Help DMing Whispers of the Vampires Blade [Archive] - Wizards Community

Help DMing Whispers of the Vampires Blade [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Bib_Fortuna88
02-14-05, 03:48 PM Soon i am going to be DMing the WIspers of the Vampires Blade but i am confused on how to exactly DM the encounter when your chasing Lucan and Grishla on horse back. I tested the adventure w/ my stepfather and we ended up killing Lucan during that encounter, prematurely ending the adventure!!!

any suggestions/mistakes i made?
Phanuel
02-14-05, 03:54 PM When a vampire is taken to 0 or fewer hitpoints, he turns into mist and flees the scene. When I ran the chase, I had Lucan flee in mist form well before he was in danger of loosing his last few hit points. That and the fact that knocking the PC's off a bouncing moving cart shouldn't be that hard. He has spider climb, they don't.
Bib_Fortuna88
02-14-05, 03:58 PM yeah, Lucan should've dissipated........ But my stepfather surprised my by hacking apart one of the wheels of the card so that the cart stopped, Grishla was doomed, but i guess it isn't plot distroying if she dies.

what about actually DMing the horse chase???? The map that comes with the DM's guide is much too small for the relative mapping thingy that it says to use. WHat should i do?
Phanuel
02-14-05, 04:25 PM Well, I totally ignored that map thing. I kept it very fast paced with a sense of urgency and let the PC's do just about whatever they wanted with the scene. It's like imagine the PC's on horseback finally catching a glimpse of the horse and carriage that they have been chasing since Sharn. Of course they raced ahead and attempted to catch up, shooting whatever missile weapons they had at it. Finally one catches up and climbs on top of the carriage to do away w/ the driver. Just as they think they can win by killing the driver, she lets loose w/ a spell.
It's like this, imagine the race scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula w/ Gary Oldman as they race towards Dracula's castle. That was the image that I wanted to portray. Unfortunately, the terrain doesn't include precarious drops and mountainous terrain, but invent stuff up for various road hazards. I also had wolves chasing after the chase nipping at the horses' ankles. It was so much fun. Have fun w/ this encounter. I did. If I felt that the PC's were going to do anything that would bring the plot to a grinding halt, the vampire just assumed mist form and fled.
Bib_Fortuna88
02-14-05, 04:30 PM :d :d :d :d :d :d Thanks A Lot For Your Help!!! :d :d :d :d
Rathis Darkwielder
02-14-05, 04:46 PM Well, I didn't DM but played it. It was a blast!

When we caught sight of the coach, three of us (all non-dwarves, the dwarves had a cart that was a bit too slow to really catch up) raced ahead. We were shot at with a firebal by the driver (scroll I thought) and didn't manage to harm her or the coach until we came alongside.

At this point, the cleric (with the fire domain) tries to cast burning hands on the coach in the hope to set the coach aflame. He fails his concentration check and loses the spell :mad:

Then it was our Psionic's turn, he also moves alongside and fails to cast his power as well due to a failed concentration check.

Then was my turn (I was playing a paladin). I moved alongside, heroicly jumped from my horse on the coach (using one action point), but failing to bull rush the driver immediatly from the coach.

Next round the driver ignores me, but I miss her with my attack of opportunity but she loses concentration while casting another spell due to the motion of the coach.

The cleric has no action but to slow down her horse next round

And this is where the chase ends. For the psionic summoned an astral construct directly ahead of the coach, colliding with the horses and crashing the coach completely. Using another action point to tumble off the coach before it struck home, my paladin managed to land quite soft (not really of course, but it could've been worse).

The driver was catapulted off the coach and almost died on impact (we actually thought she was dead until the dwarfs arrived, healed her on -9hp :P ).

All in all it was the most original ending of a chase scene I could think of (perhaps someone else here will tell an even better story, but for the moment I love our solution :D )

Rathis
Lara Flynn
02-14-05, 05:09 PM Sounds great.

My players set the wagon in flames, cut free the horses and fought Lucan and his sister on the burning vehicle while it raced towards a muddy hole off the road with all momentum it had left after the horses decided to say "bye, bye".
Finally Lucan made his jump onto one of the now free horses and caught his sister who missed her brother's horse.
Not all of the PCs make it back onto their own horses, but jump off the wagon which crashes into the muddy hole, breaking one axis.

