No game tonight (boardgames instead)

"I wonder if it will be friends with me?"

The party triggered the platform and rose back up into the huge marshalling area. As they stepped past the roped off area back on to firm ground, fragments of metal and small metallic objects started to whirl and dance in the area in front of them. The cloud of debris twisted and turned through the party, trying to find someone to latch. The party hacked and stabbed away at the intangible force holding the bits in the air and progress seemed to be made - bits of weapons and pieces of armour started to fall inanimate to the floor - before the creation exploded in a blast of shrapnel, causing cuts all around. Before their eyes it reformed and continued to try and envelop someone. As it started to wrap around the paladin, the power keeping the thing aloft drained away and the remaining bits and pieces fell like rain on the ground.

The clashing metallic noise had awakened a swarm of bats living in the ceiling which started to awaken. Hearing the creatures squeaking in alarm, the party quickly rode the platform down to the basement before sending it back up again to block out the bats.

After a while the swarm resettled on the ceiling and it was safe to return. Walking towards one of the flight of stairs leading up, the party spotted a Dark Spectre just as it in turn saw through their invisibility. Quickly the cleric stepped forward and cowed the undead creature with her goddess' divine might. With the spectre unable to follow, the party quickly ran up the neighbouring stairs to the dormitory level above.

Before the adventurers was a huge room containing many beds and living quarters for what must have been the Vampire Lord's troops. The scout and ogre rummaged through a number of foot lockers, collecting a small sack of trinkets and coins each.

At the far end was a door like the one they had entered through below. Having decided that there was not much more to discover in the dormitory, the party stepped through and onto the spiral staircase outside. Although the adventurers were invisible to undead, the opening of a large door was not and instantly drew the attention of the Umbral Harpies that they had avoided earlier. A pair of the four creatures saw through the protective magic and sang out with their unholy voices of the damned, pulling their prey towards them and a death-dealing drop to the sand below.

The scout, ogre and paladin were unable to resist the call of the harpies' song and stepped out onto thin air. Instantly the cleric reached forward and pulled the scout back while the monk grabbed at the paladin. This left the swashbuckler to save the ogre but unfortunately the dashing and daring adventurer decided that such a task was really beyond his puny muscles. Seconds later a "whump" could be heard as the small giant lay unmoving in a crate of his own making.

The swashbuckler instead turned his attention on the scout in an effort to free up the cleric so she could repel the advancing undead spirits. Unfortunately his attempts were inadequate and the priest instead cast a holding spell on the scout. Resisting the magic influence, the scout brushed off the restraining hands and stepped off the steps. Another "whump" greeted the ears of the remaining party members.

The monk efficiently grappled the paladin to safety while the cleric again invoked Wee Jas's power to chase off the harpies long enough to act. With the singers gone, the paladin soon came to her senses.

Slowly the scout crawled over to the barely breathing body of the ogre and poured life-saving magical potions down its neck. Eventually both were strong enough to climb up the rope that the swashbuckler had lowered down for them, letting the pair escape the draining effect of the mist that swirled around.

Together again, the party came to a consensus - get out of the castle and back to safety.

The Vampire Lord's Castle floorplans

Basement with sixteen Shadow Skeletal Fire Giants


First Floor

Let the blood flow

The party were caught in a quandary over what to do. If they tried to run a few miles for the safety of the sand outside the mists would they die from the negative energy wearing them away? Should they wait within the clear area and hope that the mist would not return before sunrise? Or investigate the structure in the sky?

The adventurers were still arguing when a mechanical clunking could be heard in the distance for a few minutes. Setting off towards the source of the sound, the party found they were travelling under a roof without any walls. After a few hundred feet, a huge hole appeared above with a ring depression in the sand matching it below. The scout fired a sunrod up into the hole to illuminate a column rising up two hundred feet within the building floating above them. A 10 foot wide ridge could be seen all round the bottom of the hole. The cleric summoned a fiendish wasp to convoy the scout up to the ridge where he was able to attach a rope for others to come up on.

While the party were in transit, a quartet of shadowy harpies floating down to investigate the source of the flying sunrod. As the party was hidden from undead by invisibility cast by the cleric, the shadows could only see the wasp which they proceeded to drain the strength from. Just as the last spark of life disappeared from it, the wasp returned back to whence it was summoned from. Aggrieved at having no further prey, the undead moaned and howled their way back up the hole.

After the party felt the harpies were gone, they climbed up a staircase that led up from the ridge up round the inside wall of the building. In the distance they could see three other similar staircases, all spiralling upwards. At certain levels, doorways appeared on the staircases, and the adventurers stopped at the first one above them. The door was large with a vampire's face in the middle. Examination showed that the mouth of the creature was open and a cavity was open behind. Two holes could be seen in the top and one in the bottom. The monk put in his hand and immediately felt the stab of pain from fangs extracting blood which trickled down the hole in the bottom of the cavity. Nothing happened so other party members tried the same trick with no success. Faintly could be heard a whirring noise that repeatedly ended in a clunk - maybe the mechanism was broken.

