Sapphire:Sessions:20161217
Ahn-Lee goes to a bar called Silver Flag to follow up on Falcon. He learns that Terry Coleson is the second son of a rich merchant from Verde.
Ahn-Lee sits down at Falcon's table and asks, "How do you know who I am? Why have you been sending 'business' my way?" Falcon: "Is that your real face? Do you intend to kill me? I got your name from... uh, I can't say." Ahn-Lee: "How did you get my name?" Falcon mutters that that person is dead. Ahn-Lee: "I can't believe that kid wants to kill his professor."
Ahn-Lee realizes that Falcon is making it up, and it's the wealthier man at the table who's the real boss. There's something going on with the thieves' guild, and the professor is not just a college instructor.
When Ahn-Lee leaves the Silver Flag, he is followed by a scrawny guy, who flees when Ahn-Lee notices him, scrambling across rooftops faster than Ahn-Lee can catch him. Ahn-Lee waits outside the bar until Falcon emerges.
Chalker returns to the embassy and informs the staff that his cousin Frederick is due to reach Sapphire within the next day or so.
That night, Chalker dreams of chasing and catching werewolves that turn to goo. Something is chasing him, too. The dream is remarkable in its clarity, and he knows it wasn't sent from the First Chosen.
Around 4:00am, Ahn-Lee carries an unconscious man to Branamin's place. Around the same time, Shawna (who has been in meditation) senses threatening magic not far from Branamin's place.
Chalker's dreams become repetitive, so he wills himself to awaken. He feels slightly fatigued, and the shadows seem to waver around him.
Ahn-Lee's captive, whose name is Balen Croft, awakens. He seems apprehensive but not panicked. He admits that he intends to take over the Thieves' Guild. He drops the name Donald Stanhope, an up-and-coming merchant who had once hired Ahn-Lee to kill a rival; Stanhope is now deceased. "I tried to sell him 'insurance' and he wouldn't cooperate." Anders and Sable, two other leaders among thieves, "don't like dealing with the Assassin's Guild."
Chalker goes to Sybonne's room and tries to shake her awake. Though she is tossing fretfully, she doesn't awaken until he has dumped a second glass of water on her face. Then she wakes up, sweating, terrified. Chalker: "I guess it wasn't you messing with my dreams." She describes three monstrous creatures tearing her apart again and again.
Shawna senses frustration from something moving around Branamin's place. She rises, still in a meditative state, and moves into the city.
Chalker writes in his journey book, "Something attacked Sybonne and me in our sleep."
Immediately, something strikes the outer wards... and is obliterated. Branamin's ring says to him, "Something just committed suicide by mage."
Chalker sees something fluttering across the clouds away from the embassy. There are trace amounts of metal about its arms and upper torso, but not enough for Chalker to pull on.
Shawna feels the pulse of the life of the city. There were three of "them" circling Branamin's house, and one suddenly flared up and disintegrated. Two others, about three hundred feet in the air, are moving from the embassy toward Branamin's. There are others in the city but they are warded.
Ahn-Lee verifies "something bad" with Branamin. He tells Balen Croft, "You're now the last thing on my priority list."
Shawna soars into the air, then descends rapidly upon one of "them" and kills it easily... a vampire, recently turned. Her second kill is no more challenging. Vampire3 is hovering 200 feet above Chalker and Sybonne, and Vampire4, seeing Shawna, stretches out one hand and a six-foot metal staff coalesces in it. Chalker calls out "Mine!" and pulls the staff out of Vampire4's grasp toward Sybonne. Shawna slashes Vampire3 across the chest and her backstroke beheads it. She kicks Vampire#4 in the head, then flies away toward the embassy.
Chalker senses a knife on Vampire#4, which he uses to pull the vampire toward the ground. With a swipe of his sword, he beheads Vampire#4. Its torso and one arm are covered with a needle-like steel mesh. He reckons the vampire had been undead for a week.
Vampire#5 is bigger and much older than the first four, flying as fast as Shawna. It suddenly dives down to street level in an area blocked from Shawna's senses. She calls to her goddess, "Grant me the ability to track down that perversion of life!" She senses that her request is granted... but delayed.
Chalker knocks at Branamin's door. "Kind of jumpy, aren't you? Ahn-Lee, the vampires are mad at you, aren't they?" Ahn-Lee: "It would be good protocol to warn the others [those who also had dealt with the bale vampires], especially since one is a beautiful woman." Chalker: "If he survives we may use him, but he doesn't follow instructions well."
Branamin turns Balen Croft into a possum, "so he won't know where the lab is." Ahn-Lee pops the possum into a bag, to which Branamin adds a bottle of wine "for his trouble."
Seeing Shawna circling high above the embassy, Chalker rides in that direction. City guards attempt to warn him away from the "dangerous area." He asks to speak to the guard captain, to whom he shows his signet ring.
