Chapter Twelve: The Vampire's Curse
They spent the rest of that day and most of the next with each other, the whole time constantly apologizing to each other. The others noticed their sudden change in attitude towards each other but said nothing.
Nerrick sent word for them that same day telling them that the canal was back in working order. They departed the next morning and took two days to return to The Zakonian. The sailors from Provoka kept the ship in good condition so they were able to leave right away.
The journey to the port in Melmond took about four days. They could tell even before docking that there was something wrong. The port was in shambles and there wasn't a ship in sight. They docked as best they could in the debris-filled port and headed for land. There was a noticeable amount of blood on the ground so they figured that there had been some sort of struggle. Their search for survivors came up empty handed.
"I don't like this," Keza said. "I've never heard of anything around here that could do this. Heck, it would take and army of ogres to do this kind of damage."
"I sense something. . . Evil," Thol said as he looked around. "It's not here anymore, but it was."
"I feel it too. Whatever it is, it's unnatural," Melira added.
Valon, having sacrificed the more advanced levels of training in order to learn both schools of magic, did not have any such skills as the other two mages, so he had nothing to say.
"Let's hope the city itself isn't like this," Tor said in a grave voice.
A half hour walk later and they arrived at Melmond City. They could see that it too was damaged. The difference, however, was that there were people here.
"My god! What happened here?" Keza yelled upon seeing the damage. He looked about and stared in horror at the shear number of tombstones dotting the cityscape.
Tor stopped a passing citizen. "Excuse me, good sir. Could you tell us what has befallen your city?"
The man snorted. "The Vampire of the Earth, that's what. No one knows where it came from, but it showed up with an army of creatures and laid waste to the port and most of the city. The clinic especially was hit hard. All that's left of it is the foundation."
"Why would it do so?" Valon asked.
The man again snorted. "Does a thing such as a vampire need a reason for anything? I don't know. You should go talk to Almus. He was one of the few who survived the direct attack on the vampire."
"Where is he now?" Keza asked.
"Over at the widow Irlis' house. He took a pretty deep wound in battle and is recovering with the others there."
"Widow? What happened to her husband?" Keza asked.
"Killed by the vampire. He was one of the first victims," the man said. He headed of now, apparently finished talking.
"You know where it is I take it?" Tor asked.
"Of course. This is my hometown after all." He paused for a moment and looked around. "Or what's left of it anyway," he added bitterly.
Keza led them to a large house with only minor damage. He knocked on the door, which bore a deep scratch, and they waited.
An older man answered the door. "Yes? Is the vampire back? Are there more wounded?"
"No, the vampire hasn't come back. We've come to see a man by the name of Almus. We heard that he was recovering here," Keza said.
The old man looked at Keza closely. "You look familiar. Have we by any chance met before young man?"
Keza looked down at the ground, ashamed of himself. "I loath to admit it, sir, but yes we have. You may recall a thieving youth that left this city a few years ago by the name of Keza. That would be me."
The old man's eyes widened in recognition. "Why yes. I do remember you. What brings you back to town? Last I recall the authorities had put out a reward for you."
"I've been included in a quest in hopes that I may atone for my past actions."
"Well I'm glad to hear that. I don't really blame you for your actions personally. In a way, it's the towns fault for not taking you in after your parents were killed. Almus did you say?"
"Yes. That would be the one."
"I'll lead you to him," the old man said. He took them up a flight of steps and down a hallway. He stopped at the third door to the right and knocked lightly. "Almus? Are you awake?"
"I am," said a voice from within the room.
"You have visitors."
"Send them in."
The old man turned to Keza. "There you have it. Be sure and see Irlis before you go. She misses you," the old man said. He went back down stairs then.
"You know her?" Valon asked.
"Yes. She's only a few years older then me and we used to play together when we were younger."
"And when did you leave this city?" Thol asked.
"When I was thirteen."
"Wouldn't that make her a little young to be married?"
