Baron interlocks his fingers and cracks his knuckles in a stretch, "Alright boys and girl, I'll hold it down while you all tie it up. Okay?" Not waiting for an answer the wiry youth leaps at the skeleton.
The skeleton is easily grappled and pinned. It crumbles just moments after it is down.
Perceptions!!
"Oops, thought it was tougher then this. Hehe." Barons says as he dusts himself off.
Ooo Roku JUST hit the DC
When the skeleton Collapses you catch the faintest shuffling of little feet coming from back the way you came.
Roku suddenly turns and summons forth magic from with in. Targeting the area of the creature, exposing it.
Catch it!
Roku does not have line of sight. You only HEARD it
You shoot the glitterdust but the sound seems to be coming from around a corner and a ways down the hall out of sight. There is a wall between you and the target.
Do you wish to head around the corner and go after the sound?
Xzevrra, seeing where Roku casts his spell, takes off in that direction, searching intently around the area.
Roku stays where he is, no point in running off after someone into the dark and unknown.
"Well that was a waste of time. Shall we continue with our search of a suitable area?"
Xzevrra races around the corner but is unable to locate the source Roku pronounced.
There is no visual and no sound.
the sound has gone further away and you can no longer hear it.
"Chasing isn't something I'm good at, not with this leg," Scrapeknee states . "I wonder if it was the groundskeeper?"
Xzevrra begins to search the ground, seeing if there's any trace to follow.
"I can't hear the bugger anymore. But I doubt they will spy on us again. Not unless they want trouble anyways."
You spot tiny child sized footprints on the ground in the murk that are only moments fresh. The head down the corridor Roku heard the sound.
Xzevrra looks to the others. "There's a trail leading down this way. Their small, like a childs. I should be able to follow them, if we would like to find out who's spying on us."
Roku thinks for a moment as it did not require much.
"I truly doubt a child of any kind is near this place, much less spying about. I would guess a Halfling or Gnome was shadowing us. If I had to pick between the two, I would go with a Halfling. They can be very sneaky and tend to stand out less. Lead the way dear Xzevrra."
He wondered if the Halfling was a necromancer or served the one controlling the skeleton.
Thanks to the mildew and other muck on the floor makes it easy to follow. The trail leads you to a coffin. Whatever made the tracks is inside.
Roku removes his rapier, hoping it was not a vampire Halfling or any hostile undead for that matter. Prepared to strike anything before it attacks.
Is anybody going to open it?
He looks at the coffin, amused. And whispers, "I wonder if it's trapped? I've never heard of trapped coffins, but these aren't typical times"
He moves over the coffin and looks to Roku and Scrapeknee and whispers, "I'll open it when your blokes are ready!"
Xzevrra takes up her bow and nervously aims it towards the coffin, nodding to Tars.
"Could be me just jumping at shadows, but with our luck... " Scrapeknee nods as well, AFTER scooting back a bit and readying his own weapon.
Tars opens the coffin to reveal a young girl huddled in the fetal position whimpering. She cries. "Please don't hurt me. Marty was just curious. Please don't drive a stake through my heart." She whines.
She appears to be no more than eight years of age. She is crying and seems very scared.
Roku raised an eyebrow.
"So I take it your a vampire?"
He would not be surprised but it was not a common thing. Undead also had an evil streak, vampires being of the more cunning sort.
"Anyone know what to make of this."
He states to the others, still keeping ready for any false move on the child's part.
Xzevrra starts to lower her bow for a moment, but Roku's words snap her back. "A vampire, her? I mean, damnit. What's your name?" She narrows her eyes at the girl, sensing for the presence of evil as well as ill intentions.
This is the tricky part of detect evil. By rules as written, vampires are suppose to be evil.....otherwise they wouldn't be able to be vampires? I dunno, if you are a vampire and you decide you don't want to be evil then are you no longer a vampire???? Ow my head! I hate D&D alignment rules! What a sack of ****!
Anyways. I'm make this simple. He has the evil energies of a vampire but all the frightened and fearful behavior she is displaying is genuine. She had no intention of hurting you, it was nothing more than a child's curiosity.
So she is vampire for sure but is not going to try and kill you guys. And has no ill intentions. Does that help?
She whimpers "I am Krea Von Kellin. Daughter of the Kellin family. My parents and their parents are one of the three families who watch and take care of the city burial grounds. Please don't hurt me like you did Marty. He was just watching what you were doing so he could tell me all about it."
