"I see, so do you have any thoughts on this? Are the Vampires high up in this court or just fledglings?"
"It looks like they kill whatever vampire they can get their hands on." the guard replies.
"Ok but I would assume some of the higher court members would not be going out alone. Thank you for your time we will look into this and get back to you." Stam says with a smile
You would expect the guard to tell that you're welcome. But he doesn't.
So what do we know now?
It seems like all the vampires have no ideas about who is killing them.
I don't suppose we could disguise ourselves as vampires and act as bait.
"They may know who some of the vampires are, Darius do ou have anyway to detect undead? I don't know any other way to find out who is undead and who isn't." Stam says
Another guard approaches. "How about you visit Lady Evgenya Zunaida. She has a party with several vampires and nobles. You could attend that." he suggests. "She might take a liking to you especially." he adds sleazily.
A short walk later the celebratory strains of lutes and harpsichords fill the air outside this well - appointed, if ostentatious, home. Inside, several figures dressed in finery befitting nobles of Ustalav’s ancient past dance on a parquet floor.
The vampire noble Lady Evgenya Zunaida holds court in this opulent chamber, surrounded by her spawn and their dominated thralls. The room is filled with vampires and humans engaged in decadent revelry. The most seductive of these wanton revelers is Lady Evgenya, the daughter of a minor Caliphas noble.
Lady Evgenya Zunaida immediately notices the new handsome visitor. Though she finds that the amount of steel, worm in defensse and offense, ruin the sight. "Get that sweetheart into some nice clothes for me, would you?" she whispers into the ear of one of her male companions, while ogling Grergof.
The man does as told and approaches the group of newcomers. As far as you can tell the man is a living human. And from the attitude and attire, you'd say a noble. "Greetings, dear visitors. Welcome to the greatest social event in all of Caliphas. It would be Lady Evgenya's pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Looking around you'd guess that there have to be greater events, at least in numbers, in Caliphas, but for the debauchery this is definitely top level.
"But I can see that you weren't expecting to attend a social event. May I lead you to my room and offer some appropriate garb?" The man points to the side where a short corridor with doors to private rooms on both sides leave the large ball room. A couple comes out of one of these doors. She checks the fit of her dress and the man aligns his bow tie.
Well I suppose we are here to gather information. So we must blend...
Grergof glances down at his armor and steeling himself for what is to come, leads the group over to the private changing rooms.
Mr. Stam, you wouldn't happen to know of a way to keep all our equipment safe would you?
Well I could go for some sprucing up. Spugnoir gets himself cleaned up when in the rooms as best he can and slips an extract of Focused Scrutiny
"I can offer you a locked wardrobe, and you can keep the key for the time being, if you have valueables that need such protection." the noble offers, couriously looking for something that would match that description, trying not to look indiscreet.
"I could put it in our room back at our Hotel but that is about it for right now I planned more for battle than secrecy." Stam says, "My black and white robes of Nethys are not fashionable for you?" Stam asks smiling before heading to the room indicated.
Why thank you, that is most generous of you. Lets get some more approprate clothing and go change.
After getting the change of clothing, Grergof heads into the changing room and when the door is closed, he makes sure that the critical items(like the mace) are tucked into his handy haversack. He leaves his belt pouch out of the haversack with a nominal amount of coins as well as his Plate.
Hopefully they don't look to hard at this old backpack.
The only weapon he keeps is his mithral dagger which he hangs on his belt under his coat and his silver holy symbol which he keeps under his shirt.
Then he dresses as well as possible for what will most likely be a very interesting party.
The noble checks that the clothes sit properly and are matching. Once everything is in order - which takes more corrections with some and less with others - the group is brought back into the ball room.
"May I introduce - this is our beloved Lady Evgenya Zunaida. She is the host of this wonderful events and the most charming person in Caliphas." the noble flatters her.
"Wonderful!" Lady Zunaida states, sizing up Grergof. "Introduce yourself during a dance." Lady Zunaida prompts the paladin.
Hmm...Some vampire control shenanigans?
This is what I picture Grergof looking like in a suit
"Dancing was never my thing, my mother tried to teach me but I always had 2 left feet as they say." Stam says before giving it his best.
Grergof moves over and claims some refreshment and carefully nurses his single drink for a bit while he sizes up the room. He tries to get a brief idea of who is doing what, who the important people are at the party (aka the people that others seem to congregate to) and paying attention to how the dancers interact.
Once he has a feeling for the party, he waits for a moment when Lady Evgenya seems to have a break in her host duties and approaches her. He leaves his drink barely touched as he goes.
Would the Lady honor me with a dance?
He offers with a smile.
