Veil of the Vampire

Preparing to enter the caverns, Father Maxim urged the Vanguard not to hesitate against any vampires, even turned children. When Bitty hesitated to enter the gloom, his eyes ignited with a sapphire beam to illuminate the path above the fog. Deep within the western tunnels, the party heard voices and discovered their missing companions, Thalia and Craum, locked in an iron cell. Rushing forward, Maxim and the Vanguard engaged a guarding vampire while Emelyne cast Fireball to melt the cell doors; though a spatial miscalculation caused the blast to damage Emelyne herself, it weakened the iron enough for Craum and Thalia to burst free. After Ro'Zaad drove a blade into the vampire's heart, noise from their brief reunion drew two hellhounds, which the party quickly reduced to ash. Moving deeper, Aurelius’s voice echoed a warning before Maxim and Ro'Zaad charged forward—triggering a hidden Glyph of Warding illusion that critically wounded both before Naoki, Valerie, and Thalia restored them with healing magic.

Reaching a fork, the party encountered a horrific, bonnet-wearing vampire clutching a doe's severed head like a infant. Emelyne opened with a Lightning Bolt, and as the creature lunged to brutally maul Valerie and Emelyne, Maxim’s flaming sword prevented it from slipping into the shadows. Surrounded by the Vanguard, the creature fell to a critical strike from Ro'Zaad's psychic blade. As Valerie captured the defeated thrall's shadow, she absorbed its memories—witnessing how Aurelius had murdered the woman's infant before forcing her into vampiric servitude. Guided by these layout memories, the party pressed on to face Aurelius directly. The vampire lord revealed Maxim’s daughter, Wilhelmina, dropping an illusion to show she had already been drained to fuel a ceremonial chalice. When Aurelius stepped up to drink, Ro’Zaad flung a psychic blade that knocked the chalice away without spilling its contents. Aurelius shifted into a bat to retrieve it, but Naoki cast Wall of Wind to throw him back and guard the cup.

Aurelius then charmed Emelyne, who perceived him as an ally and retrieved the chalice to identify it. Moving in to intercept, Valerie covertly mixed a poisonous ointment into the blood-filled cup. As Aurelius brutally bit Maxim into unconsciousness, Valerie revived the cleric with Healing Word and brushed off Aurelius's attempt to charm her in return. Drawing her war fan, Valerie attacked in fury while Craum delivered the lethal blow with a Chromatic Orb, forcing Aurelius’s body to dissolve into mist and his remaining thralls to collapse into dust. Pursuing the mist to a hidden sarcophagus, Maxim, spurred on by Valerie, drove a stake through Aurelius's heart as he screamed and withered away. Rushing back to Wilhelmina, Maxim detected a faint breath and used his remaining divine magic to awaken her before departing to raise his daughter, earning a parting warning from Valerie to be a better father. Left alone, the party listened as a dark voice echoed from the chalice—vowing vengeance against the Vanguard for acting as pawns of the Prince of Deceit.