Session 36
Ready’reat 7, 621 CY
City of Greyhawk
The White Oak Company was assembled at the Blue Dragon Inn to discuss what project to undertake at this week’s end, when Vask arrived. He had just come from Ford Keep and a meeting with the wizard Prospero, and Prospero wanted to help with the vampire problem…
“I had hoped the Adversary's focus was turned away from you and your friends by now,” Prospero had said. “If the vampires are still watching you, then he must know some or all of the prophecy about how you will stop him. If your companions are amenable to it, we might be able to lay a trap for the vampires...but you would all have to serve as the bait, and there are obvious risks there…”
It was not even much of a discussion; Haruspex Niv and John Grond were sick of those vampires and wanted them gone. No one, not even the new blood like Ulrich, objected. And so it was decided. But what form would the trap take? And where? Where were the vampires now?
Vask believed he should go outside, shout Prospero’s name, and tell them they accepted the challenge, and then Prospero would do all the rest.
But then nothing else happened. Until-
Ready’reat 8, 621 CY
City of Greyhawk
The companions Haruspex Niv the Theurgist, John Grond the Anti-Hero, Percy the Curate, Reed Underbough the Hobbit Cutpurse, Rom Riverbluff the Swordsman, Gendri the Swordsman, Vask the Veteran, and Ulrich Fallingwater the Acolyte were back at the Blue Dragon, deciding if they should seek Prospero out, when Roger Bacon, Prospero’s right hand man let himself into their conference room. He explained that he was now aware of the situation and already had the beginnings of a plan. It involved having the White Oak Company announce openly that they had found a secret weapon under Castle Greyhawk that would let them stop the Adversary, then head to the ringstones in the Hidden Dell and hide behind the magical wall of repulsion there. The vampires might follow, but Roger and a force he was raising would follow them, surround them at the wall, and then wipe them out. In theory it would work, though there was no telling if the vampires would travel alone.
Liking the idea, and having no better one of their own, the entirety of the companions agreed to chance it.
Ready’reat 9, 621 CY
On the Road
The next morning the companions set out north from the city. They needed to move with speed, so the practice of those who normally wore heavier armor in dungeons traveling in leather armor was introduced to Ulrich. The cart was left behind, but one mule was brought along just in case. Most of the hirelings and henchmen were left behind, except for Harvard and Herv, being the most experienced henchmen. Everyone understood this mission was going to be dangerous, maybe their most dangerous yet.
There was no sign of Roger Bacon all day, but the understanding was that the forces he had quickly gathered were following them at such a distance that the vampires would hopefully not notice that they were being followed too.
That night, they camped in the Cairn Hills. They set watches and were extra careful, but no encounters happened.
Ready’reat 10, 621 CY
Cairn Hills
Moving on, the companions crossed the valley that separated the eastern Cairn Hills from the western Menhir Hills early. The rest of the day, though, was filled with delay after delay, as trails seemed strangely unfamiliar, or familiar ones led nowhere, and the companions had to search over and over to find the Hidden Dell, as if it was avoiding them now. Only at sundown did they find it, and the double ring of menhirs that had once stood by Greyhawk City, or were an exact duplicate of them. The fastest way inside was to open a gap in the wall by killing the shadows that could be summoned out of the menhirs. Two shadows were quickly dispatched before they could hurt anyone, and then everyone hustled inside. Announcements were loudly made that they had arrived and would be taking the weapon into the cairn in the morning. And then they made camp. And waited.
They did not have to wait long. Ten minutes later, as twilight descended on them, they saw a group of about 20 barbarian-like warriors approaching the ringstones. Out of that group of men stepped two familiar-looking vampires. And then they flew – literally – straight at the company, only to be repulsed by the invisible barrier. They were both surprised. One of them threw himself at the barrier again, while the other one said, “Not possible!”
The companions were not idle, nor had they been that first day before leaving the city; they had quietly stocked up on well over a dozen vials of holy water, distributed among the company, and they hurled vials and vials of holy water through the barrier at the companions. Perry threw oil instead. Reed and Rom dipped quarrels and arrows into holy water before getting ready to fire them at the vampires.
