Eberron Adventure Journal: Whisper of the Vampire's Blade (5)

Sypheros 1 - Sypheros 2, YK 998

Part Six - Lucan's Last Stand

While the Wolves were healing and planning on how to take down Lucan, one of the House Orien crew came up to them and asked what had happened. Brand, not a fan of House Orien, brusquely told the man that they had tried to capture a vampire that had been on board, and that he had fled into the ziggurat in the distance, and they were headed to capture him. The crewman explained that he had to try and convince the elemental to take the train to Aruldusk, and wasn't easily swayed from this decision.

The Wolves gathered their things, which now included a bound and gagged Grilsha and a bound Arenydee, and headed over toward the ziggurat. They saw that there was a stagnant lake, about a quarter mile across, between them and the stairs leading up to the only door. They wanted to rest and recover their spellcasting and psionic capabilities, but it was the middle of the night, and they worried that Lucan might attack or, worse, escape.

After much discussion about building a raft, swimming across or trying to figure something else out, Tock walked out into the lake. He found that it was about 10 feet deep at its deepest point, and didn't have any creatures or threats in it. The Wolves cut down branches from nearby trees to use as flotation devices and formed a train of sorts, with Tock walking across the bottom and the others swimming along and simultaneously being pulled along behind him. When they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, they set Arenydee and Grilsha down and headed up the stairs.

The light from Tock's sunrod illuminated the interior room, a chamber made of polished gray marble with eight pillars that looked like octopus tentacles. It also illuminated the creature trying to hide at the back of the room, a cloaker, which immediately began an unnerving moan.

Whitehearth charged right in and snapped at the Cloaker, landing a solid blow, as Kanatash manifested psionic crossbow bolts. Tock charged as well, but missed and was engulfed and bitten by the Cloaker. This stopped the moaning, and Brand and Lysander moved in. The Cloaker avoided their attacks, but Lysander began an inspiring song, and Pel fired a magic missile that struck the Cloaker, but didn't cause it to loose Tock.

Whitehearth struck again, and the Cloaker released Tock and let loose a moan of fear that shook Whitehearth and sent Brand running outside into the water. Lysander quickly changed songs to counteract Whitehearth's fear, and the wolf, now angry, turned and bit the Cloaker again.

Kanatash, seeing the tide turning, tried to psionically attack the Cloaker, but it resisted his attack and changed to another moan, which caused Whitehearth and Pel to double over from stomach pain. Lysander charged the beast and swung his longsword into it, and Kanatash launched a bolt of electrical psionic energy, setting the Cloaker up for a killing stroke from Tock's armblade.

After this dangerous and draining battle, the Wolves decided to take a chance on resting inside this antechamber. Pel scouted the outside to look for other exits and didn't see any, and Lysander and Brand brought in Grilsha and Arenydee and tied them to one of the pillars, and then they all rested, with Brand and Whitehearth keeping watch. 8 hours later, they could see out the door that the sun had risen. They were refreshed, and unless Lucan had found a secret exit, he was now trapped inside the ziggurat.

Leaving the only sunlight in the ziggurat behind, the Wolves advanced up the stairs to a room Pel had scouted the night before. An altar hung in the center, suspended by heavy chains, and faded frescoes of demons adorned the walls. Pel searched the room for traps and found a lever on the back of the altar that would open a secret drawer. Before he pulled it, however, he noticed another mechanism, a trap that would activate a pit beneath the altar if the drawer was opened. Taking note of this room for possible strategic use later, the Wolves went upstairs to the next room.

The next room was formerly an animal sacrifice chamber, as evidenced by the large, stained stone table in the center of the room. Carved animal heads with emeralds for eyes adorned the walls, and next to the stone table stood one of the creatures that had performed the sacrifices eons ago, a Minotaur zombie that lifted its greataxe and charged.

Pel tried to turn the creature, but his spiritual powers were not enough. Fortunately, his roguish skills were intact, and he ducked under a mighty swing of the creature's greataxe. Lysander again launched into an inspiring song, but the Wolves were unable to enter the room, as the minotaur had now blocked easy access to everyone except Pel, who was already inside, and Tock, who stood at the door. Tock sliced a chunk out of the minotaur with his armblade, and Whitehearth and Brand decided to try and slip by. Whitehearth succeeded, but Brand was struck by the axe with a solid blow that sliced a gash down his back. However, he and Whitehearth both retaliated, doing only slight damage to the creature but tripping it and knocking it to the floor.

The beast resisted Kanatash's psionic attacks and shrugged off a glancing blow from Pel's scimitar as it pulled itself to its feet. This maneuver made it vulnerable, and Tock, Brand and Whitehearth managed to sneak in solid blows on the creature. Kanatash psionically convinced the creature it was still on the ground, causing it to try and stand up once more, and Pel, Brand and Whitehearth struck again, with the minotaur tripping and falling as a result.

