by
Joel Levy
A year ago, the province of Brocalinde was afflicted by an outbreak of vampirism that mainly attacked the young. The civil and military authorities alike were unable to stop this plague; Paladins of the Sif and Hel orders, dedicated to defense of the Goddesses and annihilation of the worshippers of unclean gods and demons, were called upon for help.
Aid was also sought from the exiled necromancer Lord Arkruel Morthelm and the evil priests, witches and war masters who followed him.
The paladins of Sif led a war patrol into the forest, seeking the vampires and their army of cannibalistic half-elves. The warriors found themselves besieged in a tower that had been the vampires' lair but was now abandoned. Meanwhile, the vampires and their army had attacked the necromancer's home, ‘The Black Manor'. Lord Arkruel Morthelm, his war masters and hyanadons had annihilated the attackers, but suffered the loss of many warriors and noncombatants slaughtered by the cannibals. The necromancer himself has suffered a massive heart attack during his duel with the King Vampyre Corollus.
We return to the forest of Brocalinde and the forces gathering for a decisive test of battle between the forces of the twin goddesses and the forces of Chemosh Granter of Unclean Lusts.
The young squires sat glumly by the side of the trail, guarded by a hyanadon. The Paladins of Sif considered the Black Manor and its evil denizens an abomination. Soon the young men would be meeting the Lords of Darkness face to face. The hyanadon guarding them spoke no human and seemed displeased with his child watching duties. Its appearance was that of a dire wolf or hyena with an armored body, reptilian face and knifelike teeth. The squires were armed with crossbows and daggers. These weapons had not been taken from them. Tarloc, the hyanadon who had spoken to them, obviously considered them no threat at all.
Up the trail came first a column of heavy cavalry under banners of the towns of Calleva and Tintagel. Many of the knights glanced over at the young men and a few waved. Next came archers marching under the banner of Brocalinde Port. As the troops fell out for a break, the hyanadon gestured them to join the knights and loped away up the trail. Trying not to show their relief the squires sought the protection of the banner of Calleva.
The siege of the tower was now in its third day. Minotaurs and half-elves had broken down the outer wall. The knights and paladins had retreated within the tower itself. Raquel Druscard gazed idly over the besieging force. The Valkyrie expected to hold the tower until her supply of rations ran out. None of the paladins or knights would eat the salted human carcasses laid away by the cannibals as emergency rations. Death would come, she vowed, to many evil creatures before she was killed.
Just before sunset the humans heard the sound of war horns. Out of the forest rode a mixed force of heavy cavalry, archers and mounted infantry. The banners of Calleva, Brocalinde Port, and Tintagel floated above them. This force formed line of battle to the right of the path to the tower.
A second force came from the forest and deployed to the left of the path. There were human fighters and armored creatures that must be the infamous hyanadons. Above them floated a coal black banner with a crimson skull. Leading the war band were a man and a woman, both mounted upon an armored reptile with vicious looking teeth and a single sickle-like claw. The creature screamed in fury until the woods echoed.
A group of war mages and noncombatants accompanied the heavy cavalry of Calleva. The four squires whom Raquel had sent away before the battle rode with them. A mage touched her brother Galwan who waved and spoke to her across the half-mile distance. “Marshall Thomas of Calleva says that you can attack from the tower when he charges. Drive through the enemy to meet him. Stay away from the other side of the path! The Lords of Darkness have made that their killing ground. Anything there is marked for death.”
War mages began to cast battle magic. More of the armored reptiles, possibly illusions, came screaming from the forest. The heavy cavalry of Calleva and Tintagel rode forward, their speed gradually increasing, each lance aimed for a minotaur. The first flights of crossbow bolts smashed into the half-elves who had already begun to flee. Minotaurs fought savagely with their huge axes to unseat the attacking knights. These monsters continued to fight when the paladins and knights from the tower smashed into their ranks.
Kitric waited until hundreds of panicked half-elves rushed across his front seeking safety in the forest. Only then did he unleash the hyanadons to cut off their retreat, and his war masters to advance straight ahead killing everything in front of them. Traveler, the raptor, rushed toward the still fighting band of minotaurs, leaping upon a minotaur champion and gutting the monster with his single claw that opened like a switchblade. Kitric fought defensively, protecting Traveler from the axes of attacking minotaurs. Lady Georginna hurled small insects, which turned into eight-foot long millipedes as they attached to the flesh of minotaurs. Kitric almost felt sorry for the monsters as carnivorous insects swarmed over them. It was a horrible way to die! The minotaurs were exterminated. Two hundred half-elves threw away their weapons and surrendered.
