The Carmilla Arc

Vordenberg Thumbnail art by Jordan Nelson

Jordan Nelson as
Larry Talbot

Daniel Cruz as
Imhotep

Grayson Norman as
Jack Griffin

Ben Magnet as
Mary Frankenstein

**The Stratford Arc**

**The Carmilla Arc** is the first story arc of Campaign 1. It follows the party as they first join forces, surviving the rising tide of undead enemies that accompany the resurrection of Carmilla, as well as their first attack from Baron Vordenberg.

## Summary

The party is drawn together at St. Mary's Cathedral in Fairstead by various outside influences. The Phantom of the Opera arrives by happenstance, looking for secluded and abandoned places that he can feasibly make a new lair in. Larry Talbot, "The Wolfman" arrives under the guidance of Maleva, who has instructed him to come to this location and gather a group of individuals in order to prevent a calamity predicted by her tarot cards. Imhotep, "The Mummy" arrives with two skeletal footmen, Ahsim and Uhr in search of The Scroll of Anubis. Dr. Jack Griffin, "The Invisible Man arrives tailing the elusive cult leader, Reiner Leroux, whose private vault he is planning to rob. Mary, "The Frankenstein Monster" arrives following instructions from a letter he received that appears to be signed by Victor Frankenstein.

Jack successfully steals the key to Reiner's vault but is caught by Reiner who then uses Gor the Brain to launch a psionic blast that incapacitates the entire team, Jack included. The Cult of Reiner brings the unconscious bodies all together and Reiner takes from the team: a skin sample from Jack, saliva from Larry, The Scroll of Thoth from Imhotep, and the Journal of Victor Frankenstein from Mary. Using the two scrolls, Reiner performs a resurrection ceremony that restores the famed Vampire Lord, Countess Carmilla Karnstein. Something about the ceremony goes wrong and brings a de-powered Carmilla back as merely a Vampire Spawn instead of a full vampire. Undeterred, Reiner takes advantage of Carmilla's momentary disorientation to steal a sample of her blood. He is then interrupted by an attack from Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who is leading a group of Blood Hunters in an attempted ambush. In the ensuing commotion, the party returns to consciousness while Reiner and Van Helsing duel. Reiner uses Gor the Brain to get the upper hand and puts Van Helsing in death saves. Reiner uses the Scrolls to resurrect the entire cemetery and makes a hasty retreat.

On his death bed, Van Helsing uses an ancient Blood Hunter spell to sacrifice his own soul to grant one to Carmilla, and The Phantom unintentionally lands the killing blow when he removes the knife from Van Helsing's chest. Meanwhile Imhotep, Ahsim, and Uhr are compelled by the power of the scrolls to join the undead forces, but Imhotep is partially broken free from the scroll's hold when the team intervenes. The undead forces continue to close in and the collective team takes cover in a nearby mausoleum.

The team begrudgingly comes to terms with the fact that they'll need to work together if they're to escape and survive the night and form an uneasy alliance. They then spot a hidden passageway leading to a crypt running beneath the church. They wander their way through, avoiding the undead that spawn all around them while Imhotep continues to fight to reassert control over himself, and discover that the church has a lot of space dedicated to an important exorcist. Along the way, the team finds The Skeleton Key, The Lantern of Revealing, and The Candle of Invocation and accidentally scare a swarm of bats. Carmilla manages to charm one of the bats, who is given the name Caprisun and temporarily joins as an animal companion. Receiving guidance from a pair of gargoyles named Igneous and Sandstone as well as a priest named Friar Morgan, the team eventually finds their way to an exit, but not before Imhotep loses control of himself in the middle of a pile of scattered bones. The power of the scrolls overtakes Imhotep who fuses together with the disparate bones and becomes The Bone Chimera. With Caprisun's help they are able to defeat the Bone Chimera and restore Imhotep, gaining Mary a new weapon: The Fused Chimera Bone club, and Imhotep a few new bones (a pair of shoulder blades fuse with his hips, giving him canonically the best ass of the party). The team continues to find more shrines to this ancient exorcist and solves a puzzle, exiting into the church interior. There, they find an old Blood Hunter journal that reveals that 200 years ago, Carmilla arrived at this church and turned nearly the entire clergy before she was slain by the joint efforts of St. Maria Van Helsing and the founder of the blood hunters, Baron Werner Vordenberg.

The team is ambushed by the resurrected Vordenberg, who persists in the form of an empowered Revenant and retains his Blood Hunter magic. Through the team's combined efforts, they collapse the roof on Vordenberg and defeat his body, but his soul persists. Vordenberg swears to eternally hunt Carmilla, never resting until she is dead and her legacy ended, before disappearing. This threat convinces Carmilla to separate from the party for their own safety as she seeks to draw Vordenberg away from them and come to terms with her newly acquired soul, and the lingering influence that Professor Abraham Van Helsing is continuing to have over her. The remainder of the team bands together, committed to retrieve their stolen items from Reiner. Day breaks, and they follow the information in the blood hunter journal to the nearby town of Stratford, where the journal instructs them to find an information broker named Marlowe Bronte.

## Characters

### Player Characters

* Erik, "The Phantom"
* Larry Talbot
* Imhotep
* Jack Griffin
* Mary Frankenstein

### NPCs

* Maleva
* Professor Abraham Van Helsing

### Minor Characters

* Ahsim and Uhr
* Caprisun
* Ingeous and Sandstone
* Friar Morgan

### Antagonists

* Reiner Leroux
* The Cult of Reiner
* Gor the Brain
* The Bone Chimera
* Baron Vordenberg

## Deaths

* Multiple Zombies
* Multiple Skeletons
* Multiple Priests
* Multiple Blood Hunters
* Professor Abraham Van Helsing
* The Bone Chimera

## Important Items

* The Scroll of Thoth
* The Scroll of Anubis

## Loot

* The Lantern of Revealing
* The Candle of Invocation
* The Skeleton Key
* Fused Chimera Bone club
* The Javelin of Lightning

## Long-Term Significance

* The Blood Hunters are all but wiped out by the undead forces that Reiner sets upon them.
* The death of Abraham Van Helsing leads to a long-spanning feud between Jack and The Phantom.
* Baron Vordenberg is resurrected and begins his mission of vengeance against Carmilla.
* Reiner escapes with a vial of Carmilla's Blood, a sample of Larry's saliva, a sample of Jack's skin, the journal of Victor Frankenstein, and the Scrolls of Anubis and Thoth.