Session 19 (December 12, 2020)
22 Zar
The group travels to the cathedral again to meet with the bishop. They arrive during the rituals in the morning, and they can go to talk to him when the rituals end.
“We’ve come to ask you about the vampire head of House Fooblu.”
“That was a very unfortunate time, and an unfortunate circumstance. I was not bishop at the time—I was young. But he was ravaging the city at the time, at will, and the church sent a pair of paladins and myself to deal with it.”
“Go on with the story.”
“I was able to use divine power to turn him away from us, and then we were able to use a powerful artifact of the light to reduce him to dust. We still keep the artifact here in the reliquary. Any of the faithful may see where it’s on display for veneration.”
They ask to see it, and he leads the way. There is a case, magically warded, with a gold sun disk with a hollow center, with a burning glass in the center, incised with symbols of the church, which glows.
“We do not know why this fell to the Church to care for. Originally it was blessed to be used in battle, when a great knight died in battle with a mighty demon, that was also destroyed by its effect. I would have expected it to go to Tarkenia, but the knight was from this city, and it returned with his body.
“It reduced the body to ash, which blew away on the wind.”
“We were told that the body was taken to the mausoleum of the family.”
“There was no body—I can assure you it was not taken to the mausoleum.”
They discuss whether he might have survived.
“Were there other minions or spawn of his that might have survived?”
“He had two spawn at the time that we hunted down and destroyed. There have been no signs of him surviving or of more vampires since then, up until recently.”
The group speculates that either Sir Clarence may be the dead vampire, or may have resurrected or freed the dead grandfather.
“I can assure you the relic was and is real. But I wonder now if he might have used magical means to escape—but why would he not have defeated us then? He likely could have, but for the relic’s effect.”
The bishop is deeply concerned that Sir Clarence might have restored the vampire to undeath, but he doesn’t know if that’s possible.
“Perhaps a spawn escaped us. If it is him, he would have gained venerable power by now. But this one has definitely started to create spawn, whether him or otherwise. I do not know if they have yet gained enough control to pass in society.”
The group travels to House Copervein’s manor. There are ceremonial guards outside—they don’t look super effective.
They show the guard the writ. “We’d like to come inside to ask some questions.”
A house steward comes to talk to them. “We’d like to speak to the head of the house.”
“Of course. I’ll take you to his office.”
A man approaching middle age is sitting studying ledgers.
“They bear the royal seal, sir.”
He lays aside the ledgers. “Come in, come in. How can House Copervein help you?”
“We’d like to ask you about the sick heir of the House. We think it might have something to do with the death of the Doge’s son.”
“That was a horrible thing. You think my son is afflicted by the same thing? Great Lord of Light, do you think it’s a plague?”
“We think it’s vampires.”
“How would the Doge’s son know vampires? How would my son know vampires? Ferdinand, take the desk. Follow me. We’ll have to go into the House.”
He asks a maid where his wife is. He’s told that she’s in with the kitchen staff. “Can you tell her that I’ve taken some representatives of the Throne to see the boy?”
As they are walking down the hallway, Runor’s priestly senses leap into the highest alertness. Darkness falls over the hallway, as if the sun had been blotted out, there is a chill. And there is a shrieking howl that passes over them and away.
The lord of the house is now totally pale. “What was that? What was that? Why is this happening?” He rushes forward to the end of the hall, followed by the group, and rips open the door. As he rips open the door and starts to go in, a steel-shod spear comes straight through the door and into his shoulder. It does not look like a normal spear. He staggers back, bleeding, and slams into the opposing wall, and slumps down.
Mereep rushes up to the injured man—he’s nearly dead, blood gushing. She also sees men in the room—three of them heavily armored with spears. Runor rushes forward and casts cure wounds on the lord.
Aleep casts Lightning Bolt, catching two of the three. They’re both electrocuted and slump down with partly melted armor.
The last one drops his spear, pulls a dagger, and leaps over to slash the throat of the boy. Ashaltir slashes him with her sword as he steps away, staggering him with a holy smite with increased effect, but not quite dropping him.
The young boy seems either delirious or unconscious.
Ulgorio casts hold person on the last man, who freezes. Ashaltir immediately throws him to the ground and ties his hands behind his back.
The boy is still not responding at all. But in the lowest quadrant of his leg, there are toothmarks. His pulse is weak, but present, and he’s muttering to himself, obviously delusional. Bartix casts detect disease and poison, and there is a form of poison causing the delusion.
Runor casts a spell to remove the poison effect from the boy, who gradually, weakly, regains consciousness.
Aleep searches the room carefully for secret doors or ritual activity.
Meanwhile, Bartix begins interrogating the prisoner. “What is all this?”
“We came with the Master.”
