GC Dungeons & Dragons Part 10: Vampire and Vampires and Vampires, Oh My!

In which we discover crates of vampires, and then save the town?




When we left our brave and/or foolhardy adventurers, they had tracked down the man who had ordered the bones of St. Andral stolen, tied him up in his own home, and gone searching for the bones upstairs, only for Elle to find several vampires in crates marked "Junk". Elle was left with one attractive lady vampire draining her life away as the rest of the party charged to her rescue...

This week our new player who didn't get introduced last time changed his name from Graves to Azog, after deciding that was more appropriate for a half-orc barbarian. Our DM also allowed Balazar and Vivi to catch up to us before we started, and they began the evening on the first floor of the house. In exchange, our DM decided to stop going easy on us, and revealed three more vampire spawn in the room with Elle. Now, instead of 3 we were facing 6. And we'd had trouble with a single vampire thrall back in the church in Barovia... at least we are level 4 now?

Anyway, the six vampires don't have names, but for the sake of a better story, I'm naming them now. That way I don't have to keep calling them "Vampire 1" and "Vampire 6". So, randomly pulling names from the air, we have Vampire 1 is Gretchen, Vampire 2 is Gary, Vampire 3 is Fred, Vampire 4 is Hilda, Vampire 5 is Geoff, and Vampire 6 is Valerie. 

Gretchen is the vampire biting Elle, Gary is attacking Jaro and took a hand axe to the back last time, and Fred is standing near Elle waiting his turn to snack. However Talna runs up the stairs banging her shield and shouting the holy words of vampire turning: "Get out of here y'all undead!" causing Gary to turn to flee, while three more crates open in the back of the room and Hilda, Geoff and Valerie likewise attempt to find a way away from the holy shouting.

Gilligan runs into the room, channels the might of Helm into his mace, and smacks Gary mightily, the holy radiance of Helm's fury burning the vampire. The pain causes Gary to steady however, and he turns back to his prey, no longer afraid of Talna's shouts. Talna herself moves into the room next to Gilligan, and casts Dancing Lights, brightening the place up enough for the dragonborn to see, then casts Healing Words on Elle. Elle finds her strength returning as she hears the encouraging words "Get up Elle! No slacking off!"

Vivi, having just arrived from the church after following the party's trail (and having spent the last few sessions studying their spell book and finding the mental fortitude for new magic spells) hears the commotion and runs upstairs. Quickly assessing the situation, they recognize the trouble regenerating vampires can cause, and attempt to halt it with a Chill Touch. Unfortunately the spell goes wide, and merely freezes a piece of wall behind Gary.

Gretchen is intent on her meal, and attempts to bite Elle again, but finds Elle too squirmy and misses the veins. Gretchen then hits Elle with her claws in frustration, leaving Elle on a single HP again.

Gary finds himself surrounded by Jaro Gilligan and Talna, but focuses on the source of the holy burning pain he experiences, and swings wildly at Gilligan, but his claws bounce harmlessly from the goblin's armored form.

Fred the vampire says "My turn," and also bites Elle. Unfortunately, he has better aim than Gretchen, and Elle falls unconscious for the first (but not the last) time this fight. In the back of the room, Hilda runs to the window, unable to get the sound of Talna's shouts out of her head, and begins tearing boards from it in an attempt to flee. Geoff and Valerie huddle in the corner, terrified of the holy wrath of the cleric.

Balazar, having arrived with Vivi, saunters up the stairs. Looking into the room at the group surrounding Gary the vampire, he decides it's too crowded up there, and simply walks back downstairs.

Sadun, already at the top of the stairs, finds herself better able to see thanks to the Dancing Lights, and steps into the room, swinging her magical great sword Briarblade into Gary's flesh. Jaro follows up by bopping Gary on the noggin with his quarterstaff. Gilligan climbs up onto one of the crates for a better view and to make more room for the rest of the party, and once agains channels Helm's divine fury, adding in his own Fury of the Small as he deals a vicious blow to the vampire with his mace. Talna attempts to finish Gary off with Sacred Flame, but the wily vampire twists out of the way of the flames descending from the rafters. Talna then takes the opportunity to shout more words of healing at Elle's unconscious form where the vampires had discarded her, and Elle opens her eyes.

Gary has had enough of our entire party hitting him, and decides to run out of the room into the kitchen Jaro had briefly walked into last session. As he turns to leave, Jaro manages another hit with his quarterstaff, but the vampire is undeterred, and flees the room.

