I have gotten 3 weeks behind on publishing session reports. So it would be best to get right into them. First up - a few weeks ago the players finally got around to discovering the secret behind the mysterious voice in the cellars beneath the Sign of the Purple Bugbear tavern. It has only been 7 months of in-game time and 1 year in real life. A long time ago, while tracking down a killer Red Cap they found a series of secret chambers deep beneath the town. But they encountered an angry Water Elemental and decided to leave to come back later. Months later in the game, one players' character has had enough with the disturbances beneath the Tavern he bought. Time to do something about it.
What I call, The Tomb of the Vampire Princess was an odd add-on to the DCC adventure, The Legend of the Ripper. The adventure is about the hunt for a Red Cap who is killing people in a town and disturbing old ghosts. But in the second half of the adventure, there is a Tomb of a Sea-Elf Vampire that is not really connected to the main adventure. I ran it pretty much as written.
Session 80: The Tomb of the Vampire Princess
Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aashdoshan (human necromancer), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human cleric NPC), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC).
During a break of a few weeks, Eathwund hires some local laborers to knock down the bricked-up tunnel that exits his cellar. They also remove the dirt used to block the entrance to the old secret cellar. The rest of the Company of the Black Dragon and their new friend Alrix prepare to descend into the secret dwarven-built vault beneath the tavern. Fenris leads the way into the chamber. Almost immediately upon entering the large chamber, Eathwund here’s the woman’s voice in his head, “Find me… Free me!”
They check the inscription on the side of one of the pillars, “To enter her realm, speak descend in the language of the builders”. Aashdoshan calls out the dwarven word for descent and the pillar lowers to the floor and continues to descend revealing a shaft. The entire group of seven leaps on the pillar and descend.
The pillar comes to rest fifty feet below in a flooded hallway. They see an open door with a rusted lion-headed statue blocking the way. At the end of the corridor is the closed door. The last time they opened the door using a key stolen from the room guarded by the now motionless Iron Golem. But they no longer have the key. The mages argue over why one of them did not memorize the Knock spell. Lakima then takes the Cursed Helm of Free Action out of the Bag of Holding and asks for volunteers. When no one is initially willing to don it – Lantosh agrees. He places the helm on his head and stands there. Lakima orders Lantosh to open the door and he uses the Knock power of the Helm to open the door. Once the door slides completely aside Domago casts Remove Curse on Lantosh and helps him take off the Helm.
Fenris splashes through the water into the next hallway, Lantosh calls out a warning that the next door has a lightning trap. Lakima asks everyone to wait while he checks if it is still active. A Detect Magic cantrip reveals that the door is still trapped. Lakima tells everyone that if they time it correctly, he can dispel the trap when they open the door. Aashdoshan tells him that he should just be able to dispel the trap for about 10 minutes. He casts dispel magic on the door and Fenris gingerly opens it. Beyond Fenris gazes on a thirty-foot square chamber with a sandy floor. Another door across for him on the far wall. Before he can be warned he steps into the chamber and is slowed until he is barely moving. Lakima tells everyone that the chamber has an enchantment that makes it seem like you are crossing a desert. He does not know of any way around it. They will all just have to enter the chamber together. The entire group enters.
The company trudges across a sandy desert under a blazing sun for the next half hour. The edges of the room now appeared to be a half-mile distant. As they near the mid-point of the chamber, a Basilisk rears up out of the sand and attacks. This basilisk glares at the group with dull yellow eyes. Everyone feels sickened, and Lantosh collapses to the ground. Lakima responds by casting Lightning Bolt, blasting the basilisk in the head killing it. The huge beast collapses. Aashdoshan takes a moment to mark the skull of the creature with a glyph. Alrix asks what Aashdoshan is doing and Lakima replies that it is his way.