There was a council of war in Marshall Thomas' tent the next morning. The Valkyrie already knew Marshall, as well as the commander from Tintagel, Sir Luther. Lady Olindara Alpein arrived escorted by her senior war master Sir Jana. The lady Georginna Trask arrived with her fiancé Kitric who took a seat in the corner. Raquel Druscard saw the black druidess Georginna and fell completely in love. Kitric, watching from the corner, smiled. Falling in love at first sight with Georginna had happened to him too.
“We are allies, it seems, until the King Vampyre Corollus is captured or destroyed.” Olindara stated. “The paladins of Sif and the Lords of Darkness will ride together until this menace is ended.”
“How can we unite our forces?” Raquel asked. “I hate and despise necromancy and witches. One day I shall lead a war band to burn down your accursed black manor!”
Kitric remarked in a soft voice “Land your war band into Brocalinde Port, then follow the horse path along the River Charr. The river will lead you to the black manor. Hopefully you won't get lost in the woods like you did this time.”
“Two bands of warriors who hate and despise each other unite to destroy a menace they fear and hate even more than each other. How else would you define allies?” Lady Olindara replied. There were some smiles and the atmosphere became more relaxed. All agreed to hunt together for Corollus under the command of Marshall Thomas of Calleva.
The assassin Ginger Sadowa sought and obtained a private interview with the Valkyrie. To Raquel's surprise, the assassin knelt in front of her and confessed to a great wrong she had done the paladin. “This unworthy one has just learned that you made a vow to personally destroy the vampires who laired in this tower. Due to my actions, your vow can never be fulfilled. Those same vampires attacked my Lord Arkruel Morthelm. This unworthy one was forced to destroy them to save my lord. I came to express my remorse and make amends.”
“You aren't going to cut your belly open or anything silly like that?” Raquel asked in alarm. “You had a duty to defend your lord and only honor comes to you for your actions. The fault is mine for making such an arrogant vow.”
Ginger responded that she had no intention of ritual suicide unless the Valkyrie required her to do so. She had come to the famous paladin to confess and receive a penance.
“Let me make sure I have this straight,” the paladin responded. “You are an assassin, kidnapper and grave robber and you are all right with that. But you are willing to kill yourself because, thanks to you, my vow cannot be fulfilled!”
“That's the situation in a nutshell,” Ginger confirmed.
“Then your penance will be to cease all kidnapping and murder for a period of two years. You may continue to rob graves if you wish since that will only offend the Goddess Hel and not my goddess Sif. Hopefully you can find a different occupation: Something altogether less evil and more socially acceptable. Secondly, try to convince your friend Kitric to allow me to destroy the King Vampyre. I am aware that he intends that pleasure for himself. My Goddess will surely forgive my broken vow to kill the three vampires if I destroy their master Corollus.”
Ginger bowed her head in acceptance of the penance.
Within a stone tower on the slopes of Skull Mountain, pale, bat-winged creatures moved about upon errands for their master. Concealed by trenches and caves, half-elf fighters armed with swords and battle hatchets lay in ambush for any force attempting to penetrate the maze of tunnels and crypts. Within the tower's armory, witches and master sword smiths labored to create a bastard sword woven about with enchantments of evil. The Demon Lord Chemosh had given the alchemical formula to his witch/priestess Stregoi: People killed by the sword would become its undead minions; slaves forever to the sword's owner.
The creature that had once been a handsome half-elf warlord idled contentedly upon his throne of bones. Nearby, the witch Stregoi communed with her demon lord and cackled in ecstasy as she rode its massive astral cock. “His infernal majesty remains pleased with us,” she told the Vampyre. “Minor setbacks such as the destruction of part of your army and three vampire children merely make the game more challenging. A Lord of the Infernal Regions has all eternity to plot and seduce. Gods die when people no longer believe in them, but evil is eternal! All praise to Chemosh Granter of Unclean Lusts.” From outside the throne room, war captains, witches and vampire minions echoed her words of praise.
