I am now prepared for what may be our final adventure in this town, and I have some time to transcribe the events of the day. I must admit that our battle with the vampires was disappointing, though at the same time a great relief. They must have read the lost pages of my journal, but I now believe they knew nothing of us or our quest beyond those pages.
The priest's truth spell convinced the sheriff that the reclusive baron was worth investigating. He sent three of his men, including the foreign guardsman, to search the mansion, and deputized all of us temporarily as town guards so that we could bring our weapons.
The baron's guards tried to clear our entry with the baron, but the priest would not let them. This was a wise move – if the baron turned out to be a vampire, it would not do to alert him of our presence. We left one guard outside to watch the baron's guards, and had one of the baron's servants lead us to him. I have yet to understand how structures of such great height can stand under their own weight. By the time we were on the third floor, I half expected the entire structure to collapse, or at least to feel a mild rocking sensation, but there was nothing. The third floor was as sturdy as the ground outside.
The baron was at his desk, writing, and he looked up when we came in, as though he had expected us. For someone who had been so elusive for so long, he was quite willing to talk to us now. He admitted responsibility for every crime the town had seen in the past few weeks, and freely told us that not only was he a vampire, but he was in control of all the other vampires in the town, including the most powerful baron and the head of the longshoremen. His primary motivation, much to my disappointment and relief, had been not to conquer the town, but merely to attract the attention of the priest. It had been a hobby of his for many years to track down and murder priests, who, with their ability to destroy undead, would be the most dangerous opponents for a vampire.
He seemed very confident, for he waited until we had all the answers we wanted before he commenced the attack. He treated it like a game, making no attempt to surprise or subvert us, but merely agreeing with the priest that it was time to begin.
This battle seems to remain in my mind more clearly than others in the past, though it was so long that I will no doubt fail to record the majority of the details. The battle took place in stages, each one meant to deplete our resources and, most especially, to weaken the priest. Throughout the battle, I felt a series of strange effects. Whenever I stood near the priest, the magic he cast made me see more clearly, and made both my crossbow and my magic more accurate and deadly. And whenever I stood near the winged woman, who had released her wings from their binding, I felt protected, like some magical force was surrounding me as armor.
In the first stage of the battle, a humanoid creature with an upper lip that ended in many long tentacles emerged from a closet, while the vampire fought with a staff and a mace, both of which were magical. The mace, I later learned, was a replica of some artifact important to the priest. The priest could not destroy the vampire as he destroyed so many other undead creatures, but he did a good deal of damage. Then the vampire turned into mist and slipped down a grate. The tentacled creature fought with some form of psionic attack, though it was almost totally ineffective, and we soon dispatched it. Meanwhile, the priest summoned a creature made out of wind, and commanded it to go into the grate and funnel air upward, hoping to suck the vampire back up through the grate, but the attempt failed. The priest then used his wand to determine the direction in which the vampire had moved, and we hurried down to the second floor.
The staircase was treacherous; we were attacked both at the top and at the bottom by a seemingly unending stream of men and vampires. At least three vampires filed in at the top of the stairs, each of which was destroyed by the priest, but not before both the Empty Hand and myself were hit by their life-draining touch. I spent the remainder of the battle in a weakened state, and I will remain so until tomorrow, when the priest can heal me. Dozens of the baron's men came in from all sides during the battle, and it was a good while before we'd killed them all.
Before we could reach the bottom of the stairs, one of the baron's men pulled at a sconce, which covered the stairs with slippery grease and sent a series of electrical pulses through them. Having a good deal of practice with this sort of thing, I did not find it difficult to escape, but some of the others could hardly move. The Infiltrator managed to disable the device, though it took some time before everyone could make it down the stairs. We made short work of the waiting minions.
A nearby door revealed a large room where we once again saw the baron, but not before he released a magical ball of fire at us. The Infiltrator, Empty Hand and I easily evaded, having been long trained in escaping magical effects, but some of the others were seriously injured. The guardsman that the foreign guardsman had brought along fell to the ground, unconscious, and remained there until the priest revived him.
The baron fought alongside six of the shadow creatures we had seen in the kobold's lair. With the priest's power, however, the shadows proved to be no challenge at all, and soon we were once again fighting the baron. To our dismay, he slipped through another grate as soon as we had the upper hand, so again, we had to hurry down the stairs. We were stopped on the way by another three vampires, whom the priest destroyed.