The minotaur was now showing even more bone through its rotting flesh, but didn't show any signs of slowing down. It stood once more, and was struck again by Pel, Brand and Whitehearth. Lysander tumbled into the room as the minotaur swung its greataxe and slashed open Pel's chest. Rising from his tumble, Lysander swung his longsword into the beast and slashed away a great chunk of flesh from its midsection, revealing its spinal cord. The minotaur rose its greataxe to finish Pel off, and Pel swung his scimitar through the spinal cord, causing the zombie to drop, in two flopping halves, onto the floor, where it finally stopped moving.

In the wake of this battle with an undead creature, and with the battle with a vampire approaching, Tock infused his arm blade and Brand's shortsword with undead bane, while Lysander used the cure light wounds wand almost completely up healing the damage Pel and Brand had suffered during the combat.

Faced with stairways going up or down, the Wolves decided to descend. They emerged into a hall filled with statues of goblins and bugbears, and immediately feared they were facing a medusa, but were instead attacked by a pair of Gricks. The creatures shrugged off Pel's non-magical crossbow bolt and one of them bit Lysander deep in the shoulder as Tock slashed at the other one with his armblade. Kanatash ended the fight quickly with a bolt of electricity that destroyed both gricks utterly.

Continuing downward, the Wolves found themselves in a prayer chamber festooned with moldy tapestries and submerged in a foot of murky water. On the other side of the room was a large stone door with a crescent moon, and near the Wolves were a pair of kettle drums beating out a ceremonial rythym by means of a magically animted double mallet. Pel spotted a tentacle peeking out from one of the tapestries, and was able to warn the others as an Otyugh shuffled out into the water and charged.

Tock struck the creature, but was rewarded by a tentacle wrapping around him and squeezing. He broke free as the others moved in and dealt another vicious slash to the Otyugh. Pel blasted away with magic missiles as Brand slashed the thing with its shortsword and Lysander moved into position with his longsword. Whitehearth attacked, tripping the creature in a dirty, smelly splash of water, and Lysander moved in and finished it with a powerful stroke of his longsword.

Brand and Tock attempted to push open the crescent moon door, but found that it was heavy and quite stuck. While they tried to figure out what to do next, Pel searched and discovered a secret door leading to a vertical shaft heading upward. Lysander sang a song of inspiration as Brand ascended the shaft carrying a rope. At the top, about 100 feet up, he found a small ledge that he could stand on, and began pulling others up. He managed to pull Lysander up, and the two of them pulled Pel, and then they realized that there wasn't any more room.

Lysander pushed open the secret door next to the ledge and discovered a massive chamber, clearly located at the top of the ziggurat. The room was half-filled with sarcophagi beneath its 30-foot high vaulted ceiling. The other half of the room was filled by a 25-foot high bat-winged, ram-headed demon statue with a throne at its base. Lucan sat brooding on that throne, and he leaped to his feet as he sensed the door opening.

Lysander quickly turned invisible as Lucan ranted that he hadn't asked for any of this. "I didn't ask to become a vampire, I didn't ask to be enslaved by that thrice-damned blade... but I will die on my feet, or else be the death of all of you!"

Pel cast Protection from Evil on Brand as Lysander began moving invisibly toward the vampire. Brand drank a potion of cat's grace, and Lysander a potion of mage armor, as down below, Kanatash began levitating himself and Whitehearth up the shaft. As Lucan struck Brand with his fists, draining some of his life energy, Pel used his animate rope to tie the rope around the statue's legs, allowing Tock to begin his own climb up the shaft.

Brand swung his weapons and missed the agile vampire, but the invisible Lysander managed to blast him with a wand of cure light wounds. Lucan spun and backhanded Lysander's in response, draining some of his life energy as well. Lysander moved back and used his mage hand to draw the Soulblade from its sheath and bring it to his hand, where it immediately began to tempt him with promises of power. Brand took advantage of Lucan's surprise and anger at this maneuver to strike with both his rapier and his bane-infused shortsword, and the vampire's flesh sizzled and bled in response. Lysander, resisting the mental domination of the soulblade, drove it into the ground and left it there.

Pel drank his elixir of fire breath after failing to hide from undead with a scroll, and moved in towards Lucan as he ran 20' up the wall, away from further attack. Brand used his dragonmark to teleport next to Lucan and strike again with his weapons, landing on the floor. Lucan ran down the wall and struck Brand again angrily, but then Kanatash appeared at the secret door and launched a psionic fire missile which struck the wounded vampire and forced him into his gaseous form.

The gaseous cloud made its way toward the vertical shaft that Tock was still climbing, but Lysander used his dragonmark to create an image of a holy symbol in front of it, forcing Lucan to instead choose one of the sarcophagi in the room. He solidified, and the Wolves all closed in with their stakes, putting one into Lucan's heart to keep him immobilized. Their long journey was over. The soulblade was contained, and Lucan was captured.

XP: 2320