As they dance when he gets a chance he says to her:
I am Grergof my lady and I have recently arrived in Caliphas. I must say you throw quite an impressive party. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves greatly. Do you host such events often for the nobles in the city?
"Always. There is no reason to aste time sitting around even if you have eternity. What's that time good for, if you can't have some good fun."
Even without formal training on Grergof's side, he and the lady groove nicely together.
"You're a really handsome guy. And you know how to treat a lady and how to take to the floor. What other talents do you have." Evgenya inquires.
Looks like Grergof's night may very well suck. Har har SPugnoir enjoys some lady fingers, making sure they aren't actual fingers.
When they have a chance to dance together again Grergof says softly.
I have many talents my lady, although the one that may interest you the most is as a hunter. In fact my companions and I came here tonight because I am hunting a certain someone that I understand is causing you and your associates trouble.
I have heard that you have your hand on the pulse of the city. Perhaps you had heard something that might help us remove this pest they claim more victims?
Stam moves about the room taking his time to eves drop and to talk to guests about news from in town.
Stam uses his magic to do some tricks as well
"You think you can track down that murder? That would be a great deed of huge value especially for me."
"This unperson, whoever it is, has slain several of my friends. And it was mostly vampires who had a large number of spawn. These spawn, now freeed from the control of their master by the masters death act strangely though. As if they had a new master."
"And as I also have a large court of loyal followers, that unperson might as well come after me."
"So, tell me, what are your plans to stop that?"
"We will find out who it is first then plan from there. We are tracking the Whispering way and they have stopped here for someone reason. We were informed they want to make the Prince an undead against his will, most likely a Lich." Stam chews on the fact that the spawn have a new master. [b]"Can non vampires control your spawn?"{/b] Stam asks
As I said we have recently arrived, so we are still in the information gathering stage. However given what we have learned so far, we were suspecting that this was an inside job within the Vampires. Your observation that the spawn act like they have a new master seems to back up that idea that this is a Vampire doing this.
Tell me, who besides yourself has a large number of spawn? If we can narrow the targets down a bit we might be able to plan if we lay a trap for this killer when they come for one of you, or if it would be better to try to dig deeper into what vampires have connections to the past vampires slain to narrow down the suspects.
"I don't think that will help much. None of us is going out of the underground anymore. And the murders all happened outside."
Any specific location? Were they acquaintances of each other, or of a certain personage that ocould get information on them?
"They have been being murdered in Restoration Park as well, so has to be something with that."
[b]Restoration Park? I wonder if the druid that objected to us being there has any information about what was happening there...{/b]
"He may not be happy that we killed his giant plant." Stam says waiting on their host to reply
Maybe we can buy a replacement.
"Vampires who's master dies are free. No one can control them. I hjave no clue what happened to those." Evgenya elaborates.
"I don't think the guardian druid knows about that. If she did, she would have told Luvick. Only if she'd be involved..."
Well that's not true, some priests can control vampires. So we could be looking at someone who is also a priest of a dark god.
As for the Druid, Does anything happen at night in her park that she doesn't know about?
If not, we may want to lean on her a bit to see if we can get her to talk.
"If you want her to talk, get a letter from Luvick telling her to cooperate." Evgenya states. Obviously there is a strong hirarchy in a vampire clan.
Time for Stam to turn on the charm.
Stam sighs a bit, "I will do what I can." Stam says trying to hide a smirk as seducing a vampire. "So back underground we go?"
Yes, that seems like the most promising lead right now.
Grergof bows to the Noble vampire.
Lady, with your permission, we shall take our leave to track down this killer. Your hospitality has been most wonderful.
Stam waits for permission as well before departing with his friends.
"I won't hinder you to get rid of that nuissance. We can always continue from here, once that threat is dealt with." she suggests giving Grergof THAT look.
"In case you don't find a good lead, I could lend you some of my wardrobe. Your friend here," Evgenya points at Stam "would fit in that quite well. With some makeup and one of my wigs you could set him up as bait in restoration park."
Stam points at himself like being bait shocks him a bit. "I have done something like this before, I will have to prepare some different spells,lets spend the rest of today talking to more people then tomorrow I can prepare the appropriate spells for being the bait." Stam says still fanning mock concern for himself.
So, I can mix up plenty of death ward, stoneskin and invisibility extracts for us in case it is another vampire. Anyone else got suggestions? Spugnoir says when they leave the party.
"A good costume and something to make me appear as a vampire to those with magical vision or abilities." Stam says
Lets start by getting a command for the Druid to talk and see where that leads before we put Mr. Stam out as bait.
I am fine with that.
Luvick sits on his 'throne' and is bored. He inspects his fingernails closely, and peels out some skin that is left there from the grip on his last meal.