The King Vampyre on his throne of bones summoned his minions and war captains within the throne room. “Your Lord Temporal, myself, is also pleased with the resistance we have encountered. Easy victories are no test of our prowess. A hard won victory is sweet as a virgin's blood! Even now, a sword of power is being forged that I shall wield when our enemies come here seeking to destroy us. You have lost three powerful vampire war captains. I shall kill Ginger Sadowa, the ninja girl who destroyed them. When she rises again as a vampire, she shall become your new war leader. Sweetest of all, the necromancer's acolyte and master swordsman Kitric Alpein shall die on my magical sword and rise again as my most powerful child. The city lords and citizens of Brocalinde will despair when they see Kitric Morthelm Alpein, their strongest defender, fighting by my side.”
His chief minions cheered in the hollow, cavernous voices of the undead and in the raucous cheers of degenerate cannibals. “Praise to Corollus, King and Vampyre. Praise Demon Lord, priestess and king for the dark kingdom that shall come!”
During the hour preceding midnight, Lady Olindara Alpein cast her spells of scrying. She was much more used to casting spells after the midnight hour, the time for black magic. Finding and destroying the King Vampyre Corollus and his minions however was definitely a white magical endeavor. Olindara was searching for the absence of magic. She believed that the lair of Stregoi the witch/bitch and Corollus must be protected by powerful spells to prevent scrying. Ergo, find a place with absolutely no aura of magic and you find a place that someone of power wants to hide. Tonight she found that place: The side of Skull Mountain.
Raquel tried very hard to avoid Georginna as the war bands traveled together through the forest. Kitric took every opportunity to ride close to the famous paladin and smile mockingly at her. He seemed to know exactly what kind of torment the Valkyrie had plunged into and was enjoying it to the fullest. Sif was the goddess of Love and just wars and her priestesses and paladins were welcome to indulge in the pleasures of love. Raquel's past lovers, one man and two women, had proven unsatisfying. Now, she found herself drawn to the engaged couple, not only because of their beauty, but because they represented the bad boy and girl that many people find irresistible.
They made camp three days later on a small and defensible plateau in sight of Skull Mountain. Georginna and Kitric had a large tent to themselves but had not made love for quite a few days. The small gong hanging outside the tent chimed, signaling a visitor. Kitric pulled back the flap to admit the Valkyrie. She had come to confess her love and desire for both Georginna and Kitric. Raquel Druscard just could not face the likelihood of death on the morrow without confessing the feelings in her heart. “We love you too,” Kitric told her. “We shall make this a special night for the three of us.” They stayed together until late in the morning. Finally they rose and separated to prepare for battle.
Hyanadons scouted the sides of Skull Mountain and reported finding a well-fortified tower. Several hundred half-elf cannibals lay hidden in position to surprise an attacking force from the rear. Marshall Thomas deployed hyanadons and the lightly armored archers and crossbowmen to take out the cannibals. The heavily armored knights and paladins would assault the tower under command of the Valkyrie.
The door of layered wood and bronze was impervious to any light battering ram the knights could manhandle up the mountainside. Kitric offered a plan that utilized the blood hunger of the vampires to gain entrance to the tower. “I can force the Vampires to open the door for us,” he promised, his arrogance showing clearly. “You will have to begin the attack just before dark: Not the best time to attack a haunted tower.”
“Undead arise and come to me!” Kitric slashed his arm and let the blood drip onto the glowing charcoal. The undead would be waking now, starving after their daylight hours asleep in their coffins. “I am the heir of Power! The arrogance to command the undead is mine. My Will is stronger than yours. Come for my sweet blood! Undead, arise and come to me!” Over and over again the command went forth: ‘Undead, arise and come to me!'
The massive door was bulging outward now. Inside, half-elves fought to restrain their vampire masters. The door guardians died messily as the vampire minions smashed their own door to get to Kitric. His Will and their hungers forced them out the door. Knights and war masters entered the great hall and the battle for the tower raged as both sides glutted their hatred and lust to destroy. Giant spiders commanded by Lady Georginna swarmed into the hall, followed by more millipedes. The spiders tried to poison and cocoon only the defenders. The millipedes simply killed and were killed in a frenzy of lust and hunger that matched even the lusts of their vampire foes.
Two tremendous millipedes, each over ten feet long, began to climb the tower. Kitric started his climb right behind them. Georginna was confident she could control the giant insects as long as she had them in her line of sight. Her pet tarantula was at his side helping to pull him upward wherever there were no handholds. Strapped to his back were two swords. One was his usual steel broadsword; the other, a sword cut from hawthorn wood. Georginna had fashioned the sword and placed upon the wood druidic spells of strength and life. She had named the wooden blade ‘Vampire's Bane'. Lady Olindara had then placed spells of destruction upon the blade. The sword was sentient, not thinking but created with a hunger to destroy the undead.
