Arcanis: Gonnes, Sons, and Treasure Runs (COMPLETED)

[talien]

They entered what looked like a maintenance chamber. Sewing supplies sat next to a bucket of dirty water in one corner. Across the way, was a sealed iron door. The stone blocks surrounding it were marked with Yellow Signs in odd patterns. They were grouped into clusters of one, two, three, and four on the left, five and six above, and seven to ten on the right.

Scarbelly clomped over to glare at it. “Prolk? Can you open this?”

Prolk shook her head. “My magic is not powerful enough.”

Scarbelly glared at Kham with his good eye. “If I had Rask with me we could do it. How about you, devil spawn?”

Sebastian blinked. “N-no, my magic doesn’t work that way. But if those Signs are any indication, we have proof that the Cult of Leviathan and the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign are working together.”

“It’s obviously a combination. Give me that!” Kham yanked the piece of paper away from Dril. He strode past Scarbelly to the door. “I’ll show you greenskins how humans open doors.”

Scarbelly leaned on his greataxe and waited.

“Don’t you find it convenient that Coombs would drop the combination to his lock?” asked Dril.

“Shh!” hissed Kham. “Adults are working.”

The soft yellow glow of the signs suddenly turned violet after Kham touched the last stone. Then, a brilliant flash of light momentarily blinded them.

As they blinked away the flash, another creature had joined them in the room. Blocking the archway was a mammoth-sized centipede. The vermin’s milky white skin emits a foul stench as it fixes Scarbelly with glowing red eyes.

“Stupid humans!” he bellowed. Scarbelly hacked downwards on the centipede, chopping a piece of it off. The centipede coiled around him and sank its mandibles into his torso. The two struggled in a battle to the death.

“I can’t get a shot!” said Dril.

“Me either.” Sebastian turned to Prolk. “Can you do anything?”

“The Captain does not need my help,” said Prolk with a crooked grin.

Kham just crossed his arms and watched.

Ichor sprayed upwards. When it was over, Scarbelly stood victorious, his coat rent in several places.

“Told you…I…” his good eye fluttered. Scarbelly fell to one knee.

Genuinely concerned, Prolk moved to his side. “Captain, be still.”

“Poison,” said Scarbelly. His speech was slurred. “Stop the…bombs.” Then he fell face first, unconscious.

Kham touched the blocks again, this time reversing the combination. The door slid open. He stepped over Scarbelly’s body.

“Stupid humans,” muttered Prolk as Kham entered Coombs’ personal vault.

“I’m starting to agree with the orcs,” said Dril.

[talien]

On the far side of the chamber, the green flames of an everburning torch illuminated a small mountain of coins piled against the wall. Other items were scattered atop the coins as if tossed and left there, forgotten.

Sebastian grabbed a scroll case and unfurled it. “Interesting.” He tucked it into his belt.

Dril grabbed a strange-looking rod tipped with a ruby. “Never seen this before,” he said.

Sebastian peered over his shoulder. “That’s a rod of flame absorption.”

“Could come in handy.” Dril tucked it into his belt.

Sebastian picked up a crystal blue wand. “And if I’m reading this aura correctly, this is a wand of force.”

“And that does what, exactly?” asked Dril.

“Same thing the grenades did,” said Sebastian. “Creates a sphere of force.”

Vlad and Beldin entered along with some of the other Bloody Vengeance orcs.

“What took you guys so long?” asked Kham.

“Very funny.” Vlad jabbed a thumb at Prolk. “Ask them.”

Prolk lowered her head. “We were…detained. It appears there is a warrant out for the Captain’s arrest. Something about assaulting a Temple of Cadic.”

Beldin slapped his forehead. “Did they even ask Father Peg-Leg what happened?”

Prolk snorted. “I do not think your Sea Lord’s Guard is interested in the truth.”

“Guys.” Kham’s voice was strained. “We have a big problem.” He had a note before him.

“What is it?” asked Dril.