Though the vampires burned and were in pain, one of them tried to coerce Reed into stepping out of the barrier and joining them, but it didn’t take. So one ordered his berserkers to charge, while the other summoned wolves and a huge flock of bats to the scene. Of the berserkers, two just happened to try the right gap between menhirs that was open and made it through, but they were struck down quickly, too quickly for anyone to immediately figure how those two got through.
At that was when Roger Bacon dropped a fireball on the vampires. Roger was closer than they’d known, invisible and levitating 200 yards away and 20 yards high. The vampires burned, more so because of Perry’s oil, yet the vampires were still only lightly injured.
The vampires fell back from the barrier, just as the wolves began finding their way in. They were dire wolves, the largest wolves any companion had ever seen. Four made it in before Percy set up a barrier of flaming oil through the gap in the invisible barrier, and even then two more wolves came through anyway. Of them, one turned out to be a werewolf, but all of them were slaughtered quickly, even though several fighters received nasty bites. Haruspex Niv cast Phantasmal Forces outside the barrier, making it look like reinforcements had arrived. The berserkers and some of the wolves kept busy attacking the phantasmal reinforcements, which kept Niv busy having them all react accurately, too busy to make any of them appear to hit.
Meanwhile, Roger had dropped a lightning bolt and another fireball on the vampires, but the lightning bolt had not affected them at all. The same happened when Haruspex fired a magic missile at them, and then he remembered the magic resistance on the kobolds who served the Adversary outside Prospero’s house, long ago. The vampires were taking huge amounts of punishment, but were still only lightly injured. Worse, they had taken to the sky and brought the fight to Roger. In close quarters he could get off no more spells and was trying, and failing, to defend himself with a dagger.
And where were Roger’s forces? They had never crossed from the entrance to the dell, but the fighting could be heard from here, including the screams of the men that suggested the fights were not going well. Only the companions, safe in the barrier, were doing well, but for how much longer? It was going to be necessary to take the fight to the vampires and save Roger. But would everyone go? Herv and Harvard would stay behind, with Percy staying behind to heal Herv (the most injured member of the company so far, though over half the company remained uninjured), and Niv would stay behind to distract the forces outside with his spell. Everyone else charged outside and into the chaos between themselves and Roger.
Ulrich found himself confronted by a wolf, and Reed’s progress was momentarily blocked by a flock of bats. Vask was attacked by a berserker. But other combatants were starting to leak into the dell past Roger’s forces. A ghoul leaped out of the darkness and bit Gendri. And worse, two wraiths flew by, one just missing Rom, while the other clutched John and drained energy from him. It looked like a deadly fight was in front of them all (or most of them, Reed just sprang away from the bats with his magic boots), but just then Percy saw what they were dealing with. Percy stopped in the middle of casting a curing spell and raced out to turn undead. The ghoul and the wraiths all fled, all also wounded by magic weapons (Gendri and Rom were using borrowed weapons), and that left a lot of people to rush to Ulrich’s aid just as Vask cut down his berserker foe. And Ulrich needed the aid because his opponent turned out to be not an actual wolf but a second werewolf, and Ulrich was the only one with no borrowed magic or silver weapons. Herv joining the battle with his magic spear that was super-effective against lycanthropes made quick work of the werewolf and left everyone free to rush the vampires.
Roger, still struggling, had been slowly levitating closer to the ground, most likely because he saw the company’s approach and wanted their help in the fight. But then a fresh ally arrived from the unseen fight on the other side of the dell -- a lamassu. The lamassu flew in and took over fighting one of the two vampires, while the other vampire launched himself down at the companions. Vask’s magic battle axe met the vampire’s charge -- and dropped him! The companions were quick to pounce on the corpse and drove a wooden stake through its heart. Meanwhile, the lamassu managed to drive the other vampire off. With the vampires gone, the wolves and bats -- and presumedly the undead who were out of sight -- dispersed. The battle was won!
The companions scrambled to look for treasure on the vampire’s remains, but found nothing that appeared of value other than a gold amulet of intricate design.
