As Audria and Shrike move cautiously forward, Elric nocks an arrow and covers their approach. It's a regular arrow for now, but he's ready to reach for his silver-blanched or blunt arrows if needed.
Shane hangs back while Audria moves forward, feeling a bit cowardly but also quite practical. When nothing attacks her, he moves forward a bit more. He ponders touching the corpses and is glad he has gloves, but decides not to. "So many corpses, at least a few were likely to have the blood veil in one phase or another. I suggest sticks rather than gloved hands and gloved hands rather than bare ones."
He keeps his mouth covered with cloth. So far he has been very fortunate to avoid the epidemic, but Desna blinks, as they say, and luck runs out.
If he sees or is shown the bites , he sorts through his litany of education wondering what might have done this. He has popular theories, but they're running to the area of saucy Ustalvian Gothic Romances.
And yes, he casts detect magic, unlikely to yield results, but he'd kick himself if some magic staff of 'defeat enemy' was among the corpses and they walked right by it.
Academic rigor compels Shane to discard the popular theories, as appealing as they are. Unfortunately, nothing else fits the bill of exsanguinated corpses with puncture marks. There are no magical auras either, which is unsurprising; whatever items of value these poor unfortunates might once have held have long been stripped by the plague carters - or by whoever killed them.
"Damn odd." He says after a bit looking perplexed.
Seeing that Shane has no ideas about the strange wounds on some of the corpses, Audria turns towards the hole in the wall.
"Any thoughts on what's going on there," she asks as she points it out. Her eyes still glow as she focuses on that divine sense Shelyn has granted her.
"Not a clue...but I'll wager whatever that pile of bodies have attracted isn't friendly. Stay alert." Elric says calmly, never pausing his scan of the alley and the surroundings
Audria nods at Elric's advice and does her best to follow it.
"Not all died of sickness." Shrike points out to the others the strange twinned puncture wounds on the roughly half of the corpses that are paler and do not actually seem to have any sign of blood veil symptoms. Instead they seem to have had the blood actually drained from them. She keeps the same distance from the corpses that she would from a sick person, not least because any closer and the stench starts to make her eyes water and her nose run. "Vampire? Didn't think we had those. Or an experiment. Like the corpse in the Warrens." She can still see the vagrant's bearded, bloodless face as he lay on that table.
She swaps the bow for her spear, since it seems like they are leaving a wide open space, and steps carefully as she follows Audria to just beside the low hole in the wall. As Audria sends her magical senses through it, she kneels down and takes a peek around the corner into the dimness.
Beyond the wall there seems to be a workshop of some sorts. Grimy wood shavings litter the floor, while dozens of glass eyes stare from the heads of half-carved dolls lining skewed workroom shelves. Rat-gnawed stuffed aurochs, disembodied puppet limbs, miniature wooden ships, and blocks illustrated with 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. From the ceiling hangs the drying corpse of an old bald man above the wood chips, rusty tools, and oily rags of a scored workbench.
Shane steps back, the bald man reminding him of Master Twistbloom, a teacher at the Acadame who was known for... oh, whew, that's not him.
"I have no idea who this was." He admits.
Audria looks around and feels hollow inside. The sight of the corpse might have shocked her, but after the pile of dead outside, she is feeling numb. She guesses that the man was the shop's owner and the craftsman that made the dolls, toys, and models she finds inside. She murmurs a quiet prayer for him and focuses again on that sixth sense she has been gifted. Her eyes glow once more as she looks around. Shrike's mention of vampires and the dead man has her on edge as she continues to look around.
Tally flits to the workbench, perching on the edge and cocking her head at a ring of small keys laying on the scored and pitted surface. She then takes flight again, doing a couple of circles over the trapdoor - where the dust covering the rest of the workshop has clearly been disturbed.
Seeing Tally look at the keys and then circling the trapdoor, Audria quietly gets Shrike's and Pava's attention and points out the keys before joining Tally by the trapdoor. She waits for those more skilled in investigations look over the door and the area around it while she stands guard. The broken door especially has her wary.
As Audria approaches the trapdoor, she feels a rising unease, the indescribable prickling of her divine sense alerting her to the presence of evil.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Audria freezes, a frown forming as she feels an indescribable sensation that seems to assault all of her senses. Her skin prickles even as a clammy coldness settles over her, the air grows stale and rank, a subtle glow of lurid light seems to come from where she sees and senses this evil, and a sound like the screams of the damned creeps in at the edges of her hearing. She motions for Tally to land on Shane's shoulder and readies her glaive. Whatever is lurking there is almost certainly not friendly, and if Shrike is right, she's about to fight vampires, blood-drinking monsters of the night. Those she has no qualms fighting and killing.
She stands there, focusing on the malignant presence she senses, with her glaive poised to strike.
