Hello, boys and girls. Once again, welcome to "Kramerland"....
I did a little mapping this time, but I'll attempt to get MeatLips to help me provide us with a more accurate and detailed map next week. Once again, the cast of characters (finally spelled correctly):
*
Reven Tyge (mutt); 4th-level human Dragon Shaman. A big, brawny dude with a large sword, possessing bizarre magical abilities derived from gold dragons. He recently suffered some Strength damage, so he's not feelin' his oats, though he is still mostly functional.
*
Blimpy Boo; 4th-level human Cleric. He is a Cleric of Pelor, and reluctantly acts as the primary source of healing in the party.
*
Kratos (imurrx); 4th-level warforged. I forget what the Hell he is. His introduction to the party was less than amiable, so I'm not privy to all his stats. Has a level or two in Artificer, and possibly two or three levels in Fighter. Maybe? Whatever he is...he's the party tank, and that's all we need to know for now.
*
Hrothgar (me); 2nd-level Human Paragon/1st-level Battle Sorceror/1st-level Cloistered Cleric. A brawny warrior-type carrying a large hammer, and an arsenal of minor magical spells. He has his three cat familiars, who act as his sidekicks, scouts, and general companionship.
*
Chubbs, Felix, & Meadows; Three cat familiars. These are Hrothgar's little "bodyguards", and act as general comic relief.
Last session began with our entrance into a tomb; a cool, shadowy chamber fifty feet by seventy-five feet, with the ceiling nearly fifteen feet above the floor. There are eight stone sarcophagi in the room, and the only illumination emanates from both the hallway and our torches, and from
diamonds glittering from the lid of each sarcophagus. We need diamonds to resurrect our friend Horatio, so it seems we may have hit the jackpot. But of course, it's never that easy....
When Hrothgar (my character) creeps over to one of the sarcophagi, we all suddenly hear the grinding of stone on stone, as the lids from a couple of the sarcophagi are removed by humanoid figures draped in fine embroidery from within.
We back the fuck up into the hallway. :eek:
We realize these are undead, and quickly identify these suckers as
vampire spawn. Oh noes...
Our plan is to lure 'em out into the hallway where they will only be able to attack us one or two at a time, so that they don't flank us, and so Reven Tyge can use his breath weapon more efficiently. Blimpy then
turns a couple of 'em, and they dissolve into smoke with a shriek, and vanish. Uh-oh. I forget about vamps being able to take on gaseous form. Now we're
really in deep shit...
Other vamps leave the confines of their stone sarchopagi, and menacingly approach us. I should have posted all this immediately after I returned home, because my memory is a little hazy on what happened next. I vaguely remember Reven using his breath weapon, and causing the vamps to temporarily withdraw. We then decide to hide around the corner, in the hallway, and have Blimpy cast
Hide From Undead so that we may enter the chamber undetected. The spell will be powerful enough to affect the four of us, but not the "battle cats", so the kitties have to
sneak in. We then enter the chamber, but there's a problem. At least a couple of the vampires are able to detect our presence, so I decide to
turn them. Needless to say,
it was not a success. :mad:
Kratos and Reven are now frantically prying the diamonds off the sarcophagi while I chuck vials of holy water at a couple of vamps that I see. Eventually, we rally in a corner of the room so that the bastards can't sneak up us.
At this point, I remember everyone arguing about what tactics to use, as three of the vamps corner us. Senor Kramer (MeatLips) tells me to attempt a Will save. That's fine with me. I have a +9 to Will saves, so these bastards aren't mind-fucking me without a fight. I make the save.
It is then that mutt (Reven Tyge) is forced to roll a Will save. Oh noes...
Epic fail...
Reven, is
dominated. Once we realize what's happened to him, imurrx's character, Kratos, furiously springs into action and charges the vampires. He quickly inflicts an insane amount of damage upon them and kills a couple of the vamps in a single round, while the other one is taking abuse from my vials of holy water.
Again, my memory of events is kinda hazy. I remember both Blimpy and Hrothgar (me) attempting to
turn the vampire spawn, and failing miserably. Meanwhile, that other vamp has still commanded Reven to kill Kratos. They duke it out for a little while until Kratos finally pimp-slaps the vamp. Take note that each vampire dissolves into mist when it is "killed". So much for chopping their heads off...
When the vamp is killed, Reven is freed from the
Domination effect. The other vamps close in for action. During all this, Reven has been inflicting damage on the vamps using his breath weapon, but is unable to completely finish off any of the vamps. Kratos, on the other hand, is kicking ass and taking names, and kills six of these bastards.
