ran it and from players also.
I think this is could be a very memorable gaming sessions for us and I want to do the best I can and making it a good one. Thanks in advance.
I am currently a player in this (it's being used as a side adventure in SCAP). It's a little hard for me to comment because I don't know to what extent the GM has adapted it for my PCs, but I can give a general impression.
The opening didn't work very well for us. After the big fight in the bar, the PCs chose to hunt down the defeated gaseous-form vampires, rather than do what the module expected. This made sense at the time (the PCs have fought vampires before and are firmly convinced that once you drop one, you *must* hunt for the coffin or you'll just have to do it all over again) but it seemed to knock the module off the rails.
The PCs then became fixated on killing Dusarra. Again, this does not seem to be what the module expected, and it caused the GM a lot of grief. The more that the PCs learned about the actual plotline, the more they said "Dusarra is trying to get rid of us by sending us against these other vampires" and the less they wanted to play along. There does not seem to be good support for a PCs-versus-Dusarra conflict, at least early on. The GM ended up writing a lair for Dusarra from scratch.
We managed to get things back on track, mainly through an alliance between the PCs and Galgauth (sp?), the undead wizard, which got the PCs some more information and motivation. But it was very rocky and uncomfortable at first. We nearly gave up on it several times as it just didn't seem to be working out.
We also had a problem in that everyone the PCs felt connected to turned out to be a bad guy. The PCs are not Waterdhavian, and had no prior connections there. So this left them rather inclined to say "Never mind, these folk are all creeps anyway, let's just leave town" when the going got hard. This would probably be less of an issue if the adventure were used as a stand-alone; we were fighting the PCs' natural tendency to want to get back to their friends and relatives in SCAP.
Finally, you may have to address the question "Given that his foes have access to Commune, how *has* the master vampire stayed hidden for so long?" which bothered my GM a lot, especially after the PCs cast Commune.
Good luck with it. I'd recommend going through the first module very carefully, thinking about what your PCs will know at that point and what their motivations will be, and maybe making some adjustments.
Mary
Thanks. I will keep that in mind. I was originally going to run a waterdeep campaign when the city of splendors came out but, it kind of lost steam and never went anywhere. I will make sure to set the initial hook at the bar fight. Thanks for the heads up.
I am currently a player in this (it's being used as a side adventure in SCAP). It's a little hard for me to comment because I don't know to what extent the GM has adapted it for my PCs, but I can give a general impression.
Most of the issues you raise are addressed in the module, but if you're a player I don't think I can effectively address them here. Feel free to have your DM start a different thread or email me offline.
ericlboyd at aol dot com
--Eric
I have his permission to hear spoilers; the module's so unrecognizably different by now he doesn't think it will matter.
The big fight against the merfolk vampire was, I must say, a very nice fight: the terrain made a huge difference. We got intimately acquainted with the drowning rules, and *just* managed to haul two heavily armored fighters, choking and coughing, out of the water in time to save their lives.
Mary
I started running the adventure, and it fell of line after the first module, but I was okay with that because I had other material I wanted to run and the characters had other goals.
I'll paste in our campaign journal, so you can read how it went for our group. This is long, but if you have the patience to go through it you may get some good insight.
Thanks to Tijon’s magic the party finds themselves in Waterdeep, where Caedo returns the recovered staff of healing to the clergy of Lathandar, and the party sets about selling off loot purchasing supplies, resting and generally preparing for their journey to William’s realm. Dianna the huntress one of the leaders of the relentless contracts Lyon and Logan to go to a tavern called the Grinning Lion, where they are asked to spy on a man named Samose who will be meeting clients at the bar. Samose is apparently a dealer of illicit goods, who is rumoured to have a supply of bloodroot. Bloodroot is drug that is highly addictive to vampires and enhances the taste of the blood they drink. Dianna is concerned that there may be renewed vampire activity in the city, and she wants to find out what is going on.
Logan and Lyon arrive at the bar to stake it out. Shortly after they arrive Caedo shows up. After some confusion Logan and Lyon learn that Caedo is also at the bar to meet Samose. She is looking to pick up a few items of interest to her, and has a meet arranged with the man. While the trio waits for Samose to arrive, the proprietor of the tavern, big man named Unger, introduces himself, and mentions that he doesn’t want any trouble started at the bar. A few moments later another Halfling arrives. This fellow calls himself Leviss and seems to be looking for Caedo. He introduces himself and explains that he’s heard of her reputation, and that some people he works for wish to meet with her, and work out a mutually beneficial working arrangement. This meeting is to take place in two days at a tavern called the Bowels of the earth. Leviss keeps his visit short and departs.
Eventually, Samose shows up. Caedo approaches him and the two talk business for a couple of moments. Samose offers her some deals on poi-sons, and after some chat, Logan and Lyon join the pair at the table. Moments later, another customer enters the bar. She is a attractive slender woman wearing a cloak fabricated from the hide of a displacer beast. She moves towards Samose and he indicates his next client has arrived. Suddenly, her look turns very severe and she intones the following “Lord Orplar Husteem, in the name of the Beastlord I name thee the intended quarry of the high hunt. By tooth and fang, I declare this high hunt begun.” After uttering this statement, several patrons in the tavern suddenly transform into werewolves, and the woman dons her beast claws and begins casting a spell.
