Monster Party Book one: I hunt, therefore I am!
Chapter three: They might have split up, or they might have capsized, they may have broke deep and took water...
The dawn of the fourth day broke over a changing sea. The water was murkier and sloshed about in whitecaps that could almost reach the ship's deck.
The Sunset Empires was rocked back and forth by the pitching waves while across the horizon dark clouds gathered like a line of soldiers. Within those clouds lightning flashed erratically making it clear that the ship was only seconds away form being struck by a major storm.
"I don't suppose there's much we can do to help?" Alexander offered as he watched Captain Stewart rushing around and bellowing all manner of nautical instructions to his sailors.
Stewart stopped for a moment and fixed the silver haired man with a long stare.
"I don't suppose that spirit of nature you're be-spotted with knows how to calm the winds and waves?" He shot back.
Alexander shook his head.
"I'm far from 'be-spotted' with Florence, it's more of a minor infatuation mixed with respect for her capabilities. Sadly, said abilities tend to be limited to plants and trees of one nature or another. I'll have her do what she can to strengthen the hull of your vessel but that's the limit of what she can do at the moment." He admitted.
"Figures, all right men, shift those sails, shift em I say! We're going to run before the storm!" A moment after Captain Stewart finished speaking a mighty gust of wind ripped across the ship. It was nearly powerful enough to knock over an experienced sea dog like Captain Stewart and Alexander Diamondclaw probably only remained standing since he had the weight of his tremendous blade to help keep him grounded.
The cage holding the leopard wasn't so lucky.
Though indeed the bars were made out of quite stout metal, when it came to the moorings keeping the cage secured to the ship's deck... there he'd skimped just a little.
They broke beneath the fury of the storm, and the cage began to skitter wildly around the ship's deck, the leopard hissing, screaming and otherwise making a nuisance of itself in every way imaginable.
"That on the other hand, we just might be able to help you with!" Alexander noted, seeming actually pleased about having problems of the flesh and blood variety once again.
"You do that." Captain Stewart nodded before returning his attention to crew.
"Devi..." Alexander shouted to the elf before spinning a black gloved hand in a circle.
The elf nodded and her flail unspooled with shocking speed. With one quick flick of her wrist she managed to tangle it about the bars of the leopard's cage and momentarily hold the beast's container in place.
"I hope everyone knows that this kitty is just a touch heavier than James..." Devi reminded them as her face became creased with the effort of keeping the creature and its cage somewhat in check.
Cal quickly raced over to the cage as well, rapidly sorting through the countless small potions he wore attached to his belt.
"Lamp oil, nope. Flying? That'd just make this worse. Invisibility? Ditto. Gaseous form? Why do I even have that? Sanctuary, its a good thing you came as part of a package deal since I'm not really sure that you can really bottle holiness..." He muttered to himself absentmindedly.
"ANY TIME NOW!" Devi reminded him her face starting to turn red from exhaustion.
"Just need a moment to find the right... wait a moment, tanglefoot? Perfect!" Cal noted with delight as he ripped the potion from his belt.
He yanked the top off then hurled it at the cage. It slammed against the bars, breaking open, and coating it with a thick green ooze.
The leopard hissed at him in irritation and tried to scratch the alchemist but Cal pulled back away from the leopard and dusted his hands in a congratulatory manner.
"Well, I think that sorts out that problem. Now all we have to worry about is the storm." He congratulated himself.
A moment later the ship was rocked by a roar the louder than that of any cat.
Six gigantic tentacles rose up out of the water and easily crested above the side of the ship's deck and each of those tentacles was currently wrapped around a rotten skull.
"Me and my big mouth..." The alchemist reflected.
(Scene Break)
"CRACK CRACK CRACK!" The sounds followed right after one another at a breakneck speed as something ripped holes in the side of the Sunset Empires.
James who had been been laying down placidly moments before rose to his feet just in time to see a trio of long translucent tentacles start to ooze and slither their way into ship's hold.
He leaped off the coffin and landed on the floor before heaving a disgruntled look in the direction of the tentacles, headless of the grisly trophies each one had curled within its grasp.
"You know, I think you just decided to invade the wrong boat!" James declared dramatically.
Sadly his comments fell upon deaf ears (or whatever it was that gigantic squid like creatures used for hearing organs) as the tendrils continued to rapidly probe the room while James danced around focusing on staying just out of their grasp... until one of them curled around the coffin.
This for James Firecat was the turning point.
His hands reached downwards and with almost magical speed they emerged from hidden pockets of his jacket each one clutching a glistening dagger.