Reven is on the floor grappling one of these vampiric fucks, and tries to get out one of his vials of holy water so that he can spray the bastard trying to choke the life out of him. The vampire then bites Reven, and they roll around on the floor. It gets bloody and messy....
We then get into an argument with the DM. We all assume the vampire briefly bit Reven, and that was it. The DM insisted that Reven was being grappled and drained the entire time, though this was not clear to us. Sorry, Senor Kramer...but it just wasn't. :huhsign:
Well, anyway....Reven and the vamp make opposed grapple rolls, and the bloodsucker wins. At this point, I'm done chuckin' vials of holy water, and have cast
Fist of Stone on myself, and "the Battle Cats". We attack the vampire killing Reven, and Hrothgar (my guy) bashes it with his maul (hammer), while the cats go apeshit on the thing, and pounce on it with fang and claw.
The vampire is startled, and releases Reven, but at this point, Reven is close to death....
Blimpy and Hrothgar manage to finish off the two remaining vampires, who then dissolve in a column of smoke, and we somehow manage to survive. Reven is not feeling so wonderful. He suffered some form of energy drain, and will wait twenty-four hours to determine whether or not it's permanent. Also, he suffered
major Constitution drain (eight points), and his Constitution is now
four. Crap.
Well, we decide to barricade the doors and rest here for the night. Since we have no desire for nasty surprises, we pry the lids off the sarcophagi, and wedge them in front of the doors.
No random encounters! So we rest...
Kratos acts as "night watchman", and guards us while we rest. A couple hours pass, and Reven is disturbed by an odd sound. Ok, I'm having a brain fart here, because I forget what the noise was. Oh, well...
At some point, Kratos uses an infusion to restore Reven's Strength damage, and Blimpy heals all his hit point damage, so that's good. But his Constitution loss from the ability draining sucks donkey balls. We
have to get that fixed. Normally, he's an effective melee combatant, but now he's a frail flower. He could catch cold in a stiff wind, and we sure as Hell can't have that...
We rest there a full day, and mutt (Reven) successfully attempts his saving throw twenty-four hours later. No level loss. Whew! After removing our makeshift barricade, we enter the next room....
The first order of business is to search for traps, and after doing so, we enter another chamber. It's an armory. The room is fifty feet by fifty feet, and we see gleaming black weapons and armor. Hrothgar (my guy) casts
Detect Magic in the room, and detects faint magic beneath four suits of armor in each corner of the room. It is then that I notice another gleam emanating from beneath one of the gauntlets of the sword-wielding suits of armor. We spy a diamond-encrusted pommel stone held by one of the suits of armor. Kratos goes to take it, but it soon turns into a game of "Tug of War" as the suits of armor spring to life. Red eyes glow ominously in the helms of the suits of armor as they attack. And so the battle is joined...
Hiilarity ensues as Kratos furiously head-butts the suit of armor, and manages to wrest the sword from its metal hand. I forget what Blimpy did, but Reven attacked, and so did Hrothgar. We win the battle, and see some kind of corpses in the armor. In disgust, we leave the things, and loot the room.
After this, we reverse direction, and go back the way we came in. The party heads back out into the hallway, and enters another chamber. This one is sixty feet long and thirty feet wide. Inside, we see two chests, each about three feet long and two feet wide. Well, I'm probably missing some details here, but I believe we missed something important when we opened the chests, and looted the potions, gold, and keys contained therein. It's here that things went very bad...
The entrance to the room slammed shut, and bars went over the door. The walls began to close in on us. Picture that scene in Star Wars, where the walls began to get closer and closer. I can't remember what we tried to do, but Kratos finally figured something out with the locking mechanism, either on the chest or the room's entrance (I forget which). He rolled very high, and holy crap, did we luck out. I think we were supposed to close the lid to the chest, but didn't. Anyway, Kratos saved our asses, because we
wouldn't have survived that without him. Can you say, "close call"?
After that, the session ended for the night. Here's a list of stuff we looted.
INVENTORYITEM..........................................................
VALUE* Diamonds (
.........................................500 gp each
* Diamonds (4).........................................500 gp each
* Potions (4; unidentified)...............................?
* Rusty Key....................................................?
* Beautifully Wrought Golden Key....................?
* Diamonds (2)...............................................?
* 500 gp
So there we go, guys. It took forever to type this thing, but that should be most of the important stuff. I hope you can dig it.