Caedo rushes to Samose/Orplar’s aid. She uses her cloak of the Montebank to teleport Orplar outside the tavern. There he quaffs a potion and runs. Meanwhile Logan and Lyon prepare for battle. The werewolves are quick on the draw and come in on them fast. As the first attacks of the beasts connect the characters discover that the creatures are more than they seems, as they drain the life force from Logan and Lyon with their attacks.
The dark haired woman charges forward as well attacking with her beast claws, and a spell that rings her in flying blades. The battle is fierce and Lyon manages to destroy a couple of the creatures with slaying arrows. Caedo comes back into the bar and joins the fight using her enchanted spiked chain. As the bodies of the werewolves fall they transform into vaporous form and float out of the tavern. The characters suspect they are vampire werewolves. Fortunately, the werewolves decide to break off the fight to pursue their quarry. Lyon is on the brink of death, and Logan is hurt as well. The woman and two of the werewolves flee out the door.
The characters take some time to heal and for Logan to dawn his armour, which he had in his harversack. They then begin tracking the were-wolves and pursue them into the sewers.
They catch up with their quarry just in time to see one of the werewolves entering a secret door in the side wall of the sewer. Logan charges in, and there he sees a battle is in full swing. A wide hallway lies before him, and part way down the hall one of the werewolves is being grabbled by s set of writhing black tentacles that has emerged from the floor. A ray of magical energy streaks in from somewhere further down the hall, and hits the grabbled werewolf. The werewolf suddenly vaporizes in cloud of dust.
The woman rushes forward and plows through the tentacles with no ill effects. Beyond Logan is able to make out the form of a dreaded beholder, and she assaults it with her beast claws, screaming praises to Malar. Logan is preoccupied with the werewolf, and faces it, as Lyon and Caedo come in.
Caedo tries to dart through the tentacles, her mind seems set on recovering the displacer beast cloak. However the tentacles snap her up. Lyon mean-while finishes off the werewolf with his bow, but this one too assumes gaseous form. Caedo man-ages to slip out of the tentacles just as a cloud of noxious gas appears in his midst, blocking Lyon and Logan’s view of the action beyond the tenta-cles.
As Caedo emerges, choking from the foul cloud, she see a mage in the expansive store room that hall has opened into. In this room the dark haired woman battles the beholder, and a wizard (the source of the spells) lurks in the corner launching magic at the beholder.
The woman seems to be having some success against the beholder, but the creature continues to blast her with its eye rays, and starts firing on Caedo to. Most of the eye rays don’t seem to have any effect on the woman. But finally a ray of acid gets through. Caedo is also blasted by one of these.
At this point Logan and Lyon try to force their way through the tentacles and the cloudkill. But Logan gets caught up in the tentacles. Lyon helps pull him free and Logan makes it through to the other side. He arrives in time to take a couple of swipes at the beholder, which he realizes is missing its central eye, and seems to be undead. Around this time Caedo moves and swipes the grabs the woman’s cloak, ripping it off her back and drawing her attention away from the beholder, causing her to begin attacking Caedo. She flashes her fangs and Caedo suddenly realizes that she too is a vampire.
Lyon makes it through the tentacles safely to join the fight. He arrives in time to see the vampire woman disintegrated by one of the eye tyrant’s rays. However, it doesn’t seem to destroy her, as a gaseous version of her body floats off toward the sewers, despite her material corpse being turned to dust.
At this point diplomacy takes hold, and the char-acters start bargaining with the wizard. They ex-plain that they were helping Orplar, and trying to protect him from the werewolves. The wizard lis-tens, calls off the eye tyrant, and asks that they leave right away. The characters agree, and head back to the surface to lick their wounds and decide what to do next.
Back at the relentless lodge they report to Dianna, and then go to visit Samuel at the temple of Kord. He agrees to prepare the spells they will need to heal themselves, and he offers to come to see them as soon as he can.
E-mail continuation: Although the rings of sus-tenance prevent you from needing extensive sleep. The life draining effects of the vampires, cause you to crave more rest than usually. You are still feeling weak the next morning when Samuel arrives. He has prayed for his spells, and is able to use his divine power to heal the effects of the vampiric life drain from which you suffer. Dianna wastes no time after that and you are again summoned to the war room.
This time both Ganthet and Dianna are in atten-dance. Ganthet is the leader and founder of the order, and a drow elf. Dianna is his half drow daughter. Ganthet has a dark look on his face as you enter. He greets you with a nod, and curtly asks you to sit. He seems slightly disgusted by Logan’s presence, and wishes to know who the Halfling is that is traveling with his agents. He doesn’t waste time with small talk and quickly gets to the point.
“Our agents have been doing some more investi-gation, and some interesting events have transpired over this past evening.
