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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 1584331" data-attributes="member: 6294">"The Hallowed Hills" by Miguel Duran (WotC Cliffhanger) - Part 11Briar reels back, the flesh around her neck turning grey and scabrous."Yikes!" Twinkle's eyes are huge and round, "What is he?"The Padre has no doubts on the matter.  He brandishes the holy symbol of St Cuthbert and intones,"Begone, Creature of Darkness!"Durham laughs, batting both the holy symbol and the priest aside, and strikes at Anastria.  The elf all but crumples as the flesh pulls back around her eyes and mouth, like all the moisture has been sucked away."He's undead!" Sirdros swings at Durham with his mace.  The blow connects, but seems to have little effect. "A powerful one!""Priests!" Twinkle jumps up and down excitedly, "Priests!""We're trying!" the Padre snaps, as Durham dodges another blow."Not you." Twinkle scampers across the stone floor of the catacombs, heading for the steps into the monastery itself, "Priests.  Real Priests.  Upstairs."As the gnome vanishes through the door, shouting for help, the battle rages on.  Sirdros and the Padre continue to hammer at Durham with their maces, while Briar looks for an opening to slide her blade into the creature's lungs.  When the opening comes, however, the deep thrust of the blade - which would have dropped a normal man in his tracks - seems to barely prick the flesh of Durham.Anastria, too, struggles to land a telling blow, her style of speed and finesse ill-suited to harming a foe that seems to lack any vital points.Stepping back from the others, Mantreus hurls tiny bolts of positive energy into the melee.  Most miss in the chaos of the fight, and others are accidentally blocked by his own compatriots, but a few sneak through, boiling away part of Durham's flesh.It is unclear whether these pinpricks finally slow the undead monk, or whether the adventurers simply adjust to his speed and strength, but the two priests finally begin to land a few telling blows.  The heavy, spiked heads of their maces, swung with all the force the two men can muster, drive Durham to his knees."Die, creature." The Padre spits, slamming his mace into their enemy's skull.  Durham's head caves in on the side with a wet sound of impact -- and then his whole body dissolves into grey-black smoke, boiling away into the darkness of the catacombs.The Padre curses, even as Twinkle reappears with Abbot Gerrard and half a dozen rather nervous looking acolytes of the monastery."He's vanished!" the Priest of St Cuthbert snaps, "Turned into smoke and flew off!""A vampire; or rather, the spawn of one." The Abbot's weathered skin pales, but then he holds himself straight and speaks a benediction to Pelor.  Frowning in concentration, he points, "This way.  We must find him before he has time to recover his strength."Following the directions of the Abbot, they track Durham - or rather the creature who was once Durham - to a decaying coffin, deep in the recesses of the tunnels.  Splintering open the soft wood, they find the vampire spawn within.  It lies helpless, still too weak to move, but with its black eyes glaring in hatred at the Padre, as he raises a stake to plunge into its heart."You fools.  You may have destroyed me, but my master will slay you all.  You cannot stand against the might of the Ebon Court."And then Durham dies, still spitting defiance."Anyone heard of this Ebon Court?" the Padre asks.  There is a shaking of heads all round, and the Priest of St Cuthbert shrugs his shoulders, "Not our problem, then.  Let's go home."The Padre's words cannot carry into the darkness of the caves beneath the monastery, but - far beyond the sight of the adventurers - Durham's sire senses the death of his spawn.  Ancient and powerful, filled with the darkness of ages, he does not even pause in his feast.  The human boy had been full of information about the new world above, but he was weak, and his use was at an end.A low chuckle, as cold as the stone around him, echoes through the inky air.  His next children will be strong.  Strong as the trees, that will wither and die.  Strong as the ice, which will cover the land.  Strong as the darkness, which will swallow the sun.In the night beneath the earth, Draedark the Kinslayer, who has slumbered these thousand years, has awoken again.</blockquote>

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