After another half hour, the adventurers reach the far side of the chamber. A simple wooden door rests in a stone frame in a hillside of stone. Opening the door, they move into a short hallway. Fenris looks back through the door and sees only a thirty-foot square chamber with a sandy floor. The basilisk corpse is gone. Lantosh and Lakima check over the map from the previous foray into the vault and decide on the correct direction to go. Fenris is directed to open the door on the left. Lakima and Eathwund pass through into another flooded hallway.
Lakima hands Fenris his staff and tells him to check the depth of the water. It turns out to be only 2 feet deep. Lakima takes back his staff and steps into the brackish water. As he turns to the other party members, an enormous Water Elemental of sewer water rises up behind him. The water elemental misses Lakima who quickly moves behind Eathwund. Eathwund slashes at the elemental with his sword, cutting completely through it. Alrix conjures up magic missiles and strikes the elemental while Lakima swings and misses with his staff. The elemental changes targets and slams into Eathwund, badly injuring him. Seeing how desperate the situation is becoming, Alrix and Lakima both cast magic missiles at the elemental, and Eathwund strikes it again. Eathwund can see the elemental is starting to struggle to maintain its form. Alrix moves closer and hits the elemental with his magical battleax. Eathwund moves to one side and raises his shield expecting another strike but Lakima casts Zap and the elemental and it loses cohesion and vanishes into a mist of sewer water.
Once the fight is over, Domago rushes to Eathwund and does a few prayers of healing. Lakima and Aashdoshan explore a small side chamber and find the walls covered with frescoes and runes. Lakima casts Comprehend Languages from a scroll and discovers some of the histories of the place. He relates that Princess Iasmini is “imprisoned” in a tomb here. The runes warn that eternal darkness waits for any who would free her from the tomb. Aashdoshan presses Lakima for more details on the “reward” for releasing Iasmini.
Meanwhile, Fenris continues down the hall to another door. He checks the door carefully and then feels a stone settle slightly beneath one of his feet. He has just enough time to exclaim, “On no!” as the ceiling collapses on him. Stone blocks rain down on Fenris carrying him under the water. Domago, Lantosh, and Eathwund rush to the pile of rubble and quickly uncover Fenris and pull him to safety. Aashdoshan hands Fenris a potion of healing which the man quickly drinks.
Fenris gingerly steps over the rubble and shoves the door open revealing a small, circular flooded chamber. A stone sarcophagus lies on its back half-drowned under the foul water. In the corner of the chamber rests a stone statue of a sea captain. Aashdoshan hangs his lantern from the sword of the statue and moves to examine the coffin. The nameplate on the coffin has not been engraved and what might have been a religious symbol is chipped off. He asks everyone to leave the chamber so he can open the stone lid. Domago tells him that he is not leaving him here alone with this evil. Eathwund enters the chamber and tells everyone that he can faintly sense evil in the room. Lakima also enters and tells Aashdoshan that they will examine the room together. There is a brief argument between Aashdoshan and Lakima. Aashdoshan takes his staff and levers the lid off of the coffin and slides it into the water. The open coffin contains a skeleton with gems placed in its eye sockets and a necklace of shells about its neck. Everyone pauses for a few moments expectantly and nothing happens. Aashdoshan calls Fenris into the chamber. Fenris carefully plucks a gem from one of the eye sockets and examines it, then curses, “Useless trash” and he tosses the gem into the water. He pulls the necklace off the skeleton and tosses it aside as well. Several of the adventurers yell at Fenris asking for an explanation and he tells them the jewels are worthless crystals. Lakima pulls out his Wand of Secret Door Detection and tells everyone, “I think this is a ruse, a fake tomb.” His wand reveals a secret door on the far wall.