We’ve learned that the Watch also sent men to try to track the werewolves. They too ventured into the sewers sometime last night, presumably after your own expedition.
They were attacked by werewolves and six men of the watch were killed in battle. We are not certain if they are the same werewolves that you fought. However, if the werewolves you fought were indeed vampires they may have returned to their coffins, regenerated and then ventured back into the sewers in search of their quarry. On the other hand they may have been a separate band.
A second group of watchmen were dispatched into the sewers early this morning to search for their lost comrades. There they found the battle site, and they discovered the secret storeroom, where you encountered the wizard and the death tyrant. There were signs of extensive fire damage and six dead, burned corpses of first watch patrol were recovered, as well as the burned body of what appeared to have been the death tyrant you described. I heard nothing of a dead wizard. The watch determined that the storeroom, was located beneath the residence of a noble named Orplar Husteem-the same fellow you claim the werewolves were hunting. As you know he is rumoured to be one of the city’s most prominent drug dealers, but he has always been a man too well connected for the watch to touch. Well despite his wealth and noble lineage the watch went to his house and took him in, and are now questioning him about the events of last night. His connections may not get him out of this one, as the watch is quite angry that several of their men were killed, and he may have some trouble ex-plaining the undead beholder found in his base-ment.
Since I learned of these events, I’ve been doing some more research on vampiric activity in Wa-terdeep. The last known vampire of note in the city was Noryeth Harpell, and he led a small pack of vampires. He was confronted in Undermountain, about 50 years ago, by Company of the Red Dawn (a band of Lathandar worshipping vampire hunters). The pack of vampires was destroyed, but he and a female vampire named Dhurrasa el Anhuk are believed to have escaped. It is not known what became of this pair. It is possible that the female vampire you encountered may have been Dhurrasa, but this is mere speculation.
Obviously, I’m gravely concerned about the exis-tence of a pack of vampiric werewolves in the city. The watch and the Lords of Waterdeep share my concern. Their representatives came to me this morning with news of the events that I have related to you. The Lords of Waterdeep want to hire the relentless to find and permanently destroy these foes. I am able to offer 1000gp for each of the vampiric werewolves, and 3000gp for their leader. Of course evidence of their deaths must be presented to me, so that I may pass the evidence onto the Lords. Unfortunately, we don’t know where to find them. If they are to be permanently destroyed their coffins must be located and they must have wooden stakes driven through their hearts and their heads cut off and stuffed with garlic. Alternatively, if they are exposed to sunlight they may also be permanently destroyed. Hence it is important that we find their lair. I know that the Watch will give you permission to speak with Orplar. I also know that the watch plans to keep him detained. They believe that as the city jail is not a private residence it won’t prevent the vampires from being able to enter. By keeping him detained the watch hopes that the vampires can be drawn out of hiding. The watch would like you there this evening in case the vampires try to come for Orplar. However, you are free to investigate as you wish and see if you can find their lair.”
Moments after Ganthet finishes his speech, a young acolyte knocks on the door. He explains that a cart was just found in front of the gate to the lodge. In the cart was a corpse of a woman. It looks as if she was stabbed to death, a note was found on her body.
The acolyte nervously and respectfully presents Ganthet with the note. He reads it over says nothing, and hands it over to Lyon. Make of it what you will he says coldly.
Greetings fellow hunters,
Lord Orplar Husteem, is a dead man walking, but his wife does not have to share his fate. We have her in our possession, but she will be released un-harmed if our directions are followed.
Your skill in battle was noted last evening, but it takes more than skill in battle to slay a vampire. If you wish to finish the job then we await the chal-lenge posed by worthy adversaries. Seek us out in the Dungeon of the Crypt- this will be your only hope of seeing us destroyed once and for all. Here you will also find the innocent one, and as long as the above instructions are followed, we will see that she is unharmed and safely released, Come alone and do not involve the meddlesome watch. It is better if you come after dark. My minions grow restless and eager to dowse, this city in blood of innocents, so come soon before they grow bored.
Don’t forget my cloak. I want it back. We look forward to feasting on your blood. Let the hunt begin.
Game Session #40: The characters decide to go pay a visit to the Dungeons, and speak with Lord Orplar and Captain Rulothan. On their way Leviss the Halfling hails them from a carriage that he is driving. He invites Caedo to meet with his boss inside the carriage. Caedo agrees, and has her first meeting with the well groomed- Lord Sarviss. Sarviss explains to her that Orplar is an important member of the organization and they want him back, and they have been able to use their usual methods of getting him out of prison. They ask Caedo to break him out and are willing to pay him with a couple of vials of purple worm, and a few scrolls of sunburst that should prove handy for vampire hunting.
When they arrive at the castle, they are escorted by the Watch down into the dungeons. There the talk to the captain, who explains that he is hoping the vampires will come for Orplar and that the character’s will be there to help take the blood-suckers out. He then takes them Lord Orplar’s cell and gives them some time to interrogate him.