“This is a detonation schedule,” said Kham. “And it’s got a lot of familiar places on it.”

Everyone huddled around Kham to look.

“They’re going after everybody!” shouted Dril. “The Temples of Althares, Cadic, and Yarris are on there!”

“And Falthar’s Curios,” added Kham.

“Even the Courts,” said Sebastian. “We’ve got to split up to stop them.”

“That’s not the worst part,” said Kham. “Look at the time: they’re set to go off an hour from now!”

Everyone started arguing about where to go, who to go with, and how to stop the bombs.

“Everybody SHUT UP!” shouted Kham. “I know this city better than all of you combined. Me and Beldin will go to the Undir Benevolent Association and Falthar’s Curios. Dril and Vlad, you take the temples. Sebastian, you take the Courts. Move, people, MOVE!”

Kham sprinted out of the room. For a moment, everyone was stunned. It was the first time they’d seen him actually motivated to action.

Sebastian nodded to Prolk. “I will need your assistance if we are to stop the bomb from reaching the Courts.”

The orcs looked sullen. Prolk sniffed. “We will go. But not for them.” She nodded in the direction of the door where the others were filing out. “But for you.”

A slow smile crept over Sebastian’s face. “Thank you.”

“May I see the note?” asked Prolk.

Sebastian handed it to her. Then he left the room.

“You two.” Prolk pointed at two of the Bloody Vengeance orcs. “Take Captain Scarbelly back to The Hungry Vulture. You three follow the dark-kin.” The orcs scurried to do the shaman’s bidding.

Prolk peered at the top of the note. Two bombs had already been detonated. One she recognized as The Last Resort. The other she did not.

“Who is C.V.?” she asked aloud.

[talien]

“There!” shouted Dril.

A woman of at least twenty winters was carrying a box into the Temple of Yarris. Blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders. She was dressed in leather armor with a short sword at her hip.

“I’m taking the shot!” shouted Vlad. He kneeled and fired his crossbow.

The bolt slammed into the young woman. She spun with a yelp and collapsed to the ground.

Dril tore the box open. “It’s just fruit!”

“Damn it!” shouted Vlad.

“I’m going into the Temple of Althares.” Dril was already running. “You take the Temple of Yarris!”

Dril knew something was wrong at the Temple of Althares because brothers were rushing past him in a panic. Egil stood alone at the front desk.

“I…I accidentally started a countdown,” said Egil, almost in a daze. “Althares help us, we can’t get it out of here in time!”

The urn had three gems lit up. Dril paced. “You mentioned there’s a portal downstairs, right?”

“Yes, but there’s a library on the other side—“

“Activate it!”

“But if we do that it will destroy the books—“

“ACTIVATE IT NOW!”

Dril grabbed the urn and barreled down the steps, with Egil just barely ahead of him.

Another gem lit up. There was one unlit gem remaining. Egil waved his hands and a section of the wall glowed.

Dril chucked the urn into the glowing portal.

“DOWN!” he shouted.

There was a strange sound, like that of an explosion in reverse. Then flames blasted out of the portal.

“We did it!” shouted Egil, tears in his eyes. “We lost a lot of books, but the sacrifice was…where’d he go?”

Dril was already sprinting to the Temple of Cadic.

Vlad skidded into the long temple of Yarris. An attractive woman with shoulder-length, dark-green hair, green eyes, and a tight-fitting, aqua-colored, floor-length gown stood with hands outstretched before a ticking urn. Four of the five gems had lit up.

“I can’t hold it for long!” shrieked Sister Gwendolyn.

Vlad ran up to the altar, scooped up the urn, and sprinted toward the exit. He skidded to the waterfront and hurled it as hard as he could.

He could see the last gem light up as it splashed into the water…

Then a massive explosion of sea foam blasted upwards, showering him. Vlad gave a hoot of triumph.

Dril rushed into the Temple of Cadic. Father Peg-Leg Peligro stared intently at a ticking urn on the altar.

