Becoming A Wizard and A Test

I learned a bit more about the changes that happened to my character at the end of last week’s session, so yes, I am now a 10th level Blood Wizard and a Dhampir and tonight was the first night I got to play this changed character. I have only played a wizard once in a one shot back in 1986, so it really isn’t something I'd choose on my own to play. I’ve looked at Dhampir a couple of times, but it didn't do much that I would use in my preferred martial classes. I’m enjoying the campaign and it’s a cool chance to play a style of character that I wouldn’t normally on my own. Remember these are my character's thoughts and memories, and are probably first draft at best quality writing.

Theren Bucelarri - Dhampir/Blood Wizard
Image by Microsoft Bing AI - 2024

As I come out of the blood pool, I know changes have been made to who I am. Yes, I have become a Dhampir and a wizard’s magic fills my head. I sort of remember things I used to know, but I now see things as a wizard might. I know that I have a head filled with spells that are waiting to be released.

Normundy takes me aside and reassures me that Kanchelsis and the Raven Queen are on good terms and to look for the crow. He has seen that at some point an avatar of hers will approach me to discuss the changes that I accepted on her behalf. I reminded him that all my equipment was geared towards my old self and asked if there was any here that I might use more in line with being a wizard.

He chuckled and gave me a spell book that had all the spells that I had running around in my head and a bunch more, a very nice cloak, and a wand. Normundy let me know that if I proved myself to be useful to him and Kanchelsis that I would continue to be well rewarded.

Still I wondered if I had made the correct choice. Trading being a Shadar-Kai for a Dhampir is…well not an upgrade from what I can see and I wonder how the Raven Queen will react to that change. Especially, since I am struggling with it myself. Though I can see how being a Wizard will help the party and my Queen achieve our goals. Still I suppose for one to have happened, it needed to be both. Gods and magic work in strange ways. 

I just hope that I made the correct choice to serve my queen better in her eyes.

The one called Varrin suddenly arrives in the room, I’m not sure how he got there. I was too busy speaking with Normundy, but he is here and is quickly the center of attention. There is no doubt of his ability to dominate a room. He looks at Yeekiees and I with open disgust for having gone through the ceremony of blood and the changes that it brought forth.

Kanchelsis is talking with Bluebelle who is thinking about going through the ceremony as well. She is told that she doesn’t have to make her decision now, but if she decides to do it later, she would have to perform the ritual to call Kanchelsis like Yeekiees did earlier, before she could do it. 

Varrin argues vehemently against Bluebelle doing it. They know one another from a long, long time ago. While Normundy tells her with her current connection to the Horned King, she continues to be potential prey. He reminds her of how she isn’t fond of her current Patron the Horned King, his goals or allies. Bluebelle asks and wonders if doing the ritual would be noticed by him. 

Normundy pondered for a moment and made the following analogy. Would you really notice a flea, it might wake you up if it bit you, but you would quickly forget about it if it didn’t bother you again. That is probably how the Horned King sees what is happening with you. Your escape from the beetle-like thing woke up the Horned King, but you aren’t really noticeable to him and he'll probably forget all about you now that the incident is over. 

Normundy went on to discuss how this ritual and the changes that she would undergo would cut-off all ties to him and the Hags from her past. She would still have the memories, but any lingering ties to them or Him would be gone. If she chose, Kanchelsis could become her new Patron or some other accommodation be made.

Varrin continues to argue against her doing this. When she asked me how it feels to make the change, I told her my experience and that while I have questions about becoming a Dhampir, the change for me at least was not painful and inside the pool itself wasn’t like being underwater, it was like being bathed in powerful magic. As she steps towards the pool, I see her grip her sword and I can tell that she is speaking with it. When she steps into the pool, the sword, one that she called Landriss disappears. 

Varrin glumly stares at the pool and shakes his head.

Bluebelle comes out of the pool as a Dhampir as well and she seems well satisfied with the changes.

As we stand there figuring out what to do next, we all get a vision:

We see this wide plains with purple grass and pink flowers. There is a blackened moon rising and I see some kind of strange being standing beside Bluebelle. It looks humanoid and black hair wrapping around its face, there is a set of pauldrons, gauntlets, pink and purple skin, with long claws over two inches in length. Its eyes are violet purple and glowing golden. A tendril springs from it and goes straight into Bluebelle’s stomach and takes something from her. Then something is being placed inside of her and it points to the blackened moon.

    I move to pull it out…it comes out without an issue and black blood spews out from the tendril. It is the corrupted side of her and the black blood creates a humanoid being beside her. It changes to bloodish red vs black void, the pupils' eyes are green. She looks towards me and I see a vision of an end to another’s life, fading away into dust. A writhing mass swirling and moving from the blood left behind. 

    Inside my head I hear it is a being that is just starting to understand how its abilities work. It is asking Bluebelle for help in growing into what it shall become, in exchange for services as it grows. It is Bluebelle’s to use as she sees fit. It is a gift from the father. 

We learn that the Sword - Landriss went to Helena - another of the twelve and the one I read about in Lirael’s diary. King Garland’s daughter and friend to Lirael and the Paladin Landriss.

