DM: Grumpy
PCs: Warden, Marrr, Euphrix, Lara, Runt, Shiisthel, Jax
A few days ago I was on an exploration mission there we encountered a Vergheist, which means vampire in an old language, and came across its lair.
A few days later another group went out and Artix was taken by the same creature. A rescue lead by Isaac and the others of that group failed horribly, resulting in the death of Magmus, Addison and Anne Marie as well as not getting Artix back.
Warden heard about the vampires in that ruined tower on the edge of the Whisper Woods and gathered a team to slay the evil in there and put our fallen comrades to rest so they don’t have to suffer from undeath.
We prepared well and discussed our strategies for some days in the bitter dwarf inn on how to best deal with the Vergheist and stop it from flying away with someone, like it happened to Artix and what to do when we reach the ruined tower and have to climb down the hole or face the monster Isaac reported off. After everything was settled, we headed out towards the Whisper Woods.
The first day of our journey went by relatively uneventful and I safely brought us over the river due to my magic. During my Watch Euphrix and myself heard something getting dragged, We woke up the group but we couldn’t see it just heard the sound as it moved away from us after a short discussion on maybe throwing a torch towards the sound to get a better view, the sound got farer away and finally stopped altogether, so we continued our rest.
While we were coming closer to the Whisper Woods, the weather turned a bit and it got cloudy and colder than the day before, I mentioned, that we maybe should look out for some shelter and camp outside the forest before we reach our destination, to avoid camping inside the Woods, but the Rest of the group wanted to make quick progress.
The Woods whispered as usual, but we had no problems thanks to Lara’s aura.
We found the Cave entrance, where Lara and Magmus escaped once, so we did not have to climb down the deep hole but is was late in the evening and we had to rest before exploring further.
A small bat landed on Runts shoulder, he cached it and tried to squeeze it but the creature seems unaffected, so Marrr took on to it.
We walked a bit away from the cave to rest, all while the bats were watching us, we prepared a trap inside the Euphrix’s tidy hut and Shiisthel lead the conversation telepathically.
We faked a dispute and left Marr as a bait for the Vergheist, it worked well, as only a few minutes later the frosty undead companions of that bat like vampire pulled themselves out of the ground and the Vergheist himself swooped down trying to catch Marrr. Marrr threw a net over the Vampire, bringing it to the ground. But to the horror of all of us, it clawed itself out of the net and grappled Marrr and took off into the air with him. I was shocked all our planning and Marrr was taken that easily, I quickly prepared my self to banish Marrr to another plane of existence and then bringing him back, but before I was able to do so, Marrr grappled the Vergheist, like it was foretold and both plummeted to the ground.
Instead, I then called Spirit Guardians upon the enemies, hindering them and slowly bringing them down as two large bats flew screeching towards us. Their noise made it difficult to keep concentrating, but luckily I was able to keep the Spirits up.
Warden struck the Vergheist with his sword of light and it died and burned to ashes, instead of sinking to the ground like it did the last time I had fight it. We then quickly defeated the screeching bats and the frosty undead, while they started retreating and sinking to the ground them self. One of them looked like the poor Merric, who fall to the now dead Vergheist the first time.
We headed back to the cave entrance to have a better fighting position if more enemies appear and Marrr painted a hole in the wall, creating a real alcove for us to camp in. Lara fell asleep, luckily Euphrix woke up on his own and was able to wake me up as well and we quickly dragged her inside our alcove with the tidy hut. Some 6 legged wolf set of my alarm, but just run out of the cave, there seemed to be some other gem-dropping bat watching at us before, but it disappeared. To the end of the rest the area was affected by wild magic, making it difficult to cast spells, soaking out all the energy from time to time
We still continued and explored the cave and found the area where the hole at the ruined tower above led down and Runt pointed at a coffin there it goes down further and the last group got slaughtered. There was some carvings on that coffin, that Euphrix could make out to say something along the lines of “the first star after dawn will bring the light” In an sarcophagus in another room we found a ruby in the middle of some skeleton. Lara took that gem and hold it under the hole, there the sun was coming in, it seemed to burn after a while and she put it down. Shiisthel, looking at the ruby now and walking around it, could see, through the eys of that seemed to be bats, different places and also the cathedral full of vampires, between the Sliver Grove and the Briarwall forest, i heard of.
Venturing further down we came across the hall there Runt died the last time, skull sculptures were towards the sides of the hallway. There was a gas trap or leak, but holding our breath and covering our face, we could pass it without problems, otherwise, that floor was empty, Runt mentioned, last time creatures feasted there. We went down further and searched some cells, but besides rotten flesh and dung we found nothing.
We heard some dice rolling from further down south and as we approached we found 4 Vampires and one of them was Addison, they hissed towards us as soon as Warden came with his sunblade, and Addison shouted to put that thing down, Warden backed up a bit behind the corner and the Vampires seemed passive so far, Lara walked towards them and started chatting with them, as we told her to back off the door south opened and the creature Isaac mentioned in his reporting approached.
Lara started a conversation with it, but it demanded to talk to someone who is not a fool. Shiisthel responded back and we learned what the Doctor how he calls himself is only a servant to the master, as well as that Vergheist is one of the master’s creations.
The Doctor was not aggressive to start with and had some weird armor around him soaking up the Light from Wardens blade. He mentioned something that he would like to try with someone whose heart is still beating. As we did not believed that he would let us go, we prepared for a fight and I drank a potion of heroism, seeing our preparations, the Doctor sighed and dashed towards us with an unholy speed,
We were unable to really get a hold on him but dispersed 3 of the vampire spawns, killing them within the sunlight of Wardens blade, but not before one of them had slain Runt. Warden had him covered and infused him a healing potion. To my frustration, that effect on our magic was still active and we had problems casting our spells, attempts to shield the Doctor’s attacks had worked, but I was unable to call my spiritual guardians. Addison was still there and dueled with Marrr and Shiisthel heated up the Doctor’s armor, which seemed absorbing the power of Lara’s smites as well as Warden’s hits with his blade. He was also quite resistant to normal attacks even from some magical weapons.
The Doctor bit Shiisthel and dragged her away moving away from us and the sunlight of Warden’s blade. He left Shiisthel dying on the ground and his armor cooled off. Luckily her animal companion was able to fly to her and infuse a healing potion, bringing her back up.
I’m not sure why, if the Doctor got bored or felt like he was in danger, but he left the fight and moved south, warning us what he’ll give us that last chance to leave or he lett his minions slaughter us. Given how the fight went so far and with this magic mishaps keep happening, we took that chance and quickly left and Marrr took Addison’s bow with him, hopefuly weakening Vampire-Addison through that. We rushed out of the Woods and camped for the night. Our Way back to Ruined Oak went by quickly and without much trouble, but we were already making precautions to return and slay that vampire. Hopefully with the full power of our magic.
Jax