Lord Orplar doesn’t prove to be much use. He doesn’t know anything about the vampires who attacked him at the Grinning Lion, and he has no idea why they would be after him. He also doesn’t know much about his bloodroot client, although he assumes it to be a vampire, and he knows that it has been a steady client for several years, but he’s only ever dealt with the client through intermediaries. Eventually, the characters realize he has nothing useful to offer, and they decide to leave. They say that they will try to return that evening to help fight off the vampires.
Caedo, who snuck in with the characters invisible, is left in the cell with Orplar. She uses her cape to teleport him out of his cell. The pair appears with a poof above the bailey of the castle and they feather fall towards the ground. Orplar loses his grip on Caedo and hits the ground hard. She then tries to pull him into the shadows to help him hide, but members of the watch spot him, and hurry to investigate. As they approach Caedo attacks from the shadows striking them with her chain, and badly injuring both guards.
Caedo and Orplar then make a break for it, sneaking through the shadows near the buildings, and then making their way up some stairs onto the castle rampart where they jump, and featherfall to ground far below, making an effective escape.
Orplar is brought back to the Dripping dagger Inn. Meanwhile the rest of the characters return to the relentless lodge to plot their next move. They de-cide that since Orplar is no longer with the watch, the vampires might learn of this and not bother attacking the dungeons. Thus, they decide to in-vestigate the Dungeon of the Crypt, and to try to find the vampires.
The character’s first meet up with Caedo and take Orplar to the Bowels of the Earth Tavern. There they again meet Sarviss, turn Orplar over to him, and he pays Caedo with the poison and the scrolls.
After the meeting is over they head for the Deep Winter vault, which is rumoured to access the Dungeon of the Crypt. The vault is located in the north end of the city of the dead district. The vault itself proves to be a mausoleum belonging to a wealthy noble family (the Deepwinter family). It is empty, and looks like it has been well cleaned out by tomb robbers. In the back of the vault they find a large sarcophagus that has a secret stairs hidden in it that they find leads down into the dungeon complex.
The characters do some brief exploration, but soon realize it is a pretty big place. They do find a storeroom filled with masterwork artisan tools, some of which Caedo pilfers. They also encounter a few shady fellows making their way to the sur-face. They say they were coming from Skullport. Furstrated and thinking that they are searching for a needle in a haystack they decide to leave and wait up top for an hour or two to see if anything materializes.
In the end they leave, and go back to the castle. There they discover that the watch thinks they are responsible for breaking Orplar out of prison, and that the vampires attacked and killed many of the guards. Captain Rulothan is furious and ready to arrest them, but they manage to stave off his rage, and decide to leave promising to bring Orplar back and kill the vampires.
As they leave they again run into Leviss. He is able to tip them off that his organization has been searching for the vampires and have discovered that there is a coffin shop near the city of the dead that seems to be producing a vast surplus of coffins. The characters decide to investigate.
They break into the shop and it turns out that it is in fact a vampire lair. A battle ensues with the female vampire and the werewolf vampires. Logan holds off the vampire werewolves, but they assume gaseous form to try to get out onto the street to flank the party. Furthermore, the female vampire starts assaulting them with spells from out the second story window of the shop- hitting with an unholy blight spell. Tijon spots her, and manages to catch her with a disintegrate spell. It doesn’t quite destroy her, but sends her back into the building. An instant later Caedo manages to activate one of the sunburst scrolls. It destroys most of the surviving vampires, but also damages members of the party and civilians in the nearby homes. Many people are flash fried in their beds, and soon a great commotion ensues as injured civilians come forth from their homes crying for help or weeping for the deaths of loved ones. However, it seems that the vampire threat has been dealt with.
E-mail interlude: There are a number of reper-cussions related to the events of battle with the vampires. Firstly, the city watch is angry that sev-eral civilians were killed. They don’t want to pay up the bounty because they are furious that their prisoner was broken out of jail by the people they employed to fight the vampires. Ganthet is angry with Logan, and tries to take away his membership with the Relentless, but Logan stands up to him, and makes it clear that Ganthet doesn’t have the authority to do this.
The Watch want to arrest the party, particularly Caedo, but instead they come forward with a pro-posal. They offer the characters the chance to clear their names, if they agree to do the city a favour. Lord Hawkwinter’s daughter (the wife of Orplar) is still missing. She was captured by charmed minions of the vampires, and has disappeared. However Lord Hawkwinter received a ransom note from the kidnappers. They want money delivered to them in the Dungeon of the Crypt, and Lord Hawkwinter is looking for reliable adventurers to make the exchange. He wants the watch to take care of the arrangements because two dominated members of the guard were responsible for grabbing Gala, and Lord Hawkwinter is holding the watch partially –responsible for her disappearance. The watch asks that the party see that Gala and Lord Hawkwinters money are returned safely. Completing this task will cause the charges to be dropped. The party agrees to make the exchange.