Ahn-Lee retreats to a safe house and sends out runners to warn of vampires targeting professional assassins. Going back out into the city, he makes sure the possum is quite disoriented, then hangs the bag on the corner of a building somewhere.
Shawna senses at least two major vampires and at least a dozen lesser ones underground. She zeroes in on a specific building, turns to mist, and descends. When she enters the cellar, there are the vampires she sensed... and five prisoners, battered and bleeding, chained to the walls. Materializing and brandishing her sword, she shouts, "Goddess of Life, strike them down!" Her furious blow stuns V1, though his skin is as tough as plate armor.
Chalker and Ahn-Lee arrive (the latter the beneficiary of +2 Haste from Branamin). The cellar is at first lit only by Chalker's torch. Ahn-Lee springs into the air, fast-drawing two knives, and dives at V3, who sprouts claws and attempts to counter, but Ahn-Lee acrobatically dodges the return attack. Branamin, not far behind in the stairwell, grasps his amulet of Cor and intones, "If you're real, make this happen!" Suddenly, brilliant Sunlight illuminates the stairwell, causing several of the vampires to shriek and cringe away. Chalker dodges the eight or nine vampires between him and Shawna, coming up right behind V1 and V2 (the "major" vampires) and fast-drawing a sword. V5 attacks Chalker, who parries (peeling off a swath of V5's leather armor). V6 swings at Shawna but misses completely.
Ahn-Lee goes for vitals shots on V3 and V4, striking V3 solidly; V4 manages to dodge. V2 turns, takes a step back, and tries to attack Chalker but misses. V1 does a similar move to attack Shawna; he not only misses, he slips and shatters his left kneecap on the stone floor. Shawna practically beheads V1 and Chalker finishes him off. V3 claws at Ahn-Lee who executes a brilliant acrobatic dodge. Several vampires rush at Chalker, one of them grazing his armor. Branamin casts Mirror, reflecting the Sunlight from the stairwell throughout the 40'x40' room.
Ahn-Lee leaps up and shoves two of the vampires toward the blinding Sunlight. V2 hisses angrily as Shawna parries his attack. Another vampire tries a slam attack on Ahn-Lee, who gracefully dodges away. Two vampires attack Chalker and would have struck him but for Branamin casting Blink Other on Chalker. The energy he had to pump into the Blink exhausts Branamin and he slumps, unconscious. Shawna parries V2's attack. Chalker strikes V2 a heavy blow and Shawna beheads the vampire.
Ahn-Lee attacks and kills two vampires. Two vampires apiece attack Chalker and Shawna; all of them miss. One vampire dodges Shawna, but she kills the other. Chalker hits both vampires, one of them falling dead.
The remaining vampires are all slain and beheaded. Shawna immediately turns to help the chained victims. Ahn-Lee quips, "We've been working so hard, and here Branamin is, napping!" Chalker removes the strange mesh from V1 and V2. Ahn-Lee loots the dead vampires, but finds no pouches on any of them.
Chalker briefly checks Branamin, tries slapping him awake (doesn't work), then carries him upstairs and beckons to Sybonne. She brings fresh drinking water and casts Minor Healing. Branamin awakens and asks, "Did we win?"
Having been told by Shawna that a number of people enthralled by V1 and V2 occupy the upper floors of the building, Chalker calls in the city guard. "The vampires are dead," he tells them, and has them sweep the building, take the victims away for medical treatment, and secure all the enthralled.
Ahn-Lee had recognized one of the lesser vampires as being one he had chased earlier. Branamin feels moved to visit the temple of Cor; Chalker accompanies him and explains how to give observance. Branamin gives a silver piece as an offering. Afterward, Branamin goes to the temple of Yasseph and walks in the gardens.
As Sybonne predicted, the ship bringing Chalker's cousin Frederick to Sapphire arrives at 9:00am.
Branamin composes a tale of the epic vampire fight (which Chalker dubs "The Charge of the Four"). Casting an Illusion on himself to appear as a vary tall town crier, he gathers a crowd in a city square and entertains them with his dramatic narration, to great approbation and applause.
At 1:00pm the King of Sapphire receives the new Ambassador, Prince Frederick Morgeu of Dolyena. Chalker is named Envoy to Sapphire.
As they are leaving the palace, Frederick relates "a bit of slander" -- supposedly there's a rumor that Chalker is harboring a fugitive, a wanted criminal from Malprin. "That's so ridiculous," adds Frederick with a snide grin; "Not even you with your uncouth manners would stoop so low and embarrass Their Highnesses."
Chalker takes Frederick to the Embassy of Greater Bicarn and introduces him to the Bicarn Ambassador. The ambassador informs Chalker that the property Chalker had been interested in acquiring is "not available... to you." Chalker mentions that he is changing residences to a compound in Old Town.
Branamin buys more manastones from a mage with whom he has a contract.
On Short Days 2, while at dinner together at the Boar's Head, Chalker asks the others, "Want to go to an island? I'm looking for dark mithril."