None of the companions had even been seriously hurt, and some not hurt at all. It was truly a remarkable success, with only Roger bleeding profusely and shaken. But they had won, and better than they knew, for soon they were found by Fridswid who told them the other vampire had now also been caught and slain. But they also learned of the terrible cost of protecting them from the worst of the vampires’ minions; 1 canon, 1 swashbuckler, 1 thaumaturgist, 4 priests, 1 swordsman, 5 warriors, and 13 veterans all died trying to hold the entrance to the dell.
Session 37
Ready'reat 19, 621 CY
City of Greyhawk
While most of the Company of the White Oak was still busy with their downtime activities, Percy, Rom Riverbluff, and Ulrich Fallingwater assembled to discuss whether to launch a smaller expedition to Castle Greyhawk the next day. When Reed Underbough (and his henchpeople Herv and Muelara) joined them, Reed had another suggestion.
A few weeks earlier, John Grond's hireling Turmrulda had been beaten and robbed. Reed had looked into the matter through his contacts and discovered the attackers were a group of demi-human-hating rakes, led by a thief named Eike, and spent most of their time in one of the city's private bathhouses. Reed and his people had been staking out the place for days and learned there were no more than a dozen possible opponents, very few of whom should be wearing any armor or carrying weapons.
Everyone agreed that they should teach these rakes a lesson, even though combat in the city meant outright killing them came with its own legal dangers. People accustomed to fighting with swords equipped themselves with clubs so they could deliver a good beating.
With Rom's hireling Genevieve along, it was a group of seven adventurers in full adventuring gear who marched into the bathhouse a few hours later. Going straight for confrontation, they wound up in a series of short battles, first with the two rakes in the entrance, and then with groups of one to three reinforcements who kept showing up. No one had even made it more than two rooms into the bathhouse - and because of that, Eike and a cleric working with him were able to escape out a window at the back of the building. The beaten rakes did have a fair amount of treasure that was removed from them, but then the company beat a hasty retreat before the law arrived.
Ready'reat 21, 621 CY
Castle Greyhawk
Having arrived at the Village of Hawfair Green yesterday, the four companions spent this morning traveling to the castle with their henchmen and hirelings, including Percy's carter and the carter's guard, Bella and Everard. The drawbridge was up, but Reed recalled the magic word that caused it to lower.
They had left for the castle with no plan, but en route had realized there was a square tower along the curtain wall they had never explored before. Reed climbed the outside walls and checked the interior through windows -- and saw the third floor was occupied by a strange bird man. Down below, the others could even hear some others on the roof of the tower, singing. The company moved in from the ground level and found all three floors unoccupied. Instead, the bird men had all retreated out onto the roof. Reed jumped out for a look and saw the bird men looked like black-skinned men, their bodies covered in black feathers, but with bare bat-like wings. They were ready for a fight, but not a sleep spell cast by Muelara from inside. Those who didn't fall to their deaths were asleep on the roof. All but one was killed in their sleep. They tied up and woke their prisoner to question him, but when they couldn't communicate with it, they killed him too. They had almost no treasure; just primitive weapons with little resale value.
So they decided to go down into the dungeon. They had seen little of level 2 to date, so they aimed to rectify that. They went down through the courtyard's trapdoor and made their way quickly to the new spiral staircase down. On the second level, they headed west into unexplored territory. They found some empty, or mostly empty, rooms, and lots of corridors that intersected at sometimes odd angles.
They also encountered two men in platemail armor. One, Gabriel, threatened them with a two-handed sword and clearly wanted to fight. The other man seemed to be Gabriel's henchman, Denis, who hung back. Gabriel was subdued, though he held his own for a few minutes. Denis surrendered. Gabriel had been trying to gain experience down here and was looking for big challenges; Denis explained that they had just passed through a room full of zombies next door that Gabriel hadn't wanted to bother with. The Company decided to leave Gabriel with Denis and bother with the zombies.
It turned out to be a dozen zombies in the room, surrounded by mining equipment. Percy was able to blast just a few of them into dust, leaving the rest in need of destroying by weapons. The battle started out rough when the zombies still had numbers, but soon they were whittled down to nothing. By the time it was over, everyone had been injured on this expedition, though none seriously. A gem was found in the room, but that was it for treasure from this expedition.
