Vinnie Vice | Uncovering the Underdark

Main article on Vinnie Vice
Vinnie Vice has lived many lifetimes on Nexus and other worlds, constantly reincarnating and always finding himself wherever he's needed most throughout history. This lifetime, he began as a half-orc after impressing Gruumsh, the Orc God of War, in his previous lifetime only to have his body stolen in an encounter with the wizard Pompolius the Powerful. Now a warforged, Vinnie begins to cope with his new and unfamiliar body.
Table of Contents

Pre-Campaign

Due to ripping out an eye in tribute to Gruumsh, Orc God of War, in his previous lifetime, Vinnie found himself reincarnated as a half-orc this time around. He also has one eye in this lifetime, due to getting so drunk one evening he attempted to take out the fake eye he no longer had, ripping out a good eye in the process and also offering this one up to Gruumsh since he could not undo the damage.

Welcome to Haven City Arc

Week One

An Offer of Partnership

Vinnie came to Hightown for reasons known only to him, seeking application onto an expedition destined for the Underdark as a way to get out of Haven City for a while. Once in line, he soon learned that people applying for the Underdark expedition were being interviewed in groups due to the sheer number of applicants. Reaching near the front of the line, he was ushered inside along with "K" the Bugbear, Elycia Mirais, Leh'ct, and Jake F. Statefarm to meet the man organizing the expedition, Bertrand Thaig.
Bertrand asked each of the group members to introduce themselves and highlight whatever skills that they that would contribute to the expedition's success. When his turn came, Vinnie highlighted his skills as a medical professional familiar with both injuries and poisoning, which would surely be useful in the dangerous Underdark. Once the meeting was done (the group learning the expedition would not leave for another 6 weeks), Bertrand bid the group good day.
K decided that a little drinking would be a good way to kill some time with his new acquaintances, taking Vinnie and Jake for a few rounds that Vinnie quickly turned into a bar crawl. Elycia and Leh'ct, who had wandered off on other business, found the trio down the road from their next destination, the GnoName Tavern. They explained they had met Bertrand's brother who wanted to meet them at the tavern an hour after sundown to discuss some sort of deal. Deciding that they were interested, the group was just about to head for the there when they heard a scream.
Heading in the direction of the noise down an alley, they saw a young woman being mugged by a group of Crows. Vinnie quickly decided the situation called for violence and the other adventurers moved to back him up. He was soon forced to retreat when the thugs started to surround and beat him, though he did manage to chase down and knock out a fleeing thug near the end of the fight. Once the criminals were dealt with and the woman was safe, Vinnie accompanied his new companions to the GnoName Tavern while Leh'ct turned the surviving captured thugs over to the guards.
Ernest Thaig arrived an hour after sundown, as promised, and approached the assembled adventurers with a startling admission: he and his brother were broke. They had run short of money before they could finish their preparations for the expedition, which Ernest partially blamed on his brother's wide-eyed ideals and subsequent mismanagement. They didn't need more hires for the expedition; they needed partners. Ernest offered to make them equal partners if they could each contribute 500 gold to the expedition. The dwarf suggested they ask around town for work, seemingly confident that they could find gold or useful supplies before the expedition was due to leave. As soon as he was gone, K openly questioned why they even needed the dwarves if they were hurting for coin and suggested going into the Underdark themselves & cutting out the middlemen, which Vinnie agreed with.
Wanting to keep their options open, the group did opt to take Ernest's advice and ask around about potential jobs. There indeed was work to be found as K spoke to a man looking for a few extra hands to help collect debts from local businesses. At the same time, Elycia learned about a kidnapped noble's daughter from the bartender. The group decided to check out the noble first, leaving the tavern to start asking around town about this Mr. Perrywinkle mentioned by the bartender.

To the Rescue?

Leh’ct led Vinnie and the others to Midtown shortly after K mysteriously vanished into the Ethereal Plane, managing to locate Mr. Perrywinkle's home with a few directions from his neighbors. Aside from being remarkably small for the home of nobility, to say the house was rundown would be an understatement. Paint was peeling, the porch creaked, and the lawn was overgrown. The group knocked at the door and were greeted by Mr. Perrywinkle's valet, an older human man named Tom, who quickly invited them in when they said they were there to help rescue Miss Perrywinkle. Tom told the group to make themselves comfortable while he went to fetch Mr. Perrywinkle.
Mr. Perrywinkle soon arrived with Tom in tow, welcoming the adventurers to his home and explaining the situation while answering their questions. His daughter had been abducted by the Crows either on her way to or from the park during her daily walk. They had sent a ransom note, demanding 1000 gold within a week's time for her safe return. Failure to comply would instead result in her unsafe return, piece by piece. Vinnie was unsympathetic to Mr. Perrywinkle's plight after learning he was a government worker, viewing all members of the government as corrupt. He also considered Mr. Perrywinkle to be bad at being corrupt, taking his lack of finances as proof that Mr. Perrywinkle must not be powerful enough to be worth bribing because no politician would refuse bribes. Vinnie asked how much Mr. Perrywinkle could pay them for the rescue. He said he could muster up 500 gold at most to compensate them.
While Leh’ct "snuck" (at least, he attempted to) away somewhere, the others continued to speak with Mr. Perrywinkle. They learned that Mr. Perrywinkle's family was old money with an emphasis on "was"; his late father had given most of the family fortune away to charity (and was scammed out of some of it due to his generous nature). Mr. Perrywinkle himself held a hereditary seat on the city council, which included a small stipend. While his finances were in an abysmal state, he claimed to still have influential friends, including individuals (some friends and others not) who owed him favors. With this information in hand, Elycia requested the group have time to discuss his offer privately, ushering her companions outside just as Leh’ct returned.
The group argued over what they should do, Vinnie and Jake wanting to get as much money as possible whereas Elycia and Leh’ct wanted to help the man cheaply and earn his favor. They eventually settled on a plan: Mr. Perrywinkle would take a chest of gold to make the exchange for his daughter while the adventurers followed in the shadows, ready to jump the Crows and stage a rescue. Mr. Perrywinkle agreed to this plan without hesitation, caring only for his daughter's safety, and told the adventurers to return in two days time when the exchange was to happen. In the meantime, the group decided to follow up on K's lead from earlier, figuring the men shaking down local businesses were likely Crows that could potentially be shaken down for information.

