Outline:
Domovik returns and realises something suspicious is going on at the local church. Vanya goes on an unusual date. The group discover a dark secret at the heart of Svalgrad, leading to a bloody battle.
Vital Statistics:
System: Core2D6 (v0.23)
(note version 0.23 has been renumbered to v 0.4)
Scenario: Night of the Vampires
Tone: Action, investigation, mild horror.
Safety Tools/Lines & Veils: Mild descriptive horror (PG-13/Buffy at most), No Player vs Player attacks (exception, unless under hypnotism etc), no explicit bedroom scenes, none of the usual isms/phobias.
The party:
Aki: a cautious beastling ranger (with reindeer horns) with a trained hawk as a companion. Failed trader, has a mysterious list of names he’s crossing off.
Jackal: An orc bounty hunter. A scarred and scary appearance, although he says he only cares about the money, has a conscience and moral code.
Vanya: a sarcastic high elf rogue who had once been a vampire, was mysteriously cured, and now just wants to drink vodka and kill vampires (and maybe rescue her sister vampires).
Domovik: A dwarf fighter, protector of homes. Works better at night, sometimes trips over his long furs. Serves a patron saint of homes. Recently returned from a side quest.
Recap:
Three Messages
The session started with three messages, one for each of the players who had been at the dinner the previous session, and the return of Domovik who had been on a side quest (/player unable to attend a couple of sessions)
Vanya received a formal letter of intended courtship from none other than Lord Ashmir himself, who suggested they go on the noble equivalent of a first date. (As I noted, this was class appropriate, given that both Vanya and Ashmir were nobles.). Vanya sent a letter back saying that she was busy but might be interested after they had concluded their business in Svalgrad. A while later Ashmir sent a letter back gently insisting, and Vanya decided to agree.
GM’s Note: This whole courtship sub plot was the result of Vanya using her attraction to Ashmir in the previous session to fend off the vampire thrall, not once but twice. I was somewhat conscious of giving the only female player at the table a stereotypically gendered “romance” sub plot, but in this case it all fit so perfectly that I couldn’t overlook it. I also was prepared for Vanya to say no entirely – the insistence came from Ashmir, not the GM trying to push the narrative in one direction.
Aki received a simple note under his door – five symbols on a strip of paper that were similar to the ones they had found in Episode 2 outside the vampire infested watchtower. Strange, additional druidic rune marks last seen on one of the Runestones scattered across Krvistania, rumoured to be tended to by the snow witch.
Everyone went “Ooooh, a clue!” then – promptly forgot all it. (GM’s note: I mean, you can take a horse to water…)
Jackal received an arrow through his open window, embedding itself an inch from his left ear. On the arrow was the symbol he had marked on his jacket at dinner – the mark of the assassin only known as the Shadow, who he suspected of being the Reeve. The arrow pretty much confirmed his suspicions.
But why had the Reeve/the Shadow decided to essentially tell him he was correct in his suspicion? (GM’s note: There are reasons…cackle…)
Domovik returned with a cheery tale of having gone with Johann to find his son, who the soldier suspected was now a vampire. But in an uplifting turn of events, it turned out the soldier’s son was just Krvistania’s equivalent of a Goth teen, rebelling against his father for abandoning him to fight in the war. Domovik was able to reconcile father and son. (“Hey, it doesn’t all have to be dark and grim, you know?” The player commented).
Jan the Blacksmith’s son-turned-vampire was hung in the iron gibbet and burned in the early sunlight. No-one intervened on his behalf, despite the burning taking place two days earlier than promised, so Jan was bones and vampire dust by lunch. Before he died his eyes glowed red and he screamed the words “She will rise! SHE WILL RISE!”
GM’s Note: And at that point, ten minutes into the game…my session notes ran out. I now had absolutely no clue what was going to happen next. Which was a very fun place to be. The episode’s entire plot was determined by the player’s actions
The game session ran with Vanya’s date and Aki, Jackal and Domovik tackling the church, the two plots running side by side, until it all came together beautifully at the end.
The Day Begins
As Vanya headed up to the castle for her date with Ashmir, Jackal headed to see the gnomes. Surviving a “kneecap attack!!” from his biggest fan Poppy (darting out from under a table), he took another healing potion to sort out his cracked ribs. He went to visit the airfield with Poppy and her mother Violet. Their potion making host had a small airship there (big enough to carry about six people) called “The Silver Lining”. Violet the tinkerer set about on repairs. Jackal asked about the grappling hook gun he had requested, Violet assured him it was in hand and should be ready tomorrow.