“Who is the Master?”
“The Master is the Master, who else would he be? We follow and obey.” There is something unnatural about him.
“Does the Master have a master?”
“Yes…”
“What does the Master tell you to do?”
“Whatever he wishes. Often, we creep from place to place with him while he goes about his work.”
“What are you doing to the child?”
“He is converting him, to the true faith.”
“Who is the Master’s master?”
“A mighty prince, far from here!”
“Where exactly?”
A pause. “To the east. You have been to the east—I see its mark upon you.”
“How can you see the mark?”
“When one has been once to the east, the mark never fades.”
Ulgorio asks, “Where does your master live?”
“Somewhere you will never go, and live.”
“Is your Master or your Master’s master, possibly, Sir Clarence?”
“I cannot speak of such things.” (Bartix mutters, “It’s definitely Sir Clarence?”)
“What of the former vampire head of House Fooblu?”
“I cannot speak of such things!” He starts breathing heavily and shaking.
Aleep suggests that he may have a binding upon him, but that means that they are getting close to the truth.
“Do you have a spell on you that limits what you can say?”
“Yes! If I speak too plainly, it will tear me apart.”
“What is the true faith that you speak of?”
Heavy breathing. “The many lords of of the planes beyond.”
Aleep clarifies this means the Abyss, which means they follow the forces of Shadow.
“Follow? Or bound to by ties of blood.”
“Oh, are you a tiefling?”
“Yes.”
“And did one of you talk to the Left-Footed Man?”
“Yes.”
Aleep says, “I found a secret door!”
“I could have told you about that. Almost all of the old houses and great manors have secret passages.”
“What houses did you attack?”
“Only three were attacked. One was stupid and died, one was converted unwillingly to the true faith, and this one.”
They figure out that the second was the Doge’s son.
“The Doge was in the way.”
“Can you say who the third was?”
“House Velshoun. He realized what was happening, and he was a fanatic. He threw himself off a ship.”
“Where is the Master?”
“He returns to his crypt, to wait and grow in power. He has a magic that lets him travel during the day.” He begins twitching. “He has had time now to reach his crypt.”
Ashaltir casts protection from evil. It’s clear that afterwards, he will die from the bindings, which are too powerful for any of us to break and woven through his system.
Runor blesses him, and offers to hear his confession and bring him to Glordiadel. He confesses, horrifyingly.
At the end of that, he becomes dessicated and dies horribly.
None of the servants can be seen or heard. Lord Copervein promises to reward them, and agrees to bear witness.
“Where are the servants?”
A steward says. “I could not speak of it until they died. I fear the other servants are dead. They told me this was my last day.”
We look beyond the secret door—there are dead servants there.
“Why your house, the Doge’s, and Velshoun?”
“All three are in many cities. Ours and Velshoun here and in Easthaven. The Doge’s house in many of the cities, Easthaven and others.”
“We thought all of the houses had holdings in other cities.”
“Had. Now, it is mostly fiction. We trade among the cities. All the other houses only trade abroad. That’s where all the wealth is—trading what goods this continent has to other realms abroad, whence most of the wealth comes. All the wealth that enters this continent eventually ends up in the war effort.”
“So, those houses could, if turned to Shadow, bring down the whole trade federation, and that would cut off the supply of wealth and materiel that supplies the whole war.”
“I never thought of it that way, but yes, I suppose it does.”
Lord Copervein moves his son to a safer room, calls for the guards to equip with true armor, not ceremonial, and provides a reward: 100 sp for each, and a token of the family that will cause any in House Copervein to offer hospitality and support. Lord Copervein invites them to stay in House Copervein’s palace in Easthaven. He also has a weather mage there that they can consult if they need him.
They report back to Delbambi and Lady Lillian. They explain everything.
“And there were half-demons there, tieflings? I’ve heard of them. Well. You have done well. You saved the heir of a house. You proved your contention that vampires are involved. I will try to have delicate inquiries done about House Fooblu. We thought them uninvolved.”
We ask about the tariff discussion with House Fooblu.
“The issue is that certain houses’ stability in recent decades has been less robust. The Doge always paid the equal tariff with the other houses. But some doubted that, and if the tariffs were equalized, some of the houses would fail. We need all the houses to survive, for reasons that go beyond the oligarchy. Yes, some other houses paid lesser rates, but not because they were allied with the Doge, but because they could not survive the rates charged to House Fooblu and the Doge.”
“Do those houses that would not survive play an important role in the war efforts?”
“Yes. We need the central cities to take seriously that the border kingdoms and the trade federation cannot be the only ones fighting this war. But I do not think they will understand until demons are at their gates.”
They give the same report to the Bishop—he is horrified, as he doesn’t have the personnel to handle a major vampire here.
