Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report 7 - The Christmas Slaughter

 So tonight's Castles & Crusades Vampire Queen session hits hard because DM Steve did an entire sub fortress before the main castle. This is a small manor and fortress that was tucked away on the far side of the map. This session report picks right up from here on the blog. And this brooding small stone walled fortress surrounded a central manor house. And we snuck into during the day good plan right?! 

Wrong, we got our asses handed to us by two tribes of orcs and thier hobgoblin overlords. And these things were nasty! The hobgoblins were slightly stronger then normal doing an extra +2 to all hand to hand damge due to vampire blood. The things guarded a manor house and we made it over the wall into the lower tunnels under the place. That's when we ran straight into the orc shaman and his horde of zombies!?! 

And then there was another stone coffin that we only caught a glimpse of before our cleric got nailed by a poison blow gun dart! Fortunately it was only sleep toxin other wise we'd be in in deep spit. We fought past two orc skeletons to retreat back into the woods. Fortunately we didn't alert the whole place to our presence. 

Now we're in the woods and licking our wounds from the damn orcs and the shamans. But we want to know whose in that manor house?! Our fighter got a nasty cut above his head and the cleric was down so it's retreat time for the moment. But we've got a map sketched out of the manor, the fortress, and tunnels under the place which is in the side of a small mountainous area. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report 6

 So as you know from the last session last week I'm deeply engrained with DM Steve's Tainted Greyhawk campaign where we're treading on the outer edges of the vampire queen's domain. We finished off the last of the zombie bandits from last game. This wasn't an easy fight to say the least. But then we came across the bandit king's lair during the daylight hours. And the bastard was a vampire and that lair was guarded by giant rats and giant bats. 

We're playing a variation of Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen. Which  is fantastic module  available from Dark Wizard Games here.  Back to the band king vampire, there was no way that we were going to let this thing keep existing but it was going to be a slog to get to him. We were conserving our mages and so forth. So it was down to dirty tricks and two caskets of burning oil down the enterance of the cavern lair. 
The free willed intelligent zombies are part of the vampire queen's mercenary forces and have been one of the hazards that we've run into twice now. This part time we were ready. There were passive dangers from the bandit king's lair including dart traps, pit traps, green slime (always a crowd pleaser), and rot grub pits. All passive defenses. And then there were the numerous giant rats, and bats to contend with not to mention the unintelligent zombies and two intelligent ghoul body guards. We had to think our way past everything. And we had to do it by sunset with all of the traps designed to slow us down. And finally we got to the stone coffin and it was a false set up with an intellgent slime monster. And here's where the wizard's fire ball spell came in truly handy. 

This is so DM Steve, slow us down and let the NPC rise to finish us off. Not this time, we have two thieves and they found the secret door to the bandit king's tomb behind a false mozaic of the undead bastard who was apparently some minor knoble in life. We staked hime, cut off the head, stuffed the head with garlic, and then staked the body out for sunrise while we waited in the bushes for his forces to come! This is where we ended the session. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report 5

 During tonight's game we ran straight into the arms of undead bandits. And it wasn't pretty but a fortunate fireball from one of our wizards saved our hides. We're geting close to the Vampire queen's castle and the undead are getting worse. Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen is available from Dark Wizard Games here.  

And all of this kicked off from a week or so ago's Castles & Crusade's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen session right here on the blog!  DM Steve is using a variation on James Ward Tainted Lands and the undead mixed with the Hanging Coffins. And these things have been tough but the real headache was running into a party of pig faced Orc adventurers! These things were mercenaries working for the vampire queen. And scattered throughout out the vampire queen's lands have been her mercenaries and forces. We've recovered some treasure but it's mostly been supplies and such! We're on the outer edges of the vampire queen's domain. 

We were going to hook up with the local resistence to the vampire queen and instead walked right into an ambush by undesd bandits. And these things are free willed and intelligent zombies with passion for violence and an appetite for flesh or brains. We were ready for them this time however! 
This is a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk where the lands have been subverted by the presence of dark lord like rulers. And the Tainted Lands has extended its reach across Greyhawk. Castles & Crusades is ideally suited to this style of campaign. But it has been tough going to say the least! 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report - Two

So we pick up right where we left off on the blog here. We're playing in a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk. And we've been forced to flee the skeleton forces of the Vampire Queen & go deeper into the wilderness whilst circling around back to the track where the vampire queen's lair & castle are. 

During session two we've encountered packs of wolves and had been forced to flee toward a trapper's cabin to restock and supply. Even with higher level PC's this has proven to be a bit on the daunting side with lots of dodging and weaving. Our two cleric have been put upon for both martial and first aid while we found the trapper's cabin with no one home. We've left appropriate gold coin as recompense as we've gathered new arrows, torches, etc. 

