(G339 06/01/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA19

(G339 06/01/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ) WA19

DAY 308 (13th Hammer)(January) cont ...

Having opened the door to the chambers of Rathol Erlend, the man he was here to kill, Fenrir flew inside, invisible, aided by his warlock's infernal powers.

The room he entered had once contained opulent furniture but was now covered in dirt, dust and bloodstains. The windows were shuttered and it smelled of death. Three Vampire Spawn were also here, creatures he easily identified from previous encounters.

They could not see him though, and with the door now open they left the room. A minute or so later Fenrir heard screams coming from the ground floor. There was another door and on opening it he saw Lord Erlend, evidently now a vampire, and a girl who was lying on the double bed asleep or unconscious.

Keeping to the ceiling and being as quiet as possible, Fenrir surprised the vampire with a devastating attack.
Badly injured from the eldritch blast, Erlend fled the room and ran down the stairs. On his way after him Fenrir encountered one of the Vampire Spawns and killed it.

When he entered the large sitting room where Lady Erlend was, he saw her vampiric husband quaffing a healing potion.
He noticed Fenrir enter though and threw a brandy decanter at him which hit and burst. He then picked up a flaming coal from the fire and threw it also. Fenrir gave up on being invisible and attacked again.
The vampire, unable to get his hands on his aerial foe tried to dominate Fenrir and very nearly succeeded. However a couple more blasts from Fenrir killed the undead villain.
All during the combat Arahel had been at the window, as a wisp, tapping at the window!
She had not had the bravery to smash through the glass or considered trying her electrical attack on it.

In any event, with the combat over, Fenrir lifted up the body and flew off with it. After five or ten minutes he found a river and dumped it in, knowing, correctly, that vampire bodies could be destroyed utterly in flowing water. He also paused on the way to kill another Vampire Spawn which was being held at bay at the front entrance of the manor by two guards.

Meanwhile Arahel was zipping from window to window and upstairs saw a teenage girl being menaced by one of the Vampire Spawn in her bedroom. Arahel crashed through the window and easily killed the Spawn as the stupid creature did not realise it could not dominate a wisp.

The girl, who was hiding behind her bed quivered and said, 'Are you an angel?'
'No,' said Arahel in her wispy wisp voice, 'I am a kiloren.'
The girl seemed confused and retreated as far as she could into the corner.
'Please leave me alone!'

Arahel went downstairs and saw a man riding off on a horse at the front gates of the manor. She waited for a while and after about a twenty minute round trip Fenrir returned from his vampire dunking. He was on foot and had Veddic with him.

At the gate his smooth tongue made friends of the guards and the housekeeper was summoned. She was rather upset about the bloodshed as you might expect and was in no mood to let strangers into the house.
'What do you want?' she demanded
'We are passing vampire hunters, we are here to help with your situation.'
'What?' she blinked in puzzlement. 'How would you know there are vampires here?'
'We received divine guidance. We must cleanse this place of evil.'
'Oh well,' said the housekeeper, already falling for his charming smile. 'I'll inform the lady of the house, who shall I say is calling?'
'Umm.. Gabriel Vampiresbane, and umm... Azarahel Undeadchopper.'

Who knows what was going on in Fenrir's head while he waited for the housekeeper to return from the house where he had just carried out a killing spree?
To kill time as much as anything else, he shouted up to the house, a good fifty yards away from the gate,
'Ho! Celestial Friend, will you not join us?'
Arahel, to my eternal puzzlement, decided to reply and give away her location to all present, 'I am inside! They have shut the door to the stairs and the front door. I am trapped!'
(Rollo note: I don't think Arahel was trying that hard, to be honest, at this stage as it is the easiest thing for a druid to get out of a house. Maybe it's a kiloren thing?)

The guards at the gate looked at each other and shrugged. Whatever was going on now was well beyond their pay grade.

The housekeeper and two more nervous looking guards arrived back at the gate. She asked, with a tremor in her voice
'Would you like some tea while you wait?'
She gestured to the guard house, but even Fenrir in his confidence could see the sense of not being trapped in there, even if he could not see perhaps that the housekeeper was stalling for time.

They talked for some more, then from outside the gate they heard the clattering of horses hooves. Fenrir peaked over the wall and saw that about twenty horsemen, armed to the teeth, had just arrived.

Realising the jig was up, he stuffed Veddic into his bag of holding ('Now wait a minute Fenrir old chap... gumf!') and took to the skies. Invisible, he then flew back to the copse they had been using as a hide out.

In the trees Fenrir let Veddic out of the bag. The poor cleric had hated it in there so much, slowly suffocating, that he declared that he never wished to do it again.

Meanwhile, Arahel had suddenly realised that houses had fireplaces, which meant chimneys. And so she defeated one of her most challenging of enemies so far to date - the dreaded - shut window!

For reasons I can only guess at she then flew south for an hour, perhaps forgetting that the two men would be most likely at the copse. After that, she flew back to the Grand Manor.

Even so, Fenrir and Veddic had moved on by then. They changed their appearance (Fenrir removed his disguise and Veddic removed his armour and wore his clerical vestments) and walked back to Westgate. The whole county was in uproar though.
Lady Erlend had put out the word that assassins were on the prowl (leaving out the fact that her husband had been a  vampire of course) and it was not long before three guards on horseback, with three hounds were heard coming up the lane behind them. It was still only ten o'clock in the morning.

Fenrir charmed and bluffed the guards into believing they were merely a 'Couple of travellers' on the road to Westgate. Unwisely he gave the name he went by in that city - Raziel Lightningrod. Veddic he named Barry Pratchett.
The guards were easily fooled and they left them to go on their way in any event.

At the city gates he tried to bluff his way again, but one of the watchmen recognised him. Fenrir, quick on his wits as always, bluffed his way past them, telling the constable he was not a deserter, but deep undercover.

They went to the Jolly Warrior Inn. Since this had been their local, the landlord recognised them and said,
'Shame about you getting bombed out of your cottage.'
They agreed, and treated themselves to a slap up lunch in a private room.

Back at the Grand Estate, Arahel zipped about a bit more, invisible, watching the comings and goings. A coach pulled up and people went inside. After about an hour they came back out again. She caught there names as Lord Garum and Lady Von Shuje.

Around noon she overheard some guards talking about two odd characters they had met that were on their way to Westgate. Their leader was telling them off for not bringing them in, and Arahel realised it must have been her companions.

She moved along to another window, the one were Lord Erlend and the sleeping woman had been. The woman was still there, lying on the bed with her eyes shut. Lady Erlend entered and Arahel watched passively at the window as she took a dagger and stabbed the younger woman in the heart. Lady Erlend then ran out the room slamming the door behind her.

Arahel then flew back to Westgate, narrowly missing Dressdelle who was patrolling above the city. Next she landed, in a hidden spot turned and into a dwarf. Taking a chance she tried the Jolly Warrior and eventually the three would-be assassins were reunited.

The walked out of the west gate (Fenrir was recognised yet again!) and then flew to Spectre Island. At four o'clock they arrived back at the cottage. It was a hive of activity. Not only was Random there, but eight young people varying in age from twelve to twenty, friends (or something) he'd called in to help set the place up as a base.
Fenrir and company said hello, but were not pushed by curiosity to ask who they were or where they had come from, possibly thinking that whatever was going on was Random's business alone.