“Well,” said Peg-Leg without looking up, “glad ye could make it. I’ve been slowing it down, but I can’t stop it.”

The urn clicked and the fifth gem lit up.

The priests of Cadic were all gathered around Father Peg-Leg, a motley assortment of reformed cutthroats and criminals. Their presence was a test of their loyalty; they refused to run in Peg-Leg’s time of need.

Dril pulled out the rod. “I hope this works.”

Dril pointed the rod at the urn and closed his eyes.

[talien]

Falthar sat with one arm propping up his chin, staring at the ticking urn. He tapped it with a wand every time the fifth gem lit up. Then it went out, leaving just four lit gems.

“Fascinating,” he said. “I think I can suppress it, but whoever made this bomb knew what he was doing.”

“That’s very nice,” said Kham. “It’s a gift from Kenzil. Or the Yellow Sign. Look, it doesn’t matter. Don’t you test stuff like this all the time?”

“Yes.” Falthar’s eyes were wide. “But if Kenzil made it…you don’t mess with Kenzil.”

Falthar tapped the urn with the wand.

“Well, the good news is he’s dead. The bad news is we’re going to join him in a second.”

“Well now that you’re here, if you can grab it and throw it fast into my testing room, that should contain the blast…for the most part.”

”For the most part? What do you mean ‘for the most part’?”

Falthar tapped the urn with the wand. “Well, Kenzil was a powerful evoker. My testing room was never meant for an explosion of that magnitude. It might not hold.”

“How many charges does that wand have left?” asked Kham.

“Hmm, I lost track,” said Falthar. “A couple.”

“You lost track?! Okay, on three I’m going to chuck the urn into the room. You close the door as fast as you can. Ready?”

“Wait, is that one, two, then you throw it in on three? Or one, two, three and then you throw it?”

“ON three. Ready?”

Falthar tapped the urn with the wand. “Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?”

“I think I ran out of charges.”

“THREE!” shouted Kham. He scooped up the urn. Falthar jogged past him as he wound up to throw it.

Falthar unlatched the door and yanked it open.

The last gem lit up.

Kham hurled the urn through the doorway just as Falthar slammed it shut.

“Get down!” shouted Kham.

They both ducked as the concussive force blasted the door off its hinges. It smashed through where Falthar had been standing with his wand only moments for, demolishing his counter and the front door.

Falthar dusted himself off. “Impressive.”

Kham stepped out into the daylight. “Beldin? Beldin!”

The dwarf was drenched in sweat. He didn’t run as fast as the others.

Beldin was down on one knee near a sewer grate.

“Did you stop the other bomb in time?”

There was a terrific explosion and the sewer grate blasted upwards behind Beldin, hurtling high into the air.

“Never mind.”

[Fimmtiu]

Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.

[talien]

A gnome was ushered through the Courts portcullis with a package in his hands. He had a heavyset build and wore a bright blue cape.

“Stop that man!” shouted Sebastian.

The Bloody Vengeance orcs raised their crossbows, but they were met by a dozen crossbows leveled back at them.

“Well, this is a nice tidy pack, innit guv?” asked Price.

“You have to let us in,” said Sebastian. “That messenger must be stopped!”

“Aw now, don’t be like that. If ya know what’s good fer ya I’d recommend ya distance yerself from ‘es folk ‘ere. No good dirty greenskins.” Price yelled over his shoulder. “Looks like we gots ourselves the mad bombers!”

“What?” Prolk shouted back. “Are you crazy? Would we come to the Courts to deliver the bomb ourselves?”

“Ye look pretty stupid to me,” said Price.

“This is ridiculous.” Sebastian pulled out a wand.

“Nah, ah, ah!” said Price, wagging a finger. “No magic outta you mate or we’ll perforate ya.”

Sebastian pointed. “Try.” The beam from the wand sliced through the portcullis to encompass the gnome. He was enfolded in a sphere of force.

“Fire!”

Crossbow bolts bounced off of a magical field surrounding Sebastian.

