To clarify the vampire battle, here is my account of that part of the gathering. I would also like to thank Duncan for doing such an excellent write-up of the gathering. His work is far more eloquent than mine ever was.
Squire Merritt
---
It was probably around four hours past the stroke of midnight on Friday night
of the gathering when Lord Whitestaff, Sathen Gor, and Cedric Warclaw approached
me. They informed me that they had discovered the location of the vampire that
had slain Sir Strider, former knight of Blackstone, and they were assembling
a force to go after the foul creature.
I believe that their information came from the Slayers Guild, though I am not
certain about that. They also had with them a stake of woe which would be used
to slay the evil beast. They informed me that going after the monster would
involve going through a gate, and the gate could take no more than seven people.
They told me that they needed only extremely competent and experienced adventurers
for the potentially dangerous mission. I suggested to them that the group which
I was staying with, all adventurers formerly of Lorinorea, were all people who
fit that description perfectly. Thus, the group which we ended up taking on
the mission, in total, included Lord Whitestaff, the elven celestial scholar;
Sathen Gor, the Quentari celestial templar; Cedric Warclaw, the elven fighter;
Keno, the gorbe celestial templar; Adrafae, the stone elven celestial scholar;
Lemmy, the elven rogue; and myself, Squire Merritt, the Amani earth scholar.
Normally, when jumping through a gate, one proceeds cautiously. However, that
was not the case in this circumstance. We all had our resolve set, and so we
walked through with confidence despite the danger. We knew what we had to do.
On the other side of the gate, we encountered some minions. They were by no
means small undead, but neither were they especially menacing. The key to our
success was working as a team. Those of us with weapons provided a screen for
those without weapons, and we slowly but surely advanced through the groups
of undead.
The area we were in had many ruined buildings, but one building still appeared
to be in excellent shape. We assumed this building to be the building where
the enemy was residing, and so we advanced on that particular building. As we
did, we were met out front by several bigger undead, as well as the vampire
herself.
The undead threw many spells designed to make Cedric run away, but he was able
to resist all of them with his elven abilities. They did manage to vampire charm
him a couple times, but he received quick awaken spells from the abundance of
casters we had with us. One by one, we managed to slay the undead, although
there was one rather gaunt undead with a polearm that took us longer to slay
than the others. His fighting skills were superb and we were not able to rid
ourselves of him until we finally spelled him down.
At this point, only the foul vampire remained. The vampire went gaseous, but
Lord Whitestaff forced the vampire to solidify again at an opportune moment,
and so Keno, Adrafae, and Lord Whitestaff all emptied imprisons into the creature.
It phased them all, and then ran around the side of its fortress, with several
of us in hot pursuit. When the evil creature emerged on the other side, someone
through a binding spell at it. The spell took effect, and it was forced to rip
out. Seeing that binding was taking effect, I began unloading confines into
it. The vampire tried to go gaseous again, but I confined it before it could.
Everyone surrounded the vampire and beat it into the ground, and then Lord Whitestaff
used the stake of woe to end the vampire’s existence. We went back through
the gate, glad to be rid at last of the foul beast that ended Sir Strider’s
life