The monk, having no success, moved on to a door further round which opened immediately blood was released. In the meantime, the ogre had, in frustration, started hammering away at the original door which, as well as making a hole, attracted the harpies back down again. The party was still protected by magical invisibility so the floating undead eventually retired again, being unable to sense the adventurers in any way.

The area through the doorway was huge. The sun rods illuminated the ceiling fifty feet above but not the curved wall eighty feet away. Scattered around the room was the discarded detritus of the vampire lord's army - regimental banners, weapons, equipment, empty crates, and so on. In the distant corners were staircases going up whilst roped off near one wall was a lever-controlled platform that (when tested) lowered into the basement.

The party descended and found the powerplant for the rotating stair mechanism - a quartet of fire giant skeletons operating a capstan. Without any commands, the undead stood motionless, unaware of the party covered by invisibility just feet away.

Ignoring the undead, the scout searched around for anything of interest. On one wall he soon found a hidden panel that the paladin soon confirmed was covered by a magical Fire Trap. The cleric was persuaded to Dispel the trap so the scout, raised up to the right level by the ogre, could safely open the panel. Behind the panel was an ornate coffin protected by a Wraith that surged out to sink its hands into the scout's chest. The paladin stepped forward and forced the undead spirit to retreat by channelling divine power.

With the guard gone, the coffin was pulled out and the contents examined. Inside was a layer of sand so maybe this was the resting place for a vampire. The coffin was then defiled before being returned to the hole in the wall.

Shadows of another world

After a night's rest, the party set out early for the Black Sands.

This area of sand is about five miles in diameter and studded with lumps of black rock ranging in size from pebbles to blocks a few feet wide. In the middle are four round stone platforms, each one hundred feet in diameter and arranged as the corners of a 700 feet wide square. Their jagged and broken surface seems to indicate that they used to be columns or blocks some time in the past. The sand gives off a faintly Evil emanation and the blocks very much more so.

The party had a look around the area but found nothing of interest. None of the blocks of stone they examined seemed to have any carvings or marks.

A while later, a group of tiefling adventurers - the four officially given the assignment - arrived travelling by Dire Tortoise.



One, a ranger, stayed on top of his animal companion and kept the party covered with a readied bow whilst his priestly colleague started up a conversation with his opposite number amongst the adventurers. It seemed that the priest was a follower of Wee Jas on a mission to bring destruction to the undead in the area. The remaining two members of their group said nothing while exploring the area and collecting samples. Satisfied that they had all they needed, the four left the area - apparantly off to Station to consult with some sages.

The adventurers, now alone, settled down for the night next to one of the ruined stone bases. After the sun disappeared and night started to fall, a black mist slowly rose from the sand and obscured vision for all but those with darkvision. Additionally, skin began to tingle and throats felt sour as the mist touched them. The cleric, fearing the worst, Consecrated the area around the camp. The positive energy of the spell clashed with the negative energy of the mist and a clear area appeared around the party.

Moments later a gang of shadows flooded from the mist and tried to sap the strength of the party (although only the scout was affected). The minor shades were soon dispatched but a greater shade put up some resistance before fleeing back into the mist. Three adventurers chased after it, combining darkvision and divine evil detection to pinpoint and eliminate their prey.

Returning to the campsite, the ogre glanced up and noticed that where there had once been a ruined stone feature was now a massive, looming column stretching up into the night sky. Gazing up, he also managed to make out a flat stone surface - a ceiling, where no such surface should exist.

Sand Skiff

The Fire Giants use magical Sand Skiffs to navigate the desert. These are huge single person craft, as befits the giant's size.

Sand Skiff: huge vehicle; Profession (sailor) +2; Spd wind × 30 ft. (nautical good); Overall AC 3; Section hp 30 (hardness 5); Rigging 10 hp (hardness 0), Section AC 3; Ram 3d6; Space 15 ft.; Height 10 ft.; Crew 1; Weight 500 lb., Cargo 1,000 lb.; Cost 18,000 gp.

This lightweight framework rests atop a pair of polished runners and sports a single tall sail. Designed for a single rider, a sand skiff is useful for scouting, carrying messages, and as entertainment. The major advantage of the sand skiff lies in how easy it is to construct, though the major disadvantage is that those with the appropriate skill to pilot them are few and far between in the wastes. A sand skiff moves 3 to 10 miles per hour, depending on the wind, and requires flat, open sand on which to move.

The Skiffs are enchanted with a Permanent, on command, "Favourable Wind" spell (Stormwatch p116). This fills the sails with either a light (30ft), moderate (60ft) or strong (90ft) wind and can allow it to move in any direction. Sailing into a wind will reduce the speed of the vehicle. The craft is still able to move with natural wind power should the enchantment not be used.