[End session 19]
22 Zar
The group travels to the cathedral again to meet with the bishop. They arrive during the rituals in the morning, and they can go to talk to him when the rituals end.
“We’ve come to ask you about the vampire head of House Fooblu.”
“That was a very unfortunate time, and an unfortunate circumstance. I was not bishop at the time—I was young. But he was ravaging the city at the time, at will, and the church sent a pair of paladins and myself to deal with it.”
“Go on with the story.”
“I was able to use divine power to turn him away from us, and then we were able to use a powerful artifact of the light to reduce him to dust. We still keep the artifact here in the reliquary. Any of the faithful may see where it’s on display for veneration.”
They ask to see it, and he leads the way. There is a case, magically warded, with a gold sun disk with a hollow center, with a burning glass in the center, incised with symbols of the church, which glows.
“We do not know why this fell to the Church to care for. Originally it was blessed to be used in battle, when a great knight died in battle with a mighty demon, that was also destroyed by its effect. I would have expected it to go to Tarkenia, but the knight was from this city, and it returned with his body.
“It reduced the body to ash, which blew away on the wind.”
“We were told that the body was taken to the mausoleum of the family.”
“There was no body—I can assure you it was not taken to the mausoleum.”
They discuss whether he might have survived.
“Were there other minions or spawn of his that might have survived?”
“He had two spawn at the time that we hunted down and destroyed. There have been no signs of him surviving or of more vampires since then, up until recently.”
The group speculates that either Sir Clarence may be the dead vampire, or may have resurrected or freed the dead grandfather.
“I can assure you the relic was and is real. But I wonder now if he might have used magical means to escape—but why would he not have defeated us then? He likely could have, but for the relic’s effect.”
The bishop is deeply concerned that Sir Clarence might have restored the vampire to undeath, but he doesn’t know if that’s possible.
“Perhaps a spawn escaped us. If it is him, he would have gained venerable power by now. But this one has definitely started to create spawn, whether him or otherwise. I do not know if they have yet gained enough control to pass in society.”
The group travels to House Copervein’s manor. There are ceremonial guards outside—they don’t look super effective.
They show the guard the writ. “We’d like to come inside to ask some questions.”
A house steward comes to talk to them. “We’d like to speak to the head of the house.”
“Of course. I’ll take you to his office.”
A man approaching middle age is sitting studying ledgers.
“They bear the royal seal, sir.”
He lays aside the ledgers. “Come in, come in. How can House Copervein help you?”
“We’d like to ask you about the sick heir of the House. We think it might have something to do with the death of the Doge’s son.”
“That was a horrible thing. You think my son is afflicted by the same thing? Great Lord of Light, do you think it’s a plague?”
“We think it’s vampires.”
“How would the Doge’s son know vampires? How would my son know vampires? Ferdinand, take the desk. Follow me. We’ll have to go into the House.”
He asks a maid where his wife is. He’s told that she’s in with the kitchen staff. “Can you tell her that I’ve taken some representatives of the Throne to see the boy?”
As they are walking down the hallway, Runor’s priestly senses leap into the highest alertness. Darkness falls over the hallway, as if the sun had been blotted out, there is a chill. And there is a shrieking howl that passes over them and away.
The lord of the house is now totally pale. “What was that? What was that? Why is this happening?” He rushes forward to the end of the hall, followed by the group, and rips open the door. As he rips open the door and starts to go in, a steel-shod spear comes straight through the door and into his shoulder. It does not look like a normal spear. He staggers back, bleeding, and slams into the opposing wall, and slumps down.
Mereep rushes up to the injured man—he’s nearly dead, blood gushing. She also sees men in the room—three of them heavily armored with spears. Runor rushes forward and casts cure wounds on the lord.
Aleep casts Lightning Bolt, catching two of the three. They’re both electrocuted and slump down with partly melted armor.
The last one drops his spear, pulls a dagger, and leaps over to slash the throat of the boy. Ashaltir slashes him with her sword as he steps away, staggering him with a holy smite with increased effect, but not quite dropping him.
The young boy seems either delirious or unconscious.
Ulgorio casts hold person on the last man, who freezes. Ashaltir immediately throws him to the ground and ties his hands behind his back.
The boy is still not responding at all. But in the lowest quadrant of his leg, there are toothmarks. His pulse is weak, but present, and he’s muttering to himself, obviously delusional. Bartix casts detect disease and poison, and there is a form of poison causing the delusion.
Runor casts a spell to remove the poison effect from the boy, who gradually, weakly, regains consciousness.
Aleep searches the room carefully for secret doors or ritual activity.
Meanwhile, Bartix begins interrogating the prisoner. “What is all this?”
“We came with the Master.”
“Who is the Master?”