Know Thy Enemy

After waiting for the meeting time, Leh’ct used a pass without trace spell on his companions that allowed them to sneak up on a group of waiting Crows effortlessly. Their ambush proved extremely effective with Jake killing one of them from afar with a pair of arrows and Leh’ct leaving a man that Vinnie's ghostly echo first beat to near-death paralyzed with his poison-coated daggers. The remaining three surrendered to Elycia rather than risk harm and death. She began to question them, making up a story about looking for a friend working at one of the casinos who disappeared mysteriously. The Crow told her that if she wanted to interfere in Madame Odius' affairs that was her business, telling her the made-up friend was likely being held in the same location where Mr. Perrywinkle had been instructed to bring the ransom.
The adventurers allowed the surviving Crows to retreat, continuing to follow them as they carried their dead and wounded away. The adventurers (sans Elycia) continued to follow them as they fled to a safehouse, with Leh'ct sending a spider familiar inside to spy on them. The young drow informed Vinnie and Jake they were stockpiling healing potions inside. The group was considering robbing the place when Leh'ct informed them Olympius, one of the Crows leaders, arrived and was ordering an increase in security. Not wanting to press their luck against a member of the Crows leadership, the group retreated for the time being to fill Elycia in.
The next day, Jake and Elycia disguised themselves and walked by the building with the usual street traffic to scope it out. They later returned to inform the others the Crows had indeed increased security, making the idea of attacking the hideout seem unwise. Vinnie pointed out that the extra manpower moved here could mean that the Crows had to pull people off their kidnapping operation, which would help their planned rescue of Miss Perrywinkle.

Look at Us, We're a Distraction!

Wanting to get supplies before their next adventure, the group went to the the adventurer one-stop shop Gnome Depot on recommendation from one of the GnoName Tavern's patrons. The shop had all sorts of adventuring gear as well as simple armor and weapons. Vinnie questioned the gnomes running the place if they'd heard anything interesting lately and they mentioned a fellow merchant had been robbed outside the city, presumably by the Crows, and had a bottle of rare, expensive wine stolen. The gnomes also showcased a special item they had just imported from the Kingdom of Lothal, a Wrist-Mounted Grappling Hook made by Anna-Ohnaka Productions that Vinnie considered attempting to steal.
Exiting the shop, Vinnie and his companions came up with a simple plan to burgle the Crow hideout. Step one was sending in Leh'ct as a common spider to scope out the place. The young drow was able to do so without difficulties, informing the rest of the group that the Crows had potions of several varieties, an enticing looking locked chest, and a shipment of stolen wine they'd heard about from the Gnome Depot employees in there. Step two of the plan was to send Leh'ct back in after nightfall while the rest of the group created a distraction.
The group took to the rooftops and waited just outside the area where the Crows guards were watching. It wasn't long before there was a hiccup in Leh'ct's infiltration and the party heard the sound of a gong coming from the hideout. Taking this as their signal, they moved forward and attacking Crows for their distraction. Vinnie moved quickly through the darkness and ran up on a surprised lookout, knocking them out before they had a chance to react in the hopes of having a prisoner to question.
His presence was soon noticed when the lookouts lit lanterns that threw back the darkness the party had hid under and he was shot in the thigh by an arrow. Seeing a large minotaur preparing to climb a ladder up to the roof the party was fighting from, Vinnie sent his echo down to attack it. While the echo did strike the minotaur, the elite thug possessed some sort of magic that electrocuted the echo in the process and destroyed its fragile form instantly. Seeing that this guard would not go down easily like the others, Vinnie decided now was a good time to retreat.
He split up from the others in case he was pursued and rendezvoused with them at his clinic later. Leh'ct pulled out the potions and wine he had stolen to show the rest of the group. He also alchemically examined the potions, learning that some were potions of healing while others were a mix of street drugs and potions tainted by those drugs. Leh'ct promised he could repurpose the drugs and tainted potions into useful poison and the group divided up the healing potions, deciding to lay low for the day until it was time to meet up with Mr. Perrywinkle.

To the Rescue!

The group returned to Mr. Perrywinkle's home. They went over the plan one last time; the adventurers would shadow Mr. Perrywinkle in order to rescue his daughter once the Crows brought her out for the exchange. They went to Despair Street, a neighborhood completely controlled by the Crows, and scurried up to the rooftops to follow Mr. Perrywinkle and his Crow guide discreetly. Unfortunately, there were lookouts on the group who each wore a lit lantern; enough lookouts for the lantern light to overlap and brighten all the rooftops.
Leh'ct mitigated this situation with his control flames spell, weakening the light of multiple lanterns simultaneously. This created narrow corridors of shadow that, with help from Leh'ct's pass without trace spell, the party was able to slip through unnoticed. Meanwhile, Vinnie focused on hiding the bodies of guards eliminated by Jake and K with the help of his echo.
After Mr. Perrywinkle's Crow guide turned on him, Elycia killed the thug's dog while K knocked the man out. Rousing the man with a blade to his throat, Vinnie interrogated him regarding Miss Perrywinkle's whereabouts. The thug agreed to talk in exchange for the promise that he wouldn't be harmed and would live, which Vinnie agreed to. He told them which building she was in and who else was in the building. The thug also admitted they'd been instructed to keep the girl regardless of whether the ransom was paid. Once Vinnie was done with his interrogation, K stabbed the man in the throat fatally. Vinnie, unlike some of his other companions, had no objection to this.
Armed with this new information, the group readjusted their plan. Jake used his disguise magic to masquerade as the dead thug while Leh'ct slipped into his pocket as a spider. While he went into the building disguised, the others would stick to the rooftops and come rushing in once Leh'ct gave the signal. There was another lookout near their ideal entry point, who they couldn't easily eliminate since the lookout was on the edge of the roof talking to someone below. Needing a distraction, Elycia got some distance from the group before attacking a different lookout and blowing a whistle taken off one of the dead ones earlier to draw attention to herself.
This got the lookout near the entry point to walk out of line of sight from his friend on the street, allowing K to eliminate him discreetly. Once a spider lily blossomed on the roof (Leh'ct's signal), Vinnie threw the weight of himself and the dead lookout onto the roof to break through it into the room where Miss Perrywinkle was behind held. He had the good sense to tie a rope to a chimney and bring that with him before doing this, giving every non-Crow in the room an easy escape option.
He took a moment to dispatch the guard in the room (who had been knocked down after Miss Perrywinkle hit him over the head with a bedpan) before telling her they were the rescue team. She replied, "Good enough for me," and followed him out via the rope. Fleeing before the Crows had time to rally, Vinnie made tracks along with Leh'ct and the Perrywinkles as the group split up to make their escape. After Mr. Perrywinkle gave his breastplate to Vinnie in gratitude and embraced the half-orc for his courage, they split up completely and Vinnie rendezvoused with the others at the GnoName Tavern.