Game Session #41: Tijon,Logan, Samuel, and Caedo take Lord Hawkwinter’s ransom money, and venture to the Deepwinter vault in the city of the dead, which is the access point to the dungeon of the crypt. There they meet three goons who agree to lead them down to where the exchange will be made. The heroes follow and descend into the dungeon for the second time. In the main foyer they are surprised to see a black dragon curled up on the floor casually waiting. It is not a large dragon (medium size), but its eyes have a strange green gas wafting out from them, and it doesn’t look the least bit intimidated by the party.
The thugs seem to be allies of the creature, but give it a wide bearth none-the-less, and exit through a set of double doors at the opposite side of the room to fetch their boss. Caedo tries to follow, but one of the thugs remains behind blocking the door, so the Halfling is forced to wait in the shadows nearby.
A few moments later the doors reopen, and a large, armoured, half black dragon-ettin enters the room- with a pair of swords, ready to do battle. He is flanked by two young black dragons. They are similar to the one waiting in the expansive foyer, and seem to be allies of the half-dragon. His name is Bone-Snapper, and he begins to negotiate for the ransom.
One of the dragons has Gala, and Logan is able to confirm that her scent matches the scarf that Lord Hawkwinter provided him with to help track her. As he discerns this Tijon launches his entomb spell. Two of the dragons and the three thugs all become entombed in ice. A battle ensues. Tijon launches more magic and Caedo strikes Bonesnapper from behind with a sneak attack.
Bonesnapper in turn begins hacking away at the nearest opponent with his two massive swords. Logan is the one directly in front of him, and Logan is pounded with a flurry of brutal attacks. However Logan does manage to grab Gala and pull her and himself out of battle.
The only dragon not entombed flies at Tijon trying to pin the wizard with a bite attack, and prevent him from casting more spells. However Tijon manages to fend it off with his staff, which detonates a stores frost spell against the foul creature.
Meanwhile, Samuel unleashes a flamestrike on Bonesnapper. It inflicts some damage on the mon-ster, but also radiates out, melting the ice on one of the dragons and freeing it. Caedo continues with more sneak attacks, greatly angering Bonesnapper. He spins around and spots Caedo. He then thrashes her with his blades, but she manages to avoid several of the blows. Despite her luck she is nearly slain.
Samuel tries to move in to help Caedo, while Tijon slays the dragon attacking him with a maximized hailstone spell. Logan sees to Gala’s safety, and Caedo desperately tries to hide back in the shadows. The suddenly freed dragon douses Sam-uel with a line of acid, but he manages to avoid the worst of its effects.
Unable to see Caedo any longer, the raging Bonesnapper turns his attention back to an obvious foe- Samuel, and he begins slashing the cleric with his swords. All of his attacks connect, dealing devastating damage. Only Samuel’s stoneskin spell saves him, and he is still terribly injured, falling unconscious to the ground.
Logan rushes back into melee, but has difficulty penetrating Bonesnapper’s tough armour, he does manage to pull Samuel out of battle, and Caedo again attacks from the shadows. Tijon, continues his spell barrage, and launches a final hailstones spell. He drops the last dragon, and then Bone-snapper as well, demonstrating to all the might of his frost magic.
The heroes continue with a brief investigation of the room beyond the double doors. There they find another large room with several halls and doors exiting it. In the centre of the room is a large tile mosaic that Tijon recognizes to be artwork from the Shoon imperium in the south.
While they start to search the room, Samuel makes the mistake of walking across the mosaic, triggering a wail of the banshee spell trap. Fortunately, all the party members survive. Lady Gala is not so lucky. Samuel horrified at his mistake, casts a raise dead spell and restores her to life. At this point Tijon has had enough and teleports that lady out of the dungeon to safety. The remainder of the heroes decide pack it in as well and return to the surface.
Lord Hawkwinter is very pleased with their success, as is the Watch. A great feast is held to honour the return of his daughter.
My biggest mistake was to give the party access to a Sunburst scroll. I was confusing it with searing light, and hadn't realized I'd accidently given the rogue a free 8th level spell, which proved devasting to the vampires and the surrounding neighbourhood (oops).
We've finished this now, and I can say a bit more about our conclusions.
Part I seemed weak, with motivation problems and a degree of brittleness if the PCs don't do what's expected of them. If you run it, be prepared to wing a lot of stuff.
Part II is better, and Part III has some of the best fights I've ever seen in a module. The use of terrain is amazing. Advice on running it: if you have a big battlemap, draw the entire Fireplace Level out on it. In our hands, the fights ended up spread over two planes and six rooms, and tracking locations would have been very tough without the full-level map.
You'll want to be very familiar with etherial and underwater combat, too. One point you may need to clarify for yourself: how opaque is the water in that pool, really? Descriptions have it as inky black, but the mechanics don't treat it consistently that way. The encounter will be much more difficult if the water is a significant visual barrier.
I really enjoyed the big setpiece fights in Part III. The PCs got to use everything they had, often in novel ways. However, this particular PC party has extraordinarily good communications (lots of telepathic bonds, and they sent one character back to sit at the gate and rely). Without that, the final fight might have been completely intractable, as the bad guy's resources for breaking contact with the PCs are huge.