“The Master is the Master, who else would he be? We follow and obey.” There is something unnatural about him.
“Does the Master have a master?”
“Yes…”
“What does the Master tell you to do?”
“Whatever he wishes. Often, we creep from place to place with him while he goes about his work.”
“What are you doing to the child?”
“He is converting him, to the true faith.”
“Who is the Master’s master?”
“A mighty prince, far from here!”
“Where exactly?”
A pause. “To the east. You have been to the east—I see its mark upon you.”
“How can you see the mark?”
“When one has been once to the east, the mark never fades.”
Ulgorio asks, “Where does your master live?”
“Somewhere you will never go, and live.”
“Is your Master or your Master’s master, possibly, Sir Clarence?”
“I cannot speak of such things.” (Bartix mutters, “It’s definitely Sir Clarence?”)
“What of the former vampire head of House Fooblu?”
“I cannot speak of such things!” He starts breathing heavily and shaking.
Aleep suggests that he may have a binding upon him, but that means that they are getting close to the truth.
“Do you have a spell on you that limits what you can say?”
“Yes! If I speak too plainly, it will tear me apart.”
“What is the true faith that you speak of?”
Heavy breathing. “The many lords of of the planes beyond.”
Aleep clarifies this means the Abyss, which means they follow the forces of Shadow.
“Follow? Or bound to by ties of blood.”
“Oh, are you a tiefling?”
“Yes.”
“And did one of you talk to the Left-Footed Man?”
“Yes.”
Aleep says, “I found a secret door!”
“I could have told you about that. Almost all of the old houses and great manors have secret passages.”
“What houses did you attack?”
“Only three were attacked. One was stupid and died, one was converted unwillingly to the true faith, and this one.”
They figure out that the second was the Doge’s son.
“The Doge was in the way.”
“Can you say who the third was?”
“House Velshoun. He realized what was happening, and he was a fanatic. He threw himself off a ship.”
“Where is the Master?”
“He returns to his crypt, to wait and grow in power. He has a magic that lets him travel during the day.” He begins twitching. “He has had time now to reach his crypt.”
Ashaltir casts protection from evil. It’s clear that afterwards, he will die from the bindings, which are too powerful for any of us to break and woven through his system.
Runor blesses him, and offers to hear his confession and bring him to Glordiadel. He confesses, horrifyingly.
At the end of that, he becomes dessicated and dies horribly.
None of the servants can be seen or heard. Lord Copervein promises to reward them, and agrees to bear witness.
“Where are the servants?”
A steward says. “I could not speak of it until they died. I fear the other servants are dead. They told me this was my last day.”
We look beyond the secret door—there are dead servants there.
“Why your house, the Doge’s, and Velshoun?”
“All three are in many cities. Ours and Velshoun here and in Easthaven. The Doge’s house in many of the cities, Easthaven and others.”
“We thought all of the houses had holdings in other cities.”
“Had. Now, it is mostly fiction. We trade among the cities. All the other houses only trade abroad. That’s where all the wealth is—trading what goods this continent has to other realms abroad, whence most of the wealth comes. All the wealth that enters this continent eventually ends up in the war effort.”
“So, those houses could, if turned to Shadow, bring down the whole trade federation, and that would cut off the supply of wealth and materiel that supplies the whole war.”
“I never thought of it that way, but yes, I suppose it does.”
Lord Copervein moves his son to a safer room, calls for the guards to equip with true armor, not ceremonial, and provides a reward: 100 sp for each, and a token of the family that will cause any in House Copervein to offer hospitality and support. Lord Copervein invites them to stay in House Copervein’s palace in Easthaven. He also has a weather mage there that they can consult if they need him.
They report back to Delbambi and Lady Lillian. They explain everything.
“And there were half-demons there, tieflings? I’ve heard of them. Well. You have done well. You saved the heir of a house. You proved your contention that vampires are involved. I will try to have delicate inquiries done about House Fooblu. We thought them uninvolved.”
We ask about the tariff discussion with House Fooblu.
“The issue is that certain houses’ stability in recent decades has been less robust. The Doge always paid the equal tariff with the other houses. But some doubted that, and if the tariffs were equalized, some of the houses would fail. We need all the houses to survive, for reasons that go beyond the oligarchy. Yes, some other houses paid lesser rates, but not because they were allied with the Doge, but because they could not survive the rates charged to House Fooblu and the Doge.”
“Do those houses that would not survive play an important role in the war efforts?”
“Yes. We need the central cities to take seriously that the border kingdoms and the trade federation cannot be the only ones fighting this war. But I do not think they will understand until demons are at their gates.”
They give the same report to the Bishop—he is horrified, as he doesn’t have the personnel to handle a major vampire here.
[End session 19]