Game summary for October 8, 2011, Ravenloft Lair Assault; present characters included Aleksei the Skald (human hybrid barbarian/bard | winter fury), Bartok Greigos (human cleric | warpriest), Nuncio Giordano (giormorgo rogue [wizard multiclass] | daggermaster), and Salimor Darkstalker (elf ranger [hunter] | peerless hunter).
The team entered the catacombs of the vampire necromancer, Xanus Kul, to kill him before his blood sacrifice rite filled him with enormous power. Knowing they only had minutes to accomplish this, the team dove right in. The first chamber was massive, with numerous coffins and a grate covering a pit of blood. A snarling werewolf loped toward them as a spine creep skeleton began spinning his head and spine like a flail, grinning in mute anticipation.
Bartok began by blessing the party and then advancing down the stairs. Nuncio followed close behind. Aleksei opened with a shot from his flameburst crossbow and moved in as well. Salimor advanced down the stairs and to the side to provide ranged support with his lightning longbow.
The werewolf was out classed, unable to pierce Bartok’s armor and taking grievous wounds from Nuncio and Salimor as well. Bartok lit a sunrod to eliminate some of the gloom while the spine creep moved in and started flailing away. The cleric also imbued Nuncio’s dagger with radiant energy, which proved anathema to the undead over and over. One of the coffins appeared to be haunted, with some kind of spirit hurling freezing necrotic bolts into the party. It particularly harassed Aleksei, causing him to stumble and lurch in his step, keeping his progress slow for a while.
The werewolf went down quickly, but the spine creep proved dangerous with its spinal whirlwind, which kept driving the party back and interfering with their movement. It drove Bartok out over the grate, where the blood beneath animated and assaulted him with acidic tendrils! Then, a burst of necrotic energy flowed through the complex with a lingering miasma of decay sapping the strength of the group. Finally, the spine creep was brought down by Aleksei, and the team fled away from the coffin toward the far end of the room. They opened one door to find a coffin and pool of blood and moved on. Another chamber was found filled with coffins and a swarm of vampire spawn bloodhunters and twin death kin skeletons.
Salimor set a ranger snare in the doorway which destroyed one of the bloodhunters. He and Nuncio engaged the creatures emerging there, Aleksei limped along trying to catch up and launching spells from a distance, and Bartok sought a clear route through the right-hand door. Within, he discovered a bizarre science lab inhabited by another werewolf and a blaspheme imperfect! The wolfman charged out, and the stitched together corpse followed suit.
Salimor and Nuncio found the vampires easy pickings, but the death kin skeletons were more challenging, drawing several deep cuts. Bartok was hard pressed by the werewolf and blaspheme imperfect who kept grabbing him and sapping his life force. Aleksei, taking a pounding from the soulchill coffin, hurled spell after spell to assist Bartok. Salimor caused the roots growing down from above to fill an area to provide some favorable terrain advantage for the team, and he and Nuncio finished off the skeletons. Bartok called down a flame strike, immolating the werewolf and blaspheme, but the wolf shook off the fire. The blaspheme, undaunted continued to attack.
A second wave of necrotic energy ripped through the catacombs, dealing even more lingering damage. It also caused the area to become infused with necromantic energy, reducing the healing abilities of the party by half!
Meanwhile, Bartok was in serious trouble and Aleksei finally got out of range of the coffin. He ran forward entering the swift panther rage and cut down the werewolf in a spray of gore! He and Bartok then ran toward the science lab because Salimor and Nuncio had discovered the hallway was a large loop. While they ran, the ranger and rogue dispatched four more vampire spawn bloodhunters and crossed a rickety swaying bridge to get to the hallway north of the science lab. Aleksei got pinned down by the soulchill coffin and incapacitated. Meanwhile, another soulchill coffin activated by was disabled by Nuncio by flipping open the lid and laying the bones within to rest.
Bartok caught up to Salimor and Nuncio with the blaspheme imperfect hot on his trail. The brute flailed about, dealing even more serious damage but was eventually dismembered. The team then found a portcullis blocking the path, and the team worked together to lift it and go under. They emerged in the inner sanctum of Xanus Kul right as the power was about to flow into him. Salimor threw a thunderstone into the blood vortex, which slightly disrupted it, buying the party a few precious extra seconds.
A second spine creep skeleton tore into Salimor, but Nuncio used dimension door to surprise Xanus Kul and hit him with a nasty strike. Bartok powered past the skeleton on foot and hurled himself toward the vampire. Xanus blasted Nuncio with a terrible deathwave, which drove the rogue several yards away to slam into a pillar. Salimor fell back into the hallway, leading the skeleton out of the fight and keeping it engaged while launching some arrows in Xanus’ direction.
The rogue pulled himself up and landed a deep cut with his radiant-enhanced dagger, causing Xanus to spray his precious blood out in a fountain. With nothing left but determination, Bartok struggled to the side of the vampire and did the damage that he could. However, the biggest advantage he provided was that Nuncio now had the ability to flank the vampire lord!
Xanus tried to blast the group off of him and failed, and the pairs’ positioning worked. Nuncio slipped into place as Xanus defended against Bartok and drove his radiant-enhanced vicious dagger into a critical spot, ripping a horrendous wound! The blow itself did not kill the vampire, but the radiant power as well as the spurting injury from the deep cut previously proved too much. Mere seconds before his ascension of power, Xanus was cut down and destroyed!
Another force of great evil was eliminated, making the land of the Mists a little safer. The heroes were able to patch their wounds, collect Aleksei’s body and return to more civilized lands in Darkon.
The above summary is for a game session of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition played by the Phoenix Gaming Club.
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