Advice needed for an undefeated Drakthar

[Ully]

Hi all,

My group had their first encounter with Drakthar last session, and everyone had a great time. This particular dungeon has been progressing from kinda boring (the first goblin battle was a joke, with the party annihilating way too many of the poor little guys), to better (the goblin adepts and worgs were much more fun) to awesome.

Drakthar was a real challenge, even though I had him attack my party of seven min/maxed PCs all by himself. He came in dire wolf form and was able to sneak up on the party's enlarged aasimar cleric... Well, complete round-by-round details are on the campaign wiki, if you're interested.

Basically, the party left the dungeon after finally taking Drakthar down to zero HP and forcing him to assume gaseous form. They plan to recharge, research vampires, prepare and return to the dungeon. I awarded them zero XP for this session, since they really battled to a draw and will have to face him again.

It seems to me that Drakthar will go looking for the party as soon as he can regain a more corporeal form. Would he leave the dungeon in search of the party once he finds they're no longer present? Or, would he spend his time restocking the goblins and preparing for their return?

I'd love to have him go looking for the party, and he could conceivably use the scent ability of his dire wolf form, but I'm having trouble justifying that course of action. It appeals to me, because I would rather not provide too much in the way of additional XP via restocked goblins and such. The group has already hit an APL of 4, and I'd rather they don't hit level 5 before Flood Season.

I'd love to hear opinions here.

Thanks in advance.

Ully

[Allen Billings 11]

Why does he have to be in a dire wolf form? Vampires can also assume rat form. :)

Imagine their surprise, when a small rat runs into their room, then changes back into Drakthar who strikes without warning.

Total panic ensues.

And don't forget the mercanaries who could track down the PC's for Drakthar. What if he decides to 'offer' a reward for the merc's to attack the PC's for him, while he attempts to set up some new traps to slow down the party for the next return he's sure they'll attempt on him.

[Ully]

Thanks, Alien.

Drakthar doesn't have to be in dire wolf form; that just happened to be what I chose for his first appearance. I picked up Wizards' sweet Vampire Dire Wolf mini, and it was just too good to pass up. It also happened that the dire wolf form worked well as a challenge for the party.

Chorlyndyr, the human sorcerer merc, was killed outright and Kallev, the tiefling fighter merc, subdued and captured just before Drakthar appeared. I've thought about Xoden the dwarf and the Blue Duke's mercs, and I think that Drakthar would need to dominate them to get them to act on his behalf before the party returns on the following morning.

I am trying to keep the XP awards down for this chapter, so I don't really want to double-up on half-orc mercs and goblins. Perhaps preparing the remaining goblins, adding a few more and summoning up some bat/rat swarms or wolves will do it...

[Schmoe]

Instead of mounting an assault on the PCs while they're resting at an inn (which seems unlikely and ill-considered IMO), why not have Drakthar scout them out in rat form? He could sneak into the room while they are resting and steal or sabotage some of their equipment. Imagine their surprise when they find the holy water has been spilled, the garlic scattered, and the silver dagger gone.

If that stretches credibility, just use a little psychological warfare. A decapitated crow is found on the windowsill when the PCs awake. A swarm of bats attacks one of the PCs when he's walking down a moonlit street. Just enough to let the PCs know that they are being watched. Remember, summoned monsters don't give XP.

Using some scouting, Drakthar should know any obvious plans that the PCs have, and will certainly know if they have any silver weapons.

Then, set up an ambush in the caverns. Have Drakthar sneaking behind the party in bat or rat form, with some goblins hiding at a good defensive point. The goblins should have some explicit instructions, such as "swarm the cleric (or most dangerous PC) at all costs," or "steal the (silver weapon) and take it to the throne room, at all costs." The goblins are there to make Drakthar more dangerous, not necessarily to kill the PCs themselves. Drakthar should then attack when the party is fully engaged with the goblins.

With some preparation, you should have a memorable encounter that pushes the PCs to their limits.

[Allen Billings 11]

Schmoe wrote:

Instead of mounting an assault on the PCs while they're resting at an inn (which seems unlikely and ill-considered IMO), why not have Drakthar scout them out in rat form? He could sneak into the room while they are resting and steal or sabotage some of their equipment. Imagine their surprise when they find the holy water has been spilled, the garlic scattered, and the silver dagger gone.

If that stretches credibility, just use a little psychological warfare. A decapitated crow is found on the windowsill when the PCs awake. A swarm of bats attacks one of the PCs when he's walking down a moonlit street. Just enough to let the PCs know that they are being watched. Remember, summoned monsters don't give XP.

Using some scouting, Drakthar should know any obvious plans that the PCs have, and will certainly know if they have any silver weapons.

Then, set up an ambush in the caverns. Have Drakthar sneaking behind the party in bat or rat form, with some goblins hiding at a good defensive point. The goblins should have some explicit instructions, such as "swarm the cleric (or most dangerous PC) at all costs," or "steal the (silver weapon) and take it to the throne room, at all costs." The goblins are there to make Drakthar more dangerous, not necessarily to kill the PCs themselves. Drakthar should then attack when the party is fully engaged with the goblins.