Below him, the paladins of Sif and the knights of Calleva and Tintagel pressed through the front door. Hyanadons sniffed out the half-elf troops hidden outside the tower and killed them. Kitric put all the screaming and clash of weapons from his mind. He would enter the tower from the roof and destroy everything he met on the way down until he had found the King Vampyre.
Atop the tower a dozen soldiers fought desperately to avoid the claws of the millipedes. Kitric saw two half-elves cornered by a millipede try to push each other into the creature. Slashing at one another, both fell into the maw of the monster and all three rolled from the tower to smash wetly onto the ground. Slipping past a squad of half-elves fighting the remaining bug, he raced down the winding stairway. Twice, his speed brought him safely past ambushers and traps. Other times, he stopped long enough to kill whatever tried to stop him.
Three levels down a girl stood chained to the wall with a spigot protruding from her neck. She raised her arms, imploring his help. “Nice try, vampire child. I unfasten you and find your teeth in my throat.” Kitric struck savagely with his broad sword. The chain fell to the floor. Dropping his broken sword, Kitric picked up the girl and drew the magical wooden blade. Carrying the girl over his shoulder, he continued to race downward. “Hold on kid, we are going to make it out of here.” The adrenalin rush brought on by fighting and racing downstairs was intoxicating. Even making love to Georginna was nothing like this.
The stairway ended on a mezzanine above the main hall. Kitric paused and took in the scene below. Vampires, half-elves, hyanadons, armored humans and millipedes clashed in an orgy of unimaginable violence. The Valkyrie and Ginger Sadowa fought Corollus himself. The King Vampyre carried a bastard sword, which glowed scarlet with the power of baleful enchantments. Kitric's necromantic senses were overwhelmed with the evil power of the Demonic blade.
Upon a balcony across the hall, the witch/bitch Stregoi chanted a spell of summoning. Kitric had heard similar spells as his grandsire summoned Devils. The witch was calling upon the demon prince Chemosh for aid! A portal to the lower hells was opening.
“Corollus!” Kitric's scream brought one of those sudden pauses known to warriors as the combatants turned to look at the figure upon the stair brandishing a wooden sword. “This is Vampire's Bane, the hawthorn blade I promised to stick down your throat until it pierced your heart. Try the power of your hell blade and your deadly sword skills against my skills and my sword!” Kitric set the child down and walked swiftly down the stairs.
“Corollus is mine!” the Valkyrie shouted in fury. “I love you Kitric, but if you destroy the Vampyre I swear I shall cut your prick off.”
Kitric continued to approach Corollus. Men and vampire children drew back to watch this meeting of champions. Millipedes drew back from the druidic spells upon the blade.
A portal now opened between him and Corollus. Black hell flames shot through with pink spell energy flowed up from the lower planes. The demon lord was about to manifest within the hall. Stregoi now floated a foot above the balcony uplifted by the power of her demon lord.
“Suck on this Stregoi!” Kitric spun without warning and flung the druid sword like a javelin at the witch/bitch. The blade went completely through both sides of her skull, removing her ears, teeth and tongue and pinning her to the wall. Stregoi writhed and sobbed in agony as she hung above the floor. Her witch vitality denied her a merciful death and release from pain. The portal to hell slammed shut, leaving only a whiff of sulfur.
“As you said, the King Vampyre is yours to destroy if you can,” Kitric told the Valkyrie. “Your paladins and knights can take out all the remaining vampires.”
Lady Georginna peered in from the doorway and cast a reverse spell to reduce the millipedes and spiders back to normal size. Such is the sad fate of giant insects: One minute you are terrorizing entire towns and companies of soldiers. The next minute you are a mess on the bottom of someone's boot.
Corollus showed that he was indeed a master swordsman. Raquel Druscard with her broadsword “Silver Dragon,” Razor with her Hel blessed razors and Ginger Sadowa with her reverse curved knife blessed by Kali all closed around him. The Vampyre did not defend himself; he attacked with blinding speed driving the Valkyrie onto the defensive.
Razor leaped upon the King Vampyre, savaging his throat with her Hel blessed weapons. Maggots poured from the wound. Corollus drove his hell blade into Razor's chest, killing her instantly and turning her into an undead slave.
Before Corollus could withdraw the blade, Ginger ripped open his belly with her foot long knife. Instead of food and intestines, another mass of maggots poured out, and the vampire's body deflated like a pricked balloon.
