Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)
Contains some spoilers for the WotVB adventure for Eberron...
The party:
half-vampire paladin
half-orc cleric
elf ranger
tiefling rogue
human wizard (paladin's cohort)
necropolitan bard (my character)
A few sessions after this campaign started, we have (a bit clunkily)
crossed over from some undefined generic D&D-land into Eberron, and the
DM is is running Whispers of the Vampire's Blade (adapted, since we're
8th-9th level, and the adventure is for 4th, I think). We were offered a
job by the Dark Lanterns (Breland's intelligence): to capture an ex-
agent that has apparently gone rogue and stolen a magic sword. Between
beeing a tall, blond, wolfish-looking bish type in dark clothes,
travelling in a spiked carriage, and only coming out at night, Lucan
(the agent's name) is now apparently a vampire.
We've had one session of overland chase after the carriage (again, no
teleport at 9th level...
) until we finally caught up with Lucan and
his travelling companions, his sister and their driver. Although they
escaped, I found the session memorable for being one of the rare
instances of D&D combat that didn't end up with one side being
completely wiped out. It helped that there were no deaths, either, even
though we came close (trying to attack a sorceress who knows fireball
from 500+ ft. away can get ugly). That was last session.
This session, we crossed over from Breland to Zilargo and realized that
we weren't going to catch up with the villains before they reached their
goal: the embassy of Aundair, where a masked ball was to be held.
So, to recap: we were trying to find a vampire, at a masked ball, held
by the embassy of Nation #3, in Nation #2, working for Nation #1. Bard
heaven, pretty much.
First we had to get into the ball uninvited, which we ended up doing by
the rogue filching some of the invitations from the box the guards were
putting them in after receiving them from the guests. I was kind of
disappointed with that, since with a bluff modifier of +46 (glibness is
just wacky!) I expected to be able to talk the guards into letting us in
without any invitations at all. Apparenty, the DM ruled that although
the gnome guards would believe pretty much any story I came up with,
they had orders only to admit people with invitations, and orders were
orders. Even if it was the Queen of Aundair herself disguised as a male
bard that came without invitations (which is something quite doable with
bluff +46). Eh.
But boy, was I paid back at the ball proper! Combining detect undead,
detect evil, the paladin's Vampire Hunter feat and good old fashioned
mingling, we located Lucan and his sister. I insisted on first warning
our hostess (rumored to be Aundairian intelligence!) of our mission,
then took the stage. I fascinated Lucan, his sister, and the best
looking woman in the room (three people's my limit, and I only needed
two, so why let it go to waste?), suggested the sister not to fight and
suggested Lucan to surrender to us.
With a perform check good enough, according to the PHB, to eventually
attract extraplanar patrons, I had captured our prey, avoided violence
in the Aundairan embassy, and became the star of the ball! As my party-
mates were peacefully ushering Lucan out, people came to shake my hand,
the best looking woman took my tavern room number, and all was well...
.... until the cleric, the ranger and Lucan were stopped at the front
door by just-arrived guests identifying themselves as Aundairian
intelligence, demanding we hand Lucan over. To which Lucan, being a
vicious vampire, responed by drawing his badass fear-causing confusion-
casting black-steel-and-green-runes sword and cutting one of the
Aundairains in one blow.
Then all hell broke loose, and both Lucan's sister and himself slipped
from our grasp again, she by loosing herself in the panicking crowd, and
he by turning to mist and flying away... despite being under a
suggestion to surrender to us.
I swear, it was as if the Aundairian foursome were PCs in some Bizarro
mirror of our game. For once, *once*, an objective is achieved without
violence, and enter a clueless foursome whose plan to apprehend a
vampiric spy consists of saying "surrender, or die" and rolling
initiative... so the vampire just turns into mist and is gone.
Apparently, Aundairian intelligence... isn't.
And now we're off after Lucan again, after being pointed towards a
certain skyship he's been planning to take by the Aundairian ambassador.
But I think it's telling that I'm having great fun despite having been
screwed over by Lucan for the second time!
Oh, one notable detail: before slipping away, Lucan seemed a bit glassy-
eyed and stiff, like he was being dominated. I'm starting to entertain
the notion that he isn't a vampire after all, but is just a patsy for
the sword... if that turns out to be correct, the adventure title might
be a bit too spoiler-y. But then, it hasn't even occured to us until
now, until we've had other tips like Lucan apparently being susceptible
to enchantment and the sword being rather... well, vampiric- and evil-
looking.
I'm really looking forward to the next session...