Aashdoshan quickly opens the door and sees a curving corridor beyond. Again, flooded with sewer water. In the hall before him, iron spikes cover the walls attached to a mechanism clearly designed to crush anyone who walks between them. A pair of skeletons hang, impaled on the spikes. In the distance, Aashdoshan sees a glowing bubble rise up out of the murky water trailing a tail that hangs in the water. The bubble bobs in the air just past the trapped portion of the hallway. Aashdoshan turns and raises the skeleton from the stone coffin and the two skeletons in the hallway. As the other adventurers watch, the skeleton in the coffin slowly rises up and struggles out of the coffin. It steps up beside the necromancer. The two skeletons impaled on the iron spikes struggle but appear unable to pull themselves off of the spikes. Aashdoshan orders the lone ambulatory skeleton to aid the other two. The skeleton walks through the water down the hallway. As the skeleton reaches the mid-point, the trap mechanism is sprung and the two walls of spikes quickly come together destroying all three skeletons. The mechanism then slowly begins to reset. As the spikes are grinding back to the walls, Aashdoshan wades quickly through the water and down the hallway. He bats the floating orb out of the way with his staff. As he passes the orb, he moves toward him. Aashdoshan catches a glimpse of a large chamber around the bend of the hallway lit by many flickering gouts of flame. A human-sized figure waits there in the water. Aashdoshan grabs the “tail” of the orb and tries to pull it toward the spikes, as he grabs it, the tail wraps about his arm and a stinger on the end of the tail drives itself into his wrist. He looks down and sees the spike is draining blood from his arm.
The rest of the adventurers are held back by the iron spike trap that has reset. Aashdoshan yells that he is okay, but Eathwund takes out his bow and fires several arrows into the orb, Lakima tosses three darts into it as well. Aashdoshan drags the floating orb into the spike wall as Alrix casts magic missiles at it. Finally, it bursts in a spray of water, sewage, and blood spraying Aashdoshan from waist to head. Aashdoshan struggles through the deep water toward the large chamber, and elven woman there calls out to him to come forward.
As Aashdoshan disappears around a bend in the hallway, the rest of the adventurers eye the iron spike trap. Lakima summons magical creatures and two fey elves appear and bow toward him. Lakima orders the elves to run down the length of the hallway. When the elves reach the halfway point, the trap is sprung again crushing them. As the trap begins to reset, the remaining adventurers run past it. Domago with tears streaming down his face.
The entire group enters the large chamber and stops as they hear an enchanting song. The long chamber is lined with stone pillars, jets of flames issue from the mouths of faces carved into the stone pillars. At the far end of the chamber, a dais rises out of the sewer water. They can see a basin of clear water atop the dais. Before the dais, a lidless, flooded sarcophagus rests in the sewer water. Between the dais and the sarcophagus, a beautiful elven female sings to them. Her hair is wet and her skin has a bluish cast. They can see gills along her neck. While her song is beautiful, only Eathwund is completely entranced. He steps blindly forward toward her, hearing the words, “come to me” in his head. Lakima spots Eathwund advancing past Aashdoshan and he yells at Lantosh to hold him. But Eathwund easily pushes Lantosh aside. Then Lakima casts a Web spell on Eathwund greatly slowing his movement. Meanwhile, Aashdoshan walks towards the woman.
The woman tells the adventurers’ that she is Princess Iasmini of the Blue Spires. She thanks them for being fools and freeing her from her prison. Iasmini tells them that she has been imprisoned here, awake for hundreds of years by the “air-breathers” of Valn.
A Fanged Sea serpent twenty feet long rises up out of the water and confronts Aashdoshan stopping his advance but it does not attack. Aashdoshan gets down on one knee and pledges his fealty to Iasmini while Alrix continues to question her. Iasmini smiles at Aashdoshan and bids him to step forward. Aashdoshan stands and steps through the water toward her, the sea serpent lets him past. Eathwund continues to struggle to be released from the webs. As Aashdoshan steps close to Iasmini, she grabs him and bites down into his neck drinking gouts of blood. Aashdoshan feels his life force being drained. He makes a few gestures and cries out an incantation, a bead of fire springs to life in his hand. Across the room, Lakima realizes what Aashdoshan is about to do and he also quickly casts a spell. A Wall of Iron springs up in the chamber separating Aashdoshan, Iasmini, and the Sea serpent from the rest of the room at the exact moment that Aashdoshan releases a Fireball spell.
