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Re: (TFT) Solo 1, NO I am not a vampire
Morning seven
Eva brings two chairs and makes some coffee. You sit there next to the
gory tub. Killing children, even vampires, is not easy. You feel numb. No
telling how Eva feels. You look at the dried blood on your hands. Your
clothes are filthy. Stained with sweat. The coffee does little more than
just keep you awake. You suspect it will take all day for Father Thias to
be revived from the dead.
A couple of birds are chirping in the morning light. It does nothing
to warm your heart which feels cold and distant. Like a fog on the horizon.
You are wondering if you took a wrong turn. Self doubt is not your style,
but somehow killing monsters and doing right should feel better than this.
You think about all the natural creatures you killed on your journey here.
That seemed O.K. You did it for food or self defence. Even then you could
cook and eat the meat. Once you kill a vampire, eating it is the last thing
you would want to do.
"Amen." a voice says in your head. "Lubik, its' me. Omni. The
wizard." You look at Eva. She is sleeping in the chair. Coffee cup still
in hand. It seems to have gotten on to midday. You must have fallen
asleep. "Lubik, you're not sleeping. I'm here, in the astral plane." You
sit up straight and wide awake.
"I hear you," you say.
"It's me, the wizard Omni. I'm checking on you. It is the seventh day
since you left. I am standing next to both of you. Communicating with
telepathy. I see Eva. She is still alive. You did well. You still have
one thing to do. You never actually re-consecrated the altar. Do that."
"I will," you say. Your voice is echoed in your mind and he hears it.
"After I rest I will join you. We will open a gate, and reconnect the
village to the parish. You must re-consecrate the altar." The presence in
your mind seems to fade. You are sitting in your chair. The gory tub is
still there before you.
You get up like a zombie, go in the house and get a bucket. You start
carrying water to a tub in one of the other houses. Once full you strip and
take a bath. It is just what you needed. The cool water makes you feel
alive again. Real. You scrub hard and start to feel clean again. After,
you empty this other tub, and carry new water. Once full you go and wake
Eva. "Eva, get up. You must wash. Clean all the blood off." She follows
you like a mindless soul. You leave here in the other house with the clean
tub and head for the church.
The shadows are starting to get a little longer. You enter, light some
candles and begin the ritual. It takes an hour. Once done, you feel
completely alive again. You head back to Eva's house. You can smell food
cooking in the kitchen. The sound of a light hearted whistling comes from
within.
At the gory tub you find that the two chairs you were siting in have
also been cleaned. The blood that spilled out of the tub has been scrubbed
clean. The tub seems just as deep as before, but the body of Father Thias
doesn't seem as shrivled. You sit down and wait.
Later Eva calls you inside to eat. The meal is great. Corn bread,
fresh salad, baked fish, and a bit of rabbit stew followed by a glass of
wine. The two of you feel human again.
At sunset you hear a moan from the tub. It seems that they can revive
themselves. You go out. Father Thias is still bound, mostly submerged in
blood. He blinks at you. "Who are you?" He asks.
Standing over him you speak "Father Thias, I am Father Lubik. I was
sent to replace you. Why do they want your book, and what is it's
importance?" He doesn't look like he trusts you, or that he is going to
answer.
Suddenly you hear a thunder clap in the church. Literally. It sounds
like a bolt of lightning exploded inside the chapel. So you walk away from
the tub. As you do you hear Father Thias calling out "Wait, I'll talk.
Come back. Don't leave me." You decide he's not going anywhere, so you
continue on to the church.
Inside you find a wizard standing before the altar. He has a huge
diamond on a necklace, black robes and he is pointing his staff at you.
It's Omni. "Lubik! I was worried when you weren't here." He relaxes his
staff and strides over to meet you. You tell him everything about last
night. He says ?I know,? but he lets you talk. When you finally run out of
steam he says "Lets go get the other end of this gate up. My apprentices
are waiting."
As y'all walk outside the chapel Father Thias is floating there waiting
for you. He still has his hands behind his back and his feet are still
bound. He is just hovering there a meter off the ground. "So that's what
happened." He looks at you accusingly. "That thing tried to convert you!
Thought you would help him with my book. Where is it?"
Wizard Omni says "The book can wait." He strides over to a clearing in
the grass. It looks like a path that goes nowhere. You go with him and
Father Thias hovers along. Omni goes into a ritual. Moving and chanting.
He places one hand on the huge diamond he wears. Suddenly he turns and
casts the spell on the floating form of Father Thias.
A more heart wrenching scream has never fallen on your ears. Thias
crumples to the ground. You look at Omni questioningly. He answeres your
question "I cleansed him. It knocked him out, but he will be whole again."
He takes a deep breath, holds it, and then lets it out. He turns back to
face the place where he is going to open the gate.
You suddenly regret staking the hearts of the children. If only you
had known. Eva will never forgive you.
Omni turns on you and grabs you by the collar. He shakes you. "Snap
out of it! I know what you are thinking. You are wrong. Just wait. Wait
for my apprentices. When they get here, show them the graves. They have
already been briefed." He turns back and begins a new ritual.
He places his hand on the diamond, speaks some sounds, then stretches
forth his staff describing a shape in the air. It glimmers then glows.
Wizards start coming through. Thirteen in all, followed by crates, wagons
and workers. You take the apprentices to the grave yard. As you are
leaving you see Omni dragging his tired body to one of the houses. He looks
like he is headed for bed.
As you near the grave yard one of the apprentices speaks to you. "We
brought wishes. Enough wishes. It is not too late. Now be still while we
work." You watch as the workers are called. As they dig up the eight fresh
graves. Each child has the steak removed from its heart by a different
apprentice who then wishes its heart whole again. One of the workers has
brought the cart and the bodies are stacked there. The cart is rolled over
behind Eva's house. There you find more workers have assembled all the tubs
in town. The remaining blood of the gory tub has been redistributed to
eight of them, the rest with fresh water. A body is laid in each of the
bloody ones.
The apprentices watch. Arrow wounds seem to start healing. The bodies
seem to start reviving themselves. You overhear some of the conversation
of the apprentices. "It does work." "Still doesn't help those who died
human." "But the hour limit is beaten." "What good, except for vampires?"
"Still, we're a step closer."
As the first child opens his eyes and sits up Omni appears. He casts
Cleansing on it. This immediately strikes the child unconscious. One of
the apprentices takes the child and lays it in a fresh water tub for a
cleaning. After he wishes the child healed. Other apprentices start to aid
Omni as he casts cleansing over and over. All the children are revived one
at a time by a different apprentice. This is too good to be true.
You bring all the children to Eva. For a moment she looks like she is
going to faint, then she cries. Tears of Joy.
[Get eighty experience for the releaved expression on Evas' face.]
David Michael Grouchy II
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