Rise of the Runelords Recap # 111 [RPG]

 

[4 Gozran 4708 continued]

Somewhere deep under Xin-Shalast, the Heroes of Varisia have watched the vampiric decapus known as the Hidden Beast turn into a cloud of mist and disappear into cracks in the ground.  Morgiana collapses unconscious from her wounds, but Ava is able to restore Jinkatsyu and Erik to fighting condition.  Unsure of how to permanently destroy a vampire, the adventurers agree they need outside help—from Sandpoint!  Through a magical spell, they contact expert on Thassilonian history Brodert Quink.  Unfortunately, Brodert knows little about vampires beyond the need to use stakes or sunlight.

The adventurers decide they can’t take the risk that the Hidden Beast will return.  Ava magically reshapes the basalt base of the throne and reveals a deep hole.  Jinkatsyu bravely investigates, and finds the seemingly inert body of the decapus.  The swashbuckling kitsune cuts off some of its tentacles and Kang throws a fiery bomb at the body, but, as far as they can tell, the creature is well and truly dead.  The decision is made, just in case, to try to seal the creature permanently in its tomb through more magical stone shaping, but Ava’s stonecrafting is poor and the results uncertain.  Soon after, examination of two rings taken from the decapus’ body reveal one can turn the bearer invisible while the other (engraved with a Sihedron) holds powerful defensive magicks.

The adventurers leave the Hidden Beast’s lair and travel a short distance down a tunnel to reach Morgiv.  The skulk is deliriously happy to hear the news that the Hidden Beast has been destroyed.  He rushes off to gather the rest of the Spared, and Kang and the other adventurers decide to quickly check the two other tunnels leading off from the chamber.  Before they can do so, however, Ava hears a strange hissing sound coming from beneath the base of the throne.  Instants later, the Hidden Beast is standing there, seemingly alive and well! 

Another battle begins, but this time the adventurers are better prepared and the Hidden Beast’s minions aren’t present to confuse things.  The vampiric decapus is again defeated and retreats to its tomb underneath the throne.  This time, Ava exhausts her magic in conjuring a crack-free buttressed dome over the entire pedestal and throne—there’s seemingly no way the decapus can escape.  Until, with an astonishing bypassing of the area’s wards again teleportation, the creature somehow uses a dimension door spell to reappear back on top of the throne!

-------------------------------

Director's Commentary

This is part two of what would become the four-part vampire decapus clusterF.  It's one of those situations wherein about 20 things go wrong simultaneously.  Knowledge (religion) just wasn't one of the skills the PCs were good at, so they didn't know in-character how to permanently destroy a vampire (and they were sensible in contacting Father Zantus, but he rolled low).  For all her stoneshaping to do delicate things (like disguising a doorway or making something airtight), I would have Ava cast Craft (stonemason) checks, which she was understandably not great at it.  The decapus should have been trapped in its coffin-hole anyway, but then rolled a freakin' natural 20 on its caster level check to get a dimension door spell to work despite the magical interference in Xin-Shalast.  As we'll see next session, I later misinterpreted the scope of what counts as a "coffin" for the decapus.  And on and on . . .

With its magical buffs and equipment gone, the decapus was far less of a threat but still took some time in-game to destroy.  I didn't realise at the time that people were getting frustrated with it.  To be honest, I was surprised they wanted to spend so much time on the decapus as it's essentially an optional subplot, but I figured it just gave me more prep time for the very complicated final encounters in the adventure to come, and so didn't think too much about it.  But under the surface, trouble was brewing!