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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mikeawmids1" data-source="post: 9805222" data-attributes="member: 7030604">WOLFENSTRAHDSession 7Sometime after Taskforce M launch the assault on Castle Ravenloft, Cassius returns to Vallaki carrying the bullet-riddled corpse of Blade (KIA). The warehouse is dark, but Cassius' night-attuned eyes pick out a slumped figure tied to a chair, a burlap sack over their head. Cassius removes the hood, and looks upon the slack, bloodless face of one of Ismark's resistance fighters. Something drops from the ceiling to land lightly behind him.<a href="https://www.studiosity.com/hubfs/DTC/09.blog/11.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.studiosity.com/hubfs/DTC/09.blog/11.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></a>Adelia Barbastella (who escaped her bonds with laughable ease) pounces toward her brother, fangs bared bright and bloody in the waning moonlight. Cassius grabs her out of the air, and hurls her against the brick wall. The two dhampir fight, and Cassius wins. Adelia curses Cassius for being their mother's favourite, and constanly overshadowing her. Cassius explains to Adelia he was only given the most dangerous assignments because the clan saw him as an expendable asset, to be deployed and discarded with no care for his survival. This exchange gives Adelia something to think about, and Cassius allows her to leave - after extracting a promise that she will stop consorting with Nazis.Left alone, Cassius performs a dark rite to raise the corpse of Blade as a mindless zombie under his control (a slight re-imagining of the Thrall edge from the Horror Companion).The brain of Walter Thiel cries out to be remembered! He could be of help if the monsters need to complete a complex dramatic task, like disarming a massive Phobos bomb (what a strangely specific example...) but he is left behind again to gather dust.Flash forward to the rest of Taskforce M defending the vernicular station from waves of German soldiers spilling out of Castle Ravenloft. A second gondola arrives carrying reinforcements, including Cassius and Zombie Blade. Ismark and Doc Donnavich are also present.Victor Moonstruck rampages along the wall, ripping through a dozen men. A German sniper positioned atop the gatehouse takes careful aim at the monstrous bear. Cassius dashes toward the towering bulwark, and scrambles up toward the marksman's nest. Zombie Blade shambles along behind, absent the dhampir's inhuman grace. Guy Hades II leaps down into the courtyard and sweeps his stolen laser weapon toward the advancing soldiers. Dismembered bodies litter the ground. A steilhandgranate arcs into the cable car station where the resistance fighters are hunkered down. Ismark is grievously injured in the blast. Vex creeps along the wall, the stone parapets shielding him from enemy fire - until a big guy with a combat knife tackles him to the ground. Vex resists the impulse to uneash devastating magic on his aggressor, he is saving his Power Points for Strahd.The gates to Castle Ravenloft burst outward, as a hulking mechnical Uberhund joins the fray! Victor jumps onto its back, tearing up the exposed wiring beneath its armoured hide. Cassius reaches the top of the gatehouse, rolls a critical failure to attack the sniper, and falls off the roof. He lands beside the Uberhund. It bites him. Not quite believing his luck, the sniper pops out of cover to line up another shot. Guy II lasers him in the face. Victor successfully disables the Uberhund, but is trapped beneath it as it powers down. Flames rush toward the volatile fuel reserves in the gullet of the metal beast, heralding imminent self-destruction. Guy II hauls Victor out just in time for them to both escape the explosion.Taskforce M have captured the gatehouse! The surviving resistance fighters dig in to hold it. Doc D gives each of the monsters a medical syrige to heal one wound if he's not around to patch them up. Vex is like; "WTF am I supposed to do with this? I don't have a vascular system!"Taskforce M enter Castle Ravenloft. They are greeted by a ridiculously old butler, stooped almost double by the weight of his years."The Master welcomes you to his home. Come freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring."Vex shoves passed the elderly manservant, making a beeline for Strahd's throne room. The butler shuffles along behind, muttering about the brashness of youth, with their loud music, their baggy pants and their flensed skulls.The monsters find themslves on the edge of a neatly trimmed hedge maze. Rather than navigate the labyrinth, Victor carves a path straight though to the other side. Beyond the maze lies the threshold of Strahd's throne room. The vampire lord is sprawled languidly acoss his magnificent thone, carved from a single block of obsidian to depict a rearing, three headed dragon. A dozen elite bodyguards stand ready to defend their deathless liege.Guy Hades II rips off his shirt, flexing his rippling demon pecs.GUY II: "FIGHT ME!"STRAHD: "Right now? You don't wan't to hear my big villainous monologue first?"GUY II: "FIGHT ME LIKE A MANO!"Strahd accepts Guy's challenge, and they square off. Strahd is lightning fast, but Guy II hits like a truck. Guy II manages to get the Count into a headlock, and tries to rip his head off Predator-style. Strahd transforms into his huge, monstrous bat form to escape the grapple, leathery wings unfurling from his back to knock Guy II prone. Strahd emits a skull-splitting shriek that makes the monster's ears bleed (except Vex, who has neither blood nor ears). Strahd's three vampiric brides rush to his aid, flying from his bed to join the battle in nowt but their provocative nightwear.The elderly butler produces an antique blunderbuss and starts blasting!Vex casts Blast (and rolls an offensive number of exploding dice), blowing a gaping hole in the wall, through which bright golden sunlight streams. Strahd's skin blisters where the sun touches, and he is driven back into the shadows near his draconic throne. Guy II tackles the retreating vampire and forcibly tears the wings from Strahd's back, casting the coriaceous membrane to the ground. Defeated, Strahd collapses onto his throne and triggers the mechnism for a deus ex machina. The entire dais upon which the throne rests descends into the floor, and reinforced blast doors slam shut to seal the shaft.Victor dismembers one of Strahd's brides. Surprisingly, this fails to kill her, and the severed head curses the confused bear with some very colourful language. Cassius kicks the head into the pool of sunlight, and it bursts into flame. Vex incinerates the other two brides with another empowered Blast.TBC</blockquote>

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