Amidst the shadowy corridors of an ancient mansion, rumored to harbor a secret vampire coven, our intrepid band of adventurers tread cautiously. The air was thick with an unspoken dread, every creak and whisper magnifying our unease. It was in one such forsaken room that we stumbled upon a chilling scene: a lifeless body, its presence marked by eerie green wisps that danced like ghostly flames in the still air.
In the face of this unsettling curse, it was Dave who, with a steadiness born of countless encounters with the dark and arcane, searched his inventory for a beacon of hope. The scroll of remove curse, a rare and precious artefact, gleamed with potential salvation. With a whispered incantation, the green vapours that had held us in their morbid spell began to fade, revealing the room's true form and lifting the veil of foreboding that had settled upon our hearts.
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So Friday's session, started out minus Zaph, with our usual promises not to get him killed. We started out with the usual ... finishing up from where we had got to the previous session. We went deeper into the cellars, and found the temple of Bhane, and Orin who had kidnapped Leizal from our camp and told us to bugger off and deal with Gortash or our friend gets carved like a roast. So we left and headed back to camp to rest, confirming Lazael is missing. We had a chat with Wyll then slept.
Then off for shopping to sell junk, we had picked up, exploring to map out more of Baldurs Gate, and a trip to the armor to spend $5,000 (only 40% of our gold) gold on new medium armor for Myles, enabling his full dexterity bonus, and boosting his AC from 20 to 24. A trip to the docks got us jumped by some Sahuagin, Craig went all snarly badger on them, Myles almost killed an innocent bystander - Zaph stripped down to his birthday suit so he wouldn't drown if he fell in the water, a few arrows, a bit of melee, a guardian spirit, an elemental or two and it was all over bar the cheering. After Zaph put his armor back on we visited the temple of woes, where they tried to convince Craig he really needed to repent and get their services (1,000 gp). It really fit his back story, but after Dave also spoke to them it turns out they have the same spiel for everyone. So we kept exploring.
Down to the next docks - where Volo the bard was tied up to some barrels of firewine with fire creeping closer, and a hostile crowd being stirred up by a servant of the absolute. So of course, we intervened .... well Craig tried, and it all went to shit ... then he tried to put the fire out and blew Volo up. So we reloaded and tried again. This time Myles prepositioned early on a nearby roof, we threw water on the fire suppressing it, so we could free Volo, and we watched Craig's minions beat each other up instead of the enemy.
Off for some more dockside exploring, the place is just overrun by thugs - another fight, some red chests. Myles asked what the point was if you couldn't loot them, and Dave explained we just needed to obscure them with fog or Dark and you could loot away. That worked and Myles is now a fan of arrows of darkness.
We picked up the trail of the murderous dopplegangers and tracked them down, saving their next victim and killing the leader, completing the quest. Our reward - big discounts on all the frippery clothes you could want. So we played dress up with Zaph's character, then paraded him around town in his new finery. And what better place to show him off, than into the park where we picked flowers, got ambushed by Orin's cult of murderers as a test , which we passed with flying colours by turning it on them and having Myles and Craig sneaking around above them..... well Myles sneaked, whilst Craig and his menagerie stomped through the garden beds like Craig walking in a forest. After the fight was over we had a weird conversation with the elder brain via one if its tadpole minions whose brain turned to mush at the end, it would like us to free it. ... free it, kill it, decisions decisions. Meanwhile we have an invite to gate crash the Vampire party so we set off to do that ... it turns out Earth elementals are too big to fit through doorways, who would have guessed. Myles found a way on to the walls, then its off to Count Szarrs castle for a bit of staking, garlic and holy water. The brain dead minion wouldn't let us in until we convinced him we were just their to check the security - wink, wink.
Not that they needed security with the magically sealed doors. So we trashed the place top to bottom to find what we needed to break the seal, including lifting a curse from a body, reading a bunch of notes, pilfering everything that wasn't nailed to the floor. Finally we relented and let Zaph put his armor back on, then popped the door and in we went. Of course the anti chamber is full of giant wolves, werewolves, rats, bats etc, etc. So we got Myles to sneak through the room (this time he went invisible) and he found the elevator down, and looted the study. Dave sent his elemental in to where Myles was, which the wolves ignored, so thinking that meant everyone would be ignored he stepped into the room .... and of course that triggers the you can't be here conversation, but you can be lunch. Craig turned into a housecat for the fight - that was useful for the rats, but not much else, so he unleashed his inner spider. Of course his fangs weren't magical, so they just bounced off the werewolves. It was touch and go there for a minute as a bunch of servants went hostile as well and rushed in to die. Lots of post combat looting ensued, we found out what the button did, looted the attic, came back and did the other study, then called it a night.