“That’s it,” said Price. “Arrest ‘em.”

The guard lowered their crossbows and grabbed their pikes. They slowly advanced in a circle towards Sebastian and the orcs.

“That man in the sphere has a bomb, if you don’t stop him soon, there will be—“

There was a dull pop. The sphere filled with bright red flames. Then it was nothing but black smoke, a gigantic marble sitting in the center of the Courts.

“This was a mistake,” said Prolk. “We should not have come.”

“I am a man of my word.” Sebastian unfurled the scroll. “Hold onto me.”

The orcs grabbed hold of Sebastian’s robe as the guards advanced. Then they disappeared.

[talien]

They gathered again at what was left of The Last Resort, for lack of a better place to go. The mood was grim.

“Well, we stopped the bombs,” said Vlad. “That counts for something, right?”

“Not all of them,” said Beldin. He encompassed the ruins with a wave of his hand. “There were two bombs that were set off. The Last Resort was one of them.”

Sebastian sighed. “Prolk and the Bloody Vengeance orcs got away, but they caught Scarbelly. Judge McGowan sent him straight to the Hulks.”

“But they were trying to help!” shouted Dril, surprising himself with his frustration.

“It’s not that simple,” said Beldin quietly. “The orcs were seen threatening to retake the Sea Lord’s throne. Then they attacked the Temple of Cadic. The bombs were just an excuse to lock them up.”

“The orcs won’t take this well,” said Sebastian. “There may be riots in the streets.”

“Where’s Kham?” asked Vlad.

“He was reading The Shipping News.” Beldin pointed at a folded up piece of parchment on the table. “Then he just got up and left. He didn’t say a word to anybody.”

Dril picked up the paper and read it. Then he slowly turned it around. “Well, now we know what C.V. stood for on Coombs’ list,” he said.

The title read: “Fatal Explosion in Park – Two Men Sought”

“A gentleman was killed in a local park last night at shortly after six o’clock in the evening. The deceased was identified as Corinalous val’Abebi.”

[talien]

This is a Call of Cthulhu adventure, “Tatters of the King” by Tim Wiseman, adapted for the Freeport setting. You can read more about Arcanis at http://www.onaraonline.org. Please note: This adventure contains spoilers!

Our cast of characters includes:

• Dungeon Master: Michael Tresca (http://michael.tresca.net)
• Beldin Soulforge (dwarf fighter) played by Joe Lalumia
• Kham Val’Abebi (val rogue/psychic warrior) played by Jeremy Ortiz (http://www.ninjarobotstudios.com)
• Nauris Drilian (human rogue/ranger) played by Mike Best
• Sebastian Arnyal (dark-kin sorcerer) played by George Webster
• Vlad Martell (human fighter) played by Matt Hammer

This was the second part of a double-header game, so I kept it short. As usual in a Cthulhu adventure, the bad guy takes on the entire group because he’s the only spellcaster. With the likes of Sebastian in the mix, that just simply wouldn’t do. So they ended up facing a high-level cultist and his two byakhee. Because Quelch goes out “hunting” prepared, he had all his defensive spells at the ready.

What was surprising is that he nearly wiped the floor with the party. They made short work of the byakhee, only to fail save after save after save. This is one of those rare cases were nature was on the players’ side; the battle took place on an icy bridge. Sometimes, the most mundane things can tip the scales…

[talien]

The Last Resort was a mess. It would take weeks to repair what had only just been recently put back together. And this time, there were no high stakes gamblers to drop thousand-doubloon tips. Or Kham, for that matter.

“I haven’t seen Kham in days,” said Vlad. “I’m starting to get worried.”

Bobbin Brandydale looked morose. He had lost weight since the two incidents on his business. Ironically, every attack brought more business, so he had the double-edged sword of prosperity and tragedy—at the same time. “Me too. It’s strange that he hasn’t even shown up to collect his father’s belongings.”

“We need to see his room, Bobbin,” said Dril in a stern voice. “It could save his life.”