Fred the vampire, seeing fresh prey and not yet having learned Gary's lesson, runs up to Talna and grabs her, taking her by surprise he is able to get a solid bite in. Gretchen meanwhile, runs up and grabs Gilligan. "I've never tried goblin before" she says, as she attempts to find a way to bite him through his armor. "I assure you I don't taste good!" Gilligan protests, although he makes a mental note that the vampire knows what a goblin is.

Geoff joins Hilda at the window, and they succeed at removing several of the boards, Unfortunately for them, our interference with their sleeping schedule means the sun is not all the way set yet, and as the setting sun's rays enter the gaps in the window, they both hiss and step aside, waiting for the sun to disappear.

Elle stands up as quietly as she can, and steps behind Fred for a flanking attack. (We realized as she started to do this that she would cop an opportunity attack from Gretchen for moving to flank Fred, so our DM had her roll stealth. But he wouldn't tell her if she succeeded until she committed to the move. After several minutes of debate, Elle decided to go for it after all, and it turned out Gretchen was too engrossed in the intricacies of Gilligan's armored neck to notice her previous prey moving away. But it was a fun touch on the DM's part.) Muttering disgruntled words against vampires in general, Elle draws her short swords and stabs Fred in the back with them, each sword striking home but the second sword in particular hitting a vulnerable spot in his back (critical hit!).

Sadun, seeing Gary fleeing the room, shouts down the stairs "Balazar! There's on in the kitchen!" and Balazar decides that he could handle the glory of killing a lone vampire. He heads upstairs again, and seeing his target, takes out the bottle of Holy Water Talna had blessed in Barovia. Applying the water to his swords, he steps deftly into the room and stabs Gary in the back, although his second sword swings wide as the vampire spins to face him. The wound from the first sword sizzles as the Holy Water burns the vampire's flesh.



Sadun, distracted by Gary's departure, misses her swing at Fred. Next to her, Jaro shoves his quarterstaff between Gilligan and Gretchen, and uses it as a lever to pry the vampire off the goblin. Gilligan, free to move, sidesteps and slides around Sadun to get an attack on Fred as well, bludgeoning the vampire once more with his holy mace. Despite the punishment, Fred doggedly hangs onto Talna. Talna attempts to free herself by once more summoning Sacred Flames but the vampire turns out of the way, still holding on to her, and she curses vampire dexterity. Vivi again attempts to cast Chill Touch, but misses Fred as well.

Gary, not wanting to deal with a fresh and merciless dragonborn with holy water on his swords, runs to a previously unseen door in the kitchen, and slips into the darkened room beyond. Balazar hears a rustling sound as the vampire searches for something there.

Balazar pursues Gary into the bedroom.

Fred attempts to bite Talna, but in his turn is foiled by his flailing prey, and claws her in frustration.

Gretchen, being deprived of her goblin food and noticing her original meal up and about, swiftly moves back to Elle, grabbing and biting her again, and Elle falls into sweet unconsciousness in the arms of the beautiful vampire.

In the kitchen, Balazar walks up to the door he saw Gary disappear into. In the dim light he sees a figure, presumably the vampire, rummaging around looking for something. The figure hisses at Balazar as his silhouette blocks the light from the kitchen, so definitely the vampire. Balazar takes his time, pulling out his lantern and lighting it, then placing it in the doorway so that he can see. The room has been ransacked, the vampire overturning the bed and emptying the closet in its haste to find whatever it was looking for. Balazar readies his swords for the fight.

Sadun sees Elle go limp in Gretchen's arms, and as Gretchen tosses the gnome's body aside, Sadun loses her temper again. As the red mist descends, Sadun swings her greatsword, hitting Gretchen square on. Ghostly dragonborn figures appear, pushing and taunting Gretchen, and distracting her from all but the raging figure before her.

Jaro, finding himself forgotten but in line with both Gretchen and Fred, pulls out a piece of stale bread from his ration pack. He chants a quick spell, which Catapults the bread directly ahead of him. It pierces Gretchen's arm, follows through Fred's shoulder, and embeds itself in the wall. "Have some lunch!" he shouts.