We left the cabin as soon as possible and fled into the woods at daybreak at break neck pace with the wolf packs on our tail. The night found us in a cave back on the trail we needed and our backs against the cavern wall. We're counting torches and conserving arrows. We heard pig faced orcs down in the valley below and saw that they had a shaman. This is bad news. This means that the vampire queen is using mercenary forces to shore up her own. We ended here for now. 
 This is beginning to feel like a horror movie instead of a Castles & Crusades game given that we're using James Ward's Tainted Lands as a sorta of a background element for Greyhawk this isn't a bad thing. 

Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting- Session Report -

 

Over the years I've been obessed with my buddy Mark Taormino's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. There's less then twenty four hours left for the Kickstarter. So when I got invited to bring in one of my high level PC's into DM Steve's Tainted Lands game. I was jumping at the chance to get out from behind the screen. Lazlo The Amazing my 10th level wizard was finally getting a work out.  This blog post picks right up from this commentary  here on the blog. 

Our party met mid point between Hommlet and serveral other classic Greyhawk locations. Yes this is a Tainted lands version of Greyhawk. We encountered skeleton riders part way down the road as a random encounter.  This was tough fight as these bastard undead were taking human prisoners to the vampire for tonight's feast. Two of our number bought it with cross bolts to the chest.
We retreated with the skeletons giving chase. And then sounding a horn for reenforcements. Needless to say that things were not going as planned. We retreated deep into the woodlands and hastely buried our dead. 
The sounds of horns awakened us! The undead were on our trail! This was not supposed to go like this. We stumbled into an ideallic looking cabin in the woods and a full array of skeletons camped out by it! Our party had to get back on the offensive and attacked immediately. This time we were able to defeat the skeleton warriors. 

 So we're using a combination of Castles & Crusades with higher level PC's. And it's going pretty solidly with the players having to think on thier feet when it comes to dealing with deadlier intelligent undead. These undead are organized, intelligent, and going to town on the local populace with these being the norm for James Ward's Tainted Lands

OSR Commentary - Vampire Queen 5E and 10 Year Anniversary 1E Softcovers With The Classic Greyhawk Campaign Setting

 "Hope everyone is well! If you're a fan of "Funhouse Dungeons" then be sure to check out the new Dark Wizard Games Kickstarter Project NOW LIVE! It is for the brand new FIRST PRINTING softcover of Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen for 5TH EDITION! The FIFTH EDITION module has a FULL COLOR map on the inside of the cover as well as some new black and white artwork in the booklet! You can also pick up the new 10 Year ANNIVERSARY EDITION softcover of the ORIGINAL 1E module which is only available via KICKSTARTER grab a copy NOW because you don't want to miss out if you a collector or major fan of that module! One last treasure you can acquire in the KS is the softcover of the Recipes from the Inn of the Whistling Pig which contains 16 rustic, real world items you can cook with for you family and friends! https://www.kickstarter.com/.../vampire-queen-5e-and-10..."

So my buddy Mark Taormino's Dark Wizard Games has a brand new Kickstarter for the 10th Anniversary of  'The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Princess'. And My player's Castles & Crusades PC's were wiped out during the events of #1. Hanging Coffins has the PC's in peril right out of the gate; "Death or freedom? The Vampire Queen has challenged a small band of her worst prisoners to escape from her wicked dungeon lair. With all of your original weapons, magic items and possessions, it is up to you to outwit and fight your way through terrible traps, beastly monsters, and all the horrific surprises she has arranged for you! The Module that started it all is sure to delight and challenge the most skilled players!"'
We set 'Hanging Coffins' in Greyhawk just outside of the city of Greyhawk ruins. The vampire princess recently woken up by the movements of the humanoid tribes just outside of her hidden valley. And this lines up with material described in James Ward's Greyhawk Aventures. 

The vampire princess is trying to reassert her power base around her hidden valley. She's been capturing adventurers to shore up her knowledge of modern politic of Greyhawk. And there's plenty of evidence of this in  'The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Princess'
'Hanging coffins' isn't for the faint of heart clocking in at levels 10-14 which is going to be the middle 7th and above in Castles & Crusades. The vampire princess's dungeons and ruins are definitely build to test the adventurers. What makes 'Hangings Coffins' solid is really good maps, encounters, cartography, etc. and it made it a formula that Dark Wizard Games has followed. 
And this is something that allows a DM to really take advantage of the Greyhawk campaign setting. A fact that  could be used to simply drop 'Hanging Coffins' into Greyhawk ad hoc.  
'Hanging Coffin' is solid as a high level mid level adventure & is perfect to introduce the vampire princess as a reoccuring  NPC villainess. An NPC that can return again and again as a villain who can't seem too be put into her coffin. 'Hanging Coffins' has  demons and other vampires in the wander monster table. Liches, demons, succubi, greater devils, nearly 50 vampires in total. These can end a party of adventurers without any problems. 
The Greyhawk angle plays well with the vampire princess as a minor evil influence manuplating several minor humanoid army. The demons, liches, vampires listed in the random encounters could easily be the vampire princess's royals and former family. These minor royals could play a larger part to the party as the vampire princess gains more of a foothold within her former kingdom. While the vampire princess might be a minor royal in the grand scheme of Greyhawk. She could become a major pain for the PC's. 