The others went after Lucan. He got rid of his sister by pushing her from the horse as the PCs came too near. The PCs ignored her and followed him but Lucan stayed ahead.
His sister made it into the woods and has been seen again - as well as Lucan.

And by the way: As a vampire Lucan has plenty ways of escaping from the middle of a road. He should never ever die there. Read through his abilities.
Sarlax
02-14-05, 06:52 PM In my game, the players all lined up for a perfect hit from a Lightning Bolt. Ha. They learned their lesson afterward and charged after the coach. The warforged fighter leapt onto the coach and, in the next round, through Grilsha off and in front of the horses. She was barely conscious. Lucan summoned the wolves and misted away immediately. Grilsha becomes invisible and the players search for her long enough for the wolves to arrive, which forces them to take a safe place on top of the crashed carriage where they can deal with them one or two at a time.
Sigma34561
02-14-05, 09:44 PM I ran this adventure and it was a blast. When the PCs cought sight of the carrage they sped up to catch them. We acutally used a grid and kept track of the whole fight with relative speed involved. They party started shooting at the driver, she awoke Lucan who called wolves. When the party got close enough she climbed on top of the coach and let loose a lighting bolt! They were lined up like ducks and I rolled well enough to kill one of thier horses. One of them had to go back to save the halfling rogue who's horse had just been cooked under him. I let them know that the howling of wolves could be heard in the distance. Lucan escaped with the help of his mist ability leaving Grilsha to fend for herself. She was left fighting a barbarian on top of the coach, while the cleric tried to slow down the horses. Naturally this took several rounds because of the momentum of the coach and the horses. She made her checks to cast fly on herself but was hit by an attack of opportunity from the barbarian as she fled. This sent her flying out of control, and since we were using relative speeds that meant that she went back several spaces on our grid, provoking another AoO from our fighter. In then end she dropped a fireball on the two straggelers (the rogue and the warforged picking him up) killing the horse of the 'forged who was "saving" the halfling. The party had to race back to save the hafling and the 'forged from the pack of wolves that were now catching up. Everyone was excited because until this fight they didnt know that lucan was a vampire, and there is always that guy who is like "DUDE!! He escaped in gaseous form! AND he summoned a pack of wolves!! THIS GUY IS A FREAKIN VAMPIRE!!"

The three adventures so far have been totaly awesome, they really put you into the action. Instead of skulking around some abandoned dungon looking for treasure, your fighting for your lives aboard an airship thousands of feet above the earth, and then trying to escape it once it starts plummeting towards the ground! My players went below decks and used one of the skiffs to escape. They didnt really explain the rules for the skiffs very well so I ruled that they are like mini airships but they draw power from the main ring. The description was that they floated out of the dock and energy arced from the main ring to the smaller ring on the skiff and energized it. When the skiff aproached the other ship its "blue" glow faded but was re-energized by the fire elemental bindings. The players were relieved to find that the skiffs sink to the ground slowly and then hover a few feet off the ground. Overall the entire adveture was fun. They had managed to get the blade away from lucan on the ship right before it crashed, one of the PC's was a chainer who liked to disarm. The whole end scene was revered because they took shelter in the Ziggurat while lucan was following him. They used the boat to get to it, and in the morning the boat was smashed. Then they split up to search the tower, that was a great idea. The halfing split up with his partner and got dominated... and you know the rest of the story...
Arcane Guyver
02-14-05, 10:30 PM My players didn't even come close to the carriage. Once they got in range, the fireball wiped out over half the team and their horses. Thank goodness for house rules, else the sorcerer would've been a crispy critter.