Xzevrra keeps her bow leveled as she stares at the child. The magic giving her insight, she lowers her bow and stows it away, slowly stepping towards the child, raising her hand to ward off the others attacks for now. "Hello Krea, my name's Xzevrra." She stops a step away from the coffin. "The others are...well, they'll tell you later. Sorry for what we did to, um, Marty." Feeling conflicted, she keeps her distance as she speaks. "So do you live here? Or your parents?" With that, she attempts to emphasize the last.
Probably best to keep an eye out for her parents.
Roku still keeps an eye on the kid.
"To be fair we barely touched him. Never known a animated skeleton to be that fragile."
Roku notices the message, he does not put his weapon away but keeps a look out. He doubted a ambush from them so near their little girl but better to be cautious.
The girl relaxes a bit. "Um Hello. No I do not live here. My friends do. Marty was one of them. My house is on the north side of the cemetery. My family is a big one and we help take care of Marty and his friends and family. My Parents live at my house. My mommy, my daddy, my aunts, my uncles, my grand parents, my great grandparents. We are a really big family. My great great grand parents don't leave the house any more. Them and much of their family stay in the basement. It is a big basement with a lot of people. You are the first people i have met with your aura. You are not like Marty and his family and you are not like the other families that look over these areas. Who are you? Are you angels?" She seems genuinely curious.
"Sorry for crushing your friend Miss, I was only trying to get a hold of him to see who he was working for. I go by the handle, Baron Tars Ruukin and I be no angel. May I ask how you and Marty became friends?"
Roku goes over what he knows.
"Well we should return her. We do not want to cross the Kellin family. Even more so in their territory."
He looks over the girl. If she was ignorant of what she was, then he would venture a guess that she had not met many living people if at all. Which could prove dangerous if she got hungry around them.
"Indeed," He says, "Be brave, Krea. Chaos is coming, but with courage, you may find all things possible yet. We certainly mean you no harm."
The girl, feeling a bit more brave, climbs out of the coffin. The pile of bones within the coffin also reforms to humanoid, sits up, and too climbs out of the coffin. It doesn't seem hostile in any way aside home being animated. It stands protectively at the girl's side almost like a mother would defending her daughter.
Krea giggles. "This is Marie. She is also one of my friends. I have many down here. Oh, Marty." As she proclaims you notice the other skeleton has reformed and is standing behind you. Soon you realize there are a few other skeletons forming around you as well.
Krea is smiling broadly and excitedly. You can see her oversized canines plain as day. "Oh look, many of my friends are here." She smiles innocently at you.
She looks at Scrapeknee and hugs the leg of the skeleton labeled "Marie" "Your creepy looking" Says the vampire hugging the walking corpse to the living man.
It is plain to see the girl has NO idea whats going on. She the most innocent thing in this room right now. Odd for a vampire.
The Skeletons however are positioning themselves in a defensive manner. There are about twelve of them formed. They seem to be ready to act at a moments notice but are clearly waiting to see what you do first.
Roku notices what the skeletons are doing.
"None of that skeletons. I will not be surrounded, if you do not desist I will take it as hostile action. I intend to take the girl back to her home. Not be herded, two of you can remain if you feel you must."
He still had his rapier out, while he did not like crossing vampires he had no problems with skeletons.
"My apologies, maybe I should get my hair trimmed." Scrapeknee says rather calmly considering he's meeting a vampire.
Xzevrra glances around for a moment before turning back to Krea. Seeing Roku's reaction to the skeletons, she turns back to her. "Krea, could you please have your skeletons move aside for us? We can bring you back, okay?" She extends her hand to the small vampire, hiding her hesitation.
Krea seems pleased. "Sure." She turns to the Skeletons. "They are bringing home, I'm fine, you don't have to worry." Reluctantly the skeletons part.
Now that you have a clear path to the exit, you lead Krea out of the mausoleum. You make your way out to the graveyard. As you are walking along Krea speaks up. "I'm hungery. Do you guys know where Mr. Undertaker is? He usually lends me a bite." She licks her fangs as she says that.
Xzevrra opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. Closing her jaw, she finds herself unable to respond at first to the girls request. "Um, Krea. Does he, does he do this, I'm not sure how to say it. Does he do so freely? I mean, you're not making him or anything, are you?"
Krea looks confused for a moment. "No I'm not making him at all. See when I get hungry enough, I go crazy and cause people problems. Undertaker is here to make sure that doesn't happen. So when I feel hungry I seek him out and he picks me up and feeds me. So then I don't cause other people problems." She says this so innocently as though there is nothing wrong or odd about it in the least. Very carefree.
