Game Recap The game consisted of: Al-Uzba, red dragonborn Champion level 6 fighter (Ryan) Kilgrave, red dragonborn Swashbuckler level 6 rogue (Victory/David) Vykul "Vy" Shagrax, black dragonborn School of Valor level 6 bard (Joseph) Sniv Rak Dvoraak, kobold Alchemist level 6 artificer (Attila) Bartuk, Sniv's Cave Bear mechanical construct All of them served the young black dragon Ra-garok. The game started off after the party had been there 3-4 days, exploring the school, stacking the bodies against the entrance to the sewer, and Sniv trapping the area. Sniv, a noble kobold, had 4 starting retainers. He originally had 6 but 2 of them made the mistake of getting to close to Ra-garok, now he had 4. They decided to go check out the Master's Chambers, with two giant, unusual gargoyles out front. After making some arcana checks, Sniv recognized them as an alternate form of Shield Guardians, powerful contructs able to store their master's spells and controllable through a special amulet although also triggered on specific circumstances. After trying dispel magic and some other effects, Vy attacked one of them who came alive with eerie purple emanating from the creature's chest. The other one also turned alive and attack Vy as well. Knocking him pretty good. The rest of the party attacked, knocking one of them down to about half, with Al-Uzba acting as tank. Kilgrave did some hit and run attacks, including breathing fire on one near the window, sending a huge fireball out the window. Bartuk attacked one a few times who turned around and used the purple energy on him, knocking the construct to uselessness. Then the creatures ceased attacking, retaking their posts with one asking "Why did you attack us?" Kilgrave immediately responded with "We didn't, he did" pointing the direction Vy had fled. The creatures seemed to accept that as a cease fire and went back to their post. Meanwhile, hobgoblin troops (3 squads of 10+ in the courtyard) were attracted by the fireball. A squad with a captain and robed figure approached the door to the school. In the hallway underneath, they knocked at the door sending sniveling Sniv to do the talking. They all went to the bottom floor and talked as the robed figure and some unseen hobgoblin monks/assassins made their way to an open 2nd story window. Sniv made a comment about "Giving sacrifices to the master upstairs" [something to that affect], the hobgoblin talking at the door and yelled something to his companions upstairs, who had just smelled the dragon, blood, and death in the Inner Sanctum. The party heard a scream from a hobgoblin upstairs and Al-Uzba went running to check it out. He saw a dark leather-clad (no real armor, just leather clothing) hobgoblin at the end of the hallway and went running south at him. The figure retreated as Al ducked into a room, the hobgoblin retreated into southern hallway. Next round Kilgrave went sprinting by the room where Al-Uzba ducked who went running out of the hallway and around the corner only to find a couple of hobgoblin martial artists. [I forget who attacked who here] but they traded some licks while they cursed at Al-Uzba for being aggressive while their respective masters were in parlay. The rest of the party arrived and the hobgoblin in robes was having a casual conversation with Ra-garok who was eating one of the hobgoblin martial artists (apparently the one who drew the "short-straw"). The two talked for a while in goblin conversationally, apparently both are from the Realm of Vinarr. The robed hobgoblin proposed a truce between the two groups to the characters, who sent the offer of "Help the boss clear the undead around his lair in the sewers and we'll help you escape." The robed HG agreed to take the offer to his commander. The party took a long rest, with Sniv fixing Bartok. In the early morning hours, before daylight, they finished their long rest. Around that time one of the statue's faces lit up and it said "We are coming back." Sniv through up the alarm, alerting everyone of the activity. Sniv decided to parlay with the hobgoblins, fearing they needed to leave the school immediately. He yelled out and they brought a captain. Meanwhile, the characters went to go speak with Ra-garok. They informed him of the deal to clear out the sewers for helping the hobgoblins and that they had problems with nearby thugs [this completely changed from what the agreement was, but whatever. Chaotic-hungry black dragon gives 0 fucks]. Ra-garok asked them to find out exactly where the majority of the humans were located in the nearby buildings to the west. Kilgrave and Vy snuck out the window, Vy using detect thoughts and disguise self to identify where the mass of humans were located in the building to the southwest on the 2nd floor. Reporting back to Ra-garok he ousted himself from chewing on hobgoblin remains and left the inner sanctum, squeezing himself somewhat awkwardly through a window while telling Sniv to "Open the main doorway." Still in the late night/early morning a couple hours before sunrise, he flew to the SW building on the second floor, knocking out shutters until he saw what he was looking for. With claws dug into the side of the wooden walls, he reared back and breathed acid into the top floor from which dozens of screams could be heard. Meanwhile the human thugs raised an alarm and Ra-garok went to the slightly taller building to the west of the school, pacing about until a mass of troops emerged from the building. Ra-garok leaned over the lip of the rood an doused them with horrible acid. He returned to the school, where Sniv had disabled all the traps by the front door, flying straight into the front door and coming to a halt in the main foyer. Once the doors were boarded up, he told Sniv to "Summon one of your retainers. I'm hungry." Vy and Al-Uzba met with the hobgoblin Commander, agreeing to find him and his troops a place in the sewers in return for helping them clear out the undead in the sewers. Being reminded of the scratching in the basement, Vy, Al-Uzba, and Sniv decided to go check out the scratching while Kilgrave kept watch on the second floor. Approaching one of the large, locked from the inside, doors they noticed a couple of things in the description. On the cielings of this school basement were trackes with chains and meat hooks hanging from them. All the tracks led into the rooms with the iron doors. They could hear soft scratching. Al-Uzba and Vy got close enough to basically put their ears to the doors. Al-Uzba could hear a humans cry for help "Oh god, please help us." Not being what he expected he yelled "Oh my god, are you okay?" [Or something like that] The response was, "OH GOD HELP US!" then some sounds of tearing and shredding, then the door unlocked from the inside. Facing three vampire spawn, one of which was dressed as a professor from the school and all three wearing the tell-tale red ribbons they first struck at Vy who ran. One went out a side room and was attacked by Bartuk. Sniv through a fire vial at them, then a few second later began yelling their weaknesses to the rest of the party, one of them pointing at him and giving him the evil eye each time. All three ganged up on Al-Uzba scoring 3-4 critical hits across 6 attacks. They did 80 points of damage, 28? of which was necrotic damage lowering his maximum hit points. One kept on Bartuk while two went after Sniv, climbing on the walls and ceiling to get past Bartuk but also incidentally avoiding a pit trap. They attacked Sniv in the hallway, missing (miraculously). Vy used fear, but both succeeded. Sniv did not and ran away to the south. The two ran after Vy and caught up with him and Kilgrave, who had made it down there long enough to realize the carnage and then summarily flee. Vy attempted to flee, but got grappled and was taken down. Then all three converged on Sniv. Meanwhile, Kilgrave told their Ra-garok who lazily agreed to go after the creatures. Making it down to the hallway [the rest is storytelling, time was up], Ra-garok forced the creatures to retreat with a couple of well placed acid breathes. It is assumed Kilgrave was standing behind him doing a cheerleading dance and chanting some kind of theme. Vy could have survived the encounter, Sniv unlikely. Al-Uzba did make all 3 death saving throws and was stable depending upon the actions of the vampires. What happened with the rest, who knows? Not quite a TPK... but not a good ending. The DM went off to drink a glass of the tears of players and revel in his machinations. Who said one-shots can't be fun?