Dunno if being 3rd level for the encounter made any difference. :smirk:
Bib_Fortuna88
02-15-05, 07:06 PM did you guys use relative mapping with minis like it suggested or no?
if not what did you use?
Arcane Guyver
02-15-05, 09:47 PM I just sort of calculated their relative closeness by rounds, depending on their different speeds. If the fireball hadn't nuked 'em, and the PCs got close enough, mini's would have been used.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bib_Fortuna88 02-14-05, 03:48 PM	Soon i am going to be DMing the WIspers of the Vampires Blade but i am confused on how to exactly DM the encounter when your chasing Lucan and Grishla on horse back. I tested the adventure w/ my stepfather and we ended up killing Lucan during that encounter, prematurely ending the adventure!!! any suggestions/mistakes i made?
Phanuel 02-14-05, 03:54 PM	When a vampire is taken to 0 or fewer hitpoints, he turns into mist and flees the scene. When I ran the chase, I had Lucan flee in mist form well before he was in danger of loosing his last few hit points. That and the fact that knocking the PC's off a bouncing moving cart shouldn't be that hard. He has spider climb, they don't.
Bib_Fortuna88 02-14-05, 03:58 PM	yeah, Lucan should've dissipated........ But my stepfather surprised my by hacking apart one of the wheels of the card so that the cart stopped, Grishla was doomed, but i guess it isn't plot distroying if she dies. what about actually DMing the horse chase???? The map that comes with the DM's guide is much too small for the relative mapping thingy that it says to use. WHat should i do?
Phanuel 02-14-05, 04:25 PM	Well, I totally ignored that map thing. I kept it very fast paced with a sense of urgency and let the PC's do just about whatever they wanted with the scene. It's like imagine the PC's on horseback finally catching a glimpse of the horse and carriage that they have been chasing since Sharn. Of course they raced ahead and attempted to catch up, shooting whatever missile weapons they had at it. Finally one catches up and climbs on top of the carriage to do away w/ the driver. Just as they think they can win by killing the driver, she lets loose w/ a spell. It's like this, imagine the race scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula w/ Gary Oldman as they race towards Dracula's castle. That was the image that I wanted to portray. Unfortunately, the terrain doesn't include precarious drops and mountainous terrain, but invent stuff up for various road hazards. I also had wolves chasing after the chase nipping at the horses' ankles. It was so much fun. Have fun w/ this encounter. I did. If I felt that the PC's were going to do anything that would bring the plot to a grinding halt, the vampire just assumed mist form and fled.
Bib_Fortuna88 02-14-05, 04:30 PM	:d :d :d :d :d :d Thanks A Lot For Your Help!!! :d :d :d :d
Rathis Darkwielder 02-14-05, 04:46 PM	Well, I didn't DM but played it. It was a blast! When we caught sight of the coach, three of us (all non-dwarves, the dwarves had a cart that was a bit too slow to really catch up) raced ahead. We were shot at with a firebal by the driver (scroll I thought) and didn't manage to harm her or the coach until we came alongside. At this point, the cleric (with the fire domain) tries to cast burning hands on the coach in the hope to set the coach aflame. He fails his concentration check and loses the spell :mad: Then it was our Psionic's turn, he also moves alongside and fails to cast his power as well due to a failed concentration check. Then was my turn (I was playing a paladin). I moved alongside, heroicly jumped from my horse on the coach (using one action point), but failing to bull rush the driver immediatly from the coach. Next round the driver ignores me, but I miss her with my attack of opportunity but she loses concentration while casting another spell due to the motion of the coach. The cleric has no action but to slow down her horse next round And this is where the chase ends. For the psionic summoned an astral construct directly ahead of the coach, colliding with the horses and crashing the coach completely. Using another action point to tumble off the coach before it struck home, my paladin managed to land quite soft (not really of course, but it could've been worse). The driver was catapulted off the coach and almost died on impact (we actually thought she was dead until the dwarfs arrived, healed her on -9hp :P ). All in all it was the most original ending of a chase scene I could think of (perhaps someone else here will tell an even better story, but for the moment I love our solution :D ) Rathis
