Thursday, November 3, 2011

Gothic Greyhawk Game 45 - Firebombed Again

Cast of Characters:
Mordecai, a Cleric-6: Adam
Forlorn, an Elf-5 (1): Bo
Mister Moore, Magic User-6: Mike
Shy, a Fighter-6 (3):  JR
Leonidas the Paladin-5:  Nogal
Digit, the Elf Thief-6:  Z

Henchmen:
Phat Kobra, a Dwarf-5
Grumble the Smug, Halfling-5 (3)
Donavich, Cleric-4
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AD&D 1E, I6 Ravenloft
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Life expectancy of henchmen in the group has continued to decline.  The group rode back to town, disheartened by the recent death of Serge, who was smashed by an Iron Golem's fist.  These days, they use a pair of horses and a wagon to haul stuff around, like corpses, and the paladin rides a war horse (though not his special paladin-friend horse).  It beats walking.

Zeke, a henchman who had died in the cave-in by the creek-side a few days ago, was excavated by some peasants, and they returned his body and belongings to the players, including Zeke's Deck of Many Things.  (The peasants might have pocketed quite a bit of electrum, but who's counting?)  The temptation of using the Deck of Many Things, now that it's back in the limelight, was a bit high; I might have had something to do with it.  "I wonder if one of the cards would lead to something like Wishes.  You guys sure could use some wishes to get some of these dead henchmen back to life."

Note:  There's a poll on the right if you have any experience with the Deck of Many Things in your own campaigns.

Other than that, the rest of the game session was taken up by a massive vampire ambush in town that night.  You'd think after being attacked while sleeping last week, the group would take some counter measures; sleep in a guarded place, post some watches, something.  They sprawled across 3 nearby abandoned cottages in the north part of town, not far from the church, and sacked out.  Mordecai was awakened by a heavy knocking on the door to his home; looking out of the 2nd floor window, he saw a vampire chick on the cobble stone street looking up at him.  "C'mon out, we want to have a talk with you!"  He pulled the shutter closed and started waking the others.

A second later, the roof was doused by a Molotov cocktail from atop a nearby cottage, and Mordecai's companions (Grumble, Leonidas, and Donavich) were running down the stairs to the back exit, dragging armor and backpacks.  They ran smack into a pair of dire wolves in the alley, and had to drop gear and start defending themselves sans armor.

Mister Moore heard the ruckus from across the street, woke up, and looked out the window himself; he saw the house on fire, vampires fluttering in the air (there were three of them), huge night wolves loping into the alley behind the burning house, and the din of combat.

Mordecai turned the first vampire into the alley, a new female vampire they hadn't seen before (Helga).  A few rounds later, Top-Hat Man and Gertrude dropped into the alley as well.  Questionable Ruling:  I gave Mordecai a second turn attempt when the other vampires arrived, since his first was successful and these vampires weren't present when the combat started; I see now it was too generous. As it happened, he turned Gertrude with his second attempt, and they were able to fend off Top-Hat Man with magic weapons and the Sunsword; unfortunately, all three vampires escaped safely into the darkness for the next skirmish.  They'll be back.  The other two contingents of player characters slowly joined the fray, blasting dire wolves with spells and quickly reinforcing the guys pinned down in the alley.

The next morning, they learned there was a massacre at the tavern earlier the night before; the vampires had killed the bar keep and some villagers, perhaps to find where the characters were staying.  After a quick meal of grubby peasants, the three vamps went and firebombed Mordecai's house.

"No place in town is safe for us until those guys are all staked", was the popular opinion amongst the players.  "They level drain us, then they head off to regenerate and attack again; we don't regenerate.  They're just going to keep up the hit and run."  The group made plans for an extended stay at the castle - here on out, they would camp right in the dungeon.  "Either we walk out of there alive, with three more dead vampires to our names, or we don't come back at all".

It'll be like Thunderdome.

4 comments:

  1. I like the way this post-Ravenloft adventure is turning out.

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  2. I await the next instalment with batted breath.

    Baited, I mean baited breath. ;)

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  3. I love how clever you're playing the vampires; they're not interested in a knock-down brawl and are chipping away at the players, which must annoy them no end! Good stuff!

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  4. This sounds like a great adventure. I really enjoy reading these posts.

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