Yay, no flames yet. And I made a favorites list .Enjoy. This probably isn't as good as the others, but it has some valiant humans, which is a change.

Dumah

Dumah stirred. His tripwires sang. Someone was coming.

Over the long years in the spectral realm, he had developed a method of seeing into the material realm. It was difficult, but it worked, along with his tripwires, that, when set correctly, could detect movement in the material plane. He called it the Periscope. Looking through, he saw Kain striding towards his throne, in the purposeful, easy strides that were his trademark. Kain strode up to Dumah's recumbent form, placed a hand on one of the stakes pinning him to his throne, and hesitate. Shaking his head, he said "Dumah, you can probably hear me, if I know the average wraith. I was going to perhaps allow you to escape Raziel, but I cannot teleport you and, newly revived, you could never get to the chronoplast in time. I am sorry." He vanished.

Dumah was absolutely enraged. Kain dared to come here, give him false hope, then vanish with an apology? If he had been revived, he almost certainly would have attacked, especially as Kain had apparently forgotten the reaver and was slightly unsteady on his feet. I could knock him out with one hand, and only didn't because he had the sword to fall back on. And that, he knew, was the exact reason Kain had hesitated when he was about to take out the stake and return Dumah to life, exactly like the first time. And Dumah remembered that extremely well. Oh yes

-

Dumah rose unwillingly from his deep, contented sleep. A panicked Dumahim called, if he remembered correctly, Arran, was frantically trying to rouse him. "What?" he said irritably.

"The humans, my lord, they are in the citadel. Over half the clan has fled the city."

"WHAT?" Dumah sat up. "How many are they?"

"Just over two hundred, we believe. You recall the furnace was sabotaged three days ago? A human adapted the sunlight glyph to pierce the clouds, and all our fledglings outside were struck down. The rest are cowering in shadowy corners The adults were too disorientated to put up a fight until much later, and by then half had fled, thinking they were under attack from a huge force. All the humans are soaked through, and they've invented a weapon akin to glass globes of water. No one can get anywhere near them, and anyone who tries is impaled by crossbow bolts before they can blink. And then burnt to ashes. They are steadily converging on this room, sire."

Dumah looked around. There were three straws on the ground, one broken. They'd drawn lots to tell him. This was bad. "How many vampires is there in the immediate vicinity?"

"235. You sent a thousand to attack the human citadel, about another fled, and the rest are dead."

"Things aren't as bad as they seem. We'll hold out."

It was then that the humans burst through the doors, slamming them behind and positioning a huge tank of water on the lintel. His three guards were glassed in the face. He counted. 113. They'd taken losses. He stood up, and the first ballista bolt flung him into the chair, effectively nailing him to it. He had to give them credit, they knew how to move, these humans. It had taken them about fifteen seconds to load, aim, and fire, and they had two more. Realizing he was going to die, he Shouted 'help me' to anyone listening. Shouting was like Whispering except less subtle. Any vampire in the vicinity would hear it. He tried to get up, but as well as nailing him to the chair; they'd somehow chained him to it without him noticing. The humans were having trouble firing the machine again, though, some sort of chain had snapped, and the other two hadn't as efficient a crew and were still loading. A number of dumahim began pounding at the doors. Dumah had a chance yet.

Kain materialized in the room, already beginning to exasperatedly reprimand him for wasting his lord's time, when an unbelievably alert and skilledor lucky human glassed him in the face. Normally, this wouldn't have done much more than make him wince briefly, but his mouth had been open, and no vampire that ever existed could shrug off shards of glass washed down your throat. Kain collapsed and vanished, retching wildly, coughing blood. The crew on the left had loaded their ballistae, and another bolt struck Dumah. This time, blood flooded from the wound before it closed, sealing the bolt in his flesh, impossible to extract. Seeing this, the leader of the humans raised a cheer. He then made a big mistake, thinking he had already won. He gloated.

" Not so proud now, are you? We slaughtered your army at thirty to one odds, the 'weakling human cattle'. We couldn't have done it against Melchiah, only your overblown arrogance paved the way. That bolt is sealed in you, if I'm any judge, and while Kain is probably strong enough to remove it, if he survived that globeand he could, the tricky bastard is a tough nut, I don't think he'll be hugely pleased with you, will he? Your clan was massacred by two hundred humans, which as everyone knows is the most physical in the empire. Is that good for morale? His idiot son had the empire quaking in their boots after being massacred by humans. Even if your dumahim were able to pull it out, they'd hardly be pleased either,hmm? Enjoy oblivion. The only person going to pull out this stake is the one who'll kill you for good. I'll bet on-"