Aki spent some time hanging around the town guard to try to work out if breaking Culpepper the Blacksmith out of the prison, where he was being held for harbouring a vampire, was possible.
He discovered that it shouldn’t be too hard, but wasn’t an option during the day with so many gaurds around
Domovik visited the church and spoke to the the priest father Frederick, but all throughout something was bothering him. On his way out (his third Focus check, after failing two whilst conversing with the priest), Domovik realised what it was:
There was nothing, at all, holy about the church.
It was deconsecrated ground and had been deserted by the gods.
Something was very, very rotten in Svalgrad…
Vanya Goes on a Date
Vanya’s courtship/first date with Ashmir was going great – a bit of archery, a bit of flirting, a bit of comparing notes on the lower classes. Ashmir asked some questions about Vanya, trying to work out where her hatred of all vampires came from, but Vanya evaded the question, not wishing to reveal her past as a vampire. Ashmir didn’t push any further. All pretty much perfect, so far – right up until that pesky voice that she had heard at dinner started hissing in her mind again.
As Ashmir and Vanya engaged in a bit of mock swordplay, with the Reeve watching nearby, the mysterious head vampire started urging Vanya to kill Lord Ashmir.
Unable to resist the vampiric thrall despite her best efforts, the fight became serious. Ashmir, however, proved he was no slouch in the swordplay area. He fought back, hitting Vanya for 2 Health points. The light damage, a cut to her shoulder, was enough for the vampire’s control over Vanya to be broken.
Ashmir rushed to help her and apologise, asking what had happened.
Vanya burst out into a stream of expletives, mentioning the mind control of the head vampire and the fact that she believed there was danger in Ashmir’s castle itself, since Aki’s hawk had signaled such. She suspected there was a vampire nearby.
“Well,” Ashmir replied, “Of course there’s a vampire nearby…”
The Church of the Holy Light map
The Boys Break & Enter
Domovik, Aki and Jackal decided to break into the church, which was closed as it was Fireday, the traditional day of funerals in Krvistania.
The priest was outside the church giving last rites to the bodies. Taking a side door (which hadn’t actually been on the map I drew, but the players argued it made sense for there to be at least one, which, fair enough. Missing door added to the map…) the three broke in and started to look around.
Finding the church had six locked “communion” chambers, they started opening them, as well as checking out the priest’s quarters. Jackal discovered several bottles of wine which a quick sniff of confirmed that it contained blood, not wine.
GM’s note: It’s worth noting that by this point, things were totally off the rails from my side. The whole church encounter was written to kick off when the players decided to get a blessing from the priest, who would try to get them to drink the blood. Domovik checking the church out had thrown a wrench into that plan. Now I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next on either of the two plot threads. That all made this quite possibly my favourite session to date as I kept having to think on my feet throughout.
They were interrupted by a couple of acolytes coming in the side door to collect one of the bodies to be burned. Seeing the three breaking into the communion chambers and the Priest’s chambers, the acolyte drew a knife and his eyes glowed red – a sure sign that he was in fact a vampire blood drinking vhoul.
The acolyte was followed by three more, and a battle between the powered up acolytes and the boys began.
A vampire burns, a Blacksmith is rescued
Ashmir revealed that he kept a captured vampire in his tower, in order to try to get information out of it, but had found it useless. So as a date gift to Vanya, he offered her the chance to kill it instead.
Vanya shrugged “Throw it into the sunlight,” she said.
Ashmir ordered it done, and the vampire burned in Krvistania’s weak sunlight. Before she died, she hissed the same words that Jan had uttered earlier that morning: “She will rise! SHE WILL RISE!”
Ashmir confessed himself surprised that Vanya had not made more of the gift, given how enthusiastic she was about killing vampires. He asked if there was anything else he could give to her. “Anything within my power,” he promised.
“Yes, actually. We want the blacksmith released. He was imprisoned for harbouring a vampire – his own son – which we left with him, trapped in an iron gibbet, and it isn’t fair.”
“As you wish, my lady.”
Vanya and Ashmir rode back into Svalgrad and to the town guard, where Ashmir – despite the captain of the guard’s initial protest – ordered the blacksmith released.