Mary
Thanks for all the comments. I'm very glad to get feedback on how it ran.
Regarding the suggested brittleness in Part 1. What exactly did you think the module didn't cover? (I'm asking so I can learn for future adventures.)
If I understand correctly, you didn't think the adventure handled the possibility of the PCs going after Dhusarra's pack. My thought was that the adventure did address this by giving you a set piece location for the lair and clues to find it. How fast the DM dispenses the clues is dependent on the particular running of the module, but my hope was that Dhusarra would avoid the PCs long enough (obscure lair, rather nasty way of sending messages) that the PCs get hooked into at least the Dungeon of the Crypt. Once they kill Dhusarra, they then have sufficient motivation to kill off the "false" villain of part 2 and the true villain of part 3. Dhusarra might even survive into part 2 or part 3. In other words, it's possible Dhusarra dies AFTER her foe.
Can you give me more insights into the issues for your group?
--Eric
Thanks for the heads up into part 3 there Mary. Looks like I might be running this one for awhile after all. With the undermountain book coming out I think I might want to do a larger scale thing then just one shotting this vampire adventure.
I really liked these adventures.
The only thing I didn't like was a D&D rules item highlighted by the adventures: Vampire gaseous form is really slow. It's simple for the PCs to kill a vampire and follow its gaseous form back to the coffin. After a while this gets boring.
As far as the Commune spell goes, I don't think Trueheart will have to worry about it much unless I get to play (or Josh reads this thread). I've never once seen a member of Trueheart's group use ANY divination spell aside from Detect Magic and Identify.
They're kind of a Fireball first and then search the rubble party.
Thanks for all the comments. I'm very glad to get feedback on how it ran.
If I understand correctly, you didn't think the adventure handled the possibility of the PCs going after Dhusarra's pack. My thought was that the adventure did address this by giving you a set piece location for the lair and clues to find it. How fast the DM dispenses the clues is dependent on the particular running of the module, but my hope was that Dhusarra would avoid the PCs long enough (obscure lair, rather nasty way of sending messages) that the PCs get hooked into at least the Dungeon of the Crypt. Once they kill Dhusarra, they then have sufficient motivation to kill off the "false" villain of part 2 and the true villain of part 3. Dhusarra might even survive into part 2 or part 3. In other words, it's possible Dhusarra dies AFTER her foe.
Can you give me more insights into the issues for your group?
--Eric
I haven't read the module in any detail, only played in it, so it's possible that we missed some things that would have made it work better. That said--
If the PCs go after the fangboys rather than going after Dhusarra, they can find the fangboy lair immediately. (Misty vampires flowing there are a dead giveaway, actually, if a PC can follow them. I agree with the other poster who said that misty vampires are awfully slow.) But after that, what happens? My PCs found out where Orlpar lived, went and asked if he needed help. He said No. They tried to find Dhusarra using Locate Creature and similar abilities, and failed. They then used Commune to find Dhusarra's lair, which as far as I know put the GM right out of his prep: he had to make up a lair for her. (If she had laired at the coffin-maker's, the adventure would have ended cold at that point, with no links leading onward at all. Pity to miss the Fireplace Level!)
So the whole Orlpar's-basement arc didn't happen at all, and was clearly never going to happen. That's okay (we weren't counting on it) but now what?
At this point, their only motivation was to nail Dhusarra. When she sent them riddles, they read the riddles (correctly, I think) as "I have a foe, and I want to manuver you into killing my foe for me." They were extremely reluctant to be used in this way, so they didn't want to investigate the riddles. Sure, there might be another vampire, but who wants to be one vampire's tool in taking out another, especially since such arrangements traditionally end in the death of the patsies? What they wanted, increasingly strongly as the messages arrived, was to kill Dhusarra. They had plenty of resources to burn to avoid red herrings--Locate Creature, Divination, Commune. So any location which didn't seem to contain Dhusarra or a clue to Dhusarra, they were motivated to avoid.
Note that if the PCs' goal is to kill Dhusarra, having her trapped in Waterdeep by her own ritual is a plus for them, so they particularly don't want to undo this. (Mine never figured that out, though; in fact they never knew that anyone was trapped anywhere, which is good as their attempts to get out would have been hard to adjucate.)
They did solve some of the riddles (with Commune: note that Corinna can cast this even if the PCs can't) and that only confirmed their suspicion that Dhusarra was sending the riddles in order to deflect them onto her enemy and off of her. The PCs were not from Waterdeep and had no previous connection with any of these characters, so knowing that Artor might be around was not particularly significant to them compared to their increasing hatred of Dhusarra.
We salvaged the situation by having the PCs go into the Crypt Level, not to beat it, but to make contact with someone who could sell them useful information about Dusarra and her defenses. (The lair the GM came up with was a dilly; they wouldn't have done well going in unprepared.) As it was, they never finished the level, and did the Fireplace Level only because that was the price their informant exacted for his information.