"That's it, as far as I'm concerned, you're nothing but a very big sorta squishy fish... and if there's one thing I love to eat as much as rats, it's fish!" James informed the tentacles or more exactly the creature that they belonged to.
While he had been talking the other two appendages had joined their fellow in affixing around the coffin and seemed to content to try and drag it out through the hole they had ripped in the Sunset Empires.
James was not going to make it easy for them though, he dashed forward the daggers flashing about wildly.
SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH!
No sounds of pain accompanied the wounds, but all the same thick foul smelling ichor began to flow from the wounds James inflicted.
The tentacle released the coffin but they did not retreat. Instead, they rose up into the air hovering ominously above James Firecat, clearly intent on not leaving without something to show for their hard work.
"Cats eat fish." James uttered the three words calmly and dispassionately working to steady his breathing.
The tendrils lashed out at him, he threw himself out of the way of two of them, but the third managed to warp itself around his ankle.
"Cats eat fish." James uttered the phrase again as he watched the two other tentacles starting to turn about clearly intending to further tighten their compatriot's grip on James' body.
The tentacles lashed forward.
A dagger flew from James' hand and buried itself in the one tentacle that had grabbed him. It recoiled backwards and its grip went slack freeing James.
The young werecat dropped to the ground, but landed with a near perfect tumble that saw him regaining his footing with a replacement dagger already in hand.
"Cats eat fish!" He called out to the monster yet again, this time sounding like a zealot bellowing his favorite passage in a heathen's face.
While the two tentacles were waving about trying to figure out exactly where their prey had gotten to James was only too happy to oblige them.
He rushed right past the waving tips of the tentacles and instead focused on the flesh much nearer the base of the appendage. There with twin flicks of the wrist her tossed his weapons into the soft squishy flesh and this time he could actually hear some kind of bizarre unpronounceable noise of pain bellowing up from below the water.
The three tentacles beat a hasty retreat leaving James Firecat alone and triumphant in only slightly breached section of the ship's hold.
"Good, and don't come back!" James shouted after the retreating limbs before taking a moment to place his hands triumphantly upon his waist and gaze out through the holes the kraken's arrival had visited upon the Sunset Empires. He did not like what he saw.
(Scene Break)
While James fought a pitched battle down below, an even more frantic one was going on up above. Already poor unfortunate Shanty had been grabbed by one of the tentacles and then had his head twisted clean off by it.
The skull previously claimed by that tentacle had been discarded and replaced with the sailor's head as some sort of macabre trophy.
But the creature was not having things entirely it's own way, while it might not be much good at dispelling waves, sure enough Alexander's blade was quite well suited to the prospect of driving off the local wildlife.
Two tendrils which went for his head had been promptly driven off with vicious gashes to show for their troubles.
Despite some worries about the unfriendly weather Cal's firearm seemed to be functioning just fine, though sadly as it had been designed to dispatch human sized foes the gun was failing to wreak truly momentous damage upon the gigantic aquatic creature.
Devil was not even bothering to try and use her flail, instead she'd busied herself trying to get the ship's boat ready to cast off just in case.
At least, that was what she was trying to do until a gigantic wave rocked the ship and carried the smaller vessel off with it. She watched it go, and remarked upon this turn of events with a few choice words.
Then she turned around and glowered at the glowing tentacles that were still lashing away at the ship itself.
"Well then, several orders of cooked calamari coming right up." Devi announced before clenching her right fist and then throwing a mock punch.
A bolt of lightning left her hands and lanced into one of the waving tentacle.
"You said you didn't have any spell casters!" Captain Stewart bellowed angrily at Alexander, sounding more upset at the prospect of being lied to than possibly still more of his crew slain.
"Devi can't cast spells!" Alexander shouted back struggling to make sure his voice heard above the roar of the wind.
"SHE JUST HAS AN IMPRESSIVE COLLECTION OF MAGICAL ARTIFACTS!" He replied.
As if thoroughly unable to accept the damage its appendages were suffering the creature itself now rose out of the water.
"Florence, this thing is a little big for me to take down with just a sword... a little help?" Alexander requested.
Florence was currently standing next to the ship's main mast, and she took a very deep breath.
"I hope you can forgive me for this... though I suppose the fact that you're already dead mitigates it a little." Then she delivered a bear handed chop to the mast.
Despite the disparity between the size of her hand and the thickness of the mast cracked, warped, and twisted, and gave way with shocking speed. It plummeted downward, and promptly impaled the monster driving it back below the surface of the water.
