Path of Evil Ch. 03 Pt. 1

This was inspired by the Path of Evil Module for NWN2—little besides character names and abilities are used.

The story thus far: Thurlith and party dealt with the drow and have the devils. The predictably treacherous devils were outmaneuvered and mostly wiped out, except Jorra the succubus, and now Thurlith's consort and the leader of the devil's who is currently undergoing 'questioning' by Caracin. That leaves only one power left in the keep. The last and least, the undead.

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Kvas and Mu'tasin were arguing over whether a ring of protection should be added to the pile of equipment for the guards, or the pile of random shit to be sold. Thurlith decided not to get involved and walked past and down the stairs. He slid past the skeletons and zombies that made up the defenses of the undead with the same ease, cloaked in magic and the stupidity of the creatures.

It wasn't difficult to find where the vampire was holed up. The defenses grew ever tighter, but never nearly tight enough to keep out a pale master, a mystical master of the undead, until he reached the last door. Where a single vampire had found a minotaur to raise as a zombie bodyguard was an interesting question, but not important at that moment. He considered attacking it, or trying to control it. He probably could have, but why bother with the muscle when you could defeat the brain? He slid backwards into the shadows and stalked around the large central room the vampire occupied until he found an unguarded portion of the wall. A spell melted the wall and a moment later, Thurlith was inside. He was, once again, grateful for the infravision his bracelet gave him, letting him see in the pitch darkness of the room.

His eyes swept the room, seeing nothing except a few tables, a chair, a coffin and the freshly drained corpse of an orc, food she hadn't yet had time to raise as a zombie. He didn't hear the vampire falling atop him from behind. But he felt the air move as the beast fell towards him. He wasn't fast enough to evade it and hit the ground hard. The beast was atop him, straddling him from behind, hands on his back, pinning him, baring his throat to a strike. Sharp teeth hit his skin and...broke.

The bone and scale armor of his time as a pale master and a red dragon disciple was a great deal stronger than the vampire's teeth, and the beast's jaws were strong enough that something was going to break. Unlike most masters of those disciplines, he chose to hide his armor under polymorphed skin, partly to conceal his abilities and defenses, partly because skin was so much more sensitive than bone, or scale and he quite enjoyed the feel of skin on his...

The undead creature screamed against his throat, then released and reared back, moaning piteously, hands leaving his shoulders to cradle a bleeding jaw. In the moment when it was off-balance, Thurlith pushed himself upward, then spun to face the creature. Pale eyes enveloped his and hands hit his shoulders again pinning them flat against the floor as the vampire's used its ability to dominate living sentients on the pinned sorcerer. It was atop him, straddling his waist, hands on his shoulders, its thin muscles pulsing with the power of the undead as its eyes devoured the pinned man, it would command him, it would control him, as it had so many others.

Thurlith's face went blank and automatically the vampire relaxed slightly. The pale master was not dominated, but took the moment when the beast thought he was to evaluate his opponent. The creature was slim, white as a sheet, dressed in a blood red dress that hugged an upper body whose curves were subtle, but present, then it flared out in a swirl of skirts that raised questions of how in the name of all the hells, she'd managed to hold herself up on the ceiling.

She lacked the absurd voluptuousness of the succubus, or the drider, for that matter, but she was still most definitely female. Light blue eyes were almost grey and her pale blonde mane was almost white. It almost looked like all the color had been drained from her with the same ease that she would drain the blood from a helpless child. Her features were elegant, suggesting nobility, as did the hands which rested on his robes, they lacked any sort of callouses. Predatory eyes weighed him, the only difference from before she'd been turned into a vampire was that instead of weighing him for use as a slave, she weighed him for use as spawn, or food.

His eyes has remained locked on hers, absorbing the vision above him in his peripheral vision and as they remained there, his hands slid along the stone floor and he grabbed each thigh that was pressed on either side of his hips.

Flame wreathed his hands and burnt through the silk of her dress, marring her flesh. She screamed again, hands leaving him and she leapt back, torn between beating out the flames and not touching the horrible burns. He fumbled in the pouch hidden in his robes, ripping out the reagent he needed for the spell. The fragment of amber slid into his fingers. She looked up at him as the blackened skin paled before his eyes, regenerating. Thurlith rattled off half a dozen words. She started forward, trying to stop him, but it was her turn to be too slow. The amber faded to nothing and then, in a single instant, she was coated, head to toe in the golden stone, caught like a bug in the amber.

Thurlith smiled at the trapped vampire. With a grin grown malicious, he slid the rod from his belt and muttered a word. The wood crackled with deadly energies. A savage blow struck the amber coating her head.

It shattered.

The amber. Not her head. He would have needed to speak a different word to do that.

"Shall we talk? Or shall I crush your skull? It's not decapitation, but I bet if I pulp it sufficiently, you'll shamble off to wherever vampires go."

"What do you want?" She hissed.

"Well, I can already take your monsters, but I can always use an additional pair of hands, assuming you're willing to take orders and not eat anyone I don't give you. I guess you can also eat folks who volunteer, just don't kill 'em or leave 'em unable to do their jobs." Thurlith said.

"That's it? Kick the crap out of me, then take me on?" The vampire asked, brows drawing together.

