Tomb of Possibilities
Recommended players : 2-4
Recommended Level: 2-8
Difficulty : Medium/Hard
Blasted out into the decayed dying world, you and your group of survivors hear tales around the tribes. Tale spinners around the fire speak of a tomb that the vampires desperately try to snuff out. A tomb where even the foulest mutants steer clear.
Journeying south your band is in the mountains near the once glorious city of Meridian. A city that you hear spoken of with a mixture of reminisce and depression. A city where the Sarafan at last won a dark war against the evil god Kain, only to fall to him many years later as the Sarafan lost their virtuous ways.
Seek out the tomb of the lost Sarafan lords. Find any possible method to aid humanity in its final gambits against the darkness. Reclaim the glory of the past.
FOR GM EYES ONLY (SPOILERS)
To start your game you are to allocate gold based on charisma X 2 of each player. Players may use this gold to buy equipment in the items section of the codex (GM decides whether to go high or low on values of equipment) for example leather is listed as 1-5 gold, a gm may decide it is worth 1 because it is gloves BUT is worth 5 as a chest piece. Your discretion.
Read this “Journeying through the mountains your party skirts along a cliffs edge. As you round a corner there it is in the far horizon. The ruined city of Meridian. You cant see much but the large skyscrapers the city once had must have been marvelous as you see their decayed dagger shaped stone architecture still reach out higher than any building you have seen. You imagine that these buildings may have even rivaled the pillars in their stature based on all the stories you have heard.”
Players start out at the cliffside. Have them roll perception only. If a player succeeds get this “You hear the sounds of speech, you know by the dialect that these are descendants of kains evil empire. Whoever is speaking is either a vampire worshipper or worse, a vampire themself.”
If all players fail end up in a fight where the enemy goes first no matter whos perception is highest.
Spawn vampire tokens based on amount of players -1. (3 players =2 vamps.) Race is GM choice along with fighting style. Vamp tokens must have steel quality gear.
If players succeeded perception they can ambush with either another perception or intelligence check, ambush results in them placing their tokens in whichever position they wish, fail and regular fight starts. Ambush results in players having initiative.
After killing vampires, players can perception the bodies and find the steel gear but success results in a scroll that reads this “ Our god wishes the ruins of this place destroyed, do not defy him. You are to go inside and destroy the entire tomb. Report to Valeholm when complete, go to (insert opposite clan) headquarters for reward.”
Players must do another perception check with a -2 mod (if they have 6 perception which is a +1 mod then they roll a -1 mod).
If no one succeeds then only the bottom path is revealed, the path on the right stays blinded behind bushes. Right path leads to a chest of treasure, gives any steel legendary item might even be a pillar guardian item.
Following the bottom path once they get a few tiles away from the vampires have human tokens appear for second encounter.
Amount of tokens is = to amount of players, all wearing iron gear with 2 water bottles per token.
Humans information for GM - they are slave/worshippers of the vampires the party just slew. They can be charisma checked to help the party by either manipulating them into thinking the party wishes to help the vampires OR charisma check them with a -2 mod to betray the vampire overlords. The reason being they have lived their whole lives along with a few generations, in Kain's empire, so they view him as a god and to ascend to vampire status is like being a noble.
If players convince them to help then the humans reveal there is a few skeletons ahead and will help the fight against them, players can also buy/sell with one human token for gear.
Up ahead is skeletons guarding a rock. Skeletons tokens are +1 per player. All skeleton gear is iron.
Looking at said rock it is a map/key. Puzzle is “Rise and Fall, Progress Might, Brace my Dwelling.”
Players must pass an intelligence check to see that the rock head must point at the ruined city in the far horizon, Players must have 8 strength to turn it without rolling.
If they have to roll dice then each player add their strength modifier together and have to subtract that by 1.
Success they turn the rock no issue. Fail another group of skeletons spawn and the rock only turns halfway which means they must try again. At halfway Fail will mean they turned the rock, crit fail they have not and another wave of skeletons.
If they have the human tokens do the task then they will deal with skeletons and must protect the tokens as they turn the rock.