Week Two

Wererats and Weird Books

After spending a few days bootlegging & bribing guards in Hightown, Vinnie and his comrades returned to the GnoName Tavern to wait for Ernest Thaig's return. True to this word, the dwarf returned a week after their previous meeting as the group was discussing Captain Xavier's Lost Treasure. Setting a tray of drinks on the table, Ernest inquired if the group had come to a decision about his offer. They confirmed that, yes, they intended to come on the Underdark expedition and were well on their way to collecting the necessary funds. Happy to hear that, Ernest suggested they not wear themselves out and do a little prep instead of focusing solely on moneymaking. He told them the wizard he and his brother had hired was doing research on the Underdark at the Tower Library and that their doing the same could be useful.
Shortly after Ernest left, a drunk warforged at a nearby table yelled at them to be quiet and to let him drink himself to death in peace. Elycia asked the drunk what was wrong and he revealed he had been bitten by a wererat last month. When the adventurers still looked puzzled, he popped open his chest to reveal a silver "heart" that would guarantee his death as soon as the full moon rose three nights hence. While Jake and K had no interest in helping the man, Vinnie and Elycia sympathized (to varying degrees). They decided maybe that library wizard could help with ways to kill a lycanthrope without silver, the group not wanting to spend their expedition money to help the man.
Arriving at the Tower Library (sans K, who stayed behind to keep an eye on the increasingly suicidal warforged), they quickly found the wizard who recognized them from outside Bertrand's office the week before. They asked him about lycanthropes and he suggested using fire when silver was unavailable. While Elycia discussed this with Jake, Vinnie asked if the wizard knew anything about Captain Xavier's Lost Treasure. While the wizard didn't know much off-hand, he recalled seeing a book about a wizard called Pompolius the Powerful who had either trained or been trained by Captain Xavier (he couldn't recall which). It was up on the top floor of the library somewhere and the adventurers went to find it.
Vinnie and Jake searched the shelves while Elycia admired the Tower Library's architecture from a balcony on the top floor. Jake found the book and motioned for Vinnie to come take a look, only to be magically pulled inside when he opened the book to read it. Hearing the book hit the floor behind her, Elycia turned to see only Vinnie and asked where Jake went. Vinnie claimed he was sucked into the book, which Elycia took as more of his drunken ramblings. When she didn't believe him, Vinnie demonstrated by opening the book and magically getting sucked inside himself. Vinnie appeared near Jake on a beach that the duo briefly explored before Elycia and K also appeared, Elycia explaining the book was a gateway to a demiplane.

Demiplane of Pompolius the Powerful

Elycia informed Vinnie and Jake that they had two hours to find a way out before the wizard (who Vinnie learned was named Villamax) dispelled the demiplane to release them. The beach lay at the base of tall sandstone cliffs with a set of double doors in them. A small stone platform sat in the entryway next to a stand that a parrot sat on top of. The bird greeted them, "Welcome to the estate of Pompolius the Powerful! Are you visiting for an appointment, to request a consultation, or to steal secrets that aren't rightly yours?" The group claimed they were requesting a consultation and the parrot stated his master was out but that they could wait in the sitting room or explore Pompolius' museum.
Exploring the museum, they found several valuable items locked behind the display cases. Cases that were protected by some form of magical barrier as well as glass, much to their ire. While Vinnie decided to examine the museum further (believing a way to deactivate the barriers was surely in there somewhere), the rest of the group split up to explore. Vinnie was convinced that the four pillars spread down the rooms center contained some kind of clue, trying to spin them before breaking one open and discovering they were hollow. By his estimation, these hollow pillar shouldn't be able to support the weight of the room's ceiling. Yet they did not seem decorative either, being plain and simple on the outside with no special runes or other magic on the inside. Deciding maybe the answer wasn't here, he moved forward and stumbled into the library.
Thinking one of the books might contain the answer, he moved to take one just as Jake triggered a magical trap that polymorphed him into a frog in the main hall outside. This also activated the animated armors standing throughout the facility, one of which picked up Jake and started marching him towards the entrance. Believing he wasn't in any real danger, Vinnie and the others made no immediate move to help him.
Real danger soon presented itself when Vinnie touching a book animated several of them, which attacked trying to bludgeon him with their spines. The situation got worse when K tried to open the other double door (next to the one Jake touched) and was also turned into a frog. Just as Elycia was moving to help Vinnie, the parrot in the entry area activated the stone platform and opened a small portal to the Nine Hells. The animated armor carrying Jake raised him above its head to throw him in and Jake the frog began to panic.
Elycia rushed to Jake's rescue, knocking him from the construct's hand and drawing its attention while he hopped to the waiting room for safety. Elycia quickly found that most of her magic, being psychic based, was useless against the mindless monsters, leaving Vinnie to pick up the slack with two of their friends trapped in amphibian form. Thankfully, his abilities as an echo knight and the virtually non-existent intelligence of the animated armors let him distract them for quite some time. Nonetheless, they were having a tough time until Jake and K figured out how to break the polymorph spells on themselves and arrived as reinforcements. The fight eventually ending with the constructs destroyed and the adventurers victorious.
As the group bandaged themselves up while examining the now safe library, they found the code word that would activate the magic circle in the entryway and allow them to leave. Elycia used this information to send Villamax a note, telling him not to dispel the demiplane. As they continued to rest in the library, a tear in the demiplane suddenly appeared above them. The giant hand of Villamax reached through the grabbed Jake (the first person it touched), pulling him out of the demiplane and back to safety. Believing the danger was passed, Elycia and the others moved on without him.

Duel Against Pompolius

This was not an accurate assessment as another suit of armor as well as the bedsheets attacked them in Pompolius' bedroom. In his study, they discovered a notebook that indicated Pompolius had been conducting research into moving his soul to a new body to attain immortality that didn't require lichdom or clones that would be vulnerable unattended. The next room over contained a puzzle lock that required the adventurers to move items to the correctly associated circle on the floor, each one representing a different school of magic. Vinnie was able to do this rather quickly with Elycia's help, unlocking the way to the final room. He moved forward into the magical laboratory with K while Elycia stayed behind to stand guard.
Magic circles drawn in blood and featuring pentagrams were drawn on the floor, one of which contained the corpse of an older human man. In the corner was a bubbling cauldron filled with green liquid next to a prep tables and wall shelves with a few vials. K found a hidden notebook under the table that revealed the liquid was a potion form of the gentle repose spell, capable of protecting a cadaver from undeath and making it easier to revive the dead. It also contained a passcode that could lower the barriers in the museum, but warned that the barriers also acted as the room's support pillars. Removing too many would bring the ceiling down and crush any greedy intruders.
Just as they were smiling at their good fortune, Pompolius the Powerful arrived in the previous room, his spirit trapped in the body of a helmed horror and his parrot (who snuck off to fetch him) on his shoulder. They could hear Elycia speaking with him and, thinking fast, K threatened to destroy his old body if he didn't back off. This did not deter Pompolius, who declared he'd rather take one of their younger bodies than go back to his old one. Angered by the party's intrusion and the rather snide attitude some of them had towards him, the wizard turned construct attacked.
As the fight began, it quickly became apparent that Pompolius was much more powerful than the animated armors the group had previously defeated. His construct body was resistant to non-magical attacks, so he first focused on the group's main magical member: Elycia. To her surprise, Pompolius seemed to recognize her elven military training from her fighting style and claimed to have some sort of history with the Silver Falcons (elven special forces). But despite her skill and Pompolius' lack thereof in swordsmanship, the wizard's construct body was able to make up the difference in sheer power. He critically injured Elycia, who blacked out but managed to stay alive thanks to her energized Threads of Fate.
Not liking their odds in a direct fight, Vinnie and K switched to hit and run tactics with Vinnie using his echo and K relying on his swift feet. But K made the first mistake and tried to deal a finishing blow that was anything but, allowing Pompolius to close the distance and strike him with a fatal blow. His allies down, only Vinnie remained to oppose Pompolius. He capitalized on using his echo to run circles around Pompolius and take advantage of the wizard's lack of a ranged option. While Pompolius had the advantage in raw power, Vinnie's skills gave him an edge.
Realizing there was nothing he could do to catch Vinnie, Pompolius decided it was time to retreat and started making for his magic circle in the entryway. This did not sit well with Vinnie, who had a burning desire to finish the fight. He stepped out openly and challenged Pompolius to finish their fight in single combat. No magic, no tricks, just skill. Vinnie's pride resonated with Pompolius' own and the soul-displaced wizard accepted his challenge. Pompolius walked towards Vinnie, readying his blade. Vinnie stepped up and Pompolius lashed out, striking him. And though he tried valiantly, Vinnie's blade failed to end Pompolius in that fateful moment. Pompolius struck him twice more and Vinnie fell. As his vision began to darken, the last thing he saw was Pompolius' fist coming down towards him.

