Season 3 episode 12 - Vampires and Pirates and Orcs, OhMy! Maheva gets blindsided by Crog's gargantuan Elemental in the spirit world-- putting him too low to fight and resulting in a fast recall back to temple for some needed healing. (player absent this session) Stranded, Team Orc takes a few moments before pursuing the Elementalist(?) Vampire any further... a decision that coincides with them discovering the town treasury next door to the End Point of the ethereal tunnel. Lots of coin. hidden chamber results in money bag of gems that could be traded for favors or potentially fuel spells with demanding components. By the time finishes stuffing their bags with loot, they don't know where the fleeing vampire has gotten to upstairs.. but they do catch sight of a squad of real nasty looking orcs in heavy military gear accompanied by armored spiders the size of sheep dogs. wounded and fatigued, the party stamps a large NOPE on that encounter and begin scooby-dooing around the castle to avoid any direct confrontations until backtracking leads them to a slightly wounded sniper with a pet spider that seems to be hanging back. Diplomacy collapses real fast when the team tries to convince the sniper-type that they are pirates on a recon mission assigned by Jessie the Witch. A good spot check reveals some Droaam Military markings, and the Spellfire Rifle the dude was brandishing puts a nice laser-pin hole through the wall at our hero's backs. Spellfire Sniper demands the team leaves, so they exit stage left into a courtyard where they bar the door and climb a watchtower built into the protective wall. Up top, the team finds what must be General Crog's Palace Barge parked next to a black Droaam Spider Cruiser. When the team of Elite Scro show up on the roof
top, the team ducks and covers until they leave the roof heading
west.... Alone with the Barge-- a very posh junk powered by a water elemental that speaks well of the General, the team pumps the elemental for intel and confirms the appearance of the vampire and the face tattoo matches Crog's description... the elemental has not seen the lord of Blood Crescent in the past week. Bad news for the home team that the last of the Trusted Four -- General Crog-- is a baddass earth elemental cultist type. Good news Crog wasn't around when the team went into the river tunnels.. that elemental pet would have made for a very difficult battle. The team takes a short rest in the Barge waiting to see if Crog would use it to escape... Suntime comes and they figure he must have another exit strategy. With lots of the dungeon complex left unexplored, the team heads back down and begins sweeping the sunless complex-- yielding many vampires that are getting easier and easier to drop as the team gets efficient at fighting fang-chumps. Interesting note... vamps don't like biting Chuck, and Chuck doesn't do well biting them either. Probably those enchanted teeth? more research would be necessary, but it's an interesting point. Also interesting is how flammable they are. crit 20 + barrels of oil from the Barge = mass-conflagration from a simple spark off Chuck's spell pool. Gang the Unlikely makes with wood arrows to pop the vamps as they try to reform in a large chamber acting as a sort of mass-coffin for this flock of 9 vampires. a bit more skulking around yields a few more suckers unwilling to come out of their closets... stabbity stabbity dust dust dust. Last path untraveled leads into a poorly maintained sewer for the castle that eventually lets out into a rock garden on the property of a well-to-do upper-helm citizen that vacated weeks ago. To get a look at the terrain, Gang climbs a bell tower. After a few moments of looking about, the rogue gets lanced by spellfire... Gang doesn't spot anything, but Feng's Eagle eyes spot the black cruiser about 1/2 mile off the tower to the southwest... spotting well, the barbarian zooms in to make eye contact with the Scro Sniper who gives the barbarian a smirk before letting loose another bolt of Spellfire that barely misses the ducking brute. Out-gunned and Out-distanced, the three heroes retreat back into the sewer for cover.. weaving their way back up the castle to the roof where the junk is at, the team find a squidship under spellfire from afar, attempting to land where the Droaam Cruiser had settled previously.. Chock full of angry pirates looking for cover amidst the parapets and towers, the team has to make some quick decisions about how they want to proceed. that's about 2+ hours time spent in game.... no word from Mahewa yet. 1/3 to level 15 loot acquired: a favor's worth of coin bag full of precious gems worth a favor -or- enough material for 5 spells needing gems.