As the paladin focuses, the details coalesce in her awareness. Down, under the floor. One, two... four. She has no idea how powerful a vampire would be, but these auras are some of the strongest she has ever felt.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As Audria concentrates, she gleans more details. Holding her glaive with one hand, she holds up four fingers on the other before pointing down at her feet.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not taking his eyes off the trapdoor, Elric manuvers into a better firing position and pulls a vial of holy weapon balm from his bandolier.
”If it is vampires, how do we destroy them? Any weaknesses besides this stuff?” he whispers to Shane.
Shane is surprised by this, and blinks. Wait, it IS a vampire? I thought the fang placing was supposed to be different? his blue white face blushes.
He focuses on what he does know of vampires, on the chance he misread it initially which... seems to be the case.
He facepalms, I looked at the bite marks upside down, didn't I? Then he gives his results to answer Elric's question.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Shrike follows Talanaliel and Audria into the unsettling workshop and at Audria's indication, drifts noiselessly to the workbench where the mummifying corpse is hanging. She picks up the ring of keys. Something about the look of the bald man, combined with the staring glass eyes of half-finished dolls and discarded puppet limbs on askew shelves, jogs at her memory. Some three years ago or more, she had considered buying Isi a somewhat off-kilter but charming stuffed lion that looked very much like these from a temporary stall in Gold Market. She intended it as a room guardian and companion for his favorite hippogriff, since he seemed not to be sleeping well in the Pillar Hill house and they could not afford something more elaborate. But with all the gravity of his seven years of age, he had informed her that he was too old to play make-believe with stuffed animals anymore. It had not stopped him from keeping the hippogriff, though. Cheap but serviceable toys. The toymaker was running his own stall, and was an older, balding man... what was his name?
Shrike looks the trap door over carefully, then waits motionless for Audria's signal to open it with the keys. Meanwhile she keeps her spear out and guarding against anything that might unexpectedly appear. Vampires are blood-drinking undead in every story, but she knows little else about them, and the specifics vary widely from tale to tale. If these four creatures Audria senses are vampires, they might be connected to the presumed cult of Urgathoa they think is operating in the city.
Regardless, four evil things hiding in this basement and piling corpses outside their walls is four too many. A sense of cool, clear purpose flows through her waiting limbs. Whatever else they are, they are certainly predators on her people, and it is time the hunters became the hunted.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Shane wasn't entirely wrong in his assessment of the bite marks. The materials he had studied at the Academae had showcased neat punctures, while these are a little... ragged. Perhaps inexperienced vampires? Which would be a relief, as a true vampire would be quite powerful - perhaps too powerful for them to deal with.
In any case, vampires - like all undead - are immune to all mind-affecting magic, as well as disease, poison, or persistent bleeding. Their supernatural regeneration capabilities allow them to recover faster than normal from wounds, and they cannot become exhausted or fatigued. Additionally, vampires are more difficult to hurt with weapons, unless the blade or tip is blanched with silver, as well as magic that relies on cold or lightning effects. They can dominate their victims, making it easier to drain them of blood, and a vampire's bite can have a stupefying effect as well, weakening its target.
Now for the good news: they can be held at bay by presenting them with a mirror or a holy symbol, or by wielding a sufficient amount of garlic (they cannot stand the smell, for some reason). Killing them is difficult, but it can be done by exposing them to sunlight, submerging them in naturally running water like a river, or driving a wooden stake through their heart while they are incapacitated.
Shrike examines the old man's corpse a little more closely. The advanced state of decay and dessication indicate that he has been dead for longer than the blood veil has been afflicting Korvosa, and there are no bite marks on him. Almost buried in the swollen flesh of his neck is a rough hempen rope whose other end is tied around a rafter.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
"First my apology, I misread these at first. They're a bit ragged, but honestly, that's my only excuse. Never did excel in necromancy though of course I did study Undead. The good news? The lack of finesse means this could be a new vampire, inexperienced. That's good news because we'll have little chance against a true vampire with knowledge of it's full abilities.." Shane tries to recall then goes on speaking quietly to them, "Undead are immune to mind effecting spells, plague, or bleeding wounds. The mind effecting immunity means some of my spells won't be so handy against them. Vampires only sparkle if you hit them with glitter dust, what they do do is recover quickly from injury. Use silver or magic weapons on them as normal ones are very hard to hurt them with. Lightning, cold, they're resistant to both. They can dominate victims with their mind, making it easy for them to slurp you dry. The bite can..well, ,stupefy."
"What WILL help us... they can be held back by presenting them with a mirror, or a holy symbol. Lots of garlic also works. The best way to kill them is expose them to sunlight, submerging them in naturally running water such as a river, or, driving a wooden stake through their heart while they're incapacitated." A look at the others "That's all I remember."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"No bites on the toymaker. No sign of sickness. He was hanged. At least a week past. Suicide maybe." Shrike keeps her voice to a rough whisper. "Seen him once or twice before. Selling toys in Gold Market. Can't remember his name."