An Out of Body Experience

Much to Vinnie's surprise, he awoke alive and on a dirt floor. Elycia was next to him being awoken by Villamax as the friendly wizard's companion Itassis did the same for him. K lay next to his other side, dead. As Vinnie reached out towards the corpse, he saw that his hand was not his hand. The green orc flesh that was his had been replaced with grey metal. Remembering Pompolius' research, the answer quickly became clear. Yes, the wizard who had bested Vinnie had allowed him to live. But he had stolen his body.
Villamax explained that he waited past the two hours without dispelling the demiplane per Elycia's note. But he kept an eye on the demiplane and noticed that it began to collapse. Only then did he dispel it, pulling the adventurers back to Haven City. As he spoke, Vinnie slowly came to the realization that this body was incapable of ingesting alcohol. Before the panic could fully set in, Itassis got his attention by prompting Villamax (which involved the tabaxi stepping on the wizard's foot hard) to assist the adventurers. Villamax offered to arrange for K to be returned to life. However, the seasoned wizard did not work for free. Vinnie and Elycia had little to offer, so Villamax offered his own proposal. Assuming the adventurers came on the Underdark expedition, Villamax wanted first claim on any historical items the group came across.
Vinnie pointed out that some such items could be things important to their survival in the Underdark, such as armor or weapons. Villamax stated he would be fine with borrowing such items for study after the expedition was over and the party didn't actively need them. Vinnie and Elycia agreed to these terms on behalf of themselves and the rest of their companions. Muttering in a language unknown to them, Villamax used some form of magic to restore K's life but warned the bugbear it would take several days for his full strength to return.

Rat Hunt

The next day, with the horror of oncoming sobriety looming over him, Vinnie explained (poorly) what had happened to his body to a confused Leh'ct. This was immediately followed by Elycia providing a more coherent explanation that Leh’ct actually understood. After getting him up to speed on that, they filled him in on their plan to hunt a wererat. The lycanthropy-cursed warforged had already spoken with Vinnie, informing him he'd been attacked while working in the warehouse district when the wererat jumped out of a sewer grate. Vinnie headed out in that direction without waiting for Elycia and Leh’ct, who caught up with him after being held up by something else at the tavern.
The trio headed for the address the warforged had given them, finding a boarded up warehouse. In his powerful new warforged body, Vinnie was able to effortlessly kick in the door and they went inside. The place looked like it had been raided with almost every crate and barrel opened and raided for the food within. Vinnie heard a noise behind one of these barrels and found a swarm of rats feasting on a half-eaten man. The disturbed rats attacked, causing more rats to appear from the various nooks and crannies around the warehouse. Luckily, Leh’ct was able to use his magic to speak with the rats and bribe them for information using some cheese Vinnie had brought along as rat bait. After learning their target was in the sewers, they threw the cheese to distract the hungry rats and jumped down the sewer grate in the center of the warehouse.
Leh’ct used his magic to conjure a rat of his own and had it start tracking the wererat by scent. This led up to a brick wall that Vinnie sent his echo to investigate. This was a wise decision as the wall quickly melted as the grey ooze revealed itself, smashing the echo and slowly lurching forward towards the group. While the ooze was deadly, it was also slow and they were able to use ranged attacks and Vinnie's echo to defeat it without injury from the ooze. Unfortunately, Vinnie was still injured when he fled the ooze carrying a lit torch and his new body's lack of a nose prevented him from realizing he was taking an open flame into a pocket of sewer gas until it ignited.
Vinnie was nearly injured again when a sewer gator leapt out of the water to attack him. Leh’ct was able to speak with this gator as he did the rats and convince it to back off, a task made easy since Vinnie was no longer made of delicious meat. The gator also confirmed where the "rats that make good eating" were located, warning Leh’ct there were many of them in the process.

Rage of the Rat King

As they continued moving through the sewers, the group started to hear the squeaking of many rats ahead of them. Leh’ct used his dancing lights spell to light the way forward, the group not wanting to light any torches in case there were more pockets of sewer gas. They soon spotted a hole in the wall where the squeaks were coming from and Leh’ct sent in his lights, merged into the shape of an adult humanoid, while the group dipped themselves in sewer "water" to cover their scents. Vinnie threw his echo into the rat warren and the rats quickly attacked with one suddenly chittering an alarm.
Giant rats started running towards the group, led by a pair of wererats armed with shoddy equipment. These creatures were not particularly tactical and stayed bunched together as they moved forward, allowing Elycia to injure and kill many of them at once with her newly learned shatter spell. The wererats were much more powerful than their rat minions, but thankfully susceptible to a magic warhammer Vinnie had acquired from the silver-hearted warforged. As the rats and wererats fell, another wererat emerged.
His voice boomed throughout the tunnel, "Who dares intrude on the kingdom of the Rat King?!" The party announced they were there to end the so-called king's reign of terror as he sent his personal giant rats, larger than the others, forward while using his magic to enlarge the last remaining regular giant rat. The Rat King himself used unique magic to summon a swarm of regular rats. Vinnie used his echo to slay the enlarged giant rat and kept the attention of the Rat King's personal rats, dueling one and doing what he could to keep the other off Elycia. While she and Vinnie dealt with the minions, Leh’ct had Silinrul confronted the Rat King and used his moonbeam magic to injure the lycanthrope leader badly.
This was seeming the end of the Rat King, until he started screaming for his "children" to come to him. Rats emerged from holes littering the warren, swarming around the Rat King and covering him as completely as a suit of armor. The enlarged and enraged Rat King stomped forward and Leh’ct and Silinrul retreated back towards their friends. Fighting the Rat King at his full power was a difficult battle, made more difficult when he started to absorb him remaining minions into his chimeric armor to replenish the rats killed by the adventurers attacks. He hammered them with fists of rats and pelted them with handfuls of crumbling bricks pulled from the sewer walls, most of his attention on Elycia and Leh’ct as they were the ones trading barbs with him verbally.
But despite the Rat King's ferocity, the adventurers proved victorious. His armor of rats nearly expended, the Rat King took a fatal blow and the last of his minions scattered. With his dying breath, he angrily lamented how Haven City could have been his if he'd just had more time to raise his rat army. The sewer gator from before (whom Leh’ct had yelled for, hoping it was nearby) then leaped from the water and pulled the Rat King's corpse down for an easy meal. Vinnie made sure to quickly reach forward and collect the Rat King's crown before the corpse was taken underwater. The group then looted the wererat warren, recovering a hefty amount of coin and jewels from a pile of humanoid bones presumably made of the rats and wererats victims.

