A simple wooden mask, with nothing special on the outside. It covers all of Yunikki's face, and is extended to cover everything of the burnt in mark. Thanks to Sucy, you made sure it helps as much as possible in healing the injury. The scar is going to be permanent, but she's been scratching and damaging the scab constantly. Sucy made sure there's a small covering of sterile, soft bindings. A little pillow, so to speak. Sucy has a few antiseptics to throw on it, but that means she needs to replace it nearly daily. Sucy... isn't quite ready to do that.
I'm not touching anything that belong to her right now. I don't want to wake up getting strangled. You do it.She won't strangle you for helping her, come on now.Sucy just looks at you with a completely neutral expression. Her stare alone gets the message across well enough, though...
Looks like it's up to you. You use those moments to have a little heart to heart with Yunikki, reminding her of what she is and what she stands for. You notice that talk of her military training really seems to resonate. Soon enough, she's carrying her part of the packs again. She still won't let anybody but you come close, but it's a BIG step.
Maybe you WILL be able to rehabilitate her. You hope, in a few thousands of years, you can go to hell just to rub it into the vampire's face.
And to kill him again, hopefully.
The roads remain completely quiet, and setting up a guard at night has proven to be completely unneeded. Not that you'd neglect to post one, of course. You found a few people to camp with on occasions. Most people on the way to the dwarves are either dwarves themselves (you've seen more dwarves over the last few days than all years before it!) or "border traders", who mainly sell in enchanted antiques. Most of these things are completely worthless, though. A clock that shows the time the closest OTHER clock is portraying, for one, or a teacup that turns red when it's filled with anything warm. Apparently, it's the only thing that sells with the dwarves. They've got so much fancy things in there, if the walls were ever taken down it'd be a revolution for the entire topside world. Great buildings that reach hundreds of meters, guns beyond the mere flintlock (which is rare enough), even things you can implant under the skin to make you stronger!
Meandra isn't very forthcoming about everything that's there, but it sounds like a paradise, to say the least. Although...
There's a lot of dangers, too. Organised crime isn't just a danger, it's a fact of life. Corporations that own entire cities is another thing. Private armies...
You can hardly imagine it all, to be honest.
Finally, after a week of uneventful travel, you finally reach the entrance of the dwarven homes. It's a massive dune that goes on beyond the horizon. A massive wall blocks all travel to the cities, barbed wire and armed guards standing on top. They're wielding muskets, from the look of things. Every. single guard.
Dearest reader, I don't think you fully understand just have special it is to see every single guard on a wall that goes further than the eye can see wield a musket. Anything more advanced than a pistol is already exceptionally rare, and here everybody is wielding a musket. Pistols could be smuggled, muskets could not. You don't see these at all out in the world, even the most well travelled wanderer woudn't see more than a hundred guns, and that's if he speaks with everybody who might conceivable have one. If you've ever entered a place that is clearly and obviously far above your paygrade, it's that feeling this wall is going to instil.
Sydney? Come on. I've got an ID, we can use the preferential lines. The lines for entering the dwarven cities are immensely long, but the preferential lines are just about empty. You only have to stop before a single dwarf, who seems to be returning from a long campaign, based on the heavily used axe and overflowing treasure bag he (proudly) showed to customs.
Then, it's Meandra's turn. She looked positively giddy to be back home again.
The guard is behind a solid-looking pane of glass. There's a small slot that allows one to slip a card through. The guard seems to be quite pleasant, not quite what you'd expect from a border guard.
Alright, miss. Looks like your ID is in order... Are these people with you?Indeed they are. They're my bodyguards. Interesting choices you've made. The drider's a good choice, if you can tame them, and those two look like proper mercenaries... Not too sure about HER though. The guard points at Yunikki, who is clutching her mask.
She suffered some really bad injuries. The mask is medicinal....Really now? We can't take in any stray that comes in for the rain, miss. Lying will not help them.It's not a lie. Look at the mask yourself. Sucy says, deadpan and quietly. You take off Yunikki's mask to show the soft parts of it. Just as the guard is about to speak up, he sees the mark on Yunikki's face. His suspicious expression turns right around
Ah... Blasted savages. My apologies. Enter through gate three, please. One at a time. You enter one by one, you go just before Yunikki does, in case she gets troublesome. There is a frisking, to check for anything illegal. They ask a few questions about the blood vials Sucy kept on her (thank god she did, or it would have been an awkward week), but your explanation of latent vampirism seems to have cleared everything up. You are told to keep the vials to yourself, though. There are a few other things that Sucy wasn't allowed to bring, mostly her stock of the more exceptional poisons. Apparently, she needs a permit for those, but when she leaves she can pick her stuff up again. Dwarven insurance guarantees that anything that went bad in the meantime will be replaced free of charge. Seems like an impossible system to keep going, though...
Hal Durran's frisking took a long while. He had to help out to show them all the places he hid his knives, which did get him the respect of the friskers. Seems like they really like co-operative people, eh? He gets to keep all of his stock, but that he needed a permit to stock so many of them in the places he did. It's fine as long as he keeps them in a bag, at least.
