"Plague ship? So that must have been that mysterious ship that the Guard sank. I've heard of this Lavender before, she runs a perfumery in the Heights. She's known for shameless self promotion and aggrandizement. No one there will soon forget her "Free Imp With Every Purchase" promotion."
The streets maintain their hush and quiet as you travel through the city and make your way to Racker's Alley. The high walls of the surrounding buildings throw this awkwardly bent alley into constant shadow. Although littered with garbage and filth, the refuse isn’t the most stomach-turning trait of this rundown side way. Heaped against a bent wooden wall rises a pile of more than three dozen plague victims, their faces blistered and flushed, eyes open and staring. The scent of death is overpowered by the reek of rot, suggesting that some of these corpses have been here for days, but even a casual glance reveals that certain bodies seem strangely pale compared to most of the victims who succumb to the sickness. The alley is thick with fat flies and rats, gnawing on the corpses strewn against the walls.
Looking closely at the pile of corpses, some forty deep against the eastern wall, you discover a hole in said wall leading to an adjacent building.
Gamon does his best not to show any unrest at scene before the group. He looks closely at the bodies, with one arm over his nose and mouth, and steps back. Some of these bodies were not sick. They have puncture wounds, and are drained of blood. Is it possible that on top of everything else happening in this city, we also have a vampire infestation?
Jolon, now cured of his own Blood Veil, avoids touching the dead to examine them more closely, but he nods at Gamon's analysis.
"It's possible. The only other alternative would be someone draining the blood to make it LOOK like a vampire did it, but that sounds needlessly complicated. And honestly, it wouldn't surprise me. Vampires hide most easily in urban places, where life is cheap enough that no one notices their victims and they can cling to their delusions of being civilized."
His spits at the ground.
Nicolai nearly gags on the stench of the decaying bodies piled haphazardly against the wall "Looks like the reports were right. We'll need to report this to the guard so these people can receive a proper burial." Overcoming his initial nausea he bends down to examine the corpses and notices the same puncture marks that Gamon pointed out on several more bodies in the pile. "Clever bastard." he whispers admirably.
"That's true." Nicolai says thoughtfully to Jolon "and with the current rise of dead bodies that the plague has brought, the undead monster wouldn't even have to find a way to discretely dispose of it's victims."
Still kneeling he looks at the hole in the wall "What have we here?"
Looks like it would be easy to get into the hole leading into the shop. The darkness inside promises answers...
Majenko floats down from his perch on the rooftops, claws covering his nostrils. "Woah, fancy hole. Think it was opened for a reason?" he mutters in a high pitched nasally voice.
The smell is quite unpleasant, but not unfamiliar with her history living above the anatomy lab. She's long gotten used to ignoring the smells.
She looks at the hole with intrigue and says, "Only one way to find out." She crouches down and slithers into the hole...
Majenko dives into the hole behind Aloysia. "Dark in here, anybody got a light? Nicolai and Gamon may have trouble seeing in here."
Dozens of glass eyes—crooked and crazed—glare from the heads of malformed and half-carved dolls lining skewed workroom shelves. Rat-gnawed stuffed aurochs, disembodied doll limbs, miniature rolling elephants, unseaworthy miniature wooden ships, and blocks illustrated with deformed or poorly painted animals fill bins and racks about the room. A cracked wooden door leads to the north, while a rickety trap door breaks the sawdust-covered floor to the east. In one corner lies the drying corpse of an old bald man amid the wood chips, rusty tools, and oily rags of a scored workbench.
Aloysia's inspection of the corpse shows that there are eight puncture wounds up and down its neck as well as a ring of small keys. She also discovers a trap door leading to what appears to be a crawl space.
Examining the body Nicolai will try to recall a time when he and Natalia used to talk about different things going on in their lives and try to remember if the subject of vampires ever came up.
"My money's on the crawlspace." he whispers to Aloysia, just in case the creature is awake.
Aloysia nods to Nicolai, and moves as quietly as she can to the trap door inspecting for traps and locks...
Aloysia's inspection reveals no traps or locks on the trapdoor. Pulling it open quietly she discovers a dirt floored crawl space three and a half feet tall with the same dimensions as the room above. She also discovers blocks of wood and four mundane but solid coffins...
Aloysia points down at the coffins and mouths to those behind her with as much enunciation as she can, "Are you able to generate any fire?"
Jolon shakes his head. His people may burn the dead (except for the skull), but his ancestors couldn't give him the power to do that.
Gamon digs through his pack and comes up with a set of flint and steel, which he hands to Aloysia. He mouths back, This is the best I've got.
Majenko also shakes his head, plumes of silver dust puffing from his nostrils to indicate he is, sadly, not that type of dragon.
Jolon tries to console Majenko by patting him on the head.
Aloysia manages to get to the coffins and lever the lids up without making noise. Inside each coffin are grey skinned elves, fangs peeking out from their closed lips.
Aloysia considers the flint and tinder, but decides it would likely take too much noise before it potentially starts a fire and pockets the items .
She looks around for any large wood splinters that might act as a stake.
Aloysia manages to find four large splinters of wood that act as decent stakes. Crawling back under the floor she picks her first target and...Squelch. The wood goes through the rib-cage and into the vampire's heart easily enough, but with an unintended side-effect.