Oh Gods, I'm Seeing Straight!!!

After climbing out of the sewers, Elycia cleaned the group up with her prestidigitation spell as they made their way back to the GnoName Tavern to report their success. Vinnie, having grown increasingly sober over the course of the day, wandered off in search of Villamax in the hopes the wizard could provide him with a path back towards intoxication. He found Villamax still at the Tower Library, researching the various fungi of the Underdark. He explained his predicament to the wizard, who suggested they go to the inn room he was staying in for a magical examination.
The pair found a release mechanism in Vinnie's crotch that opened his chest cavity, which was hollow inside. Villamax found no types of magical runes or anything that explained how Vinnie's new body was functioning. But Vinnie was less concerned with that and more concerned about finding a way to get proper drunk again. Villamax inquired how Vinnie intended to remain intoxicated during the Underdark expedition, noting that they likely wouldn't find consistent sources of alcohol down there. He showed Villamax his Flask of Perpetual Booze, which gave the wizard an idea.
Before explaining, Villamax inquired if Vinnie had any ethical obligations to any particular schools of magic. From the exact context of Villamax's words, Vinnie deduced that Villamax was a practicing necromancer. Vinnie had no objections towards necromancy, something of the opposite in fact, and made it clear that even if he'd had objections, he was willing to do basically anything to get drunk again. From Vinnie's rambling stories about himself and his previous lives, Villamax figured that alcohol was essentially Vinnie's lifeblood. Therefore, a heavily modified version of the necromancy-based life transference spell could drain the alcohol directly from the Flask of Perpetual Booze and into Vinnie's warforged body every hour on the hour as the flask refilled itself, in theory.
That being said, Villamax reminded Vinnie that he did not work for free and inquired how Vinnie intended to pay him. He realized he had nothing to offer and Villamax stated there was nothing he wanted that he believed was in Vinnie's power to acquire. Therefore, he would do this thing for Vinnie in exchange for an unspecified future favor. Desperate for booze, Vinnie felt he had no choice but to accept. Villamax told him to return in three days while he prepared the modified spell.
Three days later, a nearly fully sober Vinnie slowly shambled into the room. He had spent those three long, horrible days plagued with increasingly frequent visions of his past lives that been less and less blurred. The mental strain was almost unbearable as Villamax painted the arcane symbols on the inside of Vinnie's chest cavity as well as the Flask of Perpetual Booze before securing the flask inside him with Sovereign Glue. The effect was immediate, getting Vinnie on the gradual path back towards his drunken self.

Week Three

Shadows in the Mine

A week after his previous visit, Ernest stopped in at the GnoName Tavern to see how Vinnie and his companions were doing. They told him they were doing well with Leh’ct (poorly) providing summaries of their most recent adventures. Ernest inquired if they had any additional jobs lined up (they did not) and told them there'd been some kind of commotion at the local coal mine that might be worth checking out. With nothing better to do, the group decided to head to North Lowtown to check it out.
The commotion was ongoing when the adventurers arrived with many people running about looking worried. They eventually managed to get a word in with the foreman who explained that miners had run out screaming late last evening, claiming small dark creatures had chased them away. Vinnie gave Leh’ct a side-eyed glance as this remark was made. They'd sent some local adventurers in to investigate, but that was 12 hours ago and the adventurers had yet to return. After Vinnie negotiated the payment price for their services, the group decided to go see what was going on down there.
As they walked down the mine shaft, they suddenly became aware that the world had shifted at some point. They were no longer in a humanoid-made tunnel but a natural cave, and looking back behind them they had been for a while. Coming into an open area, they saw four goblins huddled around each other and watching something on the ground. Oddly, these goblins were a bluish-purplish color rather than the standard goblin green. K, as the only adventurer present who could speak goblin, asked what they were doing. The goblins enthusiastically replied they were betting on racing beetles before realizing there were intruders! These goblins proved little challenge for the adventurers with Vinnie effortlessly reducing one of the small goblins into a sticky, red paste with a powerful swing of his maul. He also chased a fleeing goblin and discovered a dead adventurer in the process, claiming a shield and longsword that lay near the body. He reconvened with the other just in time for Elycia, having heard many stories of many realms, to inform the party these goblins unusual coloring meant they were likely from the Shadowfell.

Flora of the Shadowfell

As the group continued to explore, they came across a sleeping satyr who they awoke to question. The satyr refused to talk until he'd had a proper breakfast, prompting Leh’ct to offer him a day old crescent roll. Introducing himself as Blink, the satyr openly questioned how the party had the foresight to bring a stale crescent roll just the way he liked them. They learned that Blink was hiding out in this cave, which he said was the home of a fey called Ehmyr, after pulling a prank in the River King's court that the archfey didn't take kindly to. Ehmyr's little slice of the Shadowfell was controlled by a magical tree and occasionally slipped into other realms when it wasn't pruned correctly. He also said Ehmyr's main concern was growing Unseelie Mushrooms, so Ehmyr might not have even noticed his realm wasn't where it was supposed to be.
Continuing on, the group found more shadow goblins sharpening thorns on a large red flower. These goblins attacked them as intruders and when the party attacked back, the enraged lionlilly roared at the mortals who'd harmed its caretakers. It lashed out with thorny vines with Leh’ct as its first target. As he managed to get loose and flee, Vinnie and the others worked to surround its main body. The unintelligent plant was attracted to those who did it harm and Vinnie took advantage to his armor and echo to try and keep its grasping vines away from his allies. Once it died with a final roar, he collected some sap from the likely magical plant in case it proved useful later.
Carrying on (with K setting off some shrieker mushrooms in the process), the group eventually came to a gargantuan tree. Its thick roots spread across a moss-covered floor below while above its thick canopy blocked out the ceiling completely. At its base sat the corpse of an adventurer. Halfway up the tree was a faun that the party correctly assumed was Ehmyr. He didn't seem to care much for the party's presence and told them to leave him be. When asked about whether he killed the missing adventurers, he said that he most certainly had not. He'd made the goblins do it.
They asked if Ehmyr was aware his piece of the Shadowfell had mixed with the Material Plane and was causing people problems. Ehmyr claimed ignorance of this and promised to do no one else any harm and that he'd be done siphoning water off from the Moonflow River for his mushrooms (and to annoy the River King) soon. The party believed this statement and carried on to find the other missing adventurers.