Kain smashed open the main doors, accompanied by a couple of hundred dumahim, just as the leader stepped within range and Dumah took a clumsy swing. The human danced backwards nimbly, and sidestepped the ballista trajectory. But the engineers had just had the fear of the gods put in them by kain and the dumahim, and were clumsier than before. Meanwhile, Kain stepped smartly backwards as the water tank perched on the door lintel fell onto the charging dumahim. He then Jumped the pool and bore down on the ballistae, throwing the reaver like a javelin at the leader. First mistake. The leader dodged-barely- and the sword scored his armour before falling to the ground. Naturally, he bent to pick it up. Kain hesitated. Second mistake. Then he lunged at the human leader, firing telekinetic projectiles at the ballistae. Third mistake. He should have done the opposite. He took the leader's head off with a punch, then immolated the ballistae, giving one just enough time to launch the final bolt, which killed Dumah instantly. The entire Dumahim clan simultaneously fell to there knees in shock, allowing the remaining humans to escape unpursued, and, incidentally, the thousand strong force sent to attack the human citadel, having breached the wall, were massacred to a man. That was when Kain hesitated in removing the stake, which Dumah remembered well, even though he was dead by then.

-

Returning to the present, he wandered over to his corpse, and sat down in his chair. Rahab winked out in his mind. Of course, when he was dead, all his perceptions had faded, but to have one wink out entirely! So Raziel was coming for him. Dumah was mildly curious as to what he looked like. He himself had changed little since his death, or so he thought, he hadn't seen a mirror since his death. But he knew normal wraiths generally changed to a hooded cloak with eyes, and it puzzled him why he hadn't. Oh, but just to be in existence again would be almost worth being devoured, just to inhabit a body in the world briefly, to feel some of his children obeying his every word. But that would not happen. If Raziel could destroy the others, he could destroy Dumah. The Turel battle would be interesting, they'd always been evenly matched as vampires, but Turel, if he focused on what he was doing, could almost always somehow catch him by surprise with some annoying little punch or sidestep that completely derailed Raziels strategy at the last second. Upon which Raziel became enraged and would fling himself at Turel, and end up smashing head first into a pillar or wall, with Turel directly behind him laughing. This didn't happen often, however, as Turel was well aware of the politics of the empire, and now and again lost when he didn't have to. On the days where Turel was distracted, he often got beaten to a pulp. On the days where Raziel refused to get angry, anything could happen. Dumah wished he could be there to watch. It would be most entertaining. He sat back on his throne and dozed, patiently waiting for his doom.

Some time later, his tripwires sang again. Looking through the Periscope, he watched Raziel advance, fascinated. He was just teeth, bone, and muscle tissue. Plus his faded, upside down clan banner, wrapped around his face like a shroud. Shifting the position of his perceptions, he watched his brother advance on his corpse and wrench out the stakes. Dumah flung himself into his corpse and drew a ragged breath. He thanked his brother gratefully for resurrecting him, who responded with "I come not to save it but to claim it." Or something similar, Dumah wasn't really listening. He was listening to his ragged breathing, feeling the blood flowing in his veins, and unlocking his stiff joints, for the first time in centuries. This thought did rouse him enough to think sarcastically

Really? I thought you were planning to kill the other brothers so we could rule nosgoth hand in hand , let bygones be bygones and live happily ever after. I mean, after killing your brothers because they happened to witness –Witness! –your execution, what's the logical thing to do? Oh yes, promote to high honours the brother who gave you 'a helping hand'? But answer me this , brother of mine. Would you have spoke on my behalf had our positions been reversed? Hardly. So don't talk to me as a righteous avenger.

While he was thinking this, Dumah had been talking disinterestedly to Raziel. Years in the abyss hadn't improved his conversational skills, but that was hardly his fault. And he had the reaver. Incorporeal and buzzing as it was, he'd always remember the resonance, hauntingly familiar with an alien tinge that came to the fore when it devoured a soul. Not unlike Raziel's current scent, actually. So that was why Kain didn't have it.

Raziel attacked him with it, but even the reaver couldn't damage his armour overmuch. Clumsily Dumah swung, and was slightly surprised when not only did it connect, but afterwards he could drain energy from the wound. Raziel bolted, even as the reaver vanished, and with smoke trailing from the torch in his hand, broke the connection. Dumah lumbered after him, trying to ease the stiffness in his bones. Perhaps he could know the pleasure of beating his brother in combat at least once.

On the threshold of the furnace room, he paused as a faint hissing came to his ears. He sniffed. Very clever, Raziel. But I happen to know that the day before my unfortunate demise, the ignition mechanism was removed. How do you plan to ignite it?

He was four long strides into the room before he realized. Raziel bolted, even as the reaver vanished, and with smoke trailing from the torch in his hand…Dumah, you idiot. Then the pain. The searing, burning pain.

The world shifted...

A voice said "All the brothers have defeated me in turn. I have no environmental hazards to loose on this one. I have lost." Dumah blinked. This wasn't the spectral realm, nor was it the material. But his senses of the brothers had burst into existence as soon as he had arrived. Seeking familiarity, he decided to head towards it. Perhaps Rahab would know where they were.

Now that I have it on paper, I like it. Comments, anyone? How do you like Dumah's character?