In general, the module takes little account of the divinational resources of characters of this level. I know that many players avoid using these spells--in part out of courtesy to their GMs, since it's easy to break scenarios with them. And maybe, as a mystery, the adventure simply cannot be made Commune-proof. But I think it would run more smoothly if the PCs had a stronger reason to go into the Crypt Level. "Because your worst enemy wants you to" is not a very reliable reason, and the PCs do not need to do it to get clues, because they can get all kinds of clues magically.
Locate Creature is a great spell versus vampires, because it is stopped by running water, but so are they! It doesn't have the range to find a vampire in Waterdeep, but it can certainly rule out her presence in any given location (as well as finding other vampires right and left). It would be a good idea to scryblock significantly more of the complex.
All this aside, though, the Fireplace Level was really stunning. The sudden shock to the PCs when the mer-vampire dispelled their Water Breathing, leaving the fighters drowning 30' down while he and his sharks circled overhead.... The vampiric gibberer also gave them a very bad turn. "*That* is a *vampire*??" And the final fight against Artor involved the party splitting up between the Etherial and Material, with the mage literally hanging on a rope by the portal and relaying information between the two groups: very scary, as you generally don't want to split the party like that. And the medusa poking her head out of etherial walls to say "boo"....
Mary
Thanks for the very good feedback.
I guess the only thing I would have done differently in your situation is to have Dhusarra make the situation completely unbearable for the PCs. The PCs may hate her, but if she escalates sufficiently (and she has no limits) in the harm she inflicts to 3rd parties and if the PCs eventually hit a brick wall in finding her, then she can probably force them in to going after her enemy. (After all, they might go there thinking to declare a truce with Artor and join forces.) If the PCs aren't of good alignment, this is tougher, but you can accomplish the same thing by attacking their friends, relatives of their friends, etc. They can't guard everyone. In addition, Dhusarra tries to pin the blame for her actions on the PCs, making the situation even more uncomfortable for them. In effect, Dhusarra is a trapped in a web of her own making. If the PCs break the web for her, she'll go back to her old relatively harmless role in Undermountain. That's arguably better for Waterdeep. One other thing the adventure is trying to explore is the idea that having a master vampire who exclusively guards "his" city against infiltration by other vampires and tends the populace like a shepherd might actually be better for the city as a whole.
I do think several posters have made a strong case for a new feat or spell or magic item that allows you to move quickly in gaseous form. This should probably be part of any master vampire template (found on WotC website, not used) or PrC, if not a feat.
One additional note. In the original turnover, I had a bit that was cut from the final adventure. In that bit, I speculated that a ghost's magic jar was ill-defined in at least one respect. I stated that you could interpret the rules to say that you get shifted to the ethereal while the ghost takes control of your body. (Arguably, I was actually proposing a variant form of possession.) In effect, in this adventure, a PC could voluntarily submit to possession in order to reach the ethereal plane. The downside of course is that you leave your real body in the control of the ghost. These ghosts use the bodies to march upstairs and attack their hated foes. Therefore, when the PCs "return" to their bodies, they'd find themselves in combat with the household defenders. Just an FYI.
--Eric
I'm really not clear how making the PCs hate Dhusarra more and more will encourage them to abandon their hunt for Dhusarra and fight Artor instead, especially since, as you say, Artor may be a positive force for good in Waterdeep. It might eventually be the logical "lesser of two evils" decision but by that time, the PCs will be emotionally invested in destroying Dhusarra and *not doing what she wants.* Players can be very stubborn. If they have come to genuinely hate Dhusarra, I think they will continue to try to kill her. (Imagine trying to sell "Let's free Dhusarra so that she can go home" to the party paladin!) And I never really felt a strong connection between exploring the Crypt Level and killing Dhusarra: the fact that Dhusarra wants the PCs to do it is an argument that it will *help* Dhusarra.
(This reminds me of a situation in Dragonlance, years ago. A dungeon built by a big baddie had a crossroads with a clue that essentially meant "Go left." The PCs went right, ate a huge fireball and all died. The GM said, "Why didn't you take the clue?" The players said, "Because we figured the big baddie wouldn't leave a clue there in order to help us!")
I also don't think that I would find a setting in which Dhusarra could escalate without limit to be plausible. Waterdeep does have other people in it who might object to a genocidal and very public vampire. And Artor himself might want to rub her out, to protect his secret. He has access to Commune, too--with a Dominate that high he has access to any spell he'd care to request! He has been keeping Waterdeep clear of enemy vampires for decades: why not this one?
And finally, how do you propose to have a brick wall in finding her? She is not given defenses against Commune or Contact Other Planes. The PCs can do the pins-in-a-map thing: Where was Dhusarra at noon five days ago? Four days ago? Three? and if a pattern emerges, they strike. Another good question: Who knows where Dhusarra is? Or: Who could best help us kill Dhusarra?
The idea that the PCs might try to strike a deal with Artor is interesting. If they succeed, though, most of the module is wasted (unless they go back on their deal afterwards and try to take out Artor, but as you point out it's not clear that this would be wise, and it's certainly dishonorable). I presume you think they would fail, but why? Their interests and Artor's seem to be the same: get rid of Dhusarra before she causes any more trouble. But maybe they are dealing with Fhang and don't know it. I'm not sure what Fhang would want to do in this situation. I didn't get to read the political notes.