Keza shrugged. "It was an arranged marriage. I personally don't approve of those sorts of things, but the older folks around here are just a little old fashioned. She was of legal age of course."
"I see," Thol replied. He stepped forward and opened the door to the room. The man to whom the voice belonged to was a well build, probably tall man. It was difficult to tell as he was lying on the bed.
"You're Almus I take it?" Thol asked as they filed in.
"I am. You have me a disadvantage as I am unaware of your identities."
Thol made the introductions, leaving Keza for last on purpose.
Almus took a better look at Keza after hearing his name. "Keza Kran? From here in town?"
"That would be me. I see time hasn't diminished my local fame," he said with a hint of self-mocking sarcasm.
"It's not what you think. You may not think it from how they acted, but there are many who were saddened when you left. One person in particular comes to mind."
Keza shrugged. "We are here for a reason of course," he said, ignoring what the man said.
"The vampire?"
"Precisely," Thol said. "We were told that you might know why it attacked the city."
"Not exactly. It seemed as though it was looking for something or someone however. I also over heard it talking to one of its minions. It said something like 'We must destroy the Source of Words before we are destroyed by it'. I have no idea what it was talking about."
Thol scratched his chin in thought.
"Any ideas?" Valon asked.
"None. I think we should look around town a bit and see if we can find someone unusual. Does the prophecy say anything about Melmond?"
Valon shook his head. "The prophecy gets a little vague from here on out, but what he said, the Source of Words, that has a familiar ring to it, but other then that, there's nothing."
"Damn it. I was hoping for some help there but I guess we'll just have to figure it out on our own. We'll split up again and ask around. We can do some shopping while we're at it, if there's any shops left that is," Thol said.
"I'll be along as soon as I'm done here," Keza replied.
"You want me to meet you at the shops?" Tor asked.
"No, that's alright. I'll only be a little while." He turned to the others. "We'll meet you all later," he said, the two of them leaving right after.
Thol turned to Almus. "We thank you for your information. May your wounds heal soon."
"No problem," the bed-ridden man replied.
The rest of them left then and went on their respective trips to the local shops.
They eventually all met at what was left of the pub. Valon had gathered some information on the vampire itself and learned that it lived in a cave southwest of the city. Goro had found some other news that the others found interesting however.
"I ran into a man calling himself Doctor Unne, he says that he is a scholar," he said when they were all seated.
"That's wonderful, but how does that relate to our quest?" Keza asked.
"He is a linguist scholar. He was here to study an old journal supposedly written by an old tyrant that was overthrown. The text was so old that no one was able to identify what language it was written in."
"I still don't see how that is important," Keza replied.
"That's it!" Valon exclaimed, rising to his feet suddenly, startling the others with his sudden burst of movement.
"Okay, that's great, now would you care to explain why you almost gave me a heart attack?" Thol said.
"Almus was telling us about how the vampire was looking for the Source of Words. Now this Dr. Unne is a linguist. Think about it for a second. Would you not say that a linguist is a source of words?" Valon explained.
Thol was silent for a moment. "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Where ever did you come up with such a thing?"
"Lukahn's Prophecy. 'And so you shall be given the Words and he shall be the Source'."
"I thought you said that the prophecy was getting vague," Thol commented.
"It is, but the first part references quite a few of the people who we will meet. The Source is one of them. I'm surprised I didn't recognize it before. It seems that we haven't seen the last of Dr. Unne."
"Okay, so we've got that figured out. What else is there?" Thol asked, moving things along.
"As I said earlier, the vampire lives in a cave to the southwest. The locals call it the Cave of the Earth," Valon said.
"Do you think that's where the Orb of the Earth is?" Tor asked.
"From what I can tell, there's no other place it can be," said Valon. "The only thing else in this part of the world is the Titan's Cave and a place people call Cave Sarda."
"Did you find anything out about this Cave Sarda?" Thol asked.
"Apparently there is a sage that lives there that the vampire is afraid of. He's also supposed to know the whereabouts of the Earth Orb."
