Dungeons And Dragons Eight Week Project - The Crypt of the Vampire Knight Playthru part two

We left our heroes staring into a tomb, littered with bones, rags and desiccated flesh, but not the remains of a Vampire.

Race to the Vampire

Harrow was desperate to take advantage of her Spectral Guardians, and urged the party on and down. 

Despite her hurry, the more, erm financially minded party members insisted on searching.  After all, they might find important information. When they looked at the skeletons they were shocked to realise that they carried the gear of knights of the order. Could they have been placed here to prevent meddling with the vampire's tomb?

Closer examination showed that they had defaced their shields with the snake symbol of Zehir. Worse, some of them had deformed skeletons; elongated skulls, extra vertebrae and similar.  a puzzle, though the dwarf, grim faced, muttered "yuan-ti" under his breath.

When they at last descended, they became aware of a greenish mist hugging the floor and a stench of rotting vegetation, very different from the dry dusty air upstairs.

The steps led to a long corridor with side passages to left and right. Ahead the way was blocked by a sturdy portcullis.

The first side passage just held a sliver statue of a snake rearing up over a bronze bowl.  Green mist spilled from the bowl, so Tharnak upended it, hopefully stopping the poisonous murk.

Assuming the Vampire would be at the end of the corridor, the party advanced. They saw doors off to right and left, Kei jammed them shut in case any danger were lurking behind them.

Through the portcullis they could see a room containing armoured skeletons at guard.  To the right was a raised section, with steps leading up to it.  Somewhere up there a flickering green light issued out.  More of the green flame braziers?

The Court of the Vampire Knight

Roland heaved up the portcullis allowing the others to enter. 

Taryyn slipped in first, loosing an arrow at the undead. Kei then pulled the lever, locking the portcullis and allowing Roland to move, he took advantage of this by attacking another skeleton.

Timbers showed the dragonborn that he, too, had some mastery of magic, weaving a tune that snapped many of the skeletons' bones (shatter).

Harrow then moved in onto the steps, her Spectral Guardians finishing off the damaged skeletons. 

"Well that was rude", a woman's voice called from the raised section to Harrow's left.

Zarrel Gardrinsdottir at last.

"Well that was rude"

Looking round the tiefling saw a grand chamber lit by more of the green flames. In the far corner, beyond an iron grate, was a fine stone chair, it's sinuous design set with green stones.

Lounging on it was a woman, dressed in armour, and holding a sword and long knife. Her dark hair accentuated her pale skin, pointed ears betrayed some fey ancestry.

In front of her stood three more skeletons, a dwarf, an elf and a halfling. 

She moved towards one of the braziers as the skeletons advanced to block the heroes.

Tharnak rushed in, eager to destroy this insult to dwarf kind, while Kei used another new spell, conjuring a ball of fire to engulf the elf, the halfling and the vampire. The party cheered, but as one of the green flames went out, Zarrel seemed far less damaged than she should.  She showed a similar resistance to Harrow's Spectral Guardians, and was far faster than the heroes expected, dashing up and striking before they were ready.  

As the paladins took out the skeletons, on one instance both weapons sliced into the undead dwarf at the same time, neither knew who had dealt the killing blow, the more magical heroes concentrated on the vampire.  She proved no match for their combined might, succumbing just after the last of her skeleton heroes did.

Zarrel at last

As the blow fell, Zarrel collapsed, her body turning to mist which sped away down the grate. The remaining flame leapt up and became another of the ghostly spirits. 

The heroes quickly dispatched this new spectre then ran after the fleeing vampire.

The Final Tomb

Alas, the grate was locked and Taryyn took some time to open it.  Once opened the party were lowered one at a time, Harrow first.  

The shaft ended in green mist of indeterminate depth, though Roland had tried pouring Holy Water down to see if it made any difference.  A little way above the surface of the mist was a ledge, with a short passage of it, blocked at the end by another portcullis.

Harrow advanced and could make out a square chamber, dominated by an ornate tomb.  Hovering nearby was yet another spectre, and it wasn't bothered by the portcullis at all.  Harrow called for someone strong to open the way while the spectre hurt her through the bars.  It didn't last long against her Spectral Guardians though.

Roland descended and raised up the heavy gate, allowing the cleric to enter.  As she heaved open the tomb, the rest of the party made their way down.

With the lid opened, Zarrel sat up, eyes glowing with hate.  In a concentrated flurry of attacks, the party managed to keep her down long enough for Harrow to finish the job, smashing a vial of Holy Water over the undead.  The body rapidly decayed, leaving only the equipment.

The Heroes move in for the finale

So victory to the Heroes of Nentir Vale, and a great day of gaming.  We stopped at that point, carrying on would have seemed an anti-climax, and some of us had long journeys back home.  

There was much chat, of course, and a suggestion that we do this again.

I'll do a seperate post discussing some of the choices I made in designing the dungeon, and there'll be at least one more post wrapping up the Season of Scenery challenge, so check out the D&D8W tag f you want to read more.