RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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I'm thinking of running the Vampires of Waterdeep series in an upcoming weekend session for about 6 12th and 13th level characters. Flicking through previous posts, I noticed that some people had trouble keeping player motivations on track and players following the 'proper' course of the 1st adventure.
Has anyone any tips or comments on how it all worked for them?
I'm thinking of running the Vampires of Waterdeep series in an upcoming weekend session for about 6 12th and 13th level characters. Flicking through previous posts, I noticed that some people had trouble keeping player motivations on track and players following the 'proper' course of the 1st adventure.
Has anyone any tips or comments on how it all worked for them?
Well this may be a little much, but here's my old campaign log for those game sessions. It certainly went off the rails a little, and we didn't really get into the third adventure.
The party included the following characters:
Logan: (Lathari, Warshaper)
Tijon: (human, male, ice wizard)
Samuel the Red: (human, male, cleric of Kord)
Lyon Marcel: (elven, male, ranger/archer)
Caedo: (Halfling, rogue/shadow dancer
Game Session #39 (Vampires of Waterdeep): 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.
Well I might not be the best person to consult on this adventure. The players had another quest ready to go that they were eager to move on. I ran this more as a sidequest because one of the players was going to be away for a couple of game sessions. I think they were pretty clear about what to do initially, but there just wasn't enough of a hook to keep them going into the third adventure. They didn't end up fully exploring the dungeon of the crypt nor did they really figure out that there was a war of sorts between the two vampire lords. I was sort of indifferent about them finishing the trilogy. I think it is a cool set of adventures, and if they decided to keep exploring the dungeon of the crypt I would have been most happy to oblige, but in the end they wanted to press on with their intended quest. Once they took down Dhurussa they were pretty satisfied. I also set it up so that they were almost allies with Lord Orplar (even though they knew he was a criminal).
Of all the adventures I've run from Dungeon mags this one probably deviated most from the script.
Wow - excellent! I see what you mean about 'off the rails'.
I'll have to read it a few more times to let it sink in. Did the players always have a good idea as to what they were supposed to do, or was that a bit tricky?
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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IT's been postponed a few times but it looks like I'll be running these three in a few weeks. I have plenty of leads and ideas to get the PCs into the pub for the start, and make them run the right way. It's the motivation to go after Artor that I'm struggling with - beyond being pushed by Dusarra, which they'll balk at.
I'm also unsure if I can handle all the different groups in the Dungeon of the Crypt well enough to let the players know what's going on. Again - any tips for playing this out would be most welcome.
That's pretty much where I hit the wall too. There isn't much incentive in this adventure for the parties to go after Artor, and Dhurssa will tend to piss them off, so they aren't likely to take any of her suggestions.
As is explained in my journals the party did a bit of exploration of the Dungeon of the Crypt, but after triggering the wail of the Banshee trap they lost much of their motivation, especially given they had no clear reason to keep going.
IT's been postponed a few times but it looks like I'll be running these three in a few weeks. I have plenty of leads and ideas to get the PCs into the pub for the start, and make them run the right way. It's the motivation to go after Artor that I'm struggling with - beyond being pushed by Dusarra, which they'll balk at.
I'm also unsure if I can handle all the different groups in the Dungeon of the Crypt well enough to let the players know what's going on. Again - any tips for playing this out would be most welcome.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Darn - it looks like 8 players will be coming for the weekend too.
I was going to do Porphyry House Horror after part 1 of vampires but now there will be only one player from my STAP group at the weekend game, so I'll save it for them.
So, I'll have to conjure up an adventure for about 20 hours for 8 players with level 11 characters in 2 weeks. Yikes!