We gathered at the Tavern to talk about our excursion. I was late. It seems that trying to find adequate progeny in this land is proving to be a difficult task. I have been lurking about, surveying the land, trying to find someone that might be worth the journey. I know Marius has tasked us with expanding our family; he’s eager for fresh new blood. As a guardian, I must comply… but that’s really a pain in my arse and taking away from my daily beautification routine. Thus, I am late.
Isonu explained that Va’lis had a lover, Neira. She commands the necromancers of the dungeon Deceit in the lands of Felucca as well as those found in Ilshenar. We could go question her, but she’s heavily guarded and we would need to form an army to take her on. Right now, our family couldn’t really withstand that push. But perhaps an unlikely alliance could be bartered; I’ll talk to Marius about it. For now we focus on another clue that Isonu was able to pull out of the tattered piece of journal we found in Tokonu. He said it takes us to the land of Ilshenar and a place known as the “Blood Dungeon”. Sounds yummy… I mean dangerous, so naturally we dive head first.
I called upon my trusty sidekick Harvey Daniels and we had the assistance of the new Lycan, Kagome, as well. Her tracking abilities are at their best now. Isonu led us to the place. After Dragula and Alejandro devour some bone knights outside the entrance, we notice the demon head pouring blood out of its mouth that adorns the entrance. This is the right place. I couldn’t help but notice the blood coming from the stone was human although of magical influence. Who’s blood, well that’s a mystery. One I am not that concerned about at this very moment.
Inside we encountered the usual habitants of a dungeon; imps, hellcats, the such. No real challenge for Dragula and Alejandro, who devoured them like tasty treats. We pushed deeper into the place and found some blood elementals; surely to be the reason why this place is called the Blood Dungeon. My trusty shadow sextant started to glow a slight hue of dark blue, which could only mean one thing: Balrons. The dark grayish pools of blood on the ground also gave away the presence of these morbid creatures. I bent down and ran the index and middle fingers of my right hand through the puddle of blood, smelling it then licking it to completely confirm our suspicions. Somewhere nearby there was a Balron… well hopefully just one.
No such luck, not only was there a portal that we couldn’t figure out how to close, Balrons just kept coming through the portal; some were of uncanny strength. Bested me in a few hits! Luckily my comrades were there to quickly get me back in the fight. Still once we were able to focus them onto our beasts, we did away with them just fine. After the portal room, we found a treasure room. I ordered my crew to fan out and search. We came up on some locked chests, but the locks were brittle enough for my magic to work on them. Of course, as expected, they were booby trapped. One chest in particular caught my eye, the lock had been replaced with a newer mechanism. Someone had placed something in it, recently. It took a bit but I did manage to pry it open.
Upon opening the chest, we find a tattered old map with a question mark drawn in ink on the island of Serpent’s Hold. Just as I am carefully rolling it back up to tuck it in my backpack, Kagome makes a discovery of her own in one of the other chests. A decaying body, but not human body… something else. Vandion would have to do forensics on it to completely figure it out. So I pulled out a blanket from my backpack, unfolded it and told Kagome to wrap this body up. We’re taking it to Vandion.
Once I arrived to Vandion’s office in Trinsic Hold, I dropped the body off on a slab he has in his laboratory. He raised his eyebrow, “Well, what do we have here?” he said sniffing the air. This was one tough dog, the Alpha of his pack, trained in hand to hand combat as well as advanced forensics. His talents are quite expansive. “I brought you a souvenir.” I said as I shot him a quick grin.