"So why don't we go there next?" Keza suggested.
"There's a small problem with that. The townspeople say that the Titan has been possessed by something and no one has been able to get through the cave since then," Valon replied. "I think if we're going to do anything, we're stuck with the Cave of the Earth."
"Right. Then we'll go there and take care of this Vampire of the Earth then," Thol said. "Are we all done shopping?"
They were.
"Good. Then shall we leave? We still have plenty of daylight left to travel under," he said. That being said, they set out minutes later for the Cave of the Earth. . . .
* * * *
The first three days of the trip were elementary. The monsters seemed subdued and even though they were walking through the largest marsh in the world, they made good time. It was on the fourth day that things started to get hairy.
They started encountering monsters more often and on top of that, the monsters themselves were more brutal and nasty. The terrain was more manageable, however.
They noticed that the bulk of the monster that they ran into where undead which made Melira's Harm Undead spells extremely useful. She had become a very proficient magician as a result of the last two visits to spell shops. Her ability to absorb new spells was amazing and even Thol was having difficulty matching her speed now. It was later that night that Thol ran into a problem in one of the spell books.
"Damn it! It doesn't make sense!" he yelled, almost flinging the rather large tome into the campfire.
"What's wrong, Thol?" Melira asked, looking up from the book that she was currently reading.
"This stupid spell! It just doesn't make any sense. I don't understand it," he said, fuming.
"Which spell is it?" she asked out of curiosity.
"Warp," he said, looking at the book in disgust. "It's probably a useless spell anyway. I should have spent my money one something more worth while."
"Just put it away for the night. It might make more sense tomorrow."
"I doubt it. It's not even written the same as the other ones. I've never run into a problem like this one before. It's unnatural I tell you."
"Poor Thol. Everything seems to be going wrong for you."
"Well, I wouldn't say everything," he said.
She knew what he meant and smiled slightly.
They finally found the cave late the next day. The cave was eerily silent as they made their approach.
"It's getting a little late," Keza commented. "Do you think we should wait until tomorrow before going in?"
Thol scratched his face in thought. I'll have to shave one of these days, he thought absently. "No," he said finally. "There's a lot of undead things in there, I can sense them. We'll just end up fighting all night if we camp now. We might as well go inside."
Keza just shrugged and dug into his pack to get a torch ready.
The first level of the cave was a twisting maze of tunnels, one of which was absolutely infested with giants. It took them over an hour to finally find the stairs that led deeper into the cave.
They were in for a shock when they reached the second level. While the first level looked more or less what a cave should look like, the second level was obviously a man made structure. They figured that the original cave consisted of only the first level and that the lower levels were created whenever the undead forces had taken it over.
Another two hours later, the end of the strange, man made tunnels was insight. A bloodstained door was set into the wall at the end of the hall. There were strange markings that decorated this place clearly showed that there was something unusual beyond the doors.
Tor opened the door slowly and a thick mist poured out from inside the room. He stopped and looked at Thol. The black mage nodded for him to proceed. Tor thrust the door open and jumped in, ready at a moments notice to strike down anything that poses a threat.
He was surprised to find nothing but the strange mist in the room. "The coast is clear," he said to the others, motioning for them to enter.
Thol could tell immediately that there was definitely something wrong. He cast a glance a Melira and could see that she noticed as well. "Be careful," he said. "Things aren't exactly as they appear."
They filed into the room and spread out to look around. Goro was at the back of the room when he found something. "Hey guys! There's a door back here."
Just as he said that, the mist started to gather in the center of the room. An inhuman voice emanated from the shape.
"All living things were born to die. . ." it said.
Tor spun around. "What are you? Show yourself!" he shouted.
"You will not leave this room alive. . ."
"No! I'll defeat you myself for what you did to Melmond!" Keza yelled defiantly.
"Fool! You cannot defeat me! I am the Vampire of the Earth and I am invincible!" the voice roared. The shape forming in the mist suddenly solidified and the vampire leapt forth and attacked Keza, who was the closest to it.
Keza reacted instantly and rolled the vampire over top of him. The creature was hit with a double blast of fire and harm undead as it stood up. It lashed out and caught Thol in the arm with its razor like claws. He was lucky it wasn't his staff arm because it attacked again and he just barely had time to bring his weapon up. Tor saved him from a painful blow when he charged in the next second and caught the vampire with his silver sword. The thing howled in pain and returned to its mist state only to reappear in behind Valon.
"Look out!" Keza yelled. He threw his weapon at the vampire in the same instant that Valon ducked. The knife sunk in up to the handle and the vampire howled again. It was snarling in rage by now and was becoming a difficult target to hit.
Valon took the brunt of its next attack as he was still trying to get up and couldn't defend himself. Melira cast a second harm undead spell on it which caused the vampire to cringe long enough for Valon to get away. He was badly wounded though and wouldn't be able to fight anymore. Keza, being still unarmed, dragged him to safety out of the immediate fighting area.
Goro tried his luck next with an attack from behind. His attack worked for the first few moves before the vampire struck back with blows of its own and threw him across the room. Thol prepared to cast his high-level fire spell as Tor kept the thing occupied. Melira was busy trying to get both Valon and now Goro healed enough to see them through the fight, so she was unable to cast another harm undead spell.
Tor took a nasty blow to his chest, which tore open his armor and the skin underneath. Thol used this opportunity to unleash his fire spell. The vampire was severely wounded, but still not finished. The others still being down, however, forced Thol to fight the thing without magic. He gave the thing a blow to the arm that would have probably broken a normal persons arm, but the attack just seemed to anger the thing even more. Thol took a claw to the neck and another to the shoulder, which caused him to double over slightly. The vampire used this to his advantage and gave him a devastating uppercut that sent him sprawling to the floor.
Keza had been sneaking around trying to blind-side it and used the creature's distraction with Thol to his advantage. He rushed in and tore his knife out of the vampire where it had been embedded from the throw. Bleeding profusely now, the vampire seemed to droop as it stood. Tor was up a moment later and attacked with almost reckless abandon. Keza also attacked every time the creature seemed to get the upper hand. Between the two of them, the severely injured vampire soon fell when Tor ran his sword through its heart.
The Creature seemed to almost explode in its death. Tor, exhausted, slumped to the ground. His armor was totaled and he was having difficulty breathing due to the wound in his side. Tor looked over to his comrades. Thol was just now coming to from the vampire's last blow. His nose was bloodied and possibly broken but he seemed to be more concerned with the wound on his neck. Melira was doing her best to calm him and was casting spells to try and get him healed. Goro was just a little dazed now and was helping Valon to his feet. Even after Melira's assistance, he still looked like he was cut to ribbons from when he was on the floor.
With everybody able to walk again, they opened the door that Goro had found just before the vampire attacked. The hallway on the other side led them to a dead end with a room that looked like it was only recently dug out of the wall. The room contained only a large stone plate and a jewelry rack. On the rack was a pendant with a large ruby centered in it.
Tor stepped up to the pendant. "What's this?" he asked, reaching to take it.
"Don't touch that!" Thol yelled. His friend stopped his hand and looked at him with a questioning look. "It could be cursed. Let me look at it first."
Tor stepped aside to let Thol see it. He passed his hand over the pendant as he always does when scanning things.
"Well?" Tor asked.
"Well it's not cursed but it's definitely more then just a silly piece of jewelry. Melira. Come here and tell me what you think," Thol said.
She walked up to the pendant and scanned it. Unlike Thol, she placed a hand on each side instead of waving one over top. She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think there's a fear spell infused with it, but there's something else to it that's making it difficult for me to tell. Thol, is there black magic in it?"
"Yes. How could you tell?"
"Its white magic aura is hazy."
Thol scanned it again and frowned with displeasure. "Great. Another old relic with both schools of magic in it," he muttered almost to himself.
"What do you mean another one, Thol?" Melira asked.