Saving an Adventurer

Continuing their exploration to a large chasm, the group found a rope tied to a cliffside that had been cut 30 feet down. It would appear one of the missing adventurers had fallen to their death here. Knowing the Shadowfell was a reflection of the Material Realm, Vinnie pointed out that if they could get the mine back to normal this might be an entry point to the Underdark that could prove useful later.
Continuing on to the last unexplored section of the caves, they found the main mushroom farm being tended to by a half-dozen shadow goblins. K tried to confuse the goblins by yelling "intruder!", which caused them to immediately spot Leh’ct and focus on him. The goblins attacked, summoning swarms of bats to help them, and began peppering Leh’ct's general area with arrows as the battle began. It ended when K used his assassin-related knowledge of anatomy to kill one of the goblins as brutally as he could, prompting the surviving three to call off their bats and surrender. Vinnie and Leh’ct made sure to use a web spell Leh’ct had cast to tie them up.
K contorted his body down a thin tunnel and found a half-starved woman trying weakly to lift a crossbow at him. It appeared she was the only one of the initial adventurers to survive and had been down here for quite some time. She gulped down the water and rations K offered to her and he helped her get out of her hideaway. Worried for the woman's health and safety, the party retreated back to the mine entrance. When they emerged, the foreman claimed they hadn't been gone long at all. The party realized that time may not flow the same between their world and the cave. And also that Ehmyr had likely been lying, so they went back to confront him.

(Moth)er of a Boss Fight

Deciding not to waste more time on words, K entered the large tree's chamber drawing his bow and aiming for Ehmyr immediately. Unfortunately, at no point during their two times in this chamber had any of the adventurers detected Ehmyr's invisible pixie guards. They used their magic to befuddle the party's senses; Vinnie was among the few able to resist this magical effect. As the faun and his pixie guards climbed into the tree's canopy, a monstrous moth descended and flapped its powerful wings.
The gust of wind it generated blew the adventurers back, knocking them against the wall hard as its loose scales overloaded their bodies with harmful levels of magical energy. Between this and the debilitating effects of the pixie magic, they were hard pressed. Nevertheless, they did not give up. It was Leh’ct who made the deciding move in this battle, casting a web spell that ensnared the monster moth and allowed Vinnie and the others to surround their restrained foe. It was also Leh’ct who dealt the final blow with one of his poisoned daggers sailing clean through the monstrous moth's eyes.

Meeting Red

As the moth fell, Vinnie tearing off its wings and Silinrul eating the rest, the party heard clapping. A man who was very clearly a fey complimented them on their battle, saying it was close for a while there but he had enjoyed the fight. When the party questioned who exactly this many was, he introduced himself as K's dear old Uncle Red. Whom K had never heard of before.
Red quickly proved to be an eccentric individual, commenting that K's father was a metaphorical bastard (as opposed to a literal bastard like K himself) and complimenting Elycia on her ears before asking what shampoo she uses & recommending one used on show dogs. In the brief moment they were able to get him on track, Red revealed he'd come to shut down Ehmyr's operation before it made waves with the River King.
Seeing as the party had done most of the work for him, he offered to compensate them for their services. K piped up, "Oh, like a gift," and a dark look crossed Red's face as he made it very clear that it was proper payment and in no way, shape, or form a gift. Red instructed Vinnie to hold the dead moth's wings up to Elycia's shoulders and transformed them into a Luna Moth Cape with a snap of his fingers. He also asked to party to pool all their silver coins on the ground and turned them to gold with a touch.
Their business concluded, he told the adventurers it had been lovely to meet them and that he'd give them time to exit this little pocket realm before he sent it back to rejoin the rest of the Shadowfell. Bowing dramatically to take his exit, a storm of autumn leaves blew from his hair (which itself was made of such leaves) and by the time they cleared and the party could see again, Red was gone. The party left the caves as they started to shake, eventually looking behind them and seeing the mine shafts that were supposed to be there had returned. After collecting their pay from the foreman, they headed back for home to get some well-earned R&R.

Potion Making & Training

Realizing he didn't have the alchemical knowledge to make use of the plant sap he'd collected, Vinnie went to Leh'ct for assistance. Leh'ct had collected his own samples of the sap and already figured out how to concentrate them into a useable Lionlilly Sap potion. The sap he'd collected was enough that Leh'ct was able to make two of these for him.
The rest of the week, Vinnie slowly got back to his usual drunken self as the magic Villamax put in him took full effect. This included him waking up in a bad part of town that had been abandoned after an accident with the area involving the Bank of Morgul suffused several blocks with necromantic energy. Having to fight his way out through hordes of zombie squirrels alone, Vinnie managed to put his newfound strength to use with a newly minted Cleave fighting technique.

Week Four

Catching Jake Up

Vinnie met up with Jake and Elycia at the GnoName Tavern a few days later for their weekly check in with Bertrand. While they waited for the dwarf to arrive, Vinnie and Elycia got Jake caught up on what they had been up to in his absence, slaying a den of wererats and and fighting dark fey to remove disconnect a local mine from the Shadowfell. Vinnie also mentioned having found a way into the Underdark in that mine, which the group was in the middle of discussing when Bertrand showed up.
He inquired how the party was doing, both in health and in finances. They assured him they were doing quite well and Jake stated he already had another job lined up for them. Pleased to hear that, Bertrand seemed a bit surprised when Vinnie mentioned they'd found a safe when into the Underdark. Skeptical, Bertrand asked for details and said he thought the entrance in the mine was too risky. Sneaking down there would be difficult and if they went through that way, they'd be leaving a hole for the Underdark monsters to attack miners and the rest of Haven City. He suggested the group give it more thought if that was the course of action they wanted to pursue before they headed out for Jake's job.

Violence on the Road

As the trio went on their way, Jake explained that he and Leh'ct had met with the man who'd previously helped the Perrywinkles escape town, Stane, and gotten a job from him. They were to find a tree and collect its pink leaves, which had a medicinal value so long as they were collected during the few short days the tree was in full bloom. Jake had already scouted ahead and lead the bunch when they heard a commotion coming from further down the road.
Around the bend, they saw a human man with his legs pinned beneath a fallen log. Another human man stood over him, an angry look on his face, while the teenage human boy stood nearby holding a bow. Vinnie and the others inquired what was going on and the angry man told them to go about their business and leave him to his. While Vinnie and Jake were content to go about their way, Elycia felt a moral obligation to intervene. She learned the pinned man was a poacher, and as the group moved forward they could see a dead boar that was behind the fallen log next to the pinned man. She asked if taking the man's life was truly a just punishment for his crime. This did not sit well with the angry farmer.
He said that this man had already killed others with his actions. With fewer boars around, there was less game. That meant less food for the hunting farmers but also less food for the bears, which had begun targeting livestock instead. He stated people would starve come winter due to this man's actions and that ending his life was a preventative measure to stop more starvation. Seeing she couldn't convince him, Elycia began to walk away just as the angry farmer stabbed the pinned man with a hunting knife. This did not kill him outright, but left him pinned with the scent of his blood now in the air with hungry bears nearby as the party continued north into the woods.