It then we learn that some of the information we need is upstairs and is now being warded by the failed lich - a Boneclaw upstairs. In order to get that information we will need to defeat him and his minions that recently arrived to search for something in that part of the temple.

Varrin - cries out “We are heroes baby” in response to learning we would have to battle the Boneclaw and we all chuckle. I look closer at what Normundy has provided me to use with my new powers. Nice gifts indeed.

 

There was a joke made about “The Vampire equivalent of peeing into the pool”. I know that we all laughed uproariously, but for the life of me I cannot remember the reason for it. I guess there were just too many things happening in such a short time that some things will be forgotten, but it is one of those things we found funny prior to heading into battle for the first time as a team. 

We were told that Kanchelsis needed to keep Yeekiees with him during this battle as he had things that needed to be taken care of. He had to teach his new Cleric and those things were more important to him than the trial we were facing.

Donkey asked what would happen if he threw his Battle Ax into the pool and we finally rigged it up so that he could retrieve it with a rope. It came out quite different than when it went in, but I’m not sure of the properties that it now has.

Then while I was figuring out how to use the gifts, I heard in the background Bluebell had made a deal with Donkey to suck his blood when necessary to feed her hunger. When Donkey told Varrin what had happened, Varrin simply sighed and said a deal is a deal and you need to do what you agreed to. Though there may be grounds later to invalidate the agreement if he thinks more on it.

As Varrin is getting ready to head up the stairs, a small crystal appears and goes towards him. There is something inside of the crystal, it looks like a couple of books. Smells fruity and he was able to bite into the crystal like a fruit and inside were two novels and signed by an author he knew. Then written in Sylvan was a note signed by someone that made him smile. He read the note and chuckled. Then seemed more relaxed about things that were going on around him.

Now it was time to go up and get rid of the Boneclaw in the temple above.

Though I didn’t really know what I was doing, I still think along the lines of Rogue/Artificer on preparing for combat, but also know that if I use those methods, I will die quickly. Then something inside me reminded me that I needed to cast Mage Armor and then do a Vital Sacrifice before going out to do battle.

While I had cast spells as an Artificer, it still felt odd to cast them as a wizard - there is a huge difference in how it feels. Then doing the ritual to activate the vital sacrifice ability was something I hadn’t never done before, but as a Blood Wizard, I’m going to have to get used to it.

As we went up the steps leading up to the old temple, we had an idea of the layout from when we came in. It was our first real battle together and as a result we didn’t plan what we were going to do, we just went our separate ways and did what we could. In the future maybe a bit of planning might be in order, before we run off into battle and not coordinate our efforts.

The Bone Claw was on the partially destroyed second floor of the temple and we could see it searching for something. When it saw us, it knew that we were going to attack it and summoned the ghouls that we had seen in the woods around the temple upon our arrival and then it conjured a transparent human shaped being and then backed out of sight.

There were 16 ghouls coming at us and Varrin cast animate objects and ordered them to attack the ghouls, while Bluebell cast a spell and Donkey got ready for battle. I kind of floundered around thinking about what I needed to do and using my new Cloak of the Bat flew up to see what the Bone Claw was doing. I could see that it was a ghost with it, and they were back by an old bookcase and I flew towards a wall to my left. Then Varrin teleported himself and Donkey to where the Bone Claw and ghost were, using what I now know was a Dimension Door spell.

When they got there the Boneclaw missed its attacks. Then Varrin cast a spell, Donkey attacked the Bone Claw and I cast Immolation on the abomination. It attacked them back, while Bluebell was fighting down below against the ghouls. Then I saw the floor open up under the Bone Claw and it fell to the floor below, while the ghost attacked Donkey and missed I maintained concentration on the Immolation spell and watched the battle unfold around me as I walked down the side of the wall to the second floor to see what was going on with the Bone Claw - that was a mistake, in the future I will stay up higher and out of the way and not make that kind of choice again.

Varrin jumped down the hole because he had seen the Bone Claw move out towards Bluebelle and then cast Wall of Fire between the Bone Claw and her, destroying a few ghouls in the process. I watched as my Immolation spell went out and then saw the Ghost disappear into Donkey’s body. I didn’t think fast enough to help with the ghost and suddenly Donkey came running at me to attack. He had been possessed by the ghost and was attacking me. 

I managed to get a shield spell off to fend off the first attack and then the second attack I didn’t duck out of the way in time and took some damage. Then he attempted to hook me with his horns, which barely missed me. I flew up and out the way, creating an opportunity for him to attack me once more and somehow I avoided that damned big ass battle ax one more time. Boy, was I lucky. I soared around the battlefield looking for a place to land that was mostly clear, so I could cast a spell to help out, while keeping an eye on what Donkey’s possessed body was doing.

When I found a spot, I landed and then cast a fireball at the Bone Claw, then Bluebelle and Varrin also cast spells at it. Bluebelle killed it. At that point, Donkey was able to cast out the ghost and fought with it until he defeated it. I found a group of ghouls that I fireballed and we mopped up the rest.

