The group had now found every room in this level of the dungeon save one: the one where their goal was - the Vampiric Troll that they had been sent by the High Priest of Pelor in Greyhawk to destroy. That didn't stop them from going left rather than right and ending up at a room quite close to the entrance to the dungeon: as noted in previous reports, this level had a lot of labyrinthine corridors and they'd found it quite confusing.

Nathaniel was now mapping, however, so they were able to find their way back and go along the rather short corridor to the Vampiric Troll's lair. He was attended by two non-vampiric Trolls, and was in a remarkably chatty mood for a troll - vampire or not.

I'd sourced his statblock from the Monster Builder, and amusingly he couldn't speak Giant and the Trolls couldn't speak Common. Yes, I assumed he could speak Giant for the purposes of the session.

The players were slightly surprised to discover that he wanted to talk to him and - led mainly by Nate's character, William (him of the low Charisma) and Adam's bard, Max, they engaged him in a conversation that revealed that he'd been turned into a vampire by a necromancer wielding a druidical artefact: the Mask of Riflis, which the group had failed to prevent being stolen from Riflis's cairn a few sessions back.

Yes, I do have ongoing plots and events that occurred in the past have relevant in present and future sessions. The killing of Wil the Giant by the group allowed the necromancers access to this level of the Castle. With the mechanism for syphoning off the gap to the Shadowfell in the level now destroyed by the party, it seems likely that further undead threats will issue from this part of the dungeon to threaten Greyhawk in the future, but we're currently tracking down the necromancers!

The Troll was particularly upset to have been turned into a vampire, but was still under the control of the necromancer. Only by great effort could he plot his revenge on them; he revealed to the party the location of the necromancers' lair: in the heart of the Shadowleaf Forest, a short way to the north of Greyhawk. Don't go looking for it on your maps of Greyhawk; I've only just invented it. I think. However, with that information imparted, the control of the necromancer reasserted itself and he launched himself at the party.

The group were ready for him and, spending as many of their daily powers as they could get away with, they first weakened and then immobilized him, with Rich's paladin Drakult charging in to then stop him moving any further and thus protecting the rest of the group. Martin's druid, Gillaine, threw flame seeds at the trolls, preventing all bar the vampire from regenerating.

It proved to be a short combat, despite the power of the vampire: he was just shut down by the party, and the other two trolls (level 9 brutes) were then overwhelmed by this 10th level party. By no means was it an epic battle, but, for the players, an entirely satisfying one.

Using Nathaniel's partial map and a good deal of luck, they had much less problem finding the passage back to the surface than I thought they would have. Then it was back to Greyhawk, where they immediately went to the temple of Pelor to report their findings to Alvares, the high priest. Incidentally, Alvares is an old PC of mine who I played in a 3.5E Castle Greyhawk campaign a few years back in a game with Adam. He and Adam's old character co-own the Green Leaf Tavern that is the main base for this group.

However, they were met by an acolyte who refused to allow such a scruffy group of adventurers in to see the high priest! They had been sleeping for several days in Castle Greyhawk. (In retrospect, I wonder if they had any food or water?) So, they went back to their house where they were met by their butler, "Jeeves" (not his real name, but that's what they call him), washed and changed. Jeeves revealed that he'd beaten off a few attacks aided by the magic Meliander had left - it seemed that word had gotten out about the portal to Farika in the basement, and someone was now interested in it. Yes, they have a portal to a demiplane in their basement. Doesn't every adventuring group have one?

Once they were acceptably clean, they returned to the temple and were admitted this time. Alvares was very pleased with the news, and agreed to come with the group as they hunted down the necromancers once and for
all. Alf is about 15th level, and so, whilst better than individual PCs, shouldn't overawe them too much. It also gets around that annoying thing of "why don't the high-level NPCs help protect the town?" In truth, the PCs are now getting to the levels where they'll be some of highest level in the city.

We ended the session there, with the group planning for the expedition into the Shadowleaf Forest. Now, I have to draw up a map for the forest. This upcoming adventure will take them into the Paragon levels, and is thus somewhat important.