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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 682327" data-attributes="member: 221">Chapter 28 – Elias’s FortIt was a couple of hours after noon before the three companions were ready to venture out of the carriage house.  Tilliana and Alairic healed the remaining wounds as well as they were able, but though the physical marks from the night before were gone there seemed little they could do at the moment for some of the spiritual wounds they had suffered at the hands of the vampires.As they rolled up beds and prepared to explore the house itself it seemed odd not to have Kinshag with them.“We’ll have to find Kinshag’s body,” said Niccolo.  The other two understood.  They were afraid that Kinshag would rise as a vampire and join in the attack against them.  “I think we need to make sure that we stake the vampires, perhaps even if they attack us again.  We could always try and wrestle them to the ground and drive stakes through their hearts,” said Tilliana.Their conversation was interrupted by a scream that echoed in the air.  It was a man, yelling for help.  Running out of the carriage house, they hurried down to the broken open gates of the fort, weapons at the ready.There was a man running down the hill on the south side of the stream.  Behind him, lumbering along slowly were a number of zombies.  The man was tall, with a neatly trimmed beard.  He was armed with a crossbow and a staff, but was unarmored.  They watched him run for a moment between the ruined houses of the village on the slope across the stream.  There seemed little danger of the zombies outrunning the man, but neither did it look like the walking dead were going to stop chasing the man.  Not unless he managed to get to where the zombies could not reach him.“Hey!” shouted Niccolo, "Run to us!  Cross the stream, there’s a rope there you can use!”The man must have heard Niccolo because he looked across at the trio and then dashed desperately towards the stream.  Seeing the rope he leaped into the water and clutching at the rope to keep himself from being swept downstream, he crossed the stream in record time before collapsing wet and out of breath on the bank.  A small wet animal, crawled out of the bag on the man’s shoulders and shook itself dry.  It was a small brown weasel.The zombies upon reaching the edge of the stream stopped their pursuit and turned eastward, stumbling slowly along the southern edge of the stream.  Tilliana, Niccolo and Alairic made their way swiftly down the broken path to the man.“Who are you,” asked Niccolo as they drew close to the bank, “and what are you doing here?”“My name is Rasthok, I’m from the coast and I was looking for a pair of towers called the towers of Daylight.  They were built by a powerful mage who died and I thought there was a possibility he had left behind some spellbooks.  I study such things you see and had a professional interest in finding them.”“How did you meet your friends over there.”“I was just wandering the area and chanced upon them.  I had no idea this region would proof to be a home to undead!  I am afraid I did not stand a chance with so many and so was forced to run, as you saw.”“Well you will be happy to know that this whole area seems to be infested with vampires,” said Alairic cheerfully.“Ohh,” moaned Rasthok.“I knew the wizard, Tamil, whose home you are looking for,” said Tilliana, “I grew up around here.  He had a talking cat named Angel I used to play with.”“She is fixated on that cat,” said Niccolo to Rasthok.“Tell you what,” said Alairic, “why don’t you stick with us and help us kill some vampires and then we will go with you to explore those towers.  There is safety in numbers after all.”“Sure,” said Rasthok, who was visibly shaken by the thought of vampires, “Thank you, I will do that I think.”They led him back up to the fort, introducing themselves as they walked.  Once past the gates they turned to business.“Shall we look through the house,” said Alairic, “We can get in through the front door and there is another door up on the landing there I noticed that we could get to through the barn.”After a brief discussion they decided to simply try the front door.  As they approached, they could not help but notice that there was a small door on the bottom of the door, a cat-flap.  The door proved to be unlocked and Alairic in the lead opened it.“I could have opened that with magic,” said Rasthok, “In case it was trapped you know.  The others drew their weapons and entered.  The door opened onto a small hall running to their left and right.  There was a door a few feet to their left and to their right there were two archways, one to the north and one to the east.  The eastern archway opened into a room, illuminated by the sunlight streaming through the uncracked windows.  “Let’s check out this door first,” said Alairic going straight to the door on the left and opening it.  The small amount of light that entered through the doors revealed the room to be a closet, 10 feet deep, with hooks for cloaks, coats and hats.“Nice closet,” said Tilliana looking over Alairic’s shoulder.The room to the right of the front door, the room illuminated by the windows turned out to be a dining room.  There was still a large oak table in the middle of the room, covered in dust, but it was the only piece of furniture to be seen.  There was an empty fireplace between the windows on the south wall and beyond that, on the eastern wall, were stairs leading up to a second floor.  Doors led out of the dining room to the north and an archway in the northwest corner of the room led into a dark unlit room.  “Just a moment,” said Rasthok, “I can help you there.”  The tall bearded man shrugged off his backpack and opening it, he pulled out a flaming torch.  “A light,” he said with a smile.  The others looked on impressed.  The torch burned bright but it shed no heat.  Now that they had a light, they decided to try one of the doors.  