This unlocks the next path forward. Upon the door opening a man is heard yelling from behind the party.
Yakatash the Yapper - Sounds like a new yorker stereotype italian man. Never shuts up. Phrases that he says for no reason mid speech “And O ma ma you gotta hear this!” as well as “Eyyy but what am i talkin about right? Get a load of this too!” He comes off as a crappy car salesman.
Turns out Yakatash is a descendant of one of the people of meridian and talks about how he likes spending time with the rock as it reminds him of his dad and gramps. “They was alwayz da silent type ya know? Real Gabaguds ya unda stand? This rock be bringing ya good memories just like my pa and papa did. You got anything to say thats wise about my rock imma take it to the familozo ya unda stand? But eyyy what am i goin on about lets talk about …” He wont shut up.
He and his small family are looking around from their home of Valeholm to either procure or trade goods, they are looking for primarily weapons and armor. Due to vampire scouts sniffing around their town, they are preparing for a possible invasion.
He will sell goods to the party but only materials, chemicals, and food/water, he will buy any weapons or armor from the party.
Once done, summon a few vampire tokens. Equal to the amount of players. Here players if they have the human slave tokens, can try to convince them with a charisma check that these are either hostile clan vamps or that this is their time to show themselves as worthy of the vampiric gifts. Fail results in fighting all of them with yakatash as a civilian who might get injured during the fight.
Each vampire token is 1 level lower than players. And has steel equipment.
Upon slaying the players can enter the tomb. Entering Load second map!
Roll perception randomly at your choice for traps.
As players travel deeper into the area they will find a sarcophagus. Rolling intelligence with magic skill players can determine the writing on the walls and the sarcophagus in the middle of the room. It states “Here Lasts the last killer of their kind. The last of the once noble spirits of this land. Each blood spilt was humanities foes vanquished. Rise again O Lord with your followers essence.”
Rolling perception reveals that there is an ancient cauldron of somehow preserved blood with glyphs inscribed on it. This cauldron is hoving above the sarcophagus. It cannot open with brute strength. Must use the 2 levers in the room at the same time to unlock the sarcophagus.
Doing so the blood spills on the open sarcophagus and out of it rises a vampire covered in knightly glyph armor. 15 armor total. Driven insane by the passage of time dead the vampire was slain by kain after challenging kain to a fight to avenge vorador and his cabal.
Kain killed him and all the humans effortlessly with his soul reaver. Which he raves about in the fight against the party. That in order to live he ended up massacring a village of humans just to live. Having abandoned his oath he will slaughter all the humans as a mercy for them since he fails to protect them, this is his knightly duty to uphold the saving of innocents by stopping their existence. Which in turn would starve kains empire.
He has 10 strength and 7 perception. Has 200 hp. Wields a long greatsword with one hand and a spear in the other 3 damage each and 2 tiles reach.
Damage calc - 5+5+3=13 damage total. Attacks twice per turn. Prioritizes highest damage dealing person with first attack, second will go to whoever is closest.
Abilities - If party is 3 or more tiles away he can dive at them with a spell “Holy strike” roll a 5 or higher to cast, he dives at them with his spear which puts him in front of the target dealing 2 extra damage.
If the party is close to the boss and he is at half hp, he does a critical sweep! Needs to roll 5 or higher to cast, swipes the greatsword dealing additional 5 damage ontop of damage calc. Can do this ability twice once at 25% hp.
If party member is down and he is at low hp 25% he can drink them killing them and restoring his hp to half.
Killing him gives glyph armor and his glyph weapons. Under it all is a book inside of the sarcophagus, inside the book lies the detailed entry of how vampirism existed long before kain with a genetic lineage of janos audron all the way to this vampire knight named “Orlimak” Kain makes no appearance. It is stated he is magically created denying him his godly status.
Wielding the book of Lineage gives +1 intelligence and +2 magic skill. Can be used to make self into a vampire if studied hard.
Campaign ends as party leaves to find a settlement under siege in the distance with the old ruins of meridian behind them.