"What are you doing to my ship?" Captain Stewart demanded.
"Saving it..." Alexander answered without a moment of hesitation.
No sooner were the words out of his mouth however than all of a sudden the ship was rocked yet again.
"Captain there are rocks ahead!" Shouted down a sailor named Agar from a backup crows nest that hadn't been attached to the main mast.
"HOW CLOSE?" Captain Stewart barked back.
Whatever Agar was about to say, it got lost in the roll of thunder. It wasn't necessary though, Alexander could see the answer right in front of him.
"Too close.." He had time to answer before the ship smashed into them.
It began to tilt ominously and a mighty wave swept over it washing sailors and passengers alike into the rolling waves.
(Scene Break)
Like many werecreatures James Firecat had excellent night vision and a keener eye for detail than most ordinary humans.
What he saw caused him to realize that there were things a gigantic squid creature might fear more than well armed werecats.
There was a series of jagged rocks out there, and the storm was pushing the ship straight for them with all possible haste.
"Oh hairballs." James muttered to himself before deciding that there was only one thing he could do to try and improve his situation.
He bounced over to the same ornate coffin he had helped bring aboard the ship and rarely left the side of since.
He threw himself flat atop it, grateful for the handholds originally meant to help open or close the lid as now they gave him something firm to keep hold of.
Then the inevitable happened. The Sunset Empires slammed into the rocks and the holes that this impact made in its hull made those the kraken's three tendrils had wrought seem like nothing more than termite bites.
The ship began to tilt precariously and as the next wave struck the ship it flowed in through the newly made gaps. When it ebbed outwards it brought with it a quite drenched werecat hoping that even packed with dirt, its occupant, and now his own weight added along for the ride, the wooden coffin would still float...
(Scene Break)
The place looked almost like a stereotypical beach, bright sun, lots of sand, palm trees, waves gently lapping here and there.
The idyllic image was somewhat offset however by a few things though; like the gigantic rock figures who seemed to resemble human beings half buried in the sand reaching out desperately for salvation. the copious amounts of wreckage strewn across the beach, and among that wreckage lay a handful of bedraggled adventurers.
Alexander Diamondclaw every single inch of his hair soaked clean through lay flat on his side, breath coming in awkward half wheezes as his body sucked in air and spit out a few drops of whatever every chance it could get.
Florence was nearby she seemed slightly better off, but the Dryad was either suffering from a severe case of over-watering or had simply been quite heavily buffeted by the rocks upon which the ship had wrecked itself. Whatever the case, she seemed no more conscious than Alexander, simply staring out at the world in unblinking uncomprehending eyes for the moment.
Cal Wright and Devi Skye each lay about ten feet from one another, both decidedly unconscious, and by some bizarre quirk of fate Cal had managed not to loose his glasses in the twisting seas.
Then there was James Firecat, his grip on his friend's coffin had remained strong and true even when the waves had temporarily capsized it and forced him underwater. Now as he lay out in the sunlight his body unconsciously twitched spasmodically, trying to shake off the water that clung to every inch him and every fiber of his clothing.
All five of them did not seem seriously harmed, but all the same they also looked as though they might be unconscious for a few hours before they full recovered from the ordeal.
Then the coffin began to shake.
Its lid began to slowly to lift, and as it swung fully open it left James half stuck between the lid and sandy beach, though in no great peril all the same.
A woman emerged from the coffin and unlike the water logged bedraggled half drown other occupants of the beach she seemed perfectly coiffed and immaculate dressed.
Despite the layers of soil which filled the coffin, the dirt had in a surprising show of chivalry for an inanimate compound had decided not to pollute her person with so much as a single speck of grime. Her outfit consisted of a wide brimmed gray hat, an a white coat cut along masculine lines complete with even more masculine seeming black pants.
Despite her choice of dress there was no denying the woman's femininity or the length of her glossy black hair worn down past her shoulders and split down the middle by a single streak of pure white. Her skin was a unnaturally pale color, her eyes a vivid ruby read, and when she yawned mightily it was possible to see the sharpness of the incisors that dwelt within her mouth.
"It's good to be back on dry land again..." Reflected Miriam "Mirri" Countess of Kantrar "Catwarrior" drinker of blood, queen of unlife, mistress of shadows, caller of beasts, she who did not fear the sun or shy from the closed door and suck buddy of James Firecat.
Mirri got out of her coffin, closed the lid and looked at the sight of her companions strewn hap haphazardly about the beach, her eyes flickering back and forth, her ears listening for the sounds of their beating hearts.
