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I met up with the rest of the group at the local tavern, the name of which I cannot recall as it was such a shit hole. Maven seemed to be getting himself on the good side over everyone by paying up a tab so we could drink and not worry about paying. It seemed to be working with Gorza as she was pounding back wine by the cask. Lyrudar and the cat were being a bit more conservative with their drinking but Maven was attempting to keep up with Gorza.
I came up to the table and told them that I found a vampire being held in the church basement and that I needed them to assist me with cleansing the poor soul. Everyone agreed to help except for the cat. That damn Tabaxi just started at me with his beady little eyes and said “ I don’t wanna.” I just threw a gold coin at him and asked If he was sure. The money grubbing bag of fleas looked at the shiny coin his eyes going wide at how shiny it was, I took the time to polish it just for occasions such as this, and said “You know on second thought lets go!” Before I could even get a word in he was up and out the door.
I booked it after him since I felt that the idiot would get himself killed, The rest of the party was following slowly behind. I managed to catch up with him just outside the massive double doors leading into the chapel. I had him wait so I could go up and talk to the Father. I was asking about the poor soul in the basement when I found out that he was more then just the Father of the church, we was also the father of the man in the basement. I tried to convince him to let me go and help, that I would either cure the poor soul of his affliction or I would make sure that he was released to be at peace. The Father was furious, and as I was trying to calm him down by promising not to harm is son, I see a tawny blur go flying past my face accompanied by a meaty thud and the priest goes flying down to the gound.
I look over, prepared to blast what ever knew evil has come to ash, just to see the cat standing there. He just looks at me with those soulless black eyes and sheepishly says “ I got bored.” What the hell…… Anyways everyone else is waiting so I call them over and we head to the chained hatch that looks as if it will head into the basement. Once there we checked the chains and they were thoroughly locked tight so I asked Gorza if she would open them up for me. She just walks over and without even breaking a sweat snaps the chains. Like damn she didn’t even break a sweat. It was fucking crazy.
Anyways I digress…. We all headed down and it hit us, the smell. All you could smell was the decay of a body rotting and there was a horrible sense of anguish and despair. Then there was the moaning, just over and over a voice saying that he was so hungry coming from the corner of the basement. There was an evil in here and it was all that I could do not to vomit from its necrotic presence. I motioned the group over and told them to get ready.
We spread out and Maven headed over to the corner the moaning was coming from with Gorza and the cat while Lyrudar and I hung back a bit ready to blast the thing with our spells if needed. The three of them headed towards the corner where the moaning was coming from, slowly creeping forward, weapons out and ready for anything. Just as they were 10’ from the corner a dark shadow sprang from the ceiling, lands beside Maven and with barely a grunt slams him in the stomach with the palm of his hand. Now I knew for sure that this had to be a vampire, not just from the aura of undeath and evil emanating from it but from the fact that with that hit Maven went flying to go slamming into the wall against the wall on the opposite side. No natural human could send someone covered head to toe in full plate mail that far. I shouted over to see if he was okay and got back a groggy reply of “ The fuck just happened…..”
In the 5 seconds that it took me to check on Maven all hell had broken loose in the corner of the room. I looked back to see that cat throwing a flurry of blows that would have staggered a giant just to have them shrugged off and Gorza slashing like a madwoman with her hand axes. Nothing they did seemed to be working, the creature just ignored everything that they did to it, even Lyrudar’s well aimed crossbow bolt into the center of its head did nothing to phase it. I watched almost helplessly as it picked up Gorza, who might I add is a big ass orc, and throw her into a wooden pillar shattering it into hundreds of pieces as she continued across the room. The Tabaxi was grabbed by the throat with one had and lifted off the ground. I started my casting to blast this foul thing with a pillar of holy energy when it pulled the cat to it and bit it right in the neck. As I saw the vampire start to feed I finished my spell and a brilliant pillar of holy energy came blasting down from above onto the beast. It let out the most unearthly screech as its skin started to char a peel away. I looked over at Lyrudar and shouted “call upon your god and blast it with divine energy!” and turned my attention back to the vampire. I was aghast to see that in those few seconds its skin was starting to heal but at least the cat was finally free from its clutches.
I start preparing to cast another spell deciding to blast this thing with an orb of fire when there is this loud crack and part of the vampires shoulder explodes in a shower of gore. I look over to see Gorza propped up against the wall with her musket out, streams of smoke appearing from the end of the weapon, mutter “Take that you little fucker.” The creature is staggered the from the heavens appears another pillar of divine energy which the vampire barely manages to dodge. The cat leapt to its feet and from its fist blast of bright light comes flying to slam into the vampire sending it staggering against the wall. As Maven was picking himself up I throw a blazing orb of fire, slamming it right into vampires face which finally managed to knock it flat on its ass. The creature then looks up at me with the most pitiful look I have ever seen and says “Mercy…. Please have mercy on me…..” I reached into my robe to grab a steak upon witch to impale the poor soul until which time we can cure it of this curse just to see a final flash of divine energy come blasting down from the heavens reducing the poor creature to nothing more then a pile of ash.
The fuck, I look over to see Lyrudar with a smug look on his idiotic face. “You bastard we could have saved the poor creature!” I shouted at him. He just looks at me “Well its to late now. It was a foul beast and needed to be destroyed.” I couldn’t believe it. How could he destroy that poor soul when there was a chance that we could have saved him. I just looked at him with disgust and resigned myself to dealing with the poor souls father who was still upstairs passed out.
This was our first encounter with one of Strahd’s spawn and if his spawn was this tough I was not looking forward to dealing with the master himself…..