Before we could find the baron again, we had another battle to fight on the first floor. Four giant spiders and a strange hybrid creature I had not seen before – half spider, and half drow – waited for us at the base of the stairs. The spider-drow attacked us with magical lightning, and ensnared many of us in the same type of magical web I had used against the orcs. Once we had defeated them, we hurried a bit too hastily through a door, and were struck by a spell of the baron's, which made myself and the Empty Hand so nauseous that we could not fight until the battle was nearly at an end.
The others fought what at first appeared to be a pair of barons and a werewolf. One of the barons, as I expected, was quickly revealed by an arrow to be an illusion. I continued to respect the baron as a fighter, but after that point, I knew his magical abilities were not even worth concerning ourselves. Such a frivolous school of magic whose spells can be destroyed at a touch, or even, in many cases, at a thought, is not the domain of any true arcanist.
The baron used a good deal more magic that battle, but none had any significant effect on us. In the end, he read the words off a scroll and disappeared, and the winged woman used some magic of her own to locate him. We used her directions to attack him, and then, still invisible, he turned into mist and slipped through another grate. His transformation this time was different from the others. In the other three occurrences, he seemed to have complete control of the situation. He escaped with precisely the right timing, so that he was minimally damaged which depleting our resources as much as possible. This time, there was a level of desperation in his movements, like we had finally hurt him to the point where he was concerned for his own survival. With the baron gone, the Infiltrator and the guardsman made short work of the werewolf.
Again, our exit was protected by a trap. An electric pulse shot through the floor as soon as we entered the new room. The Infiltrator found the mechanism and disabled the trap, but not before receiving a minor shock himself.
The basement turned out to be a waste of time and energy, though we did find the baron's treasure room, which funded the next part of our battle.
First, we had an encounter in the wine cellar which was far more troublesome than we had hoped. A pool of black sludge oozed out of the wall, and turned out to be a living creature. It moved very slowly, but we were determined to get past it, in case there were any secret openings in the cellar walls which might lead to the baron. Traditional attacks were detrimental, as the creature's innards were extremely acidic. Armor and weapons eroded away rapidly, and the Empty Hand's fist nearly suffered the same fate. Sharp weapons split it in two, and both halves attacked as independent creatures. Finally we destroyed it, though I had to use up all my damaging magic, and we had to resort to torches, burning oil, and even wine bottles. For a good portion of the combat, the winged woman was underneath one of the creatures (for by then we had split it into three), and she was nearly killed.
Unfortunately, the only secret door we found in the basement was not in the wine cellar. It led to the baron's treasury, which contained a good deal of gold and silver, in addition to some magical objects. One brief event occurred while opening the door that I must record, though it is highly unlikely that I will forget it. When the foreign guardsman failed to break open the lock of the secret door, he said “My sensei would be disappointed.” I must ask him who this sensei is.
We returned upstairs and considered what to do next. One option was to search each floor of the house, hoping to find a shaft that led down to the basement. The priest's wand continued to confirm that that was his location – directly below the kitchen, in fact. The Infiltrator, noticing that the guardsman who had come along with the foreigner had picked up the baron's magic staff, suggested that he use it to force his way through the floor. This seemed an odd strategy, since the staff would surely break, magic or not. While searching the first floor of the house, the foreign guardsman touched a bow mounted on one wall, and suddenly disappeared. We looked where he had been, and saw an incredibly deep shaft. We all thought this could have been the way to the baron, since a vampire could use such a shaft as easily as a normal person would use a staircase, but there was no secret door. I drank a potion I had been carrying for a while, and levitated down to the guardsman to give him a healing potion. He was severely injured, though the potion helped a bit. Then the Infiltrator lowered a rope, and climbed down to help the guardsman up.
At a loss for ideas, the priest decided we should at least know what the baron was doing, and cast a spell to see him through the floor. He was standing there in wait, looking in a particular direction (towards the secret entrance, which we had not found). With him were two flying creatures that the priest described as demonic spirits. There were also two or three dozen coffins, which we could only hope did not contain more vampires.
We came to the conclusion that, even if we could find the secret door, we were in no condition to fight the vampire. It was perhaps a foolish move, but we decided to loot the baron's treasury and return to the town shops to replenish our supplies. We knew, at least, that the baron was unlikely to escape. According to the priest, destroying a vampire's coffin would make it extremely vulnerable, so the baron, weakened as he was, would not risk leaving that room. The only real danger was that he would enlist more creatures to his aid.
