Session 73: Nosferatu
General Summary
The vampire snapped at Nemara's throat, and only her frantic squirming saved her from its thirsty fangs. In her mind, Blackrazor was ambivalent.
It's already dead, the imperious voice sighed, what do you want with me. I'm wasted on this creature.
Fortunately, Nemara still had her spells. So did her wizard companions, but the creature mentally swatted their entire first volley aside as if it were nothing, continuing to rake and chomp at the trapped warlock.
But Lins had been in tight spaces before. "Nemara!" she called "I'll turn you into a T-Rex -hold still!"
Nemara freed a hand long enough to offer a shaky thumbs-up, and Lins fired her spell.
The warlock felt the changes and embraced them as she grew, her purple skin turning to a feathered hide, her nails growing into talons, her head growing, growing, slamming on the ceiling, her teeth each the size of a longsword. She filled the room, shoving her companions aside and squishing Trislee against the wall as the Nosferatu, which had been pinning her, found itself scrambling for purchase on her back.
Nemara roared, shaking her body to dislodge the pest, her mind filled with the instincts of a wounded predator. Her exhaustion left her as the vitality of the T-Rex took over; she shook it off her back and snapped her gigantic jaws around the creature, chomping on it as it gave a thin, unearthly scream of rage.
In Lins' mind, Wave was trying hard not to panic. The weapon had seen enough battle to know how Polymorph worked, and knew as well as Lins that the morph was a bandage-solution - the real Nem was still one or two successful attacks from bleeding out, and who knew what would happen if she bled out to this feral vampire's attacks? The weapon pleaded to be used, and having seen her friend's blood loss, Lins needed little persuasion.
She held the weapon aloft, and her voice rang through the room as she cried out "Let the beauty and power of the sea abide evermore!"
With a telepathic shout of excitement, Wave flew from Lins' hand straight and true at the creature in the dinosaur's mouth. Lins worked quickly, catching the trident as it fell from the elevated target only to return it with renewed force. It was easy in her hands, like she'd wielded a trident her whole life. In her mind, Wave guided her movements and together they began shredding the vile creature.
Meanwhile, Trislee had been firing spell after spell to no effect; with no weapon of her own, she was trying to figure out a way to damage the creature; she'd worn out it resistances, but its swatting-aside of her attempts was frustrating, to say the least. She was too slow - she needed an edge. So she looked at her new ring and commanded it to use Haste.
And for a moment, she did feel fast; at least, it seemed like the world got slower. It didn't take long however to figure out that the ring had scammed her, as she was stuck in slow-motion; the world around her seeming to zoom along while she plodded her way through the somatic components of a chill touch.
Fortunately she was able to pull it off, and a ghostly hand appeared around the vampire's mouth as Nemara spat it out, tired of getting her tongue bitten. The vampire kept swiping and biting at them, but the vitality didn't seem to return as it drank their blood the way it had before; its strength was steadily waning.
And when it made the mistake of entering Wave's melee range, Lins unloaded a flurry of blows that ended the creature's blood-frenzy for good. it collapsed, torn and spent, at her feet.
Wave was ecstatic; chattering about what fun they'd have fighting evils in the world, hoping their travels took them to the sea, exulting over the expert way Lins had wielded him, but there wasn't time to celebrate just yet.
Remembering that vampiric creatures can be hard to keep down, the gang used the last of their strength to haul the body out into the previous cavern, chucking it down into the boiling mud (after verifying that it wasn't carrying any treasure).
Moving the coffin, which had drag marks on the floor around it, was a similarly simple affair. When it was pushed aside, they beheld an intricately-carved, immaculate war-hammer. It greeted them in dwarven, and then reiterated itself in common when it realized only one person spoke its native tongue.
"Greetings in the name of the Mightyhammer clan! And congratulations on defeating Ctenmiir!"
Whelm explained to the party that their valour was admirable, but before he could agree to attune to any of them, he had to know if they were dwarf-friends, or at least would be willing to become allies of the dwarven species, especially the Mightyhammer clan. He was delighted to know that Nemara and Lins had both been good friends with a dwarven adventurer who travelled with them for a long time, and that Trislee had spent time in the dwarven homeland, researching their archaelogical sights with the blessing of the locals. He would be pleased to attune to any of them, and Trislee, being the only one without a legendary weapon, was pleased to accept, even as Nemara groused about her own prize's unhelpfulness.
The gang got better acquainted with their new friend as they settled in to rest their weary bones.
Rewards Granted
- Whelm
Report Date
29 May 2023
Primary Location
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