--
Jasin Zujovic
jzujovic@inet.hr
Contains some spoilers for the WotVB adventure for Eberron...
The party:
half-vampire paladin
half-orc cleric
elf ranger
tiefling rogue
human wizard (paladin's cohort)
necropolitan bard (my character)
A few sessions after this campaign started, we have (a bit clunkily)
crossed over from some undefined generic D&D-land into Eberron, and the
DM is is running Whispers of the Vampire's Blade (adapted, since we're
8th-9th level, and the adventure is for 4th, I think). We were offered a
job by the Dark Lanterns (Breland's intelligence): to capture an ex-
agent that has apparently gone rogue and stolen a magic sword. Between
beeing a tall, blond, wolfish-looking bish type in dark clothes,
travelling in a spiked carriage, and only coming out at night, Lucan
(the agent's name) is now apparently a vampire.
We've had one session of overland chase after the carriage (again, no
teleport at 9th level...
) until we finally caught up with Lucan and his travelling companions, his sister and their driver. Although they
escaped, I found the session memorable for being one of the rare
instances of D&D combat that didn't end up with one side being
completely wiped out. It helped that there were no deaths, either, even
though we came close (trying to attack a sorceress who knows fireball
from 500+ ft. away can get ugly). That was last session.
This session, we crossed over from Breland to Zilargo and realized that
we weren't going to catch up with the villains before they reached their
goal: the embassy of Aundair, where a masked ball was to be held.
So, to recap: we were trying to find a vampire, at a masked ball, held
by the embassy of Nation #3, in Nation #2, working for Nation #1. Bard
heaven, pretty much.
First we had to get into the ball uninvited, which we ended up doing by
the rogue filching some of the invitations from the box the guards were
putting them in after receiving them from the guests. I was kind of
disappointed with that, since with a bluff modifier of +46 (glibness is
just wacky!) I expected to be able to talk the guards into letting us in
without any invitations at all. Apparenty, the DM ruled that although
the gnome guards would believe pretty much any story I came up with,
they had orders only to admit people with invitations, and orders were
orders. Even if it was the Queen of Aundair herself disguised as a male
bard that came without invitations (which is something quite doable with
bluff +46). Eh.
But boy, was I paid back at the ball proper! Combining detect undead,
detect evil, the paladin's Vampire Hunter feat and good old fashioned
mingling, we located Lucan and his sister. I insisted on first warning
our hostess (rumored to be Aundairian intelligence!) of our mission,
then took the stage. I fascinated Lucan, his sister, and the best
looking woman in the room (three people's my limit, and I only needed
two, so why let it go to waste?), suggested the sister not to fight and
suggested Lucan to surrender to us.
With a perform check good enough, according to the PHB, to eventually
attract extraplanar patrons, I had captured our prey, avoided violence
in the Aundairan embassy, and became the star of the ball! As my party-
mates were peacefully ushering Lucan out, people came to shake my hand,
the best looking woman took my tavern room number, and all was well...
.... until the cleric, the ranger and Lucan were stopped at the front
door by just-arrived guests identifying themselves as Aundairian
intelligence, demanding we hand Lucan over. To which Lucan, being a
vicious vampire, responed by drawing his badass fear-causing confusion-
casting black-steel-and-green-runes sword and cutting one of the
Aundairains in one blow.
Then all hell broke loose, and both Lucan's sister and himself slipped
from our grasp again, she by loosing herself in the panicking crowd, and
he by turning to mist and flying away... despite being under a
suggestion to surrender to us.
I swear, it was as if the Aundairian foursome were PCs in some Bizarro
mirror of our game. For once, *once*, an objective is achieved without
violence, and enter a clueless foursome whose plan to apprehend a
vampiric spy consists of saying "surrender, or die" and rolling
initiative... so the vampire just turns into mist and is gone.
Apparently, Aundairian intelligence... isn't.
And now we're off after Lucan again, after being pointed towards a
certain skyship he's been planning to take by the Aundairian ambassador.
But I think it's telling that I'm having great fun despite having been
screwed over by Lucan for the second time!
Oh, one notable detail: before slipping away, Lucan seemed a bit glassy-
eyed and stiff, like he was being dominated. I'm starting to entertain
the notion that he isn't a vampire after all, but is just a patsy for
the sword... if that turns out to be correct, the adventure title might
be a bit too spoiler-y. But then, it hasn't even occured to us until
now, until we've had other tips like Lucan apparently being susceptible
to enchantment and the sword being rather... well, vampiric- and evil-
looking.
I'm really looking forward to the next session...
--
Jasin Zujovic
jzujovic@inet.hr
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram