Ow no!

He is down. Is he breathing? Quick! Hug the wall. Stay silent. Stay stealthy…

The vampire spawn did some evil magic on Ka’tau. Ka’tau crumpled to the ground and was out cold.

Ow No!  I am next. She is going to attack me now.  Bah. What to do? 

I wanted to shout out to Ka’tau… “Stand up! ”  I said to myself and saw Ka’tau taking one breath….two… and with a big sigh Ka’tau sucked in so much air, that his escaped soul must have been sucked back into his body.

Good, Good, He is alive.

Ka’tau stood up and disoriented he looked around. Slowly he walked towards the wall and hid outside the sight of the Vampire.

The hallway was now between Ka’tau and me and from that hallway some strange sounds could be heard. My instinct said that vampire was preparing another of her evil spells.

Should i stay still or should i shout out to Ka’tau. NO..! Stay hidden. Stay still. Be quiet!  But what if she summoned some other deader. what if. Bah.. too much to think about. Bah. Too late there she is. Only one thing to do. Attack.

 I chanted the flame strike evocation and targeted the vampire spawn.

Three? no! This can’t be. There are three of her. Three!  Well, here goes nothing. eenie meenie miney….

The stone carved room filled up with with a orange yellow glow of fire and the targeted vampire spawn was engulfed into a massive inferno and dissolved into nothing. The two shady and shimmering vampires that are left turned immediately and faced me.

Smart move Garitas, wrong choice of vampire. missed. Now she knows where you are. Damn. If only I had more time to hide again.

The weaving images of vampires took another step towards me and hissed. They mumbled a single sentence and released a sickening spell on me.

Whoa!  This must be the mother of all hangovers on steroids. 

I was hit with a wave of sickening evilness. Holding on not to vomit I swallowed three times and tried to hold on to life. In the corner of my eye I saw that Ka’tau was healing himself to get ready for another round with that evil spawn.

HUUUURGGEHH.. At least I destracted her. 

The two in and out of reality shimmering vampires took a quick glace towards Ka’tau and looked back at me. She Hissed and retreated back into the hallway.

After a few seconds gasping for air and getting ready to face the vampire again nothing happened. “PSST Katau, ” I whispered. “Are You ok? Can you still hear her? is she gone?”  Ka’tau look at me and shrugged his shoulders. Katau mumbled another spell and a big shiny metal armour construct appeared in front of the entrance of the hallway.

Good… That will scare her. a bit.

Another second passed. And another. “Should we peek into the hallway?” I said. Again Ka’tau shrugged his shoulders and mumbled another spell. This time he conjured daylight on a stone and  threw this into the hallway. Ka’tau peeked around the corner and he said: “She is running away, lets follow her.” and before I could blink he was going after the vampire spawn.

But we need to hide.. to stay still… to be quiet…not to run towards danger with full light around us.

We ran into the hallway and I grabbed the lit stone and used it as a lantern so that we could see the path we were going. In front of us the hallway opened up and before us arose a big huge hill. On this hill was the biggest and oldest necropolis i had ever seen. Broken gravestones and dug up graves. Cracked mausoleums and little temples. Dead was all around us and it was ancient. Everything we touched crumbled under our feet. After a minute or so we decided to catch our breath. The vampire was nowhere to be seen and it looked that she had run up the hill. The trail of broken tombstones and crumbled bones led away from us. I dimmed the light on the stone some more and after our eyes got used to the dim light we saw that there was another dim light over the top of the hill. “That is our goal.” I said to ka’ tau, “That light must be our way out. ”

After walking a few minutes towards the dim light seemingly coming from the top of the hill, Ka’tau spotted something next to a grave and he started digging. I could not clearly see what he dug from the grave. But it seemed like a bottle of smoke.

He is a fool….we don’t have the time…  Wait..! I am the fool there must be treasure here… Lots of treasure… Why haven’ t I looked for it earlier.

While Kat’au was searching his spot I also took the time to look around. Minutes passed and there it was. The most shiny chainshirt I ever had seen in my life.

KA-CHING… This is another one of my lucky days.

Ka’tau saw me wrestling with a way to big chain shirt and asked me what I was doing. “Nothing” I said, “I am just trying to wear this chainshirt.” Suddenly the chainshirt took on a halfling size and it fitted perfectly. Ka’tau blinked his eyes and knew I also found some treasure.

I never going to change this armour ever again.

We were interrupted from our searching and looking to our loot from the sound of commands given. The vampire must have found reinforcements. “Over there. there in the light the vampire,” I said, “And he is not alone.”  A few armoured ghoul like creatures where standing around the vampire and where listening to instructions while the vampire pointed in our direction. After the vampire was done giving commands the ghouls started to walk towards us.

Bah.. Why can’t this adventuring be a little bit easier once in a while.

“Look Ka’tau, over there. See That? That looks like a chain… with buckets… That is our way out. Quick lets run towards it.” Kat’au confirmed my idea and we started to hussel trough the necropolis remains towards our already imagined escape. “CLINK” “CLANK” “CLINK” “CLANK” The necropolis remains were more rough here and we had to dodge more and more rubble and Ka’tau was making a lot of noise. His armour hitting gravestones while he was trying to keeping himself upright.

Quiet. you Idiot. Be Silent. Be Stealthy.

I waited a few times to let Katau to catch up with me.  I used the stone light to illuminate our the way. The sounds of the ghouls kept getting closer and closer. Ka’tau was getting louder and louder. “CLINK” “CLUNK” “CLINK” “CLONK” We almost could hear the ghouls breathe in our necks. The next thing I heard from Ka’tau was: “Hide. ” I ran towards a small mausoleum and sat down in the darkest corner i could find. I put the lightstone in my pocket and sat there in complete darkness.

Dark… Too dark… again. I hate the darkness… I so hate the darkness. Silent… i need to be silent… I can hear them… there… no there… 

After I was sure the ghouls were nowhere near me I peeked out of the mausoleum. A big necropolis was staring back at me in all its darkness. Ka’tau was nowhere to be seen and using more light would only attract more ghouls or more evil stuff.

Fuck, Fuck you all.. all be damned, I’m getting out of this. I don’t want to play this game any-longer. 

The only way out was that bucket on a chain elevator and with so much foes around i decided to go towards the elevator, alone. Cursing all the curses i could think of, I slowly made my way towards the bucket elevator. Blaming the dragonborn for getting ourselfs almost captured. Blaming him for not being here.

That piece of dragonborn can find his own way out. I’am outta here. I only going to take care of myself from now on.

After a few minutes I reached the end of the necropolis. In front of me a good sprint away was the bucket elevator. Next to the elevator was platform with a big lever and some gears. That must me the control of the elevator. I scouted the area for a few minutes and made clear there was nobody around.

When I sprinted towards the elevator i heard a sound behind me. At the elevator i turned around and looked towards the sound. The darkness looking back at me was overwhelming. Nothing to be seen. The sound was faint but familiar. “CLINK” “CLANK” “CLINK” “CLANK”. I took the light stone in my hand and directed the light towards the way of the sound. In the distance a cloud of dust, cracked bones, brittle stone, pebbles and other things you can find in a necropolis, came hurling towards me. In the middle of that dust was a dragonborn on full acceleration. As he gained momentum the cloud of rubble he left behind trippled in size. Far behind him, also running, were the ghouls. I could not believe my eyes. “Quick, Jump in the bucket, ” I said. “I’ll handle the lever.” Ka’tau came to a full stop after a leap in the bucket, while I pulled the lever with all my strength and the elevator started to move. After jumping in the bucket and looking back out of it to see if we were still in danger, I saw the Vampire again. She hissed and seemed pissed that we escaped the ghouls. She was running towards the lever.

Shit… The Lever… She must not use the lever.

“Ka’tau,” I shouted, “Shoot the lever.” I pointed towards the lever, said the words, and fire jumped from my hand towards the lever. Kat’au also took a shot at the lever and together we destroyed it into a smoldering piece of metal.

The elevator took us higher and higher. The more distance the better i thought, but a while later there still was no end to this elevator to be seen. After what seems a couple buildings higher  grated platforms leading to tubes on the side of the elevator started to appear. they were sixty meters apart. there the second one, and the third, and the fourth. When i looked up still nothing to see above us. the platforms started to become further apart. hundred meters, and a second, and a third. Discussing whether we should jump out of the elevator cart, my gut and instinct told me to take the next platform. We jumped off the cart and onto the grate. Good luck the grate was strong enough to hold us, barely. We entered the tube and walked towards the end. a few twists and turns later. we found out that this tube entered another big empty space. again filled with darkness.

After a not so long deliberation. we decided to take a rest inside this tube structure. Nobody would find us here. Before we we going to sleep. Ka’tau summond one of his shield elementals to stand guard and he healed us both.

Maybe this dragonborn warpriest has his uses afterall.

…