The fireball explodes knocking Aashdoshan and Iasmini away from each other and back into the water. The sea serpent is engulfed in flames but dives beneath the water and survives. Aashdoshan survives, partially protected by his Ring of Fire resistance, badly burned but the water quickly doses the flames. Iasmini rises up out of the water, injured and very angry. She yells at the serpent to strike down Aashdoshan. The Serpent strikes, but Aashdoshan manages to dive to one side.
On the other side of the wall, Eathwund breaks free of the webs but runs up against a Wall of Iron. Alrix calls out to Lakima to dismiss the Wall of Iron. Lakima tells him he cannot. Alrix asks how long will it remain up and Lakima tells him 2 hours. Alrix says, that we cannot wait that long and Lakima agrees, having already cast his Acid Finger spell. He begins to cut through the Wall of Iron. Meanwhile, the serpent strikes at and misses Aashdoshan once again. Aashdoshan summons forth 2 hobgoblins to defend him. The hobgoblins are quickly gutted and torn apart by Iasmini who now has transformed into a more bestial form and has long clawed hands. The serpent strikes a third time and kills Aashdoshan dragging his corpse under the water.
At about that moment, Lakima opens a big enough hole in the Wall of Iron to cast a Fireball through the hole. The fireball explodes in the enclosed space and a jet of fire bursts from the hole in the Wall of Iron almost striking Lakima who has to leap to one side. Smoke pours from the hole. Eathwund shakes his head and asks everyone what happened as he stares at the wall of iron that has suddenly appeared. Alrix peers through the smoking hole in the wall and sees that nothing is moving in the fire-blasted chamber beyond. Lakima summons a pair of dwarves on the other side of the Iron Wall and instructs them to locate Iasmini’s corpse. The dwarves find the corpse beneath the water and chop off her head. They also drive a wooden stake through her heart. Then the dwarves are instructed to find Aashdoshan. They find the dead necromancer still in the jaws of the dead Sea Serpent. The body is pulled free and placed on the dais out of the water. A few moments later the enchantment ends and the dwarves vanish.
The adventurers wait in the warm, smelly waters for two hours waiting for the iron wall to disappear. Once the wall is gone, the group searches the area beyond. Iasmini appears to be truly dead. Alrix notes that the sea serpent is native to his lands and not an evil creature. It was likely just controlled. They are unable to find any treasure or magic even after using a Wand of Metal Detection. Disappointed they prepare to leave. Lantosh stuffs Aashdoshan’s corpse in a large sack and picks it up. Again, they are confronted with the iron spike trap. Lakima reluctantly summons two more fey elves and instructs them to trip the trap. Once the trap begins to reset, they scamper past it. The desert room is traversed again – taking another hour of hard marching under the burning sun. Then they arrive back at the lift. No one can recall how the lift can be commanded to rise so Lakima casts rope trick on a fifty-foot rope and they use it to climb out of the dungeon.
Aashdoshan’s corpse is brought back to the cellar workshop beneath the Manor House. As Lakima, Fenris, and Eathwund watch Domago prays to St. Aleena and raises the necromancer from the dead. As Aashdoshan’s eyes flutter open he beholds Domago standing over him.
“St. Aleena still has a need for you!” he says.
After this foray, the heroes take some time to recover. Eathwund has the secret cellar hidden and bricked up again by workmen. The business at the tavern begins to pick up as many patrons and staff remark that the mood at the tavern is strangely brighter. The stuffed purple bugbear also brings in many curiosity seekers.
Several days after the events in the cellar, Lakima receives a letter addressed to “Lakima the grey, High Mage of the Edgerton Mages Guild”. It is from a mage called Palderus in Caster’s Ford asking urgently for his aid. Lakima asks his hippogriff trainer Derval if Gnomeat the hippogriff is ready for travel. Derval answers, “Yes sir!”
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