Pawblo Escobear

The adventurers continued through the woods for some time before Vinnie asked if Jake was sure he knew where they were going. Jake admitted he'd only scouted as far as the road they'd already left before just as he heard something crashing through the bushes towards them. A panicked boar ran out pursued by a large owlbear that stopped, stood on its hind legs, and roared when it saw the adventurers. It charged at Vinnie and Elycia, letting out a powerful snort that blew cocaine from its nostrils and covered the adventurers. The group quickly surmised that this monstrosity was somehow on drugs. They were not dealing with a regular owlbear; it was a cocaine owlbear.
The beast became more and more vicious as the fight raged on, the heat of battle causing its heart to beat faster and accelerating its blood flow, which in turn accelerated how quickly the cocaine affected it. It moved faster and hit harder the longer the fight raged on, despite the many injuries dealt to it by the adventurers. Even Vinnie, the most physically robust of the party, was hard pressed to keep up with the beast. Nonetheless, he and Elycia fought it up close while Jake stayed in the rear firing arrows. This somewhat backfired on Jake when one of his arrows struck the cocaine owlbear painfully and it charged straight for him. Luckily for Jake, Elycia was able to pursue it and struck a would-be fatal blow against the creature.
The owlbear roared one final time and struck Elycia with one last blow before finally collapsing from its many injures and the sheer amount of cocaine running through its system. As soon as it was dead, Vinnie began harvesting the monster's remains (with limited success despite Jake's assistance; skinning animals was not Vinnie's forte) while Elycia bandaged her wounds. While he wasn't able to get the hide off intact, he did claim some feathers as well as the head. They also discovered part of a paper wrapper in its stomach marked with part of an emblem. Though the paper was torn, Jake recognized it as the emblem of the Crows.

Vinnie's Bad Day

The party eventually came to an enormous hole in the ground with a pink-leaf tree at its center. It sat right on the edge of a spring of pure, clear water. Milling around the area were several aurumvorax, which were evidentially using the area as a den. The smaller creatures were lounging around chewing on boulders while the largest of them, the den mother, chewed on something green and shiny. Vinnie and his friends crept around the side of the hole, aiming to ambush the creatures. They were able to do this thanks to Jake as he guided Vinnie and Elycia so that they wouldn't make too much noise.
They started off strong, particularly Jake who let loose a pair of arrows that killed the den mother instantly. While Vinnie and Elycia injured another aurumvorax that fled, the adventurers soon discovered a few new facts about these creatures. The first was that they were burrowers, as several that were previously unseen popped out of the ground. The second was that they had a taste for metal as they all locked eyes on Vinnie warforged body. They quickly swarmed over him, biting at his steel form while grabbing onto him with sharp claws.
Though small, the aurumvorax were fast, numerous, and extremely vicious for their size. Vinnie fought for his life and took injury after injury as Jake fired arrows and Elycia fumbled through many attempts to harm the attacking monsters (only one of which succeeded). He was eventually able to switch places with his echo and climbed onto a log partially suspended in the air so that the burrowing creatures couldn't attack him from below. Eventually, enough of the monsters were injured or slain that the remaining ones fled and left the adventurers to collect their prizes.

The Woods are Terrible; Let's Go Home

The heavily injured Vinnie began examining the aurumvorax remains while Jake began collecting the pink leaves the party had come for and Elycia kept watch. Vinnie was further injured by stomach acid that came out of the den mother's belly when he sliced it open, though Elycia healed him and prevented his potential death. He recovered the object the den mother had been chewing on, which seemed to be an adamantine bar engraved with something he and his companions were unable to read. Elycia then asked if either of the others had just saw "that". Inquiring what she meant by "that", she said she'd just seen something in the small spring.
Vinnie threw his echo into the spring, which caused it to vanish instantly for some reason. Elycia theorized between this and a piece of the Shadowfell recently popping up in a coal mine near town, something may be affecting the walls between planes and causing the pool to lead to another realm. Deciding whatever was in that pool was more trouble than it was worth in their injured condition, the group started heading back towards Haven City.
Just before reaching the road back to town, Jake heard voices from up ahead. He hushed his companions so they could eavesdrop on the individuals coming down the road, an elven man & woman accompanied by a gnome. From the conversation, the party was able to surmise that these individuals were Crows that had somehow lost the brick of cocaine the owlbear from earlier had ingested. Vinnie suggested attacking them, but Jake and Elycia convinced him it was a bad idea considering they were already tired and injured. They waited for the criminals to pass before making their way back to the city, making sure to keep some distance between themselves and the Crows up ahead.

The Best Part of the Job: Getting Paid

Jake led his friends through the Haven City sewers (much to Elycia's disgust) to Stane's hidden base of operations. After they were let in by the construct guard, Stane welcomed him in before asking him to introduce his new friends. After Jake did so, and after Stane introduced himself to the newcomers, the black marketer had his golem Thaddeus collect the sacks of leaves and put them in his storeroom before fetching the party's payment. While they waited, Stane explained he was an expert in strange magical objects and offered to examine anything unusual objects the party may be carrying, as adventurers tend to do.
Vinnie pulled out the chunk of adamantine he'd found earlier and asked if Stane could translate it. Stane identified the writing as draconic and stated it was in some kind of code, though he was quickly able to decipher it and reveal it was some sort of map. Comparing it to maps in his possession, he claimed it led to the old Sinclair place. A defunct mansion that was quite haunted which people sometimes went into and never returned. From the context Stane provided and their knowledge of local legends, the party deduced that this map may lead to Captain Xavier's Lost Treasure.
When they mentioned killing the cocaine owlbear, Stane asked if they'd harvested anything from the monstrosity's body. Vinnie said he'd collected feathers and Stane had Thaddeus fetch some unfletched arrows before using his magic to combine the items together into a quiver of Owlbear-Fletched Arrows. He then bid the adventurers adieu after paying them, the trio never realizing that the "medicinal use" for the pink leaves was to make perfectly realistic rubber elf ears for use in the local brothels. As far as the morally dubious Stane was concerned, this medically counted as fixing a heart condition, so he hadn't lied to them.

Week Five

They Say the Place is Haunted

Vinnie met up with his friends at the GnoName Tavern for their weekly meeting with Ernest. While waiting, he helped Elycia and Jake get Leh'ct and K caught up on what they had missed on the trio's adventure the week before. They also all talked about what they'd been up to in the meantime, which most notably included K revealing he'd met the River King gotten engaged to the adventurer he'd rescued before, Sonya Snowborne.
While these discussions were ongoing, a messenger boy came into the tavern and delivered a letter to them. K read the letter out loud; it was from Ernest, explaining he couldn't make it this afternoon but would be by in the evening and apologizing for the inconvenience. Finding themselves with some time to kill, the adventurers decided now was a good time to make use of that map leading to Captain Xavier's Lost Treasure. Stane had said it pointed to the old Sinclair Mansion, so they headed out for the abandoned mansion.
On the way there, Vinnie and Leh'ct explained the history of the place to the rest of the group. The Sinclair family had once been a noble line with a seat on the Haven City Government Council. But the head of the family had done something to offend the pirate Captain Xavier, who began targeting their merchant ships in retaliation. Though Captain Xavier eventually met his downfall, he did enough financial damage to ruin the Sinclairs before meeting his end. The family patriarch committed suicide and it was rumored his spirit still haunted the manor to this day.