Bobbin put some mugs back on the wall behind him. “I can’t do that.”

Dril sat on a barstool. “Fine. At least you can tell us what he was doing before he left.”

Bobbin thought for a moment. “After he read the news about his father’s death, Kham was gone for a bit. He came in real late; he was a mess, but that’s not unusual for him. Then he received an unmarked letter. I left it under his door.”

“We need to see that note,” said Dril.

Bobbin sighed. “It’s right here.” He slapped the note down on the bar, but kept his hand on it. “I don’t normally share this kind of stuff about Kham, but I’m worried about his safety.”

Dril slid the note out from Bobbin’s hand and opened it up to read.

“We’re his friends, Bobbin,” said Vlad. “If he’s in trouble, we’ll get him out of it.”

Dril’s features darkened as he read further into the note. “This is bad.”

“How bad?” asked Vlad.

“Real bad. It’s from some W. Gresty, and mentions Elijah Quelch and Lucius Roby. It’s basically asking Kham to kill Quelch on the night of the full moon.”

“That’s tonight,” said Bobbin.

“That’s not all. It ties Quelch to Coombs…”

Vlad nodded before Dril said more. “I’ll get the others.”

[talien]

It was close to midnight. The air was bitter and a frost covered the ground, an unheard of occurrence in tropical Freeport. A bloated full moon hung yellow in the sky.

Kham stood nonchalantly outside of Elijah Quelch’s residence. He had spoken to local shopkeepers and neighbors to discover that the antiques dealer had lived there for about forty years. He had no assistants or servants. He was a recluse. Only a single person entered in two days, and he left without a purchase.

The house was secure. There was a locked and padlocked iron gate before the front door and iron bars guarded the ground and first floor windows. The house fronted onto a busy road and backed onto an alley. Its narrow back garden was overgrown and strewn with rubbish, and was enclosed by a seven-foot-high wall topped with broken glass set into cement.

But this night something was different. Quelch emerged from his house for the first time. He was a big, fat man with long black hair and a full beard. His age was difficult to guess.

Kham followed him.

Quelch’s route was circuitous, leading to the waterways that dotted Freeport. It was inky, straight, and lined with disused warehouses that were home to vagrants. Quelch walked along slowly as he hunted for a victim.

After ten minutes, he found what he was looking for: a single sleeping man lying on a bridge. He stood by the figure, his back to Kham, and began to chant an incantation.

As he started the spell, the air seemed to come alive. The chant was a shrill, inhuman scream and came from all around. The victim started to shout in agony, blaspheming, his whole body thrashing, but somehow he got to his feet.

Quelch surged into him, slamming him back against the side of the bridge and holding him there off the ground, continuing to howl his chant.

The man weakened; he looked around desperately and spotted Kham. “Help me! He’s killing me! Please! For the—“ He was choked him off.

Quelch turned to see Kham, but finished his chant. He threw the corpse effortlessly against the side of the bridge; it shattered into dust.

The silence squirmed.

Kham had both pistols out. His speech was slurred, his reflexes slow. “Where’s Coombs.” It was more of a threat than a question.

“I’d like to know myself,” snarled Quelch. He shouted up at the moon. “Damn you, Coombs! Where are you? I need you!”

Kham pulled the trigger back on both pistols. “You’re going to tell me. Or I’m going to shoot it out of you.”

Quelch sneered. “I really can’t rely on anyone these days. No matter.” He blew a whistle that hung from around his throat.

And the inky night answered his call.

[talien]

Dril arrived just in time to see two byakhee crash to the ground. From the thorax stretched two wings, two limbs, and a head. Two additionally clawed limbs grew from the forepart of the opisthosoma. They screech and croaked as they landed, fixing Kham with terrible eyes.

Beldin charged at one of the things while Vlad attacked the other. They had fought the creatures before. Both of the warriors kept their shields up to hold snapping jaws at bay.

Sebastian pointed at one of the byakhee. “Radius Incensio!”