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #1 The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen Run With The Hyperborea Rpg By Jeffrey Talanian

 So tonight I'm getting a chance to play a rune graver in DM Steve's Vampire Royalty campaign based on the  Hyperborea rpg game system. This is a game that's been on going with DM Steve running his player's PC's through Dark Wizard Games Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen.  This has been on going for the better part of a year & because it runs during a Saturday afternoon I haven't been able to make it. 

"Death or freedom? The Vampire Queen has challenged a small band of her worst prisoners to escape from her wicked dungeon lair. With all of your original weapons, magic items and possessions, it is up to you to outwit and fight your way through terrible traps, beastly monsters, and all the horrific surprises she has arranged for you!" 

So what's been happening is that the PC's have been dealing with the vampire royalty around the vampire queen. They've mostly been working for them. Scoping out how much power & ability they have over the lands here. The anwer is a lot of power. And we cleared out several minor dungeons & areas for the royals. 

Things seemed to be going well for the party according to the players. However this all changes once a paladin of Cthulhu joins the party. Everything seemed to be going well until he staked one of the retainers of one of the royals! 
And then it was game on! The royal in question went on a vengence spree after the party. Their ruin graver was killed & that's where I come in. Rich our regular Norse & magick player couldn't make it! 

So here's me playing a 4th level Runegraver named Olof Bleeding Knuckles. And we're being throwin head first into the deep end of the pool as events are heating up around the primary plot of Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. Royals on Hyperborea are active during the dark period & cleave to the Keltic, Roman, and Norse lands of Hyperborea. 

So that brings me into this year long campaign today just joining up with the party as a part of the latest batch of hirelings. Now I've DM'ed Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. But this is a different incarnation of the module entirely because DM Steve has made these vampire royals a deep part of this section of Hyperborea.

 We are not talking small vampire presence here! These vampire rule the area through proxies & minor royals. So far we've faced down three ghouls & a small dungeon. We've got a long way to go! And this isn't my regular group of players they've played other Hyperborea rpg adventures. So this has been a real eye opener for me as a player. 

We've managed to weave and dodge a few monster encounters by simply running away. That is so much a part of the D&D experience that I've forgotten about as a player. I've been really feeling my way around DM Steve's version of Hyperborea & the royals seem to be half Hyperborean undead or vampires. Lots of faded glory, iron fisted rulership, and people living in fear. The player's PC's are alot more cautious then I was expecting. 

Mail Call & OSR Review of Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen By Mark Taormino For Your Old School Games

 "Death or freedom? The Vampire Queen has challenged a small band of her worst prisoners to escape from her wicked dungeon lair. With all of your original weapons, magic items and possessions, it is up to you to outwit and fight your way through terrible traps, beastly monsters, and all the horrific surprises she has arranged for you! The Module that started it all is sure to delight and challenge the most skilled players!" 

So once again I've playing around running my players through Mark Taormino's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen module. Mark however has been possibly one of the most active underground rpg writers & designers out there. He keeps what he's doing on the low down but over the years since the Hanging coffins module has come out he's been taking the manuscript back revising, sharping up stats, correcting mistakes, etc. And Dark Wizard games sent me an updated & revised physical  copy of Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen module.

Now I own the original Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen and just scanning through the booklet of the module reveals quite a few things. First the layout has been improved & the artwork seems a bit crisper. The room descriptions, stats, etc. have all been adjusted to reflect Dark Wizard's re editing of the Hanging Coffins. 

The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen offers a few things as an adventure module. The first of which that comes to my mind is the fact that this module is a capstone or cornerstone of an old school Sword & Sorcery module because of the levels ten to fourteen   of the PC's to run through this module! The vampire queen here is no joke able to hold her own in a stand up fight easily. 
The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen works very well as an insert into the  Hyperborea rpg as a main antagonist. And her cult actually fits the threat levels described in the Hyperborea rpg book rather easily. If you have the other Dark Wizard modules  it becomes rather easy to set up a campaign just using them. We start the party off with Shadow of the Necromancer where one of the vampire queen's minions is terrorizing a local village. Shadow of the Necromancer leads into The Late Trapper's Lament for the Hyperborea rpg. 
And right around the Lug Swamp which leads to the village of Silt on Hyperborea. Then  we release the Dread Swamp of the Banshee for the party's journey up the level ladder into the lair of  The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen! 

This same campaign idea would also work for Castles & Crusades where the DM uses the increasing horrors to deal with a party reaching & surviving to be their best! Survival is key here because many of the Dark Wizard modules are out & out deadly. 

Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen By Mark Taormino For Your Old School Games  Is Available Right Here