Yep, It's Haunted

The party scouted the mansion first but could not see inside with every window either blackened or blocked by drawn curtains. Vinnie sent his echo inside first and, when nothing bad happened to it, the rest of the group followed and began to explore. The place was fully furnished; the family who'd long ago abandoned it had left everything behind when they left. But it had clearly not been tended to in a very long time. When Vinnie picked up a rug to examine it and see if anything was hidden beneath, it disintegrated in his hands. Broken & rotting furniture, dead plants, and other signs of decay were everywhere as the party searched for clues.
As they moved cautiously, Elycia heard soft crying coming from an unexplored room. Knowing this place was supposed to be haunted, the rest of the party was debating whether to investigate when Leh'ct decided to go inside. He saw a kneeling woman, her back to him and her hands in her face as she cried. Stealthily coming around her side, he could see her hands were covered in blood. He started back out of the room and was halfway to the door when he noticed the crying stopped. The woman's head had made a 180 and stared at his with wide eyes. Her arms bent backwards as she walked towards him without turning around, saying over and over again how she wanted to feel warm.
Leh'ct yelled for help and Vinnie ran into the room with Jake and K to attack the spirit. But to their surprise, none of their weapons worked despite being magical. Vinnie's warhammer, K's rapier, and Jake's arrow all passed through the spirit without doing it harm. It didn't make sense; ghosts were supposed to be vulnerable to magic weapons. With that option apparently off the table, the party took the next most sensible option and ran.

And Now We're Stuck

Their flight was short lived as the doors had sealed themselves and the windows proved to be unbreakable. The place wouldn't even burn when Vinnie tried to light a fire but couldn't get a spark from his flint. The spirit in pursuit, Vinnie ran upstairs while his echo and made its way for the cellar with Elycia and Leh'ct. He found another spirit in a room with a chimney and stuck his head inside, only to see total darkness instead of sunlight. With this escape route blocked too, he swapped places with his echo and joined his friends in the basement. They had mere moments to find something, anything, that could help them. Vinnie was distracted during this critical time by casks of aged ale stacked up against one of the cellar walls.
Despite the lure of the ale, he managed to get enough of a hold of himself to send his echo to explore the larder. The room was cold, enchanted by magic to act as a freezer, and contained the frost-preserved corpse of a mage. Its death grip held a wand in one hand and a metal cube in the other. Vinnie had his echo take both and bring them outside to show the others. Elycia and Leh'ct noticed an elvish engraving on the wand that read "For Ghosts". They were just translating it when the two spirits came through the ceiling to attack.
Elycia grabbed the wand from Vinnie's echo and flicked it forward, a beam of lightning shooting from its tip and wrapping around the spirit. Unlike the party's previous efforts, this attack seemed to actually harm the spirit which started to scream and writhe in pain as it tried to break free. Figuring the cube must do something, Elycia slid it underneath the spirit. The cube opened and pulled the spirit inside, one side of it now glowing with a faint blue light. She quickly repeated this feat with the other spirit, trapping it as well.
Though the adventurers did not know the exact nature of these magic items, they had found a Wand of Ghost Busting and Cube of Ghost Trapping. What they did know is that they now had a way to deal with these spirits. With their lives now not in imminent danger, they came to the conclusion that the mansion must be desecrated with an unholiness that was empowering the spirits haunting the place. They continued to search slowly, finding two more wands on the first floor before moving up to the second.

Bustin' Makes Me Feel Good

The house was just as much of a ruin on the second floor as it had been on the first. K, who'd previously ran further up during the ghost chase, told the group he'd seen a ghost in a chapel on the third floor. He wanted to go get it right away, but the party thought it better to search the place room by room and go up slowly. While they were exploring the second floor, Vinnie realized they'd missed a room on the first floor and sent his echo to investigate. The echo found a skeleton in a bathtub, holding a rusty razor up to the wrist of its other hand, with another wand under it.
The second floor contained nothing else of note, the spirit that had been there already trapped, though Leh'ct did note several open spots in the library where it looked like books had been taken. Moving to the third floor, they decided to deal with the spirit K spotted before anything else. This one proved more resilient than the first two, managing to break free of the wands magic once before they restrained it again and trapped it in the cube. They noted that the chapel was dedicated to Waukeen, the Merchant's Friend, and seemed to not give off the unholy energy the rest of the building had.
Jake found a small staircase in some sort of alchemy lab and Vinnie went up first, finding himself face-to-face with yet another spirit. This one proved difficult to trap, breaking free of their initial attempts to lash it. They discovered here that multiple wands could be used on a spirit simultaneously, thereby making it easier to trap. All that was left to explore was the attic, which contained a fifth spirit. This one was the trickiest yet, escaping the wands a few times before they managed to bind it with lightning from four wands at once and trap it. Vinnie stayed upstairs to explore a bit while the rest of the group headed back towards the chapel for a potential place to rest. But he soon heard an unfamiliar voice and headed back downstairs to investigate.

Death

He came down the stairs to find the wraith of Captain Xavier talking to the party about how he intended to take their lives and add their spirits to his crew, despite his rather jolly attitude. Vinnie held the staircase as his friends retreated up it, getting Captain Xavier's attention with his stalwart tactic. Captain Xavier asked if Vinnie wished to duel him. Vinnie replied he did but soon realized his mistake as Captain Xavier's first strike began to sap away his life energy. He created an echo and swapped places with it to flee, heading for the chapel after figuring its holy presence might weaken the unholy wraith.
Vinnie was struck again as he made his way there, another substantial portion of his life energy drained away. His friends were trying to help, but it was no easy task. Captain Xavier was batting away the lightning they fired from their wands in attempts to restrain him. It took a coordinated effort by Leh'ct, K, and Jake to start restraining him; Captain Xavier blocked the lightning fired by Leh'ct and K with each hand, leaving himself open to a third blast fired by Jake. Jake used the restraining magic to pull Captain Xavier into the chapel and the pirate wraith's body began to smoke as it crossed the threshold.
Seeing his theory about the chapel's holy power was correct, Vinnie hit Captain Xavier with a devastating blow that somewhat weakened the pirate. But this served to enrage him more than anything else. Captain Xavier ceased struggling against his binds and focused his efforts on attacking Vinnie instead. He struck Vinnie for a third time, and for a third time drained Vinnie's life energy. Vinnie had none left to give as the last of his life was sucked out through Captain Xavier's ghostly sword. The last thing he heard before his death was Leh'ct crying out his name in anguish.
After Captain Xavier's defeat, Vinnie's companions speculated they could bring him back by getting his body to a cleric quickly. Unfortunately, they were unaware of the nature of the reincarnation ability attached to his soul. Vinnie's soul had already attached itself to a new mortal form the moment he died, starting the next life in his unending cycle of rebirth and making reviving him in his old body impossible.

Circumstances of Death

Life energy drained by Captain Xavier's wraith

Related Plots

• Campaign 05: Uncovering the Underdark

Magic Items (at time of death)
Flask of Perpetual Booze (taken by K post-mortem)
Pocket Sand
Warhammer Armblade
Unique Feats
Cleave