After you are wondering the cemetery for a bit she calls out. "Undertaker! I need your help! I am getting hungry!" A few moments later out of the shadowy mist the silloutte of the Undertaker can be seen. He walks forward with a stoic expression on his face. He stands near seven feet in height and now that you get a good look at him, he is very intimidating....if he wasn't before.
Without hesitation The Undertaker walks up to you and your band. His gazed is fixed on you. Almost like he is now trying to figure out your motives. His stance is very guarded. While still keeping his eyes fixed on you he extends his arm to Krea. She holds onto it and he pulls her up one handed to his neck.
Krea looks at The Undertaker with a smile. "Thank you for the meal." And she sinks her teeth into him. The Undertaker doesn't even flinch. Instead, he has his eyes firmly fixed on your party. Krea feeds for a good few minutes and not once does the undertaker even seem to mind.
When Krea finishes she gasps refreshigly. "Mmm that was good. Thank you again undertaker." He sets Krea down and then puts a hand on his neck where the teeth marks are. Without any components of a spell, his hand glows for a moment. He then removes it to reveal the wound is gone.
Krea looks at you. Fresh blood still dripping down her chin. She wipes it and points towards a manor in the mists. "There, my home. Come on, I want you to meet my family."
Any attempt to speak with the undertaker is met with nothing more than a silent wary stare. He does not once take his eyes off you nor says a single word.
Do you follow Krea to the manor or do you have anything to say?
Roku keeps silent, he figured the vampires had a blood source. As long as it was no one innocent, if their were any such people left that is, or underserving he had little problem with it. Anyways it is not as if losing some blood meant death. So outright murder was not the case, so long as it remained that way his concerns were few. He looks to the others.
"So we going? If so remember your manners."
Xzevrra watches the scene, hiding her emotions. Emotions which are currently in conflict. As Krea finished her 'meal', she attempts to engage the undertaker briefly to no effect.
"I, um, guess so. Let's go."
Scrapeknee inclines his head, "Alright. As long as her family isn't too 'hungry'."
You arrive at the house but before Krea can knock, the door opens to reveal beautiful young woman with slender pale skin and long rich black hair. Krea resonds "Oh. Big sister Aria! Look, I found some friends in the cemetery." Before Krea can speak further, the woman labeled Aria slaps Krea across the face.
Aria seems cross with Krea. "You brought outsiders here and whats worse, you fed in front of them!" Aria looks livid as Krea seems about to cry. "You know we cannot reveal our nature to ANYONE in this city! Get inside and go to mother." Krea races off in tears leaving you alone with the rather perturbed Aria.
She stares at you up and down. Her demeanor has become more serious. "Now we have an issue. Outsiders aren't suppose to know the family secret and we cannot simply kill you for it my draw repercussions. So how are we going to handle this hm?" She seems to await some kind of answer.
Quickly pondering the situation, Xzevrra considers the available options. Running would be useless. She had no doubt if they tried that they would make it out of the cemetary alive. No, these vampires had the upper hand.
But how reasonable were they? And what did they really know about their group? Disciplining Krea in front of strangers could have been a sign of immaturity, though it also could have been not acknowledging them as equals. Perhaps a gamble.
Xzevrra confidently extends her arm in friendship, "A pleasure, Miss Aria. My name is Xzevrra. Since I'm sure you see we have no intention of starting a fight, perhaps we can have a civil discussion?"
Roku does not give anything away. At Xzevrra's attempt he again gives nothing away. He studies the woman for a moment.
He bows keeping his eyes on Aria.
"My dear lady Aria Kellin. If I may be so bold, your family already has a reputation. That it is not confirmed means little to those who would use it, as your family remains it can be surmised that it is for the moment a slight matter. Your family performs their duty well and responsibly. Again not to seem overly bold but we were aware of your sisters condition before she fed. The mistake was made when she was allowed to wonder without proper escort. The skeleton's following us certainly did not help matters."
He takes a moment to let it sink in before continuing.
"I for one have no interest or intention of supposedly exposing your family. But as this is your territory, it is only sensible to ask permission. You see we have certain matters that require an amount of secrecy and privacy. One such as yourself no doubt can understand this. If allowed and respected in kind we will do the same. Hopefully such an arrangement is acceptable. It is always good to be friendly with any neighbors after all."
Roku gives a polite smile as if their was nothing strange about the entire affair. Truthfully he had nothing against vampires, as long as they did not try to kill him or drink from him. He doubted they would want to anyways, being an aasimar he did not know how his holy touched blood would react with them. He had no desire to find out as well.