Opening it revealed an empty room, completely devoid of anything but a musty smell and a puddle on the stone floor.“There’s a water stain on the ceiling,” said Tilliana pointing up.“I hope the floor’s not weak in here,” said Niccolo, remembering the house with the collapsing floor.“It’s stone,” commented Alairic dryly.  There was another door in the room on the west wall and they opened it.  Beyond was a small bedroom with a bed and a wardrobe.  The bed had and old musty mattress and the wardrobe was cracked.  “Maybe we could get a good night’s sleep in here,” said Tilliana as Alairic checked under the bed for monsters.  The room was completely empty of life however and they left it, wondering where they would find the vampires.“Let’s go back and check out the hallway near the front door,” said Alairic and they backtracked through the dining room to the front hall and then through the northern archway.  It was another short hall, parallel to the dining room, with another archway on the north end and a door in the middle of the west wall.  They opened the door and looked in.It was obviously a small private library.  Books lined the walls on shelves and there were old chairs for sitting in.  Rasthok rushed right in, followed by Alairic and Niccolo.  Tilliana remained in the hall watching the other three.  Rasthok eagerly pulled a book off a shelf and opened it.  The pages within crumpled apart from the pressure and Rasthok could see small wormholes in some of the pages.  Niccolo too opened a book and the same thing happened.  The books were evidently in dreadful condition.  With disgust, Niccolo noticed a small worm crawling off of the book and crushed it with his fingers.  Alairic stood in the middle of the room holding the torch, watching the others.  “Nothing in here,” said Niccolo, leading the way out into the hall, “just worms.”  Rasthok and Alairic turned to follow Niccolo out.“Wait a moment,” said Tilliana going in as the other three walked out.  Rasthok and Niccolo, having just left the room turned and walked back in after her.  Alairic was left standing out in the hall holding the torch.“Look there,” said Tilliana, pointing to the ground.  Niccolo and Rasthok watched as small maggot like worms crawled across the hard floor towards Tilliana, “they are attracted to us.  Come on, lets get out.”“Right,” said Niccolo, following the priestess back into the hall.“They are just bookworms,” said Alairic, puzzled by the goings and comings.“What?” asked Rasthok.“Just bookworms,” repeated Alairic.“Oh no,” said Rasthok as he tore off his backback and threw it open.  Frantically he dug into it, pushing aside the crowbar, the food and the rope.“Do you have a book?” Tilliana asked him.“My spell book!” cried Rasthok, pulling out a thick tome.  Opening it revealed the worst.  Five worms were merrily munching through the book.  Rasthok was clearly upset as he started frantically killing the worms.  “They are ruining my spells!”After killing the worms, Rasthok examined the book.  He had lost about ten spells, a huge loss to him.  the others tried to console him as best as they could though they had little experience with such things.There was nothing they could do but go on exploring the house.  There was a sitting room, just north of the Library and the front hall.  There were four old, scratched chairs in the room, covered in dust.  There seemed to be little else though.  Alairic looked over the fireplace and noticed that there was on spot on the wall which was offcolored from the rest of the wall.  It was a rectangular spot, likely the old site of a hung picture.  “Umm,” said Alairic looking closer, “could be a secret door here.”  He searched carefully as the others watched him but in the end was forced to decide it was nothing more than a spot where a picture had once hung.They walked from the sitting room, through an archway back into the dining room and then opening another door they entered a room that looked to have once been the kitchen.  The room was dominated by a large fireplace on the east wall, evidently built to cook over, with an oven next to the fireplace.  There were two archways on the south wall and a doorway on the north wall.  “The ceiling is buckled overhead,” said Tilliana, “It doesn’t look too stable.”“There is smoke coming out of the fireplace,” said Alairic, and indeed it did appear as if smoke was starting to pour out of the cold, dust covered fireplace.  “Wha…?” began Niccolo, but he did not finish his question for it was immediate apparent that it was not actually smoke, but some shadowy substance.  Flowing in and with the shadows flowing from the fireplace were small rat like forms, charging at the companions.Alairic, who was closest, swung his sword and one of the small shadow like rats dissipated into nothing. He swung at another and it too disappeared, but when he swung at a third, his sword passed harmlessly through it.  Tilliana too was quick to react, moving forward to stand next to Alairic.  Two more of the shadow rats were sent into oblivion as Razor-tongue cleft through them.  Rast swung at one with his staff and Niccolo attacked one with his sword as the rats closed in on them.  Both dissapeared.  But still there were many of the small things.  One latched a jaw onto Tilliana, its teeth passing into and through her armor.  The wound was slight but Tilliana could feel her strength draining away from the chilling touch of the beast.  Three of the shadow like rats latched jaws onto Alairic and he too felt his strength drain away.  Tilliana swept Razortongue down at the rats biting at her, moving her feet back and away from the little monsters.  One of them dissapated from the touch of the blade but the enchanted sword passed harmlessly through a second.  Alairic swung, but his holy blade passed harmlessly through his target.  Niccolo managed to spear one on the tip of his longsword but still more rats pressed in at the companions.  