Session 40: of vampires and demons Report

General Summary

The heroes has just defeated the Flesh Golems guarding a processional corridor shrouded in unearthly cold. Examining their options -- a grand room in darkness at the end of the corridor, the 'hallway of horrors' ending in a door and spiral staircase, or another passage across the processional. The heroes took the later and soon found themselves in another preternaturally cold room with a single font in the middle, full of clear water and with an unreadable script on its cold stone surface. The font emanated various dweomers and none dared ton touch it. Instead, they left through another door.
  And into a bare rectangular room, save for a corpse in plate mail hanging from chains in the corne. As the heroes spread out around the room, a black mist arose from a long crack in the floor. As they each turned to face the mist, it transformed into a vampire! Quickly battle ensued with the nightstalker charming Emmanuel Woodsmoke and lunging to bite the necks of Tymaret and Barbados. The vampire bit into his victims, withdrawing their life force, but the heroes proved strong and although Barbados was drawn near death, the vampire was killed, his powerful regeneration stolen through the tabaxi's druid magic and radiant damage. The vampire's physical form defeated, he returned to a black mist and seeped through the floor. Undaunted, the heroes discovered his secret chamber below them, opened the coffin and drove a stake (a sharpened torch) through the undead. The vampire crumbled to ash leaving behind a gold belt, a magical (+2) dagger and scabbard, a golden necklace, amulet and matching signet ring. Barbados, remembering the strange words of a caravan master long ago (perhaps pleading for his life with the barbarian), noted that the ring seems to mark this creature as Prince Thrommel, royalty who led an earlier battle agains the Temple of Elemental Evil.
  Unwilling to continue without resting, the heroes stayed in the vampire chamber for several hours, but at one point the black basalt door slid down. They tried to spy the interloper, but were not fast enough. The room beyond, however, revealed black tentacles erupting from the floor that attacked those who entered the room. A quick thinking Dispel Magic from Orlac, destroyed the tentacles. A storeroom and corridor deeper into the Fane lay beyond, but the heroes turned back to convince themselves that threats to the rear were not forthcoming [snicker].
  They returned to Hedrack's black bed chamber and were finally successful in opening the chest. Inside were objects both wondrous and strange: a stone vial of sovereign glue, eyes of minute seeing, and a brooch of shielding.   Next they followed the spiral stairs down and happened upon a chamber smelling of acrid smoke, heated metal, and burned flesh. In the middle of the room sat a machine of spinning gears and slicing metal, flame-exhaust and fronted by a flat metal demon maw. An air of evil hung about the place. Em's mage hand spread sovereign glue upon one of the gears and with a piercing tear of metal the gear was shot out of the machine to one side, but the machine continued to spin and wheeze. Barbados went to pick up the gear and toss into the machine, but he wandered too close to the demon mouth -- a metal tendril shot out and wrapped itself around the big man's leg. He was drug into the machine and you'd forgive the barbarian's screams if it had been you. The machine sliced off his left arm an in its place was grafted a demonic appendage, a grey-green tendril ending in crude, three finger-claw (for game terms, weapon attacks with the left arm are made at -2 to hit, the "arm" can be used as an unarmed strike attack for 1d4 bludgeoning damage + strength modifier; finally, as a bonus action the arm can cast magic missile as a 3rd level spell once per day).
  Thus changed, Barbados and the heroes left the dismal chamber and made their way back to the processional corridor. Thinking on things, Orac mused that perhaps Barbados had been introduced to the "infernal Device" mentioned in Hedrack's journal. The Doomdreamers figures prominently in his journal as well. These must be the same as those mentioned by Geynor Ton from the moathouse. Could the Doomdreamers seek to return Tharizdun to the world? Did Barbaos lose his arm for this?

Rewards Granted

Monster XP
Vampire x 1: 10,000
  Adventure advancement: 1,000
  Total XP per PC: 2,200