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This week...
Surya backed away from the shadowy stairwell, playing for time, as the
half-orc rolled away, healing himself in the process. The vampire commander of
the tower was arrogant, grandly
informing Surya that he was suitable to be recruited into the Night Watch. Surya mocked him, asking what need the city had for vampires. Haris
laughed. "What a mortal concept!" he scoffed. "The needs
of the city are nothing. The correct question is, what do we need from the
city? What is there here that we can take?" All this while, Surya was gently backing away, weapons readied, drawing the creature from the stairwell.
Healed now, Sack rose slwoly to his feet, and merged with the shadows, his
matchless stealth skills and chaemelon ring combining to make him almost invisible
as he worked his way to the stone stairwell cylinder, and thence around to come
up behind the undead Watch Commander. Meanwhile, below, Hildraft had reached the last flight of stairs.
Pausing - and he told himself stoically, not just to breathe - he cast a
Ward over the entire ceiling of the third floor, set to block vampires,
effectively trapping Haris in the fourth floor. Then he pressed on upwards,
emerging from the stairwell to the side of the vampire commander just as Sack
reached his target position. Surya kept talking, for he'd spotted Sack ghosting up behind the
armoured vampire. As the Tellaran taunted their foe, Sack's right hand inched
out until it was poised above the hilt of the black-bladed sword sheathed
across the vampire's back. With the Blade of the Sun poised in his left - main
- hand, he gripped their foe's sword and smoothly drew it, at the same time
slashing back and forth across his back with his blazing blade. As he did so,
Surya leaped forwards to the attack, slashing and cutting. At the same time,
the holy Axe of Kord bit into the dark plate armour from the side. Haris Lelten's arm arched as he reached for his weapon, and the look of
amazement and fury on his face as he realized it was not there was a sight to
behold. With a snarl, his figure dissolved into a vapour. Differences were instantly apparent. When other vampires went gaseous,
they became amorphous clouds of smoke, drifting and eddying. Haris Lelten
retained his humanoid shape, becomeing a ghastly skeletal wraith made of
translucent smoke, eerily lit by the lights from the burning ceiling above, and
Sack's sword, now shedding its' normal Daylight effect. Instantly on becoming gaseous, the vampire drifted very rapidly backwards;
in a couple of seconds he' passed completely through the shaken Sack, numbing
him with cold for a brief instant. Evidently he hoped that this would disorient
the thief long enough for Haris to re-acquire his blade, but he was wrong;
spinning like a cat, Sack hewed him again with his shining sword, and the
others joined him. Their blows passed harmlessly through the vaporous vampire,
but seemed uncomfortable, especially those from the Axe of Glass. He recoiled,
long enough for Sack to slip the stolen sword into his Bag of Holding. Hildraft, normally one to use hard strokes rather than dogma, felt the
time had come for an expression of
faith. Raising up the small golden emblem of Kord that he carried around his
neck, he called on the power of his God to confound the unholy creature before
him. The results were something of a shock. With a scream of fear and
outrage, the vampire spun and fled towards the stairs. His fury was redoubled
at the discovery that he could not flee, and he changed direction, floating
upwards to the wooden ceiling. For a moment he seemed to be seeping between the
boards; then he clearly hit the solid shaped stone coating the roof of the
tower, and fell back again, to bobble around near the ceiling in rage. Using his Spider Climb, Sack scaled the wall, trying to get at
Haris again. Just as he reached him, however, the vampire went solid again and
dropped, as the effects of the turning wore off. Landing catlike on the floor
near Hildraft, he brandished his empty fists, bringing a derisive laugh from
the dwarf. This laugh died, however, when the vampire's mighty fists hammered
into his body, winding him and severely denting his beloved armour, so recently
refurbished by Elverandil. It was a desperate move for Haris, fuelled by the
approach of dawn and his lack of a melee weapon, and it was not enough. Behind, Sack dropped deftly to the floor, his balance perfect, and he,
Surya and Hildraft struck as one. Impaled from three directions, the vampire
screamed as his form dissolved into an oily black liquid and sank into the floorboards.
Once their breath was restored, the party descended and completed the
search of the tower. Interestingly, they found no coffins or other normal
vampire resting places, though they did locate the commander's office and loot it of some interesting-looking magical
items, along with some gold. Then they restored the tower door and left, Sack hanging a notice on the
door: "Night watch needed. Undead need not apply". Dawn was breaking as they left Debtors'
Tower, and they walked through the streets, breathing the fresh air. Hansen the
bard, who'd been waiting anxiously for them, trotted alongside, his pen
scrittering frantically as he noted down their account of the night's deeds. They gave the gold away. |