Lacking a mirror, garlic, holy symbol, or glitter dust, Shrike switches to her bow again in response to Shane's thorough, whispered explanation — thanks be the Hunter and the All-Seeing that at least one of their group is a wizardly type who has been to school — and nocks one of her silver-blanched arrows, prepared for the wererats but never used. The business end of Thorn is actually metal, like the arrowheads, so she also looks about the room for things that might qualify as wooden stakes, or that could be sharpened to serve the same purpose. Some of those longer puppet limbs?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
If anyone had looked at Audria while she was changing, one thing that they would have noticed is that she is wearing two holy symbols. The first, a silver one, is the one that she'd been given not too long before meeting Shrike and Abella for the first time when she and Eliana were ordained in Shelyn's service. The other is the abalone one that Abella had given to her after finding it in Gaedren Lamm's hoard. Hearing Shane mention that a holy symbol can hold a vampire back, she debates on weather or not to fish the abalone one out from under her armor, padding, and clothing.
In the end, she can't leave someone unprotected if she can help it, so she steps back from the trapdoor as quietly as she can manage before carefully cradling her glaive, taking care not to smack anything, before just as carefully pulling out the other holy symbol from the neck of her clothing, padding, and armor.
"Does it have to be someone who worships the god the symbol is for," she asks Shane as she holds up the abalone holy symbol by its fine chain for whomever wishes to borrow it.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Elric blinks as he listens to Shane's lecture while still keeping his attention focused on the trapdoor.
"Right...use silver or magic weapons to harm them...holy symbols and mirrors keep them at bay....sunlight, running water or stakes destroy them." he repeats quietly, then adds "When this is over, we'll need to train some simple combat communication, Shane"
Like Shrike, he replaces his mundane arrow with a silver-blanched, pulling out a total of ten. "I can cover these in holy balm, which hurts undead even more. It only lasts a minute, so we must make them count."
Before preparing the arrows, he pulls a small mirror from his pack and tucks it into his belt for easy reach. "Audria's holy symbols probably work better, but this can serve as a backup"
He gestures toward the trapdoor.
"I say we hit them fast and hard. Everyone prepare silver weapons. Pava and Audria take point, using the symbols to keep them in check. Shrike and I cover with silver arrows, taking down one target at a time. Shane, hit them with glitterdust and whatever else you got. Do you have any magic that can protect us if they try to use their mind domination?"
"Probably best if one of the faithful holds onto it, Audria." He says, even as he draws his mithril dagger to the ready
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Pava anoints the branching blades of their klar with a blessed oil, then takes up the abalone in their offhand. "Know whose this is, Odds? Just in case the leeches ask?"
Both Audria and Tally give Pava a questioning look.
"It's a holy symbol of Shelyn," Audria answers. "It belongs to Estoya Fulce. I was hoping I could go to Kaer Maga to see if I could find her someday soon."
Remembering preparing for another fight against undead, Audria fishes out two vials of holy water and two more pots of holy weapon balm.
"Does anyone think they can make use of these?"
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
While Audria redistributes her holy water and weapon balm, Elric lowers his bow and pulls out his dagger long enough to sharpen a couple of wooden doll parts into makeshift stakes.
Once done with the whittling, Elric hands one to each party member, then takes the keys Tally found and checks the door to the north.
”If we’re lucky, this will let us get some sunlight in here.” he says, pausing to examine the door before opening it.
Gingerly lifting the trap door reveals a ladder that goes down into an earthen-walled cellar - more of a crawl space, really. The ceiling here is only three and a half feet high, so those taller than that need to crouch or bend awkwardly.
Through the door there is another room, apparently the toy shop proper. Awkwardly stitched stuffed animals, poorly equipped toy soldiers, and dolls exhibiting myriad accidental deformities stare blankly out of the grimy front window of the showroom. Several kites dangle purple and crimson tails from the ceiling above, and a dollhouse recreating Castle Korvosa's intimidating towers dominates one of the room's side tables. Festooned with tiny bells, the shop's entrance stands to the north, across from a counter cluttered with dusty jars of candies. A rusty lockbox is tucked behind the counter. The front door seems to open into one of Old Korvosa's many narrow streets.
Making a mental note of the lockbox, Elric quickly abandons any attempt to get sunlight into the back room and turns his attention back to the trapdoor.
Once everyone are ready and have prepared their weapons with oils or balm, he motions for Audria to quietly open the hatch.
"you have a spare? In that case I'd be honored to wear it," He speaks of the holy symbol "I'm sure Nethys will forgive me if I pay a bit of respect to the Eternal rose."
He'll take it if it is offered again.
---
As they close he tries to move quietly by emulating his friends soft steps.