Corollus sagged and bent double. Then he stood up and tossed his hell sword to Kitric, who caught it automatically. Raquel Druscard swung ‘Silver Dragon' in an arc that Corollus did not even try to avoid, taking his head. A reign of terror from beyond the grave came to an end. If the fables were true, the children infected by the bite of the King Vampyre could become human once again, now that he was destroyed. “Silver Dragon” struck once more, removing Razor's head, destroying the newborn vampire and sending the paladin of Hel back to her Goddess.
At high summer, a triple wedding was held under a pavilion erected near the River Charr. The blonde paladin of Sif, Raquel Druscard, the young fighter/necromancer Kitric and the raven-haired druidess Georginna were all three married by a priestess of Sif. The beautiful blonde paladin was already quite obviously pregnant and soon to give birth. The Marquesa Aleta of Brocalinde port would foster the child.
(Six months later)
The honeymoon was long over, and Raquel had had time to contemplate the bed she had chosen for herself, so to speak. She had wed herself to evil, thus breaking the spirit if not the letter of her vows as a paladin. Her child carried the blood of a family of necromancers as well as the noblest lineage in Brocalinde, the Druscard and Mac Alpein families.
Georginna and Kitric were soul mates, and their love for her was second best. Georginna was now pregnant. Kitric carried the evil sword thrown to him by Corollus. He was also true to his word to his grandsire, and performed the rituals that may enable the old man to rise again as a Liche, an undead horror as deadly as a King Vampyre.
Raquel knew in her heart that she should raise an army and burn the Black Manor and all its evil denizens to ashes. But, she just couldn't war against the only two people in the world she loved. Mounting her warhorse, she rode silently away without farewells. Ginger Sadowa, who had attached herself to the Valkyrie, followed, bringing two hyanadons for protection. The party rode along Trade Street then turned south on the King's Highway. Their journey would lead them eventually to the Black Dragon Inn and further adventures that await.
The End
Author's Note: I am finished with the saga of Kitric and his family for the time being. This idea may be a contradiction in terms, but I try hard to make the fantasy stories I write as true to real life as possible. Ergo I include for those of you who care a few comments about the stories.
The Idaho Raptor resurrected as Kitric's mount is modeled on the raptors on the discovery channel's program ‘walking with dinosaurs'. Raptors came in many sizes. The famous velocoraptor from Jurassic park was the smallest and fastest.
Lady Georginna Trask enlarges millipedes and spiders to fight for her. Millions of years ago insects and spiders were much larger. There is fossil evidence indicating that a millipede existed around eight feet in length.
The name Stregoi is an eastern European word for Witch.
The Demon Chemosh who corrupts the half-elves is modeled on ‘Chemosh the Destroyer' whose priests built a temple in Jerusalem and attempted to lure the Hebrews from the worship of Yahweh around the time of Solomon.
(A Note about Liches, Vampires and Necromancers)
Sadly, my research on the web indicates that the Liche as a powerful undead spell caster is only an invention of role-playing games. Historically Lich is merely another term for an undead. Any Wicca or mad scientist out there will have to do his or her own research and experimentation. I recommend the movie ‘The Reanimator' as a starting point.
Every civilization we know about has a vampire myth. Hindus believe that vampires are created in blood ceremonies practiced by priests of Kali. In Scotland people believe that only cold iron stakes, not wooden stakes, can kill vampires. In colonial times graves were regularly dug up and the occupant staked when a plague of vampirism stalked New England. In Dark Age Germany the vampire was a living monster who stalked the woods seeking human blood. It is hard to believe that all these stories could exist with no basis in fact.
A King Vampyre is the founder of a new vampire line. In the movie ‘Bram Stoker's Dracula,' Vlad Tepes vows to resist death and walk the earth for revenge. No one bites him on the neck; he creates himself. His vampire children can never be this powerful. Likewise, in the Apocrypha to the Bible, Adam's first wife Lilith goes off into the desert and consorts with demons. She returns as the very first Vampyre.
Pity the poor reviled necromancer. Vampires in today's literature can be sexy, charismatic, and even good. (A good vampire is a disgusting thought.) The necromancer remains gross, disgusting and perverted. Historically, necromancers were a rather pedantic group of wizards who sought to cajole secrets from the dead. Necromancers believed that the dead knew many secrets including the location of lost cities and hidden treasure. I doubt the necromancer was any more successful in contacting the dead than the alchemist was in changing lead into gold. The necromancer who raises undead to attack his enemies is strictly an invention of modern fantasy.
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