Having spread themselves liberally across the barroom, the rest of the group smiled to themselves as a to them well-known figure approached their Drow companion. She, having taken up residence at the bar, had kept her hood up since they set foot back in Athkatla. They could not hear the exact words of the young fool trying to get in Viconia's better graces, evidently disregarding the color of her skin as she turned to glare at him, but they all knew what he was up to…
Undaunted, the fellow continued his routine of praising whatever feature he could name, the cleric looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face. As he finished, slightly short of breath, her response was a question, supposedly whether he was sure. Receiving a most positive reply, the brash youth found himself in one of the deeper kisses he would be likely to get…and came away from the experience with an howl, clutching his mouth, a thin red line trailing from the corner of her mouth as she smiled wickedly, evidently delivering yet another of her "lessons".
Deciding to slow her down before they got chased from the place, he stood, moving to stand beside her, sending the young fool, still whimpering about his tongue, a warning glare, before turning to his love;
"Weren't we past this?"
"Past what?" she queried innocently, taking a sip of her mug.
"Past giving people reasons to…think the same of you as they do to those you left behind."
"Reasons to burn me, you mean." She stated, voice thick with disgust, yet with a subdued look to her eyes…she had no interest in giving them any such reasons.
"Shadowdark?" he asked, gesturing at her drink.
At her nod, he stole it from her hands, and emptied it on the floor, instructing the barkeep to get her a Golden Sands. A moment later, he found himself bent far enough backwards across the bar so as to lift his feet of the floor(praising the gods for his aversion to heavy armour), and a Drow having crawled onto the bar to hiss at him;
"Only one makes my decisions, and that's me! Are you me?"
"Perhaps…I should have been…a little more vocal about it…"
"You think so?" she leered.
"Back…" he mumbled, feet treading air.
"What?"
"My back…it hurts."
"Be glad it's the only thing that hurts." She told him, hauling him to his feet with enough force to send him staggering into a nearby (luckily empty) table.
Chuckling weakly to himself, he withdrew from the scene, as he heard something, probably the ordered mug of Golden Sands, splash onto the floor, and her irritably demanding a new Shadowdark… She wouldn't have any problems with the Coronet's inhabitants, that was clear enough…not after that display, surely…?
Miraculously, as the rest of the adventurous gang stepped downstairs the following evening, the barroom were unharmed…
"My, my, my…you again?" came the statement from the Vampire Queen that evidently had been expecting them, leaned as she was against a leg of the Graveyard archway.
Having no interest in arguing nonsense with her, Negrath demanded the lantern returned. Hissing, she shoved away from the pillar, stepping toward him;
"The self-serving dungpiles want back their precious lantern? I know where it is,…up here."
Pointing at her head, she queried; "Think yourself capable of prying it out, Bhaalspawn?…Didn't think so." She commented as he just looked at her.
Stepping backwards, she called out;
"Kill them!"
And flew away…
Almost immediately they found themselves, through a thick mist of the strange "transformation fog", surrounded by a large number of greater and lesser vampires, and the target for a literal tidal wave of Ghouls seemingly flowing from the archway itself.
Negrath swore the loudest of them; here he had threatened with destroying both them and the district in a most destructive and final manner, and what did the bitch do? Made the suggested actions necessary! Howling with fury, he snarled at the others as he found himself almost forcing the change to start;
"GET OUT OF HERE!"
Not interested in discussing with a raging Son of Murder, they took the hint, and hurriedly withdrew, doing their best to keep the vampires following them. Stopping just outside the district exit, they did their best to keep their opponents within the graveyard grounds, basically turning them into a living barricade for the Slayer to penetrate if he were to go after the pesky mortals...
The vampires turning back to the Bhaalspawn as sounds of carnage reached them, an -almost- equal number of bats flew franticly off a moment later. No longer needing to keep the vampires out of the city streets, the adventurers ducked out of view whichever way they could.
Sniffing the air, the creature sensed a being that no doubt would dare to challenge it given half a chance to succeed. Having no interest in competitors of any kind, the murderous entity raced off, nostrils flaring to sort out the scent of The One. Stopping momentarily to turn the doors of the crypt it was lead to into rubble, it scurried down underground…
Outside, at the district entrance, Negrath's friends had settled down to wait, not interested in going in to look for him, nor willing to risk the Slayer coming back and continuing through the city streets. Viconia, eyes closed, having conjured up an inner-eye connection with the creature through Shar, could be heard muttering;
"Such power…"
Jaheira, Aerie and Keldorn looked at her, now that they could do so without having to defend their actions to her, as though wondering how deep her difference from the Drow really was, Minsc and his furry friend keeping a close eye on where the path swung out of view on the other side of the archway, Imoen paced back and forth in the outer edge of the temporary "camp", not quite knowing whether to be glad or sad to not get face to face with the vampire elf again.
As the thief stopped in her tracks, Viconia started laughing. Not ones having to ask for the obvious, simply waited for whatever instruction the two would give. Scrambling to her feet, Viconia set out after Imoen, who already had disappeared beyond the turn in the path, and were soon followed by the others.
Jaheira stabbing whatever she found in the coffins they passed, they soon found themselves on the second floor down, in a room which center were occupied by a pool of fresh blood, the floor bearing traces of fallen bodies that were no longer there.
At the other end of the room were two doors, one of which had bloodtrails leading into it. Rushing inside, they came upon Negrath, looking as though he had taken a bath in the pool outside, staring at a pile of bones and dust in the strangest coffin they had yet seen.
Imoen, searching the room, soon came upon the lantern, hidden in a secret compartment in the bottom of the odd casket. Tossing it to Jaheira, she turned to her fellow Bhaalspawn;
"You all right?"
Turning his head, he tiredly returned the question with his eyes. Simply nodding, she took him by the hand and led him out, the group following as soon as Viconia had put a torch to the leftovers in the strange coffin.
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Last modified on September 2, 2001
Copyright © 2001-2003 by Hans-Olav Bråtun. All rights reserved.