In the middle of the action, those of us who are conscious and in possession of our faculties hear a commotion outside in the street. Distracted by this, Gilligan misses his swing at Fred. Talna however uses the distraction to once more cast Sacred Flames, this time burning Fred with the holy fire. She then casts a quick healing word on Elle, once more rousing the ranger from her stupor. Vivi, fed up with missing their Chill Touch attempts, simply hurls three Magic Missiles, striking both Fred and Gretchen.

In the bedroom, Balazar observes Gary grab a small sack from the dresser, peer inside briefly, and then fling open the nearby window (which happened to be the only window on the house not boarded up). Unfortunately for the vampire, it had exhausted its turn, and would still have to face Balazar's blades.

In the other room, Fred once more misses Talna's veins with his teeth, and in frustration, claws her into unconsciousness. Unfortunately, both the Dancing Lights and the Turn Undead effect go out at this point, and three more vampire spawn suddenly come to their senses in the back of the room...

Gretchen turns on Jaro, and despite the ghostly dragonborn, bites him firmly in retaliation for the stale bread. However, the spirits seem to sap some of her strength, and Jaro is not as injured as he might have been. (The disadvantage from Sadun's Ancestral Guardians actually stopped the bite from being a critical hit, so this was a good thing for me to remember to apply...)

Valerie, the vampire who had been huddled in the back corner, moves forward now and attacks Gilligan, swinging and missing his small form with her first claw-like hand but landing a solid hit with her second, breaking his concentration on his divine powers.

Hilda and Geoff at the window see the sun has finally gone down and both jump out of it, deciding they don't want to face the screaming band of non-humans behind them. We hear a skirmish erupt in the street at their departure.

Elle contemplates remaining on the floor, but decides to get up after all and attacks Fred again, slashing him with both of her short swords. As an after thought, she pulls her own vial of Holy Water from her pack and pours it over her neck.

In the bedroom, Balazar steps forward and swings his swords at the vampire attempting to flee through the window. His first swing goes wide, but the second strike hits the vampire in the thigh. Undeterred, the vampire prepares to jump out.

Jaro, finding himself in the darkness when Talna lost consciousness, pulls out and lights a torch to see by. (Elle was not happy about this, as she'd remembered she is invisible to creatures relying on darkvision...) Picking out Gilligan's armored form in the light from the torch, he chants another spell, and Gilligan finds himself Enlarged, growing to twice his normal size! Of course, for Gilligan that means about six feet, still shorter than Sadun or Balazar. (Gilligan has upgraded to Hobgoblin status! - Gilligan) Jaro and Vivi, in the back of the room still by the stairs, see light downstairs. We all hear the skirmish outside turn into intense fighting. We presume the vampires are attacking some passersby as they attempt to escape the area. Gilligan, disoriented by his sudden height advantage, misses his attack, while Vivi throws a flaming orb at Fred, burning the skin of his face.

Gary the vampire attempts his final escape from Balazar, putting his foot on the window ledge, and balancing with his left arm behind himself, flings himself from he window. Unfortunately, Balazar's reaction is to swing his sword once more, and he lops Gary's left arm clean from the body. The sack the vampire had grabbed with that arm falls to the floor at Balazar's feet. Looking out the window, Balazar sees the vampires body sprawled lifeless on the cobblestones. The bag spills a few bones onto the floor as it falls.

Fred bites Talna and regenerates, his skin mending back into its previous pristine form. (Talna had succeeded on one of 3 death saves, but being bitten caused an automatic 2 fails of the 3 before she died. This was going to be a close call...) Gretchen attacks Sadun, grabbing the dragonborn and pulling her close, and then bites down on Sadun's neck as well.



Meanwhile, outside, the half-orc Azog finds himself being taken to the gallows, flanked by a trio of city guards. They were passing by a boarded up house when they heard a commotion from inside that sounded like fighting. Azog was intrigued; he had been arrested and sentenced for starting and finishing too many bar brawls. As they turned to look, two vampires fell from the second floor of the house and attacked his captors. Taking the opportunity, Azog broke his restraints and ran into the house.


Inside, Valerie again swings at Gilligan, but misses with both claw attacks. Elle formulates a heroic rescue to restore Talna to health. Leaping up onto the half wall between the storeroom and the stairs down to the first floor, Elle plan to run past Fred and cast the touch-range Cure Wounds on her friend. Sadly, Elle misjudges the jump, and falls over the half-wall onto the staircase below. Luckily, as Fred was still holding Talna up, one of her arms had fallen over the half-wall when she went limp, and Elle is able to jump up from the stairs and slap the cure wounds onto her. (This was a DM fiat, because the idea was too cool to have fail on a  natural one. Also, a high-five should be the standard way of applying Cure Wounds...)