Then suddenly the sun was blocked out by a shadow that even Mirri found no comfort in. "Oh no..." She whispered before the wave crashed ashore.
Mirri and the others vanished for a few seconds as the wave dragged them one and all a little bit closer to the beach's edge.
As the water retreated there was a black and white blur of motion as Mirri raced for the treeline looking decidedly less composed than she had a few moments ago.
"F**KING WATER! I HATE F**KING WATER" Mirri spat the invectives as enthusiastically as she did liquid from her much atrophied lungs.
When she finally reached the safety of the trees she took a few moments to catch her unneeded breath and began to pat herself down as if wanting to make sure that the wave hadn't carried any of her out to sea with it.
"Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of the casket..." Mirri growled to herself as she leaned against a tree.
This, this was much better than being out on the beach, she had some shade, and she'd like to see one of those stupid waves get her now! Still as she looked out where the other five were stuck, and still unaware of the possibility that they might fall victim to yet more waves and buried her face in a still wet white glove.
"Sweet Kali this is going to suck, and not in the good way" Mirri muttered to herself and then against her every instinct she raced back out onto the beach.
Trip one, her coffin and James, one way or another both of those would help her survive out here, wherever 'here' turned out to be.
Second trip, Alexander and Florence, she was only doing it because Florence had done those rituals which had made her "wood" coffin hard enough that you could break your average sword trying to hack it apart, but might just as easily cause it to crack and warp into stakes if she was upset with its owner.
Still no sign of another wave coming, trip three, grab Cal and Devi, Cal had used those weird potions that made her coffin more water tight than most of the ships which ended up transporting it, wouldn't do to have him try out some of his favorite acids on it instead. Besides, she wasn't that picky at the end of the night she could always nibble on one of them instead if she really needed to.
With that journey completed the beach was empty of living flesh and she had all secured all obvious sources of demi-human blood nearby, now she just had to worry about dealing with any occupants of the island who might try and give them a less than warm welcome.
Not that there was anybody observing her right now, Mirri had a very finally tuned ear, she knew what a human (or elf) heart beat sounded like and there were only four of those (she wasn't quite sure how that sort of thing worked for Florence, maybe it was sap that just sort of oozed on its own accord instead) anywhere nearby.
This place might be a bit freaky looking and the waves were way too big, but right now the six of them were the only humanoid beings anywhere nearby and that meant they'd probably running this island within a week.
Mirri had never been so right, and so wrong at the same time.
FN: So yeah the vampire is out of the coffin to put a Ravenloft twist on an old expression, now lets talk about the werewolf in the room.
To start with apologies to any people of any faith I offended with Mirri's comments on matters divine. I am simply being true to the Ravenloft setting as written where Kali is a chaotic evil deity whose domains are death, destruction, trickery... and healing. (Once again don't ask me I didn't write it.) In my personal opinion D&D should have stuck to importing deities from religions that next to nobody takes all that seriously anymore (Egyptian and Norse pantheon are certainly less frequently worshiped today than... whatever the correct terminology is for what Kali is considered in Hinduism) but Kali seemed the most fitting chaotic evil god for Mirri to reference given that she's not a werewolf.
Anyway, with the theological matters hopefully dealt with, also forgive the extended build up for what you had probably all guessed was coming (ghee a large ornate coffin being carried on a ship in a setting which is supposed to just ooze Gothic Horror... do you think there might be a vampire in it?) when it came to Mirri finally revealing herself.
I realize that I was also laying it on a little thick and then some with her introduction. Before you go around throwing terms like Mary Sue however, please keep in mind the Krusty Comedy Koan: a pie in the face is will be exactly as funny as how dignified the person getting hit with said pie was before hand (Fawlty Towers corollary, a pie to the crotch is always hilarious).
Mirri getting nailed by that wave and her subsequent freakout wouldn't have been half as funny to me (and hopefully to you as well) if I hadn't took some time to build a nice pedestal for her to get knocked off of.
Also if you couldn't guess, Mirri is not going to be challenging Jaden Sunstar for the title of nicest vampire in Ravenloft (good people tend not to swear by a chaotic evil deities after all) she's very much, evil by way of seeing herself as an apex predator and will feel no remorse about eating her fill or taking just about anything else she wants either by force or by trickery. Luckily, for the moment she's able to get her fill drinking from James whose lycanthropic abilities lets him regain hit points fast enough for the process to be fatal for him. Mirri is evil, but she is not stupid evil who puts doing evil above doing things that will insure her continued existence.