Yunikki was troublesome, to say the least. Your frisking took a little longer considering your size and them not being used to your body shape (they seemed in awe of you, though. Looks like there aren't a lot of driders here.), but Yunikki was very stressed at the strangers looking through her. After some convincing, you were allowed to help keep her calm as they stripped off her chains to look through the links for anything hidden. Without the chains, it's much more clear she's still wearing rags. She shakes and mumbles for as long as she can't wear them. Muttering on and on about how it isn't safe for everybody involved.
Eventually, though, you manage to leave without incident. Yunikki was quick to put the chains on again, although she needed your help. You weren't too happy to do so...
You are brought to an odd metal box shortly after, to bring you to the proper level. Apparently, you're at level 3 now. It just... carried you down. You're going to need some time getting used to all the tech, that's for sure.
When you leave, you notice that despite being quite a distance underground, there's still a lot of "sunlight". Looking up, you can see a massive glowing rock providing all the light for the city.
Speaking of the city.
Holy shit.Wow...Even Sucy is agape when she sees the sheer size of the city. The buildings really DO reach HUNDREDS of meters into the sky, lined with windows and lit up from the inside. The roads are made of stone at the sides, placed in equal squares with a black road for self-moving carriages. No horse, no magic, they just move forward while roaring like beasts. Meandra was quick to show you the ropes, telling you to always look left and wait for the green light at every crossing. They must have some weird-ass torches inside those poles, with the way the blink around like that...
You finally reach Meandra's home. You hadn't expected her to have such a massive one, to say the least. It's a mansion! A mansion with a garden on the roof, from the look of things...
DAD! she yells, as she rushes to the middle-aged man in a black suit. She hugs him with full momentum, but the man is far more sturdy than he appears, barely even flinching from Meandra's glomp.
Meandra! Darling... It's been a long time. How were your studies?They went great, pop. I'll be able to do everything I promised, and MORE. I see you've brought friends?Meandra was quick to introduce you all. Her father was impossibly calm and collected for all of it, not even raising an eyebrow at any of it.
You are free to stay here and rest for a time. It's a bit overwhelming to go from the outside to the dwarven cities, to say the least. I'll have the guest rooms prepared...Gladly.We're probably going to stick around for a little while. Best get some rooms situated, no?I'm going to explore, if you don't mind.It's probably a little dangerous to do so without a guide, but there are so many things you need to discover here!Other.Basic Stats
Level: 11
HP: 45/45
Poison stings: 1/1
Restraint 3/3
Mana: 60/60
Stress: 00/70
Corruption: 6/10
Thirst: Sated
Children:
Firstborn Son 5/5
Firstborn Daughter 6/6
Items and equipment
Equipment:
Extra long shirt
Vest
Painted Carapace Armor
Bastard sword (sharpened)
Simple iron shield
Items:
First Tome of Eternal Darkness
Spare clothing (x12)
Fancy clothing
The Cure (cures vampirism)
Magic Cookbook
Blood Vials (X7)
Skills and spells
Magic:
Resurrect vermin: Allows you to resurrect very small creatures such as rats(invests 2 of your max mana) (no mana cost)
Resurrect average beast: Allows you to resurrect creatures such as dogs, cats and other similar-sized creatures.(invests 7 mana) (no mana cost)
Resurrect Humanoid: Allows you to resurrect humanoid creatures. (Invests 10 mana) (Costs 14 mana)
Reshape minion plus!: Allows you to majorly change the appearance of your resurrected minions.
Control Undead: Allows you to attempt to control an undead that doesn't belong to you. (mana cost of 2 per second, unmastered)
Minion Vision: Allows you to see what a minion sees. The minion must have eyes.
Disintegrate undead: Delete a corpse you currently control.
Animate Piece: Allows you to animate just a piece of dead tissue. It requires your constant attention, and cannot act independently. (Drains 0 mana)
Graft: Allows you to use dead tissue as a replacement limb. Requires a lot of mana. (1 per second) (average limb takes around 20 seconds to properly graft)
Gather Soul: Allows you to make a soul visible. You could try putting it in a flame of some sort to keep it around. (9 mana)
Soul battery: Allows you to use a soul-infused flame as a small mana-boost. This snuffs it out, however
Undead flashbang: Allows you to blow up a minion for a flash-bang effect. (9 mana)
Stitch: allows you to close a wound and stop bleeding as fast as you can stitch. Costs zero mana, but requires something to stitch with.
Siphoning Cloud: Breathe out a cloud that drains the life from victims and gives it to you. Adds a LOT to intimidation (4 mana)
Smoke Cloud: Breathe out harmless but thick smoke. (1 mana)
Deathbolt: A bolt that hurts the body's connection with it's soul. Causes minor wounds to appear over the body as it attempts to compensate (1 mana)
Doombolt: A more powerful version of the above (4 Mana)
Companions
You'll find something nice, soon. It can't be anything above "average beast" however.
Skills:
Broodmother: Once per day, you can sting something to create spiderlings, which are large, clever spiders that adore you by default. Your instincts cause you to be VERY protective of them.
Crossbow usage: Novice
Oral Fixation: Can cast spells spells from the mouth.
Draining Limbs: Can drain blood using pedipalps.
Major experience in blocking and swords.
Climber
Crafty: Bolas
Cooking skill: Excellent
Corpse Cutting: Quite Decent.
Animal handling: inexperienced.
Necromantic knowledge
Soul Sniffer