Weakened and Dominated by a Vampire
The fight with the vampire continues. The GM gives us a quick update on how the fight is progressing, ending with '...and Adran is weakened'.
'Oh, balls. I'd forgotten about that.' It surely is a fine update from the GM, even if it gets Adran started early about which status conditions are worse and how to avoid them.
'The best status condition', says Adoni, 'is silenced. Well, silenced over there, or defeaned over here.' Getting back to the fight, our bard has some spiffy move up his sleeve and wants to find out if anyone has a particularly big attack planned that could use a boost to ensuring it hits.
Adran and his outrageous bursts of damage is the ideal choice, but his reflexes kick in and refuses the offer. 'I'm weakened, I want to get rid of that first'.
'No, you won't be weakened in a moment', our bard replies slyly.
Adoni continues the train of thought, 'You'll be dead.' But that isn't what Lughar has in mind, instead stealing the weakened condition from Adran and bringing our ranger back to full strength. Although Adran manages to get a good attack on the vampire, scoring a critical hit thanks to our bard's influence, it perhaps would have been better if he were still weakened when the vampire successfully dominates him.
At least Adran gets to do what he does best, attacking other party members. Specifically, attacking me. Oh, he tries to sound apologetic, but I know he's giggling with glee on the inside like a mage casting maximised lightning bolt on a bard. Luckily, after only attacking me and the invoker the dominate spell wears off. 'Yeah, in your face, vampire!' The moment of triumph wears off when the after-effect kicks in, dazing Adran. 'Dammit. What items are available to stop you getting dominated?'
'You asked the same question about getting knocked prone last week!'
'And dazed before that.'
'It was 'weakened' only two hours ago.' There are still plenty of status conditions left to work through, although it looks like he's accelerating through them.
The vampire is eventually vanquished. There is some doubt as to whether we need to do anything to the corpse to really kill it, what with her being dead to start with and us not really knowing about vampires, particularly as the GM is being rather guarded about any answers to the body's state of deadness.
A short rest doesn't reanimate the vampire corpse, and instead of worrying too much we investigate a secret door we find. Through the door is an antechamber, where two drow are in chains and unconscious. 'Are they dead?' asks Adran, perhaps wondering if 'dead' is described in the PHB as 'unconscious and immobile'.
'No, they are not dead, just unconscious. There is also a tool table.'
'Neat. What tools are on it?' I try to find out.
'Uh, none. But the table is quite tall.' The mystery of the tool-less tall table still lingering, we revive the drow and learn of some weird family dynamics, which we are only too happy to escape from by jumping in to what is now confirmed as the portal we apparently have been looking for. We gained confirmation that the portal will be kept open until our return, but even with a fairly comprehensive plot summary I think most of us aren't entirely sure why we are heading through yet another portal. Let's hope we find out on the other side!