She's in these stories for two reasons:
1: She's an interesting study in what happens when a bad person falls in with the "right crowd". Mirri joined the group because do goodery adventurers doing good are the number two cause of unundeath for vampires (number one is other vampires due to how frequently masters will slay their spawn or bride and grooms fall out) so she decided to find an open minded group and join up. She gets to wrap herself up in a nice safe sheep fleece whenever the torches, pitchforks and wooden stakes start getting handed out, and to any vampire who thinks she'll be as easy prey as some other adventurer she'll give them a nasty surprise, so it's win win as far as she's concerned.
2: Despite the fact that its hard to think of two monsters that are more frequently associated with one another, I honestly can't think of any Ravenloft that involve vampires and lycanthropes of any type working together. Possibly it's because as soon as you include both you move away from proper Gothic horror and into Hollywood exaggerations of it (I'll admit the first two examples of both working together I can think of are Abbot And Costello meet Frankenstein and Van Helsing) but I'm surprised there hasn't been at least one adventure based around that particular monster mash. (If there has been and I missed it please let me know)
As a side note Mirri's freak out was also completely psychosomatic, given that it expressly says in Van Richten's guide to vampires (once again, if there is a more definitive source book on vampires in the Ravenloft setting I have yet to find it) that an ocean does not qualify as "fast flowing" for the purposes of having a vampire be destroyed by being submerged in fast flowing waters, the more you know!
Also before people get up in arms about Mirri having no reaction at all to sunlight, I'd like to point out a few things. In Van Richten's guide to Vampires it is put right down in black and white text (page 46) that not only are vampires who are old enough able to spend time in sunlight with no danger of being destroyed or loss of power, but that there exist rare vampires who exhibit the same ability from a much younger age.
Likewise on page 62 of the same book it says that there exist vampires who don't need to fall into a deep sleep as soon as the sun comes up, or risk destruction if they are not in a coffin by some appointed hour. He even explicitly says that there exists vampires with both of these abilities, they're just rare.
Mirri being the protagonist of a fantasy novel is going to be a rare example of her species the same way that Legolas being the protagonist of a fantasy novel is far more dangerous in a fight than your average elf.
I will however cop to the fact that as you might guess from Mirri's titles she is completely and utterly free of a Ravenloft/D&D vampire's normal inability to enter a standard domicile without an invitation, because as weaknesses go that is one which closes off more stories than it opens up.
If I was using it, it would exists solely to stop the entire story dead in its track until the rest of the group went in, convinced someone living there to come out with them, Mirri uses one of the many options in her swiss army knife of coercion, and they invited her in. Once again, I don't object to my characters having weaknesses, but they should be interesting weaknesses that the characters grapple with in interesting ways.
All that said, I am not writing Mirri a blank check for immunity to all vampire weaknesses within her setting, as we already saw, she and running water don't get along, she can can be instantly "slain" by a stake to the heart, holy symbols and devoutly sanctified locations will be an issue (she'll react to them the same way most vampires do to people's homes she can't come in without an invitation). Holy water she'll hate even more than regular running water. Mirrors will not show her reflection but she will not be repulsed by them, ditto unaffected by garlic (Mirri is going to be treated as a "Very Old" vampire so its in the Ravenloft books that she should be immune to those things).
Also somehow this escaped me at first (not sure why maybe because I just sort of glossed over it/don't recall it directly being mentioned in the Van Richten's Guide, or maybe it changes in between editions) but if vampires aren't supposed to cast shadows, Mirri still casts a one. She has blood red eyes and very pale skin, and if double checked in a mirror has no reflection if people look past their preconceptions that should be more than enough to tell them she is a vampire, it's no fun to have the game be given away by something as obvious as lacking a shadow.
To make up for the advantages above she'll also have two unique salient weaknesses /failures as a vampire, she has no innate ability to command undead (see that's a good weakness, it makes her much less effective than she might be otherwise and it lets me tell a lot more stories that wouldn't happen if every time zombies, skeletons, or similar mindless undead showed up Mirri just forced them to dance Thriller with her), and if reduced to zero hit points rather than turning to mist and retreating to her coffin her essence will start to unravel (think standard death's door or whatever it is called rules for a character between -1 and -9 hit points) at which point to survive she'll need either demi-human blood poured down her throat or an injection of negative energy (inflict /harm spells).
Hopefully you're still with me after all that and with the next chapter we'll start to have some real fun now that we've got all the characters set up!