Spiraling flames scorched the beast. It reacted with an unnatural wail.

Kham dove and rolled past the two squawking monstrosities. “I’m coming for you Quelch!”

Quelch pointed at Kham. “Glacialis cursus!”

“That won’t work on me!” Kham’s voice was slurred.

“Kham!” shouted Dril. “Wait!” He lowered to one knee, aimed, and fired his rifle at the byakhee fighting Beldin.

Quelch pointed at Vlad next. “Glacialis cursus!”

Vlad’s eyes widened as he moved to take a step forward. The byakhee nearest him launched itself into the air, bringing all of its claws to bear on his shield. “I can’t move my legs!” he shouted.

With one of its wings perforated by Dril’s shot, Beldin waited for the byakhee’s neck to dart forward. When it did, he hacked downwards, beheading it.

Dril reloaded his rifle. “We’ve got to stop Kham before he gets to Quelch.”

“Stop Kham?” shouted Vlad. “What about me?”

“No problem,” said Beldin. He swung his axe in a wide arc, forcing the beast back.

Quelch pointed at Beldin. “Fas: Fugio!”

A slack-jawed expression overcame Beldin. He turned and ran.

“Radius Incensio!” shouted Sebastian. More blazing rays struck the remaining byakhee. It fell to the ground, a smoldering pile of melted flesh and bone.

“That’s enough from you, sorcerer,” said Quelch. “Vomica del Puter Corpus!”

Sebastian gasped as his flesh began to rot. He looked at his hands, watching his fingers peel and burst like rotten fruit. Sebastian struggled to contain his stomach as it groaned beneath his robes. It split and gushed, his organs spilling out of his body…

“What’s wrong with Sebastian?” shouted Vlad.

The dark-kin wailed and fell to the ground, unconscious, but he was otherwise unharmed.

Kham drew Talon from over the sheath across his shoulders. “Where!” he shouted, “IS! COOMBS?!”

Quelch ducked sideways and pointed at Kham. A hissing, bubbling gout of filthy black energy seared towards him. It tore a hole through Kham’s coat, which writhed at the unholy ray’s touch.

Dril drew both of his blades as Beldin returned. “We’re going to have to press him! We can’t keep this up!”

Beldin nodded, his face red from the embarrassment he suffered at Quelch’s hands. “Now he’s made me mad!”

They charged forward behind Kham.

“Mad?” shouted Quelch. “You have not seen Hastur’s fury yet, fools. Niger evum!”

A wall of black, rubbery tentacles boiled out of the ground. Before Beldin and Dril could react, they were held aloft, each limb wrapped and squeezed by the tentacles.

Vlad watched from afar, helpless. There was nothing he could do. He was going to watch his friends die like dogs in the street of Freeport.

Or maybe there was. He reached for his crossbow.

[talien]

“Those tentacles won’t stop me, Quelch!” shouted Kham. “You’re running out of tricks!” He tumbled and flipped past the squirming wall of black limbs, landing right next to the antiques dealer.

“Manus de Colubra!” shouted Quelch. His arms warped and undulated, transforming into hissing snakes. It was enough to even give Kham pause.

Talon smacked one of the snakeheads as it darted towards Kham’s head. There was a sharp pain in his thigh as the other mouth connected. He smashed the hilt of his scimitar into the snakehead and it let go.

The burning sensation burrowed its way up his thigh. Poison!

“Where’s Coombs, you son of a bitch?” snarled Kham. He took a staggering step forward. “I’ll kill you!”

The snake arms bobbed and weaved, looking for an opening. Quelch knew it was only a matter of time until the poison took effect. “Kill me? All because Coombs blew up Freeport?”

“He killed…” Kham wavered. He was having problems focusing. “He killed…my father.”

“No,” sneered Quelch. “You killed your father. One does not leave the vassalage of the King in Yellow lightly.” The arms rose up—

A crossbow bolt jutted from Quelch’s forehead. Even such a killing blow only stunned him, causing him to slip backwards. He disappeared off the side of bridge.