Balazar, finding his foe defeated, walks into the kitchen and looks around for booze. Finding only a mostly empty bottle of wine, he sighs theatrically, and returns to the bedroom. The bones from the sack scattered a bit, but when he tries to pick one up to return it to the sack, he finds it burns him at the touch. Shrugging, he uses a piece of cloth torn from the curtains as an intermediary, and begins gathering the bones back together.

Sadun, in Gretchen's grip, twists enough to bring Briarblade to bear, and slashes it across the vampire's face. Jaro runs over to Talna and uses the same quarterstaff technique he had to save Gilligan, prying her away from Fred's grasp. Talna falls to the floor, still woozy but conscious once more.

Azog, abandoning his guards to the mercies of the attacking vampires, charges into the house. Inside, the captain of the guard is interrogating an old man tied to a chair, who is telling a story about strange people who forced their way into his home, tied him up, and started a ruckus upstairs. Azog runs up the stairs to find the commotion, and bumps into Elle. Downstairs, the guard captain runs back outside to help his men.

Gilligan is having a rough time of it, and misses again. Talna casts Toll the Dead, and a bell rings out in Gretchen and Fred's hearing. Fred pushes past the sensation, but Gretchen doubles over in pain. Vivi follows up with another Magic Missile, hitting both Fred and Gretchen. The first missile explodes in Gretchen's face, leaving shreds of flesh in its wake. Gretchen falls to the floor, dead for the final time. Fred manages to get Talna into another grapple however, deftly pulling her to him and pinning her arm to her side. Behind Gilligan, Valerie is mirroring his luck, missing the goblin again with both of her claw attacks.

Those of us who can see the windows notice a bright glow coming from outside despite the sun having gone down.

Elle casts Zephyr strike, giving her legs a burst of speed. She runs in behind Fred and stabs him with both swords, one of them finding and bursting a kidney. (I figure a crate like that deserves organ failure, even if a vampire doesn't use its kidneys much...)

Balazar swaggers out of the kitchen, the sack of bones tied to his belt and attempting to get the last drops from the wine bottle. Finding Azog at the top of the stairs, Balazar does the most natural thing, which is to try to kick Azog down the stairs. The half-orc is tougher than Balazar anticipated however, and stands firm.

Sadun, free from Gretchen's grasp, swings Briarblade again, slashing Fred down the back. Her ghostly ancestors reappear, pestering the vampire. Elsewhere in the room, Jaro walks over to a window and attempts to peer out through the boards. He has trouble seeing but thinks that somebody in the street is on fire. Deciding that this is more interesting than the two vampires still attempting to kill us all, he takes a careful walk around the battle towards the window Hilda and Geoff had jumped from.

Azog, angered at this ruffian of a dragonborn's demeanor, goes into a rage, grabs Balazar by the shoulders, and pushes him into the room that Elle had run into a few moments before. Following this unexpected arrival, we hear footsteps on the stairs, and a brooding man with a black cloak enters the storage room behind the enraged half-orc. Azog glances behind him but igores the newcomer, recognizing the captain of the guard. The guard captain assess the situation; ignores Sadun and Gilligan, and throws a ball of fire into Fred, killing the vampire in a burst of flames. As the vampire disintegrates, Talna finds herself free to turn around, and takes a moment to check out the captain.

Gilligan, paying no attention to the new arrivals, turns and grapples Valerie, and swings her around so that she is within Sadun's range. The confused vampire looks around as Gilligan shouts "Hit this person next!"

Talna attempts to Chill Touch but has the same luck as Vivi, and the shot goes wide. Shrugging, she runs to the far side of the room after Jaro, intent on looking out the window.

The guard captain, seeing the final vampire, pulls a large axe from under his cloak. Conjuring another ball of flames, he applies the magical fire to the axe blade, and swings it into Valerie's exposed back. She burns to ashes with a scream.

The two guards Azog recognizes from outside come up the stairs at this point. The captain looks our ragged party over, turns to the two guards, and says "go get eight more guards." He turns to us, and asks "Who are you, and why are you in this man's house?" Talna responds as only Talna can. "How much do you know about bones?"

To be continued! Hopefully without us being arrested en masse!