DavesGaming

Vampires. Vampires have come to be a major part of our story. When we first awoke in Irenicus’ lab in Athkatla we came across a vampire battling a group of thieves. This would be more important than we knew at the time.

The local thieves’ guild, the Shadow Thieves, were in a desperate struggle with a coven of vampires. That struggle played out in the streets of Athkatla. Innocent people got caught up in that conflict.
I shouldn’t have to explain why we chose a side in this fight before we even knew all the details. But I’ve heard people say some amazing and ridiculous things, so here it is; vampires are a pure and utter evil. They see the living, every single one of us, as prey. As food. They aren’t stupid, they can be tempting or even seductive. But make no mistake, they are evil. I will fight a vampire on almost any occasion. Even when it means I’m protecting thieves.
And that became an issue to us from before we even escaped from Irenicus’ lab.

Me and mine aren’t mice. We faced and slew vampires on a few occasions. And we heard through rumors and gossip that there was a guild war going on between the Shadow Thieves and some new interlopers. Well, we figured the newcomers were vampires long before it seemed to be common knowledge. Those first couple weeks our only contact with the Shadow Thieves was through our “friend” Gaelan Bayle, he offered that his friends could help us find Imoen but we would need to pay a fee.
We knew the score right away, who Gaelan’s friends were and that this would not be strictly “legal”. But since an agency of Athkatla arrested Imoen for *nothing*, I was willing to go against the local state in this case. I would not have cause to regret this. I know what the thieves are, we’ll never all be best buddies. But they played straight with us in ways the government did not.

When we had amassed enough wealth to pay the Shadow Thieves’ fee, we learned some more specific sorts of things. For starters, we were to meet with Aran Linvail, the head man of the guild.

The first time we met with him he offered the help we wanted to find Imoen, explained some of his difficulties and apologized for some delays. And he offered us some valuable magic items in exchange for our help in the interim. One of the items, the “Amulet of Power”, is pretty much ideal for facing vampires as it confers complete resistance (to the wearer only) to a vampire’s most dangerous attacks. Even though Aran didn’t quite come out and say the nature of the threat… we knew.
He asked us join with a friend of his known as Mook, who was guarding a dock and reported being surveiled by persons unknown.

We had other business all through this, but we battled vampires, protected thieves on a couple occasions. Some thieves had in fact switched sides, vampires can be dangerously tempting.
Aran next asked us to attend a meeting. He had information a couple of thieves were looking to defect to the other team, and he wanted us to learn what we could.

That was all we needed. We reported back to Aran, and he asked us to go to the graveyard. There were crypts and catecombs down below, he had become sure that was where the vampires were.

As we ventured into the northern tombs things changed considerably. We found ouselves facing many vampires, with ghasts and a golem.
In one chamber was a large vat full of… blood? It smelled vile, I saw a mace down in the liquid. I was inclined to ingnore it, but Aerie said she detected strong magic on the mace.

Aerie identified it as a Mace of Disruption. A weapon made for destroying undead. Did the vampires think no one would touch that thing if it was covered in red goo? Well we did. Amyntor is well trained in mace.

This many vampires is a serious challenge. For now, I’m well protected for fighting them, and Aerie blessed Amyntor and Keldorn with resistence to Negative Energy. That’s a shorter lasting defense, but it works when needed. And we really had a lot of vampires to fight, close to twenty in several locations in the tomb.

Things had fallen quiet and we took time to stake all the vampires we could find. As we finished up we were joined by a new threat.
She introduced herself as Bodhi, Irenicus’ sister. She taunted us, threatened our destruction. And she offered the shocking revelation that the thieves were not completely honest.

We fought. She was not much danger to the six of us. Of course the trick with vampires is once you defeat them, you need to track them to their coffin and stake them. We could find no trace of Bodhi after she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

We reported back to Aran again. He confessed pretty quickly that he knew what we were up against all along. Which was funny, because we knew and we knew he knew. Silly game.
Aran offered all was in place for us to journey to Imoen. The Cowled Mages kept their prisoners at a place called Spellhold, an assylum for magical deviants. It was on an island out on the fringes of Amn. He had a ship available, ready to depart at our leisure.

I felt relieved. We would need to run back to De’Arnise for the night, then leave in the morning. Aran was agreeable to that. He actually repaid us most of the “fee” we had paid to him. He knew he was loosing his war, and we had just won it for him. I’m not under any illusions about Aran being a nice man, or the Shadow Thieves being a force for good. But they are far better for Athkatla than the alternative they almost faced, and they’ve done right by us.

That seems backwards! Amn has some odd laws. But clearly there is no one better suited to rule in our stead, in the De’Arnise family name, than Nalia De’Arnise! We will return.

And Minsc doesn’t need to know what a good fit Keldorn is in his old role.

But they get along fine. Aerie is gentle and good-natured, and I think Skie is legitimately impressed by her complex skills (mage, and a priestess of gnomish deity). Although even as they laugh together I can see how they do not quite understand each other.

So in the morning we’ll ride back to Athkatla, and catch a ship for Spellhold. Amyntor and I will take Keldorn, Aerie and Skie. We’ll see if Yoshimo is still in town, if he wants to come along (we could use a scout!).