With some preparation, you should have a memorable encounter that pushes the PCs to their limits.

While I don't think a vampire could stand getting close to the garlic for long, there's nothing saying Drakthar couldn't drop into the room with the party's rogue, and 'charm' him/her into damaging the various items for him.

And an ambush would be perfect to assault the party with. Perhaps Drakthar could allow his goblins to have two or three tanglefoot bags, and throw them into the charging party. With luck, at least one of the party won't be able to move, and that's the one Drakthar can drop in on, charm, then fog out while taunting the others before going after either the party mage or the cleric by surprise.

Use hit and run tactics. Just don't have him or the other goblins stand around waiting to be hit. A few well placed deadfalls can do wonders in slowing up the party during combat. For example, if they look into a room, spot some goblins, rush headlong into the room, only to loose two of the front attackers when a log drops down from over the entranceway, that's totally fair from the goblins point of view. :)

[Ully]

Thanks for the cool ideas, Alien and Schmoe. The session is tomorrow, but I still haven't quite worked things out. Will definitely let you know how it goes.

[delvesdeep]

I love the idea of having Drakthar stalk the party. You could have a huge amount of fun with this for many game sessions.

They could be walking down the street at night (perhaps at Jenya's urgent summons when she recieves the sending)when they think they see the shape of a large shadowy form of a 'dog' standing in the alley glaring at them but when they look there's nothing there. ZFurther exploration though of the alley reveals great canine tracks which disappear...

As they make travel to or from the Laughing Monkey during the night hours (they may even stop?) they find the dried husk of a merchant lying besides his wagon with two tell tail marks in his neck.

Before they meet Artus a swarm of rats attack them and they see the dark sillohette of a large man standing on the roof overlooking them.

When they travel into the larva tunnel they may feel they are being followed and if they rest for the night Drakthar sends in a pack of wolves and attempts to charm one of the characters to flee up the corridor as the battle ensures following them to feast on them personally. Escaping via gaseous form if things look dangerous.

This sort of hit and run tactics will eventually start to make the party paranoid. They may seek out Drakthars coffin but it is gone tranfered to the Ruins of Shatterhorn to be with his 'master' Mhad.

Once he is killed he will not both the party again until they battle Vhad.

He could potentially become the most remember villia for your party of the whole path :)

Good luck tomorrow night

Delvesdeep

[Sharoth]

Cool ideas everyone. Of course, these ideas work with all types of vampires, not just Drakthar. I will have to remember these tips for the furture.

[Ully]

Delvesdeep, you are an eeeevil DM. That's why I love ya. ;-)

[delvesdeep]

Ully wrote:

Delvesdeep, you are an eeeevil DM. That's why I love ya. ;-)

Yes I am. Great evil minds think alike Ully! Wahahahahah...cough...splutter...whahahahah! :)

Delvesdeep

[Ully]

The session was last Wednesday, and we didn't get very far with the Drakthar plan...

Delvesdeep's idea of using Drakthar as a recurring enemy really struck a chord with me, and it was fairly easy to justify from Drakthar's perspective, since the party had done well against him the first time around, slaughtered his goblins and killed or captured two of the Blue Duke's mercs. It's the kind of thing that this group would really enjoy, too.

I do have a couple of concerns with my new plan.

(1) Taking away Drakthar's magic goods might leave the party without helpful items for the difficult Flood Season adventure.

(2) I was impressed with how my group prepared for their second delve into Drakthar's way. They bought what silver they could, and the spellslingers prepared Magic Weapon and Protection from Evil. With a group fairly new to this sort of classic D&D, I should reward that behavior early on to encourage it later.

With the first part of the session taken up with interrogating Kallev and preparing for their second delve, they didn't get very far into Drakthar's stronghold, since the vampire had stationed an adept and two goblin skirmishers behind stacked crates placed on either side of the bathhouse entrance into the dungeon. So, I could revise my plan and let them catch Drakthar in the act of supervising a coffin excavation. That would reward them for preparing and for not taking too long to get back down there. They'd also not be heading into Flood Season underpowered.

So, as much fun as it would be to have Drakthar get away to stalk the party in the future, I'm leaning towards letting the party have the chance to destroy him.

[Allen Billings 11]

That's perfectly acceptable to catch Drakthar in the midst of removing his coffin. But consider this for a nasty surprise for the party.

What if he's local? In short, the rules on a vampire is that he needs to sleep in the dirt of his homeland. What if Drakthar was created locally, and provided he can hide from the sun during the day, an entire region of land (say about five by five miles around Cauldron) would do quite well for him to use as a place to rest in? It's unfortunete that the Lucky Monkey is so far from the town, because that would be a good place to hide a spare coffin for Drakthar.

Course, if he does have his goblins removing a coffin, who's to say that in a hidden room along the tunnel, isn't a 'real' coffin for him, and this is just a dummy he made up to make the party 'believe' he's trying to get away? In short, he lets them think he's dead, then returns when they don't expect him to show up, and get the advantage by surprise onto the party.