I like your idea about the ghosts. It's a very double-edged way to go etherial!
Mary
What is mentioned above was the main difficulty I had in the adventure as well- there really wasn't that much incentive to after Artor. There was lots of incentive to kill Dhurussa, especially after she started trying to manipulate my PC's. As I describe in the campaign log I posted, my party allied with Orplar (sort of) and Dhurrsa kidknapped his wife, and used her as bait to lure them into the Dungeon of the crypt (in hopes that they'd start exploring it and hunt down Artor), but once they got down there and realized it was a pretty vast complex they decided to bail. I find that as a rule PCs hate being used as pawns and will do almost anything to screw over and get the villain trying to use them.
In the end they killed Dhurssara at the coffin makers and rescued lady Husteem, but they haven't really gone after Artor, and still don't particularly have reason to (they don't really even know he exists at this point- other than there is another powerful vampire out there). In the party's minds there are nasty powerful villains everywhere (which is true), so unless that nasty powerful villain is up to something really nasty or getting in their face they ingnore said nasty villain. Since Artor isn't really doing anything nasty or getting in their face they don't have reason to go after him
However, I admit that I had another adventure that both me and the players were looking to play, so I didn't push them too hard to finish the three adventures. Bascially they completed the first one (more or less as written), and got part way through the second, which changed a lot due to the actions of the villains and the PCs.
One way in this situation to motivate them to go after Artor is Artor's paranoia. Artor can't stand the idea that someone might know he exists. So, even if the PCs are willing to let it drop, Artor might project his own paranoia and convince himself they remain a threat. Then he might start subtly attacking them, hoping to destroy them while remaining unknown.
Just a thought.
--Eric
One way in this situation to motivate them to go after Artor is Artor's paranoia. Artor can't stand the idea that someone might know he exists. So, even if the PCs are willing to let it drop, Artor might project his own paranoia and convince himself they remain a threat. Then he might start subtly attacking them, hoping to destroy them while remaining unknown.
--Eric
If Artor is inclined to kill people who know about him, he should start with Dhusarra!
Maybe the PCs could be motivated by having Artor assist them in killing Dhusarra, but in a way they find unacceptable: say, he Dominates some decent folk and sends them to help, getting several killed in the process. Or turn around the events of the second module and have Artor send riddles siccing the PCs on Dhusarra, rather than vice versa; if he is as nasty about how he does it as she is, this may nudge them into going after him. (Not very bright of him to be so nasty, though. But if he is as careful and calculating as he's been in the past, I'm not sure he should lose, or even get onto the PCs' radar.)
A final way to make sure that the Fireplace Level arc happens would be to have Artor go after Dhusarra and take her prisoner. (There must be some way to take a vampire prisoner, though my PCs had trouble finding one....) Then the PCs' attempts to find Dhusarra will eventually get them in trouble with Artor. Perhaps he is trying to perfect some new vampire-creation trick and uses her as raw material, or perhaps he wants to find out how to bind a vampire not of his making to serve him, or perhaps he's just too vindictive to kill her outright, or perhaps he is using her as bait for any vampire hunters her actions have attracted.
This would be iffy for a non-Divination-using party, though, as they might never find Dhusarra at all.
Mary
I kicked off Vampires of Waterdeep last Sunday.
The group just won the Champion's Belt two weeks ago (real time), so we've been gaming in Waterdeep free form, waiting for magical items and weapons to be made, meetings to be had, thugs and werewolves to kill on the side... ;)
The Diamond Hawks had met Lord Orlpar before, contacting him at the Grinning Lion after a day's worth of gather information checks. They were seeking certain questionable equipment, such as poisons, rogue's equipment, etc.
After the games they met Durnan, who knew about their exploits abroad even before their fame as gladiators made them household names to the people of Waterdeep. The secret leader of the Red Sashes asked them to keep an eye on Lord Orlpar, a known drug dealer with connections to Waterdeep's underworld, a spoiled noble who pays off certain members of the City Watch so he can do his business with Unger.
When the PCs next met Lord Orlpar, he asked them to serve as his personal bodyguards. Orlpar is being harassed by Blue Elk tribe thugs, and he wants the PCs around in case the harassment escalates, promising 300 gp for each PC per day of service.
The PCs agreed, and about forty minutes later, Dhusarra and her brute squad entered the room. Orlpar wailed, downed his potion, and bolted. The chase began with three mangled werewolves reverting to their natural forms in the tavern and quickly lead into the sewers below.
The black pudding did most of the work, while the PCs mopped up the rest of the werewolves. Reaching his hidden room, Orlpar informed Helmyn that the PCs were friends, so the wizard set about aiding the sorceress in blasting the pudding ruin.
Dhusarra escaped into the streets to plot how the PCs will come to explore Deepwinter Vault. Orlpar has some explaining to do.