Boy, do I have a lot to learn about being a wizard in battle. All the choices, needing to maintain concentration, and while the Cloak was great and saved my butt by getting away from Donkey, I can’t cast most spells while flying. There were several times in that combat that I should have cast a different spell that would have helped the party more than the three spells that I did cast. I will learn these wizarding skills.

As the battle ends we get a vision:

We see the knight from our previous vision in the Mystwood walking through the forest mists. We see a weird jewel-like thing glow on his side and he looks at it and chuckles. So, the Bone Claw didn’t get what I wanted, we’ll see you in a few days (it will return in a few days and be recreated). A few changeling masks jingling on his hip. We see him walk away and hear the heart beating in the background.

We defeated the Bone Claw, a Ghost, and 16 ghouls.

Normundy comes up and tells us we did well. He removes his cloak and goes upstairs, he tells us to look at this book, and hands it to Bluebelle. The Black Veil - third of the way through your previous Patron, it talks about the gate he stays within. The next one he passes to me, it is written in Abyssal - I pass it to Varrin who casts Comprehend Languages (I could have done that) and he tells me it is a book on how to become a Lich and Normundy tells us that it has the correct formula, so you don’t become a Bone Claw.  Donkey gets The Goblin Code and we chuckle at what it says. Then Normundy opens a book and that has a Spider-like symbol on the cover and inside is an amulet that he puts over his head. He tells us that the Amulet functions like a key to a puzzle that holds something Normundy wants.

Both Bluebelle and Donkey are vehemently against him just taking the Amulet and there is a fierce stand-off about whether he should keep it or not. It seemed as though we were going to fight him for the amulet. Which I was very much against. I felt with everything that he and Kanchelsis had done for us that him taking the Amulet wasn’t a big deal and I told them that. However, if it came to a battle with him I would support the people I came with.  

As we continued to talk, people seemed to calm down and while Donkey still wasn’t thrilled with the idea of Normundy keeping the Amulet after we risked our asses to get it. We did a lot more talking about what was happening around us and when I opened the magic book that the Teal Dragonborn had given me, we noticed that since Donkey was no longer one that:

#2 has been changed. Drayden - The half-dragon

We discussed that it was probably too late to stop the witching hour, but that we still wanted to keep the Horned King in his prison and wanted to back whoever doesn’t want to cause devastation to Crannog. We talked openly with Normundy on his plans and ideas. He looked at Princess Helena as one of the favorites to win, but that #11 has Baldur, Hassan and the Mystfellow already on his side and is creating new monsters as we speak, along with several covens of hags on her side and the Horned King’s favors. Normundy is definitely not with them.

We talked about Normundy’s plans. If he were to win, he doesn’t plan to make drastic changes or be a part of the hellish chaos that would take place if some were to win. He’s unsure if he would want the responsibility that the winner will have. That he would probably hide out for a few days to let the others kill one another off and see what the landscape would be after the initial onslaught of violence. He talked about instead of killing each other, why not let people decide and perhaps they will attack the others.

Which I found to be more of the scholarly way of looking at things, but out of touch with reality, people will follow those they believe have an opportunity to win and actually lead them, not simply give them free choice. I believe that Normundy is too much of an academic to win. 

Normundy does tell us that we need to stop the monstrosity that is being created in the Mystwoods and that the Black Knight is also wandering in the woods around the temple. He is killing any that he comes across and turning them into ghouls. He is someone that we probably would have to deal with, while on our way to the other. He mentioned something about the gates being sealed by the Overseer (who I don’t know anything about), which if I had been more alert would have asked more about. 

However, after throwing around that wizard magic, I was tired and not thinking clearly. It is different to cast spells as a wizard and the changes that I have undergone over the past few hours is still making my head swim. Normundy did tell us to look out for three Windigos and that in 6 hours the thing in the Mystwood would wake up and #11 will have another ally/monster on her side. 

He did let Varrin know that the Mantid has the bow string he is looking for. While they were doing that I gave Donkey the two-handed Sun Sword since I cannot use it in battle and if we are going up against undead or evil monster it might be of more use to him.

Normund told us that if he is given about 10 minutes he can create a concoction to get us up and going again, but that after 24 hours we will feel a level of exhaustion as a consequence of taking it. He advised Varrin to contact the ArchFey he knows for assistance, that she can heal any ailment and gift us things that might help us in this quest. The virility of her magic is very high quality, but Varrin was resistant to involving her at this time.

Then Bluebelle asks if Normundy might be interested in letting another take his place as one of the twelve and they discuss the different things that person would be expected to do, if he were to give up his place. They were negotiating for Bluebelle to take his place and I pledged my support to her if she were to become one of the 12. I offered to become her knight, but now that I think more on it, it might be better if she first offered that position to Donkey. He was chosen to be one of the twelve, so there is much more about him than we know, and it would be better for him to have the choice to take or turn it down. Especially after we recommended so strongly that he give up his place as one of the twelve. 

Though, I would like as part of the agreement for Bluebelle to take his place, if Normundy uses the amulet to open the puzzle, and it only pertains to the twelve and this game of thrones. If it is something that Bluebelle needs, he gives it to her as soon as possible and that he remains our ally against the others.

It seems we have a lot on our plate going forward, it will be interesting to see how things turn out.