The guardsman we had left outside was dead, and the statue of a dragon-like creature was gone. This made sense to me when I connected it to the foreign guardsman's story days before. The baron had had three statues – a dragon, a werewolf and a tentacled creature. All three had come to life during the battle.
The winged woman flew overhead (much to the surprise of the townspeople, who had not known about her wings), and followed the trail of burned and destroyed buildings. At the end, she saw the creature, dead on the ground with dozens of javelins protruding from its body. Given what had happened, the town guard lifted the price restrictions on weapons and damaging magic, and we hurriedly resupplied before returning to the baron's house.
We stood in the kitchen, preparing our spells. I used scrolls to protect everyone who needed it with magical armor, and the priest enchanted some pebbles, turning them into powerful weapons, and passed them around. Then he cast another spell to open up a large hole in the floor. Our hope had been to surprise the baron, and pelt him with magic stones before he could react, but he heard the floor opening and had time to prepare.
Still, the battle went without a hitch. Most of our magic pebbles missed, but a spell of the priest's, which produced a light so bright that it burned, caused the baron to turn into mist, dropping all his equipment, and hurry toward one of the coffins. This final transformation was important, said the priest. The baron was now so injured that he was restrained to his coffin until he could recover. Now he was vulnerable. The spirits, who flew up to attack us, did not prove too troublesome, and soon we were all able to climb down to he basement. The priest opened the coffin, and, seeing the fully-formed body of the baron inside, stabbed a wooden stake through his heart. Bile and blood sprayed in every direction, and while this was going on, the Infiltrator forced the baron's mouth open and poured his magic water inside. Using magic, we determined that only nine of the coffins had housed vampires, so we knew we had successfully destroyed them all. We poured magic water in all the coffins just in case. Satisfied on that count, the Infiltrator carried the baron outside, and watched him vaporize in the sunlight.
I only regret that, through saving the town from this vampire, we did not learn anything of our mission. For a time I believed the vampires knew more than was written in those first pages of my journal, though now it seems that every hint of our enemy in this town has been an illusion. There is but one possibility left, and if that fails, then our presence in this town has been for naught.
The next few hours were spent wrapping things up. The town guard broke into the other two vampires' houses but could not find them. The town claimed half the money we found and let us keep the other half (not taking into account what we had spent before our final battle). They allowed us to keep all the magical equipment. The winged woman walked around town with her share of the money, giving handfuls of gold and silver coins to the poor (I have no time now, but I must consider the implications of this). The Empty Hand gave his share to the temple, and spend time praying at the altar (another occurrence I must think about).
The Empty Hand, the Infiltrator and I spent time discussing what we would do next. We have still come to no conclusion as to whether we will follow the priest to his city. The Infiltrator continues to insist that we should go, since our mission is to improve ourselves, and as yet has nothing to do with our enemy. The one valid point he makes is that, if our enemy knows of our presence, we would be wise to flee to where he does not know us. For myself, however, I would like to know as much about the enemy as possible before he knows too much about us, and what we have seen so far implies that we're moving farther away rather than closer. It was the kobolds' lair where we saw the name of our enemy written. Here we receive only vague hints, and those, as far as we know, have all been connected with the pages of this journal that I allowed myself to lose.
The Empty Hand thought it time to tell the priest and the woman of our mission, though this did not sit well with me. The priest has saved our lives many times, and I trust the priest not only with my life, but with the lives of my companions. Our mission, however, is far more important than any of our lives, and, especially after what happened in the temple, it is difficult for me to trust anyone new. There are only six others in this world of man whom I know I can trust, and despite the almost tangible aura of goodness that surrounds the priest, I've learned that almost anything can be imitated or disguised with magic.
The Empty hand scolded me outright for mistreating the winged woman. Although I still find the circumstances around her arrival suspect, I would not take the words of the Empty Hand lightly. I will spend some time tonight thinking about this.
As a final order of business, the Empty Hand suggested we go to the island. I had been remaining quiet, given the circumstances under which I learned of the island, so I am glad he mentioned it. The Infiltrator reluctantly agreed to join us. The Empty Hand asked a favor of me, that I agree to take the winged woman along, and I did so agree. It seems that all of us will go, including the priest, to find whoever this is who was interested in my journal before he sails away with the passing of the storms.