Kham dropped Talon and stumbled over to the edge. Both of Quelch’s unnatural arms hung by their teeth, clinging to the bridge as the cold water dragged at him.

“Don’t let him go, Kham!” shouted Dril. “We need him!”

Kham looked down at Quelch, vision blurred by rage and tears. Slowly, he took a pistol out.

“Kham!” shouted Beldin. “Put down the pistol down! Throw it away!”

Quelch glared up at Kham. “It’s surprising how easily one can purchase information from the men in your Society.”

“What did you say?” asked Kham.

“I don’t know what it’s like to have a loving father,” said Quelch. “He seemed like a good man. But that wasn’t enough to save him, was it?”

The pistol trembled in Kham’s hand as he brought the barrel to point at Quelch’s forehead.

“Kham, listen to me,” said Dril. “Don’t do this. He’s our only link to Coombs.”

There was a millisecond pause. Kham changed the angle of fire.

BLAM!

He blew one of Quelch’s arms to pieces in a splattering explosion.

Quelch screamed, his left arm flapping uselessly. The one good snakehead still clung to the bridge.

Kham aimed again and shot Quelch in the leg. Quelch shrieked, rolling, incapable of letting go of the bridge.

Kham shot Quelch in the other arm. He spasmed, wrenching as the flesh tore and snapped. Still gurgling in pain, Quelch disappeared into the waters.

“I know where his house is,” slurred Kham. Before they could say anything else, he left.

The tentacles retracted into the ground. Sebastian blinked and sat straight up. Vlad was free. Quelch’s curses were fleeting in their efficacy, but his words were far more painful.

“We’d better catch up with him before he hurts himself,” said Sebastian.

[talien]

Quelch’s house had three stories and a cellar. The entire place was very untidy, dirty, and dusty; packing cases, boxes and old newspapers took up nearly all the available floor space, whilst books, bills and manifolds littered every other surface, including the stairs. The ground floor had a selection of middling quality furniture.

Kham walked through the place in a haze. The first floor had more than a thousand occult, theological, and philosophical books shelved in no particular order. A quick glance indicated that some were quite rare, some extremely rare.

Nine steps lead down from the ground floor into the small cellar area. He crept down the steps. It was a five-foot high space meant for nothing more than coal storage. The stench was horrible.

Moonlight illuminated the stairwell from above. Something glittered in a dark corner.

Kham crept over to it. It was a vial. An empty vial, with a grayish liquid still at the bottom.

He sniffed it. He put a pinky inside the vial and tasted it.

Kham knew the taste. He laced his wine with it. Ghoul juice.

Two red dots hung in the air in the corner. It took Kham a moment to realize they were a pair of eyes.

Something roughly bipedal, with a vaguely canine aspect, came slouching out of the hole. It had a rubbery hide, a mold-caked body, half-hoofed feet, and scaled claws used for burrowing.

It moved forward, sniffing and huffing. It circled him. Kham didn’t move.

More came out of the hole. Three. Four. Five.

They circled him, sniffing and hooting softly to each other. And all the while the red eyes watched him, drinking him in.

There was a shout behind Kham. It might have been Vlad, but he wasn’t sure. Sounds of combat. Screams.

“Ghouls!” shouted Vlad.

They overwhelmed the Milandisian. Grasping claws clutched at Vlad, yanking him into the enveloping womb of darkness. Kham caught a glimpse of his feet disappearing into the tunnel.

“Stand back!” Sebastian shouted behind Kham. “Incendiaries globus!”

Flames licked around him.

Kham sat, slouched in the corner, oblivious.

He just rocked himself and whispered over and over. “Why didn’t they attack me?”

[Fimmtiu]

Uh-oh -- a villain "dying" by falling dramatically into the water and being swept away. You know what that means...

[talien]

That's right! Never count an enemy dead unless you are physically in possession of his dead body.

And then you cremate it.

And then you spread the ashes.

And then cast a wish to wish that he can never be brought back.