The undead squirms and screams loudly before it falls still, though the movements and roars coming from the other coffins indicates that the others have awakened!
Jolon's eyes widen, but he doesn't say anything, for fear of rousing these creatures. At least they knew it was real vampires.
Gamon pulls his greataxe from his back, and peers down at Aloysia, Do you need help down there?
Jolon's eyes flash as he hears the scream and his ancestors spring into action, tethering Aloysia, Gamon, Nicolai and Majenko to him with spiritual energy!
When Majenko hears the thrashing from below he dives through the trapdoor to go help Aloysia. He breathes his fine sparkles on the closest vampire before panicking and backing up. "I don't think my breath works on these things!"
The vampires all shriek and hiss, looking up from their coffins. Instead of going for Aloysia or Majenko they turn into smoke! They drift up through the floorboards before reforming on the ground level, angry and ready to fight.
Nicolai begins casting a spell. As he finishes with a flourish a cloud of glitter forms in the air around the vampires.
Nicolai's explosion of glitter swirls around the vampires, causing each of them to screech and cover their eyes.
Jolon steps forward, beating his sword on his klar as the spirits link him to Gamon.
"By the Lady and my ancestors, your foul taint will be burned from this city!"
Aloysia climbs out of the trap door...
And steps up to one of the vampires to strike, magical dagger in one hand and a stake in the other...
Aloysia's first slash causes the vampire to screech in pain and flail its claws in some form of defense. This stops the half-elf from getting in a good strike with her stake.
Gamon steps over the trapdoor and beside Aloysia, swinging as heavily as he can at one of the vampires in such a confined space.
The vampire's blindness causes it to stumble directly in the way of Gamon's swing, crushing its arm against its body and drawing another screech from its lips. Again, the injury is not as deep as would be expected for how powerfully the undead was hit.
Majenko flies up from below, moving into one of the injured vampire's face, stabbing with his gleaming silver tail.
The vampire's random stumblings again give it breathing room. It takes this opportunity to swing at Aloysia, despite not knowing where she is.
The other injured vampire tries to duplicate this with Gamon, even as its wounds begin healing.
The sparkles cause it to miss as it reaches for the human. The last vampire stumbles forward, nearly stumbling into Jolon who pushes it back.
The entire pack begins blinking their eyes, shedding sparkles and glitter from their forms, hoping this clears their vision.
Only one manages to clear its eyes, the vampire facing Aloysia and Majenko. Its wounds have attempted to close, but the points Aloysia chose to injure it continue to leak blood.
Jolon's healing light connects with Nicolai next.
Nicolai begins casting again as the floor underneath the red and blue vampires is coated with a fine layer of grease.
The Vampire Aloysia and Majenko are fighting is caught unawares by Nicolai's casting and falls to the ground, daggers and tail stingers following. The other, still blind, vampire seems to be relying on its other senses and manages not to slip in the slick on the ground.
Aloysia tries to capitalize on the now prone vampire and tries to plunge both dagger and stake down into the creature...
Aloysia continues to drive her weapons into the vampire, though its body continues to resist both her dagger and stake. Majenko takes the opportunity to help, again stabbing with his silver tail, and reaching out with his long neck to bite at the undead.
The Vampire's squirming gives it the movement to stay away from any additional damage Majenko might do to it.
Drael shakes his head, trying to figure out how the vampire he attacked is still standing, and swings again with a heavy overhand strike.
Another powerful overhand smash from Gamon crushes the vampire, opening up another large, though slowly closing, cut in its torso.
The Vampire on the ground leaps up, rushing Aloysia and her incredibly bothersome daggers.
Majenko attempts to stop the Vampire with his teeth, but it again dodges his bite.
The blind vampires attack Gamon and Jolon respectively, swinging despite their disability.
Their blindness continues to irk them as they can't find anyone.
The vampire fighting Jolon manages to blink the sparkles out of its eyes, giving it its sight back.
Nicolai reaches over his shoulder and removes a scroll case from it. Cracking it open he reads the words on the parchment as Gamon begins to grow in size and bulk, his weapons increasing in size along with him.
Jolon's last tendril of light connects to Majenko, protecting the life of even their smallest ally!
Feeling quite under the weather, Aloysia tries to finish off the vampire in front of her
Aloysia isn't quick enough to finish the vampire as it rises, smashing her with its body and pulling some of her life force away. She does manage to find a good spot where its kidneys are sort of working for her dagger to make a home in. The vampire falls to the floor, not yet truly dead, but not fighting anymore either.
Majenko trills in victory and cries out, "On to the next one!" He flies into the nearest Vampire's face with tooth and tail ready to strike.
Majenko gets a good chunk of the vampire's flesh, but his fangs can't find any purchase on the skin, putting the House Drake in a very bad position. "My teeth don't work on it, this could be painful!"
Gamon sees one of the vampires begin to regain its sight, and quickly lashes out with a powerful blow in an attempt to put it down.
Gamon's immense size has just made his blows that much more powerful, crashing down on the non-blinded vampire. It snarls up at him, but hesitates when it notices the other vampire still attempting to fight the large human. With a snarl it instead grabs at Majenko!
Because of the House Drake's frenzied stabbing with his tail the vampire cannot get a grip on the tiny creature.
The other continues its blind assault on Gamon.
It blindly misses once more.