Journal of Rollo Lavius 3

Entry #560 - Frying Tonight

(G560 18/05/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI25

[Corhim Sparkledingle the gnome wizard, Fenrir the human warlock, Dak the half-orc barbarian and Levmeia the cleric are on Bone Island trying to track down the vampires of the Dementor.]

DAY 634 (27th Uktar) (November) cont ...

Our heroes were somewhat at a loss. Questioning old men at the dockside did not appear to immediately lead to them saying something like "the vampires went a-that-away!".

Corhim was using Detect Thoughts and the only useful clue he got from one of the old fellows were some scattered images of a small boat at one of the quays.

The first boat they looked at was just a fishing vessel, but the other one had evidently been hired by a group of adventurers. Amongst the gear inside the cabin was a letter that gave some useful information - the vampires were three miles inland to the south near a place called Cap Siso.

Some locals were watching them go in and out of other peoples boats. Fenrir gave them a wave. When he went over, they went back to their own business.

The locals were of no further use to them so they headed off, walking out of the east gate. A few dozen steps further though and they changed their minds and went back to look around the shops.

The only shop that was of the vaguest use to them was a general store. Fenrir asked for a map, but they did not sell any. Instead he paid a gold for directions to Cap Siso.

'Just follow the road to El Gio, then south and Cap Siso is on your left,' he was told.

They set off again, strolling through the pleasant countryside to El Gio. It was not far. The weather was warm, but the sun filtered through a high covering of mist, giving the landscape a strange muted golden tone.

As they walked through El Gio, the local shut their doors and windows and hid. They kept walking and the path went into a forest of low trees and forked. Fenrir took to the air to have a look and saw three villas from where they were. One to the left and two to the right. One of the ones to the right was on a forest covered hill.

They decided to try the one down the left road first. The gate was locked so Fenrir opened it with his ring of Knock. Once at the house door he knocked (with his hand this time) but there was no answer. Looking through the window he saw a dead body inside. It looked like one of the locals. Corhim opened the door and the stench of death assaulted his nostrils.

Dak leaned over the body to try and figure out the cause of death, but couldn't. The others looked and since there were two puncture marks on the man's neck it seemed most likely he was the victim of a vampire bite.

They looked about and found a small basement, but it was just a wine cellar. There was nothing else of any interest.

It was three in the afternoon now so they decided to try looking at the house on the forested hill. Fenrir flew up, invisible, while the others waited at the gate.

It was a nice big villa, but all the doors and windows were closed and shuttered up.

He returned and together our heroes entered the villa's courtyard and started by looking in the stable block. There were no horses here, but there were a dozen guards. They were just standing in a sort of daze, but when they saw the intruders they attacked.

A pitched battle commenced as more guards came through the doors of other outbuildings. They were no match for Fenrir's blasts and Dak's blade and before long there were twenty-four dead bodies in the courtyard.

Stepping over the piles of corpses they entered the villa through the kitchen entrance. They first met Mr and Mrs Baleforth who appeared to be dominated, so Fenrir put them to sleep with a Painful Slumber of Ages. There were other dominated people in the servants quarters and they were dealt with in the same way.

Moving into the main portions of the villa they met the bulk of the vampire contingent. They also spied out Baroness Partick, Midshipman Alise and First Mate Mullmaster.

There were lots of vampires. As far as I can make out after researching this interesting battle they were:

Lord Sharrow - a four hundred year old nobleman and head of the family

Lady Brinker - his wife

Reverend Yarhammer - their priest

Sir Panek - a former paladin from Baldur's Gate

Dame Veroni - a young lady, quite pleasant natured for a vampire apparently

There were also another ten or so minor family members and about a dozen vampire spawn attendants. Basically the house was stuffed full of vampires!

Seeing he had a horde to deal with Fenrir started laying down Walls of Fire to hold them back a bit. It was a chaotic battle in the main corridor as more (sometimes on fire!) vampires leapt out at them. Levmeia cast Disrupting Weapon on Dak's weapon which meant that he could slay the vampires with ease. Much better than any other method as this resulted in them turning into mist and wafting away. It was impossible to see them after that in all the smoke.

The heroes had to flee the burning building back through the kitchens and the vampires too fled back further into the villa. To the heroes credit they took all the dominated people they could get their hands on with them. Corhim had been casting spells to temporarily block the effect.

They stood back and watched the villa burn for a few moments. Considering they had gone in with no plan prepared at all, the outcome of their first battle with the vampires of the Dementor had gone about as well as you might expect.