Having decided that Isolde wasn't really a threat, the party disturbed a carnival wagon full of zombies, vaporising them rapidly with fireballs. As the wagon burned, the roof erupted and three large, bat-like creatures took off, followed by three gaunt looking vampire spawn, looking like twisted parodies of the party they had rescued from the library. Realising the threat that they could pose to the town, especially when everyone was out for the Carnival and guards were down, our heroes set off in pursuit...
Our dramatis personae:
Ser Adon de Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Paladin, from a knightly background, with two human retainers and a priest), played by Paul (dr_mitch). Lawful Good. Married to Ser Alys.
Kelwarin (Kel) (a half-elf Sorceror flush with the powers of wild magic, an outlander), played by Graham (First Age). Chaotic Good.
Gaddock Teeg (a halfling wizard and former prizefighter), played by Alex (Doggetay), Neutral Good
Ser Alys de Adon-Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Fighter with a soldier background, currently the leader of the town militia of Daggerford), played by Tom (Guvnor). Lawful Neutral. Imagine a slightly greener take on Grace Jones... Married to Ser Adon.
also featuring:
Ireena Kolyana (a human warrior, daughter of the Burgomaster of Barovia, Twice-Bitten reincarnation of Strahd's unrequited love, Tatyana) - upgraded as a sidekick.
with :
Alexei the Vistana (a young human expert, sent to pay off his debt to the party by his Vistani elders after they rescued Arabelle from certain death when Alexei lost her in town. A late teenager who is so taken by Ireena and the excitement of the adventure that he's forgotten he planned to be sulky and surly for his 13 moon exile) - upgraded as a sidekick.
All characters are presently 6th level, including the sidekicks.
4th December 7pm
Tracking quickly into town, our heroes ran through the building mist of the cold winter night. The mist was already building, nearly reaching Gaddock's chest. They instinctively headed to the Blue Water Inn to see if all was well. The Inn was bustling, but there was no immediate sign of a threat until they heard a noise above on the roof. Gaddock sent his owl up to the roof of a building opposite, and looked through its eyes, revealing the presence of a large, bat winged creature with sharp claws and a sharp proboscis. Gaddock made the owl fly casually back, and told the others what was there. Ser Alys immediately set off to the town hall to get her armour, only a few streets away.
The creature on the roof didn't seem to notice Ser Alys, who quickly got to her room and put her armour on. She was disappointed that the guard on the Town Hall was obviously derelict in his duties, as he wasn't present. She only realised that she was wrong in this assessment as she set off back towards the Blue Water Inn, and a large splash of rain landed on her hand. Only it wasn't rain, it was blood.
Looking up, she saw her guard's legs dangling from the roof as another of the creatures sucked his essence out of him. Realising that she could do nothing to help him as he was 20 feet up in the air, Ser Alys started to run towards the Inn to get help. Unfortunately, her chainmail caught the creature's attention as she ran, and she heard a dull thud as the corpse of her town guard hit the stairs by the entrance, discarded by the creature as it took to the air to start in its next tasty snack.
Meanwhile, at the Inn, the other creature called out in a high pitched nearly inaudible cry, and took to the air. Kelwarin blasted at it with a firebolt but missed, setting the roof of a nearby townhouse on fire. He rushed to warn the occupants, while Ser Adon through his javelin of light at the creature. This too missed, impaling the roof near the fire and illuminating the work that Kel's hastily organised bucket chain needed to address. Gaddock and Adon started running back to the main square to make sure Alys was safe.
They arrived to a scene of carnage, with a body of one of the creatures on the floor in the alley entering the town square, but no sign of Ser Alys. Gaddock scanned the rooftops and realised that Ser Alys had been dragged to the roof and two of the creatures were feeding on her. He warned Ser Adon, who misty stepped onto the roof and attacked. Swiftly, battle was joined. Adon had arrived just in time to prevent the demise of his wife, who was cruel grappled as the creatures drank her blood. With support from the spell casters, another of the creatures was killed, but suddenly the air was filled with strikes, flying confusing patterns around the group.
The surviving creature started to fly off; Adon taunted it, trying to goad it to combat him with his magic to no avail. Protected by the striges swarming around it, it quickly put distance between them. Gaddock had mindspiked it, so could follow its progress. It made two stops in short succession as it tracked west towards the Church before turning back and round to the north of the town square.
Ser Alys was healed by her husband, then they headed in pursuit, finding two victims of the creature discarded in alleyways. They eventually tracked it to the Wachterhaus, where they found it draining one of Lady Wachter's maids who had served them when they visited last. Initially, they wondered if it was - in fact - the lady of the house, but then they became certain that it was something else. It was surrounded by a larger swarm of stirges which immediately started towards Gaddock as he prepared his spell. Ser Adon rushed forward, only for the larger creature to dive towards him, plunging its proboscis into him. If it wasn't for his orcish hardiness then he would have likely been dead, a drained husk.
A desperate fight attached with stirges attaching to our heroes and draining their blood, Gaddock firing off waves of magic missiles, and both the knights fighting hard. Kel's magic wasn't with him, as the creatures moved too quickly for his witch bolts to hit. The battle became more of a struggle as magic reserves and healing potions were exhausted. Eventually, Ser Alys through herself in front of her husband, distracting the creatures from killing him. Gaddock peppered it with whistling magic missiles of death, and eventually they brought it down.
They decided to head back to the Inn to recover and get a drink after the fight, but then decided that they needed to tell Lady Wachter that her maid had been killed. After they'd done that, they could debate how many stirges the larger creatures were worth to see who had 'won'!
Knocking on the door, the other maid answered, fainting when she was bluntly told that her friend and colleague had been sucked to death by a flying vampiric beast, and that vampires were abroad. Ser Adon caught her as she collapsed, and then realised that Lady Wachter had arrived, dressed in a severe night coat, holding the hand of someone behind in the shadows...
GM Notes:
This was a fun and brutal evening. The creatures were Strigoi, magically mutated striges from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and they are very dangerous. Ser Alys was one hit away from dying as the encounter opened and her husband and Gaddock arrived. Ser Adon was 1 hit point from dying if hit in the second battle, having suffered a critical and a second solid hit. I only noticed the fact that the drain attack would cause an insta-kill if hit points were taken below zero with its necrotic damage. Always read the small print, Dom! They were tough enough to be a significant threat, especially when the players were down in resources from previous fights.
This is going to be a factor in what happens next; the characters have fought a running battle through the streets of Vallaki, yet they're only facing half of the threat. They have run out of resources and have little left in the way of spells. And it's only about 9 to 10 pm in the evening. It's not even midnight. Attrition is really dangerous, especially as they haven't had time for a short rest yet.
I used the Lazy DM's suggestions for running large numbers of creatures for the stirges, which worked well. I nearly forgot I had that book(*) ready to use as a reference and must be ready to draw on it properly next session.
Graham was unlucky and had a run of poor rolls all evening - we've all been there and done that!
Paul was fortunate that Ser Adon had acquired new armour.
How are the notables of Vallaki doing and what about the party's sidekicks...?
2 March 2022
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