Lara Flynn 02-14-05, 05:09 PM	Sounds great. My players set the wagon in flames, cut free the horses and fought Lucan and his sister on the burning vehicle while it raced towards a muddy hole off the road with all momentum it had left after the horses decided to say "bye, bye". Finally Lucan made his jump onto one of the now free horses and caught his sister who missed her brother's horse. Not all of the PCs make it back onto their own horses, but jump off the wagon which crashes into the muddy hole, breaking one axis. The others went after Lucan. He got rid of his sister by pushing her from the horse as the PCs came too near. The PCs ignored her and followed him but Lucan stayed ahead. His sister made it into the woods and has been seen again - as well as Lucan. And by the way: As a vampire Lucan has plenty ways of escaping from the middle of a road. He should never ever die there. Read through his abilities.
Sarlax 02-14-05, 06:52 PM	In my game, the players all lined up for a perfect hit from a Lightning Bolt. Ha. They learned their lesson afterward and charged after the coach. The warforged fighter leapt onto the coach and, in the next round, through Grilsha off and in front of the horses. She was barely conscious. Lucan summoned the wolves and misted away immediately. Grilsha becomes invisible and the players search for her long enough for the wolves to arrive, which forces them to take a safe place on top of the crashed carriage where they can deal with them one or two at a time.
Sigma34561 02-14-05, 09:44 PM	I ran this adventure and it was a blast. When the PCs cought sight of the carrage they sped up to catch them. We acutally used a grid and kept track of the whole fight with relative speed involved. They party started shooting at the driver, she awoke Lucan who called wolves. When the party got close enough she climbed on top of the coach and let loose a lighting bolt! They were lined up like ducks and I rolled well enough to kill one of thier horses. One of them had to go back to save the halfling rogue who's horse had just been cooked under him. I let them know that the howling of wolves could be heard in the distance. Lucan escaped with the help of his mist ability leaving Grilsha to fend for herself. She was left fighting a barbarian on top of the coach, while the cleric tried to slow down the horses. Naturally this took several rounds because of the momentum of the coach and the horses. She made her checks to cast fly on herself but was hit by an attack of opportunity from the barbarian as she fled. This sent her flying out of control, and since we were using relative speeds that meant that she went back several spaces on our grid, provoking another AoO from our fighter. In then end she dropped a fireball on the two straggelers (the rogue and the warforged picking him up) killing the horse of the 'forged who was "saving" the halfling. The party had to race back to save the hafling and the 'forged from the pack of wolves that were now catching up. Everyone was excited because until this fight they didnt know that lucan was a vampire, and there is always that guy who is like "DUDE!! He escaped in gaseous form! AND he summoned a pack of wolves!! THIS GUY IS A FREAKIN VAMPIRE!!" The three adventures so far have been totaly awesome, they really put you into the action. Instead of skulking around some abandoned dungon looking for treasure, your fighting for your lives aboard an airship thousands of feet above the earth, and then trying to escape it once it starts plummeting towards the ground! My players went below decks and used one of the skiffs to escape. They didnt really explain the rules for the skiffs very well so I ruled that they are like mini airships but they draw power from the main ring. The description was that they floated out of the dock and energy arced from the main ring to the smaller ring on the skiff and energized it. When the skiff aproached the other ship its "blue" glow faded but was re-energized by the fire elemental bindings. The players were relieved to find that the skiffs sink to the ground slowly and then hover a few feet off the ground. Overall the entire adveture was fun. They had managed to get the blade away from lucan on the ship right before it crashed, one of the PC's was a chainer who liked to disarm. The whole end scene was revered because they took shelter in the Ziggurat while lucan was following him. They used the boat to get to it, and in the morning the boat was smashed. Then they split up to search the tower, that was a great idea. The halfing split up with his partner and got dominated... and you know the rest of the story...
Arcane Guyver 02-14-05, 10:30 PM	My players didn't even come close to the carriage. Once they got in range, the fireball wiped out over half the team and their horses. Thank goodness for house rules, else the sorcerer would've been a crispy critter. Dunno if being 3rd level for the encounter made any difference. :smirk:
Bib_Fortuna88 02-15-05, 07:06 PM	did you guys use relative mapping with minis like it suggested or no? if not what did you use?
Arcane Guyver 02-15-05, 09:47 PM	I just sort of calculated their relative closeness by rounds, depending on their different speeds. If the fireball hadn't nuked 'em, and the PCs got close enough, mini's would have been used.