Whispers of the Vampire Blade 4th Ed - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 arjomanes Jul 23, 2009 13:27:13	Has anyone run this module in 4e, or made a conversion of it? If you have run it, did it go pretty smoothly by just converting the monsters? If anyone has a link to any conversions or threads about running this, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
#2 RedRider Jul 23, 2009 14:21:49	A couple of thoughts: VotVB is highly railroad-y, but 4E can work that very well with the skill challenge system. Off the top of my head, encounters that can be changed to skill challenges with a bit of work: Show 1: Chasing Lucan and his sister in the coach. Sucess: Lucan escapes, but the PCs capture his sister, preventing her from showing up in later scenes. Failure: Even if the PCs manage to board the coach, the sun sets before they can force it to stop. Lucan wakes and throws any PCs on the coach off. Lucan AND his sister show up in future encounters. Note: This would probably work best as a combined skill challenge/combat, with the skill challenge acting as a "countdown" to dusk and Lucan waking. 2: Finding out about the ball at the Aundarian Embassy could be a skill challenge, but I'm not sure about what to do in the event of failues, since missing the ball could cost you an excellent opportunity to have the PCs dress up in funny masks. 3: The ball at the Aundair Embassy becomes a skill challenge to find Lucan before he can give the PCs the slip. Sucess: Lucan discovered. Either the PCs confront him physically and he flips out and kills people or his agitation is increased to a state where his friend in the Royal Eyes becomes suspicious and attempts to magically charm him, resulting in Lucan flipping out and killing people before escaping. Failure: The PCs overhear someone mention Lucan's airship ticket trade with his Royal Eye ally. The PCs are at some kind of disadvantage as they attempt to board Lucan's Airship. 4: The docking tower is probably run best as a combat, but still acts as a branching point: -If the PCs board the airship Lucan has stowed away on, move on to skill challenge five. -If the PCs board Garrow's eeeevil airship, he covertly pumps them for information until they catch up with Lucan, where he orders his minions to kill the PCs while he attempts to deal with Lucan personally. 5: On board Lucan's airship, the PCs search for Lucan. In the original adventure, sucess or failure didn't yield any difference to the end result. Perhaps we could come up with another branch where the airships don't end up crashing. (Earning the PCs an ally in the form of the ship's captain?) Even so, we probably want something here to fill in the time between the battle on the docking tower and the battle in the sky. 6: Similar to 5, searching the lightning rail could be a skill challenge, but again I'm not sure what to do for sucess or failure. 7: The PCs follow Lucan to the Zigguart. Once inside, tracking him to his hiding place could be a skill challenge. Sucess results in the PCs finding Lucan slightly more or less in control of himself depending on how you want to RP him. The PCs gain an advantage in the form of some handicap for Lucan. (Perhaps an encounter power with Rechard 5,6 becomes Recharge 6 instead.) 8: If Lucan attempts to escape during the fight, tracking him through the Zigguart (It's daylight outside by now) could be another skill challenge, allowing the PCs the possibility of finding him before he has fully regenerated. This one should be kept as short as possible to maintain the heightened sense of action.
#3 Ogiwan Jul 24, 2009 4:17:42	I was in the process of converting that whole adventure series into 4e, but my players never got past Shadows. Still, I just kept the same general combat feel for monsters, just increasing and changing the numbers and types to fit and be cool. In Shadows, for example, instead of being a pair of bugbears who were easily whomped, I made it a mix of Bugbear warriors and Stranglers.
#4 Arawn76 Jul 24, 2009 13:34:56	Definitely railroady but fun. Lose the Ziggurat as is if possible it really makes no sense and really blew my players sense of immersion.
#5 Ogiwan Jul 24, 2009 14:59:15	I think my players rolled well with it. Then again, they went all-out creatively for sneaking into the ball, and had a blast with the train fight and the airship fight. I don't know if I'd run Whispers "pure" in the future, but I would certainly lift elements from it.
#6 arjomanes Jul 26, 2009 19:50:42	Thanks for the replies. I like those ideas on the skill challenges. I'm pretty new to 4th ed so I'll take a crack at making those work, modeling them on some other SCs I've seen in Dungeon. Lucan: Show I have some issues with Lucan, as Vampire Spawn are minions in 4th edition. Should I take the minion and convert it to an elite, changing the hp, attack, damage, etc as appropriate? Should I also tack on a couple of the vampire lord abilities, or leave those off?

Show

1: Chasing Lucan and his sister in the coach.
Sucess: Lucan escapes, but the PCs capture his sister, preventing her from showing up in later scenes.
Failure: Even if the PCs manage to board the coach, the sun sets before they can force it to stop. Lucan wakes and throws any PCs on the coach off.
Lucan AND his sister show up in future encounters.
Note: This would probably work best as a combined skill challenge/combat, with the skill challenge acting as a "countdown" to dusk and Lucan waking.

2: Finding out about the ball at the Aundarian Embassy could be a skill challenge, but I'm not sure about what to do in the event of failues, since missing the ball could cost you an excellent opportunity to have the PCs dress up in funny masks.

3: The ball at the Aundair Embassy becomes a skill challenge to find Lucan before he can give the PCs the slip.
Sucess: Lucan discovered. Either the PCs confront him physically and he flips out and kills people or his agitation is increased to a state where his friend in the Royal Eyes becomes suspicious and attempts to magically charm him, resulting in Lucan flipping out and killing people before escaping.
Failure: The PCs overhear someone mention Lucan's airship ticket trade with his Royal Eye ally. The PCs are at some kind of disadvantage as they attempt to board Lucan's Airship.

4: The docking tower is probably run best as a combat, but still acts as a branching point:
-If the PCs board the airship Lucan has stowed away on, move on to skill challenge five.
-If the PCs board Garrow's eeeevil airship, he covertly pumps them for information until they catch up with Lucan, where he orders his minions to kill the PCs while he attempts to deal with Lucan personally.

5: On board Lucan's airship, the PCs search for Lucan.
In the original adventure, sucess or failure didn't yield any difference to the end result. Perhaps we could come up with another branch where the airships don't end up crashing. (Earning the PCs an ally in the form of the ship's captain?)
Even so, we probably want something here to fill in the time between the battle on the docking tower and the battle in the sky.

6: Similar to 5, searching the lightning rail could be a skill challenge, but again I'm not sure what to do for sucess or failure.

7: The PCs follow Lucan to the Zigguart. Once inside, tracking him to his hiding place could be a skill challenge.
Sucess results in the PCs finding Lucan slightly more or less in control of himself depending on how you want to RP him. The PCs gain an advantage in the form of some handicap for Lucan. (Perhaps an encounter power with Rechard 5,6 becomes Recharge 6 instead.)

8: If Lucan attempts to escape during the fight, tracking him through the Zigguart (It's daylight outside by now) could be another skill challenge, allowing the PCs the possibility of finding him before he has fully regenerated.
This one should be kept as short as possible to maintain the heightened sense of action.