At which point they both noticed a strange glow coming from the nearby church…
The Church Battle
A pile of hapless acolytes – yellow meeples.
The battle between the acolytes – for reasons I forget now – ended up with Jackal throwing them into a pile.
Jackal (or possibly Aki, I forget which) decided to open the rest of the chambers, and four ghouls burst out of one of them, whilst the priest, Father Frederick, had also joined the fray. A single cut to the priest was enough to trigger his disgusting transformation from a vhoul to a ghoul – his skin peeled off as his teeth and claws sharpened and he attacked Jackal, trying to wrestle the bottle of blood that Jackal was carrying.
Aki was set upon by the four ghouls and was in a desperate situation, wounded and on his knees and unlikely to survive another couple of attacks…
…when Domovik set fire to his axe and used his power to sanctify an area on the deconsecrated church.
This had the unexpected effect of blessing the whole church and – since it had been abandoned by the gods – claiming it for his patron saint of homes.
As power and light flowed through the church, it occurred to me to offer the player the possibility of a level up, if he wanted to become a Priest of the saint of homes.
The player agreed – “Domovik has found meaning to his life” and the church was captured (GMs note: as I said, totally off the rails. The levelling up to Priest & taking the whole church only occurred to me as it was happening.)
As the holy, healing glow enveloped the church, the ghouls screeched, ran through the side door to escape – and straight into the crowd of people outside. The crowd screamed as the ghouls started a bloody rampage.
Inside the church, Jackal and Aki made short work of the priest, but outside it blood was being spilled and a massacre was about to take place…
Vanya to the Rescue
Vanya and Ashmir showed up in the nick of time (due to the magic of what I called “TV continuity”) and – with the help of Anton the Troll – managed to defeat the ghouls before they could slaughter the good folk of Svalgrad.
Anton took a minor cut due to Vanya’s well documented over-enthusiasm for slaying all things vampire related, but aside from that, the four ghouls were dispatched with relative ease.
The battle inside the church spilled outside it – and onto the table.
The town guard arrived and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the priest had been up to no good all along and that the players were heroes. (Apart from the bard Kolin with a K, of course, who quickly composed a song about how Ashmir had saved the townsfolk yet again.)
Ashmir departed shortly afterwards as Vanya and Anton headed to the Octagon for celebratory vodka drinks.
Wrapping up the session:
Aki headed back to the Octagon to rest up and tend to his wounds, as the ghouls had taken chunks out of him with their teeth and claws.
Domovik set about cleaning up the mess of (now his) church, finding the Priest-ghoul had finally bled out whilst trying trying to crawl to his chambers and, presumably, some of the life saving vampire blood he had kept.
Jackal scouted the church and found some diaries that the Priest had kept. One entry in particular jumped out at him, from six days earlier. It simply read “They have arrived…has the plan begun?” The date was the same day that Jackal, Aki and Domovik had rode into town (Vanya having arrived a day late, because Vanya).
The episode ended with the players agreeing:
It was time for them to confront the snow witch.
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GM’s notes:
At the end of the session, we also spent about half an hour so at the end adding some more details to the land of Isilme/Gyron, since Domovik’s player had returned and could add his home, but I’ve yet to find time to update the map and the lore on that.
This episode itself was a massive amount of fun to run and ended brilliantly, with two battles occurring simultaneously, one inside the church and one outside it as the escaping ghouls were dispatched. As written in my notes, the priest-ghoul was destined to escape to cause problems for the players, an eventuality which would have led to the 3rd main possible ending.
I’ve told the players that there are 5 possible endings, where 1 is they stop the Bad Thing That is Going To Happen, where ending 2 is Bad, ending 3 is/was Really Bad, ending 4 Even Worse and ending 5 was The Worst.
Given that they not only killed the Priest but took over the church, I couldn’t justify him feigning death and crawling away. It was a resounding success for the group, robbing them of the victory would have felt mean spirited. So Ending 3 – the Really Bad ending – has been knocked out by their actions.
That said, as things stand, with around 4 sessions left of the campaign, the players are heading kicking and screaming straight towards…
…Ending 5
aka: The worst of all possible endings.
Onwards to Episode 6, Subtitled “The Day of the Jackal” as the players wrap up some unfinished business in town before heading to confront the snow witch – and the end begins…
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