"It's the vampire way, isn't it? The strong lead, the weak follow?" He whispered, stepping closer to the frozen creature. Her muscles flexing, trying to break free of the amber that restrained her. "Humans aren't that different, really. Except for the inclusion of so many irrelevant things in strength. Rank, parentage..."

"All the things you don't have?" She asked, a shot in the dark, though his features were as common as his abilities were rare.

He casually backhanded her hard across the face. Her head snapped back and her tongue ran over soft lips, carefully lapping up all the blood. "Among other things I'm missing." He admitted evenly. "Such as an answer to my question."

"Of course, of course, I swear on all the gods to be your humble servant, a member of your pack, to kill, raise and feed only at your word."

"That's nice." He raised the rod again, then, as if he were just noticing it, glanced at a table in the corner and the elegant statue of a slim figure, dressed as a noble, with ruby eyes. "Except, you raise the dead and are no mage, making you a priest..." he waved a hand at the statue, "Of Kanchelsis, God of Vampires, who laughs at oaths taken to food and laughs at their breaking even louder than he laughs at the crunch of bone, or the squeals of children."

She winced, caught. "Then what do you suggest?" She asked.

Thurlith produced a pendant, amusingly enough, the stone was hardened amber with a dozen small items inside. "This little beauty is a leash. Once I put it on, it's not coming off. I'm sure you could find a spell that would get it off, the problem is that if you were to do that, well all the spells in here would go off at once, vaporizing you. I can also set them off with a word or two, certainly less than the twenty five I can say in a sending spell, which will find you, wherever you run." He paused to let that sink in. "So are you my pet, creature, or are you just another corpse?"

Pale eyes lowered. "Do it."

"Say it." He countered.

Her eyes rose, flashing with rage and power as she again tried to dominate the sorcerer. This time he didn't even flinch as the hammerblow of her power slammed against his will. "You know, I don't like taking slaves of people. Slavery weakens the master and holds down those who may well be stronger than them. But you aren't a person, just a demon in a pretty form, so like the succubus upstairs, you will be bound or you will be dust."

Shock showed in her eyes, shock that he'd beaten the devils above her, and now her. She'd known about the drow and was preparing to take advantage of that defeat, but to beat all three parties in a day. She was out of her league. She knew it. She liked it. He wasn't wrong about the nature of vampires. She had fled when the one who turned her had been slain and had been on her own ever since. She was a young vampire, strong and proud, but it was in her nature, in the nature of all vampires to be pack animals, to submit to the stronger and revel in the protection and freedom that that allowed them. The freedom to follow, the freedom from choice, the freedom of Kanchelsis.

"I am your pet." She whispered.

He raised the pendant. "Sorry, what was that?" The pendant hung, inches from the head, the amber spinning hypnotically before her eyes.

"I am your pet." She bellowed, to be heard by all on the floor, and understood by none of the mindless beasts.

"It's not me you have to convince and it's certainly not a bunch of zombies and skeletons."

"Then who is it?" She howled in frustration.

"You."

She paused thinking back to all the things the vampire who had turned her had asked of her and her eager willingness to obey. To never have to worry about the plans, simply to know her part and her place in them. That was part of why she'd done all she had, to find a new place. She'd thought it would be as master, but if it was as slave again...so be it. Anything was better than the madness of attempting to balance all choices. She wasn't ready for that. Perhaps master vampires were made of different stuff, better able to embody Kanchelsis's chaotic ideals, but she was a tool of such free creatures, at least for now and thus..."I am your pet." She said evenly, meeting emerald eyes levelly. It was not a passionate statement. It was said much as she might say she was a vampire. It was mere truth, unburdened by resentment or shame.

"So you are." He agreed, dropping the pendant over her neck. She felt the gold tighten until it was bound around her throat like a collar, impossible to get even a nail, let alone a finger between it and her throat. The amber hung like the label on a dog collar, marking her as his. She could feel the power of it, surrounding her, threatening her, yet protecting her. A savage blow from the rod shattered the other amber that surrounded her, freeing her.

She staggered free, inadvertently flashing him glimpses of white thighs, the skin healed, the dress did not. "By the way, an unfortunate side effect of the amulet is that you won't be able to assume your gaseous form." His eyes were keen on her face, watching for hints that this was upsetting news, that her plan to escape had been foiled. There were none, because she'd had none.

"Thank you for telling me. How may I serve you?" She asked.

"Indeed. How can you serve me?" He countered.

"I will obey your every command."

"Of course you will. The question was what are you capable of?" Thurlith clarified.

"Besides the obvious, I am a skilled priestess of Kanchelsis and can raise zombies and skeletons, as well as they usual abilities of vampires."

"And your name?"

"Afarella D'tioni Van Chelm, Daughter of the Eigth—"

"Afa. Got it. So here's what's going to happen. I'm gonna finish this trio I've got going on by buggering your tight ass and then you're gonna go down to the tunnels and fortify them against any intrusion. How does that sound?"

"Good, but trio?" She asked, sliding towards him with the grace of a noblewoman, and a vampire.

"I've had a drider's mouth, a succubus's cunt and I'll have a vampire's ass, all in one day." Thurlith explained.