"The explosives we picked up at Coneria were created with a white and black magic spell," he said. He passed his hand over it again. "A confusion spell. That's what's making your fear magic so hazy." He finally decided that it was safe to touch so he took it down. "Hmph. It figures," he said, looking at the relic with disgust.
"What?" Tor asked.
"It's only an artifact object."
"What's an artifact object?" Keza asked.
"It's a certain type of magical object. You can draw out the spell contained in it and cast it on something," Thol said. He looked at Melira. "Did you ever learn about magical objects?"
"Yes, but I never really learned all that well," she said, seemingly ashamed.
"Can you use it?" Tor asked.
"Of course. We can all use it. One of the nice things about artifact objects is that you don't have to be a mage to use them. They also don't require any instruction in how to use them. The skill comes naturally to the wielder." Thol scratched his face, again thinking that he should shave soon and pondered what to do with it. He eventually handed it to Valon. "Here. I already have enough pendants on me to fry a giant."
Valon took it wordlessly and put it on. "A most peculiar sensation," he commented after it was on.
"That would be the pendant telling you how to use it. I wouldn't try it myself, not until we knew what it does," Thol said. He turned to Melira. "Before you ask, I gave it to him because it could be dangerous and I'm sure he would agree that it's better for him to carry it then you."
"Indeed it is," Valon said.
"What makes you think I was going to even ask?" she said, with a slight smile.
"The look on your face when I handed it to Valon. You looked a little confused."
Her smile faded and was replaced by a slight frown. "I'll get you for that one of these days," she said with mock fierceness.
"Actually, we're even now."
"How do you figure?" she asked, the smile back on her face again.
"Simple. Back in Elfland you got sarcastic with me. I said I'd get you for that one and I just did. We're even."
"I don't mean to be a spoil sport, but if you two are done then I think we should give some though about our next move," Tor said.
The all unconsciously gathered around the large stone plate on the floor. It was made out of black stone and had strange runes inscribed all over it.
"Do either of you recognize this?" Valon asked, referring to the runes.
They both shook their heads.
Thol tapped his staff on it experimentally. The noise it made sounded muffled. "There's definitely something weird about this stone," he said. He scanned the stone and recoiled, swearing loudly.
"Thol! What is it?" Goro asked, concerned about his reaction.
"That thing is eviler then the vampire was! I couldn't even tell what kind of magic is in it."
Melira was about to scan it herself, but Thol stopped her.
"I wouldn't do that. It was almost too much for me to handle and you're a lot more delicate then I am," he said.
"So what do we do now?" Keza asked. "The Earth Orb is supposed to be in this cave and we've run out of paths."
"We could go and see that sage the townspeople were talking about. The vampire had to have been afraid of him for a good reason after all," Valon said.
"Yes, but then there's the problem of the Titan. Didn't the villagers say he was insane or something?" Goro said
"Possessed," Valon corrected. "The villagers told me that the Titan is usually a benign creature and welcomes visitors."
Melira suddenly thought of something. "Thol," she said.
"Yes?"
"Something like the Titan, what would you say it would do if it was confused and afraid?"
Thol frowned in thought. "I'd say it would probably start attacking things like it has been. What are you getting at?"
"You said that there is a confusion spell infused with the pendant. I said that there is fear spell infused in it. Do the words 'confusion' and 'fear' ring a bell?"
He stared at her for a moment and then laughed. "You're brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?"
"What are you two babbling about?" Keza asked, confused.
"The answer has been right in front of us the whole time," Thol began.
The others looked down at the stone.
"No, I didn't mean literally. That silly ass pendant," he said, pointing at it where it hung from Valon's neck. "The vampire used it to make the Titan go berserk. All we have to do is take the pendant to the cave and reverse the spell."
"How do we do that?" Tor asked.
"What an artifact object can do, it can also undo. Come, let's go see Sage Sarda," Thol said finally. With that he lead them out of the room and off to the Titan's Cave. . . .
* * * *