Their feet shuffled to avoid the small biting jaws and their weapons stabbed down and at the creatures.  But the smoky substance that formed the rats was not always solid and the weapons frustratingly kept passing through the incorporeal forms.  Tilliana as she moved to avoid another of the small jaws released her right hand from the hilt of her sword and reached to the silken divine focus hanging from her neck.  Pulling it out she called to Naemae and a divine light bathed the room for a moment.  The silent rats finally made a noise and with a hideous shriek, they were gone and the shadows that had crept across the floor of the room from the fireplace disappeared as well.  The four stood there panting for a moment, the frantic fight suddenly over.“I should have done that in the first place,” said Tilliana, “I didn’t realize they were undead though at first.”When they had gathered themselves together, Tilliana prayed over Alairic and his strength, so drained by the shadow rats, was restored to him.  Feeling better, Alairic was once more all business.“Let’s check in the fireplace,” he said.But with the shadow rats gone, the fireplace had nothing unusual to note.  It had evidently not been used in many years except as a rat nest.  Tilliana opened the door on the north wall and led the way into it.  But scarcely had they begun to examine what to all appearances was an empty room, Tilliana barked, “The ceiling is bad in here, everybody out!”  As they looked up, they saw she was right, the ceiling was bowed badly as if a great weight was on it above.  Not wishing to have the ceiling collapse on them, they quickly exited back into the kitchen.The archway on the left leading south proved to be a rubble filled hallway.  Someone had dragged rock, brick and timber and had filled the hallway completely, making it impossible to use the hallway without first cleaning it out.The other archway also led to a hall.  This one was unblocked, with a door on the south, a door on the west wall and right next to that door, an archway leading to stairs going down.“Let’s open the doors at the same time,” suggested Alairic.“Alright,” said Tilliana, “I’ll open the one in the middle of the hall, you take the one on the end.”“One, two,” counted Alairic and they opened the doors.Tilliana’s door opened onto a cupboard, currently empty.  Alairic’s door led into a bedroom, empty with a sagging ceiling.  “Let’s go down,” said Alairic cheerfully leading the way.  Tilliana followed right behind him.  Rasthok took the rear, right behind Niccolo.There was a small room at the bottom of the stairs, hewn out of the rock under the fort.  There was a door on the south wall and an archway on the west wall, leading to a dark room.They tried the door first.  Behind the door, which was unlocked, they saw a small five foot hallway and then a room.  There were three beds in the room, all parallel to each other against the east wall.  At the foot of each of the beds were large chests, each at least five feet in length and three feet tall.  Alairic opened the chest on the far right.  It was unlocked and empty.  At the bottom of the chest they could see that the chest was bolted to the stone floor.Tilliana strode forward and opened the one in the middle.  It too was unlocked and empty.“That leaves me,” said Niccolo and tried to open the one on the left.  The lid would not budge.  “Let’s check under the beds,” said Alairic, and getting on his knees he looked under each of the beds.  The beds too, it seemed, were bolted to the stone floor.“Who would bolt beds to the floor?” asked Niccolo.“Split open that one chest,” said Tilliana to Niccolo.Niccolo smiled and hefted his greatax.  Rasthok looked on for a moment and then backed away, out of the swinging space of the half-elf.  Niccolo swung hard and the lid of the chest shattered and then suddenly blew up and open.  A clawed hand shot up, out of the chest, followed closely by a large body!  The claw shot up and struck Niccolo, knocking Niccolo back“Ouch,” said Niccolo as something sucked the energy from him.  The attacker flew up and snarled.  It was the large bearded vampire, the one who wielded the greatsword and he did not look happy to be awake.  Somehow his greatsword had fit with him in the chest and he pulled it up now, readying it for combat, still hissing and snarling like some beast.Rasthok, who had been standing back, was the first to react.  As soon as the vampire stood, Rasthok was murmuring arcane words of power and a second later, two bolts of energy flew from his fingers and struck the vampire in the chest.  The missiles seemed to hurt it.  A second behind the missiles, Niccolo’s axe swung through the air, cleaving into the vampire’s shoulder in what should have been a mortal blow.  The vampire turned to mist, the snarl’s dying on its lips.  But the mist did not fly off and away.  Instead it settled back down into the open chest and the vampire rematerialized there, looking for all the world like a corpse, laid to rest in somebody’s foot-locker.  “Stake him!” shouted Alairic, “And then lets drag him upstairs and out into the sunlight.  They quickly put the words into action and after removing the creature’s chain shirt, sword and some gems, they drove a tent-peg through his heart and then carried the lifeless body up the stairs and into the sunlight where it burst into bright flame.  “That’s one down!” said Alairic happily.“Do you need the chain-mail,” said Niccolo to Rasthok, eyeing the armorless form of their new companion.“He can’t wear armor unless I’m mistaken,” said Alairic knowingly.“He’s right,” said Rasthok, “I’m a mage, an evoker and it would interfere with my spells.“Ohh,” said Niccolo, not quite understanding but not willing to push the issue.“Let’s go get the rest of them!” said Alairic with a broad grin, leading the way back into the house.</blockquote>

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