"Don't forget, if this goes wrongwise, they can't chase us far. We'll just have to move sharpish, yeah?"
Audria nods at Shane and hands him the silver holy symbol after a moment of hesitancy. She nods again at Pava's words and carefully moves to the trapdoor. Once everyone is ready, she holds her glaive in one hand as she tests the trap door to see if she can open it, and if she can, she throws it open.
Like Shrike, he replaces his mundane arrow with a silver-blanched, pulling out a total of ten. "I can cover these in holy balm, which hurts undead even more. It only lasts a minute, so we must make them count."
Before preparing the arrows, he pulls a small mirror from his pack and tucks it into his belt for easy reach. "Audria's holy symbols probably work better, but this can serve as a backup"
He gestures toward the trapdoor.
"I say we hit them fast and hard. Everyone prepare silver weapons. Pava and Audria take point, using the symbols to keep them in check. Shrike and I cover with silver arrows, taking down one target at a time. Shane, hit them with glitterdust and whatever else you got. Do you have any magic that can protect us if they try to use their mind domination?"
Shrike remains still for a moment while she considers. Then she nods slightly in agreement with this plan and offers eight of her silver-blanched arrows to Elric to add to his total. "Two holy. Won't use more."
This way he will have eight silver and anointed arrows, and eight just silver-tipped, while she will have two of each. Seeing the speed and accuracy of Elric's shooting in their last fight, she is not too proud to admit he is the better archer — especially in tight quarters where one has to shoot around allies, a thing she is unpracticed at. A bow is her choice of opening attack in situations where the enemies are far away and might not be reachable otherwise, but when practical, she would always prefer to be up close and personal. Before he actually applies the short-lived ointment, however, she listens with her ear to the trapdoor as she did in Vendra Loaggri's apartment, while Elric quickly whittles some stakes out of puppet parts and the others distribute holy symbols.
She does not consider taking a holy symbol of Shelyn. The Hunter is not a jealous god. So far as she knows, none of the elven deities are. But Shrike chooses to serve one god and one alone. The Maiden's teachings and her own beliefs are not always aligned. To offer due respect to her in her aspect as the Muse is a different thing than to invoke her name for protection. It would be presumptuous.
As Elric proposed, she takes a stake and covers the trapdoor with an anointed silver-blanched arrow on the string of her big elf-made bow when Audria opens it.
The ladder descends about six feet to the dirt floor of the crawl space. As Audria and Pava reach the bottom, they can see vague rectangular shapes in the very dim light.
The crawl space has roughly the same footprint as the shop above. Among stacks of wood of various types lie four simple but solid coffins, all closed. Pava's foot comes off the last rung of the ladder with a scrape; a moment later, another scrape answers it as the lid of one of the coffins shifts minutely.
Are they... sleeping in those coffins? Do vampires sleep? If we move fast and quiet, we can just put stakes through them now!
Seeing that nothing immediately hostile awaits them, Shrike changes gears. She shoulders the bow and quickly but quietly descends the stairs. Holding up her makeshift stake to show the others, she mimes stabbing downward. She chooses a coffin, waits for three others to be in place, counts down on her fingers from three, and quietly lifts the lid, stake poised in the other hand to stab whatever is revealed through the heart.
Seeing the coffin lid shift, Elric makes a sharp gesture towards it to alert the rest of the group, then takes careful aim to ensure that his first vital shot won't miss.
Unsure how else to help, Shane has the holy symbol of Shelyn ready
Sky and bloody soil! Pava curses as they scrape their boot against a rung. As is their habit when faced with uncertainty or doubt, they lunge, heading for the shifting coffin with a stake at the ready.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Shrike thrusts the hastily sharpened former doll leg downward with a held breath and a prayer.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The vampire lying in the coffin has almost no time to react as Shrike drives the stake through his heart. He does begin to howl and thrash fiercely, making a racket fit to wake the dead (or the undead, as the case may be).
The spawn that had shifted the lid earlier flings it aside with a crash now, sitting up in their coffin only to get an arrow through the chest. She shrieks in pain as the silver-blanched arrow burns her flesh.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Pava threads the stake through the vampire's ribs, cursing again as the tip breaks off. Was that deep enough?
But there's no time to confirm, Pava steps over to the vampire who's definitely up and wriggling, raking her with the blessed-silver blades bolted onto what remains of their ancestral klar.
Calm in the middle of the rushed attack, Elric steadies himself to take a shot at the next vampire to emerge.
Shane holds up the symbol ready to ward off any vampire that breaks past one of his allies. Shelyn, if I ever crafted any illusion of beauty that pleased you, please lend your aid!
Shrike releases the stake, hoping that the howling and thrashing will subside into true death in a moment. She spins and draws her bow again, tracking for continued motion from any of the coffins with one of her two blessed silver arrowheads.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |