Aura
Explorer
The Staking
The group sets to the gruesome task at hand. The staking of Sampson goes without incident, with Jonas actually striking the fatal blow and Jeremiah holding him down just in case. However, Evelyn proves to be a bit more harrowing. After Jonas lines up the fatal shot, her eyes flicker open and clawed hands grab onto both Jonas and Jeremiah, trying to rip herself free. However, despite the normal inhuman strength of a vampire, he is unable to wrest herself from impending doom, and Jonas pounds the makeshift stake into her with one fell blow. Jeremiah holds on for all he's worth as she screams, thrashes and generally bleeds all over, but it is as brief as it was sudden. As both Thuvian and Pirvinia begin to respond, she gasps her last and begins to shrivel up, obviously destroyed. No spells are required to send her on her way.
Once Evelyn has stopped thrashing, in a strangely tender moment, Jeremiah leans down and kisses her briefly on the forehead. Those that are close (Jonas, Pirvinia) can her him get out the words, "I'm sorry." Immediately after, his body immediately begins disintegrating, corporeal flesh falling off some sort of strange, blue, luminescent body underneath. He looks at what is happening, and speaks, quite clearly, "My mind clears... I don't feel the rage, hate... obsession." He pauses a moment, and you realize, as what is left of his physical body filters down to the floor as little more than dust and his falchion clatters quite loudly, he is already beginning to fade. A look of urgency crosses his translucent facial features, and he speaks quickly, "Evelyn's book on induced vampirism--find it, destroy it, and her journal. Don't let..."
If Jeremiah had much more to say, it's hard to say, it happened so fast. However, he faded from existence before he could even finish his words. However, it is immediately obvious that you are standing in the middle of a treasure trove of goods and historical documents. A little searching reveals quite a bit of gold coin, a number of obviously valuable weapons and armor on the bodies of the undead (or laying on the floor, in the case of Jeremiah's falchion), quite a few books of obvious historical worth that justify your employer's reason for sending you here and, with a bit of effort to find, a small satchel containing a book entitled 'Nosferatu: How it Starts, How it Propagates Through Populations' and what is obviously a personal journal.
A very quick perusal of the book on vampirism reveals heavy reading, taking notes in the margins, and rereading of the sections on how vampires originally come into being. Then, in the journal, which is attributed to Evelyn, she documents her experiments on recreating the curse upon herself, each attempt, and each failure. Then, in plain language, she has success and it is spelled out exactly how to do it. With this formula, and some expense, vampires can be easily manufactured. Any sane appraisal ranks these two books as more valuable than the rest of the treasure combined, and far more dangerous. (As an aside, you pick up from the journal that Evelyn was Jeremiah's wife, and she was using his affluent position within the Haven to conduct her research.)
[sblock=Notes]I didn't want to steal Jonas' moment, but felt we need to move on. So, that's pretty much it. It's just a matter of what you want to do. I have my suspicions but don't want to put words in your character's mouths.
Your calculated rewards remain the same whether your keep the books on vamprism, turn them over to Darvin Hurella, or destroy them. Or, some option I haven't thought of, but those are the primary three that come to mind. So you're free to do whatever you think appropriate.
Any weapons you keep will be distinctive, and you can brag about them being of ancient construction and actually be honest about it. And Samad's bow, obviously, is an artifact that he can scale to suit his needs. Depending on how the group handles the texts and artifacts of Karran, we might have some changes on that, or perhaps not. It's not immediately obvious if Karran exists any more.
Evelyn was originally supposed to be the big boss of the dungeon, but we're tidying things up quickly. Sorry about that. So just hash out what you're doing, and I'll write the epilogue.[/sblock]
[sblock=Loot]Jeremiah's Stuff: Falchion +2 (8375gp)
Sampson's Stuff: Ring of Protection +2 (8000gp)
Evelyn's Stuff: Scimitar +2 (8315gp), Ring of Protection +1 (2000gp), Cloak of Resistance +1 (1000gp), Heavy Shield +2 (4170gp)
Skeletons' Stuff: 4 masterwork longswords
and from before:
Dead corpse's stuff: Mithral Chain Shirt +2 (5100gp)
Entry room: Several other ancient weapons[/sblock]
The group sets to the gruesome task at hand. The staking of Sampson goes without incident, with Jonas actually striking the fatal blow and Jeremiah holding him down just in case. However, Evelyn proves to be a bit more harrowing. After Jonas lines up the fatal shot, her eyes flicker open and clawed hands grab onto both Jonas and Jeremiah, trying to rip herself free. However, despite the normal inhuman strength of a vampire, he is unable to wrest herself from impending doom, and Jonas pounds the makeshift stake into her with one fell blow. Jeremiah holds on for all he's worth as she screams, thrashes and generally bleeds all over, but it is as brief as it was sudden. As both Thuvian and Pirvinia begin to respond, she gasps her last and begins to shrivel up, obviously destroyed. No spells are required to send her on her way.
Once Evelyn has stopped thrashing, in a strangely tender moment, Jeremiah leans down and kisses her briefly on the forehead. Those that are close (Jonas, Pirvinia) can her him get out the words, "I'm sorry." Immediately after, his body immediately begins disintegrating, corporeal flesh falling off some sort of strange, blue, luminescent body underneath. He looks at what is happening, and speaks, quite clearly, "My mind clears... I don't feel the rage, hate... obsession." He pauses a moment, and you realize, as what is left of his physical body filters down to the floor as little more than dust and his falchion clatters quite loudly, he is already beginning to fade. A look of urgency crosses his translucent facial features, and he speaks quickly, "Evelyn's book on induced vampirism--find it, destroy it, and her journal. Don't let..."
If Jeremiah had much more to say, it's hard to say, it happened so fast. However, he faded from existence before he could even finish his words. However, it is immediately obvious that you are standing in the middle of a treasure trove of goods and historical documents. A little searching reveals quite a bit of gold coin, a number of obviously valuable weapons and armor on the bodies of the undead (or laying on the floor, in the case of Jeremiah's falchion), quite a few books of obvious historical worth that justify your employer's reason for sending you here and, with a bit of effort to find, a small satchel containing a book entitled 'Nosferatu: How it Starts, How it Propagates Through Populations' and what is obviously a personal journal.
A very quick perusal of the book on vampirism reveals heavy reading, taking notes in the margins, and rereading of the sections on how vampires originally come into being. Then, in the journal, which is attributed to Evelyn, she documents her experiments on recreating the curse upon herself, each attempt, and each failure. Then, in plain language, she has success and it is spelled out exactly how to do it. With this formula, and some expense, vampires can be easily manufactured. Any sane appraisal ranks these two books as more valuable than the rest of the treasure combined, and far more dangerous. (As an aside, you pick up from the journal that Evelyn was Jeremiah's wife, and she was using his affluent position within the Haven to conduct her research.)
[sblock=Notes]I didn't want to steal Jonas' moment, but felt we need to move on. So, that's pretty much it. It's just a matter of what you want to do. I have my suspicions but don't want to put words in your character's mouths.
Your calculated rewards remain the same whether your keep the books on vamprism, turn them over to Darvin Hurella, or destroy them. Or, some option I haven't thought of, but those are the primary three that come to mind. So you're free to do whatever you think appropriate.
Any weapons you keep will be distinctive, and you can brag about them being of ancient construction and actually be honest about it. And Samad's bow, obviously, is an artifact that he can scale to suit his needs. Depending on how the group handles the texts and artifacts of Karran, we might have some changes on that, or perhaps not. It's not immediately obvious if Karran exists any more.
Evelyn was originally supposed to be the big boss of the dungeon, but we're tidying things up quickly. Sorry about that. So just hash out what you're doing, and I'll write the epilogue.[/sblock]
[sblock=Loot]Jeremiah's Stuff: Falchion +2 (8375gp)
Sampson's Stuff: Ring of Protection +2 (8000gp)
Evelyn's Stuff: Scimitar +2 (8315gp), Ring of Protection +1 (2000gp), Cloak of Resistance +1 (1000gp), Heavy Shield +2 (4170gp)
Skeletons' Stuff: 4 masterwork longswords
and from before:
Dead corpse's stuff: Mithral Chain Shirt +2 (5100gp)
Entry room: Several other ancient weapons[/sblock]
