Chapter 13 - Down the rabbit hole.

“We are going in.” I say and everybody nods. We had discussed this before, if there was enough daylight to raid the nest we needed to try. Now that we found the way in the vampires have been using, the district town should be safe. We had sent word to the guard and the commander about the smuggler house, so they will send someone here even if we don’t report back. The real reason we had to try it is that while the junkies aren’t able to rationalize anymore like intelligent creatures they are still cunning. And if they find too much resistance here they might try to feed somewhere else. Not the recently turned they will mindless look for the next fix, but those who fed recently might choose to so. Putting all the farming communities and the Fae who lived outside the city in danger.

And if that was to happen they would spread in to the wild areas of the enclave making hunting them much more difficult. So we had to go down the hole. I keep the light spell on my staff going as we go down the ladder.

The tunnel was small and the ceiling low, I had to keep my head low on it. Goddamn dwarves for being short. Why can’t they be the tree loving ones and the elves the diggers? Would make human lifes so much easier when entering their tunnels..

As all dwarven work the tunnel was well done. Lots wooden beams for support, the ground was even and it wasn’t damp anywhere. Just no lights anywhere.. I guess they weren’t necessary with dwarves having dark vision and all.. Very inconsiderate of other races these dwarves… At least, the trail of dried blood on it proves we got the right runnel.

Once everyone is down we start moving quickly, there is no time to lose. Single line is the only way to go. It did fit two people shoulder to shoulders but it would be too tight to react to anything. So single line it was, with me leading, then the detectives and Lis bringing the back.

We walked for 5 minutes or so when I heard footsteps coming from ahead. I prepared my staff and willed the light spell from it to detach and pushed the ball ball of light a few meters ahead of us. Soon the steps increased in tempo and a small dark figure, no higher than 1,5 meters, comes from behind a bent in a sprint toward us.

“seiceanna reoite” I quickly cast a spell I had prepared and feel my magic trying to lock the creature legs in a shackle of ice. But as soon as the spell hits the creature it seems to lose cohesion and burst as cold air only. Dammit dwarves, not only they aren’t considerate enough to build tall tunnels, but they have high resistance to magic.

The duergar closes the distance quickly and there is no time to try any other spell. So I brace myself for impact and when it lunges at me I use my staff and it’s own moment to catch his lunge, turn it and threw him against the wall. It’s strong as hell, and I am forced to summon a little of the power of winter to boost me in order to hold it in place. If it had any intelligence left it would have no problem in pushing against the wall with its legs to free itself, but right now all it was doing is snarling and doing his best to try to bite and scratch me, but his small limbs means I can keep it there safely.

Hendrickson soon is at my side and buries the short sword in to the creature chest. But the dwarf don’t stops trashing and tries to hold the blade with it’s small hand. “Go for the brains, it’s ghoul not a vampire”. I say through my teeth as I struggle to keep it in place. At that moment the ghoul by luck or design managed to plant it’s feet on the wall and push against me. I’m forced a step back and the ghoul, no longer stuck between me and the wall falls face down on the ground. Hendrickson tackles it putting all his weight on it’s back and West uses that opportunity to sink her blade on the side of it’s head. The ghoul stops struggling.

I ready myself for any other incoming danger, but nothing is on the way. West helps Hendrickson get up. “What the fuck was that.” He asks as he gets up. “That was a ghoul.” I answer. “That explains everything.” He says sarcastically. “Ghouls are magical creatures that succumb to the undead virus, most of my kind are immune to it, but there are some strains that mutated due to wild magic and can affect us.” Pyralis answers from the back. She did nothing to help, but I don’t blame her. Her magic would have probably hurt us more than the ghoul at this close quarters.

“Ghouls usually maintain some traits from their original form, they are never slow like zombies but will attack any living things they can sense like zombies. Also having their own magic they rarely suffer mutations by wild magic.” I finish Lis explanations. For that same reason Vampires can’t infect other magical beings, that's why the duergar turned into a ghoul instead of a vampire. This fact escaped me earlier when planning the raid.. It means we will have less vampires and more ghouls to deal with. Damn, even if we find the nest in time instead of a bunch of sleeping or sluggish vampires we will have ghouls to deal with as well.

We get moving again, we move for about 10 minutes in a pace as fast as we could with the low ceiling. By my calculations we are probably a few hundred meters outside the walls already when we reach the end of the tunnel and another ladder. The trap door over it is wide open. We stops and try to listen to anything, silence is all we get, I send my magic sense up there but find nothing as well. I cast a shield and go up the ladder.

The trap door leads into what looks like a small cave. I can see two exits, one leads outside and the orange light of the sun setting comes from it. And the other it’s a well craft door that is wide open. Claws marks and blood trails on it. Well at least is no mystery witch way to go.

Once everyone is out of the tunnel, I call Lis to check the door. “It’s a gnome burrow.” Lis states. “If the vampires have their nest here, it means all occupants are dead or turned, otherwise they would have sounded an alarm.” Gnomes are fae. Like the dwarves they are short humanoid figures, but they are much more slim and have pointed ears and bigger noses. They don’t have an alignment as a species but are separated by clans and families, some being from summer, others winter or even wyld fae. While there isn’t a stereotype for gnomes, they have good talent in crafting and enchanting and some are even capable of using arcane magic beside their own fae magic.

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“We must hurry, we still have time to deal with the vampires.” West says as she looks to the fading light. Really detective? You had to go and jinx it.

We get inside using the same formation. The entrance hall is empty of enemies, but there is signs of struggle everywhere. Turned tables, scorch marks and broken furniture in general. There hall is high enough for me to stand, and we have 3 different doors for us to follow. The most promising one is where the blood trail from the entrance door continues.

“Shouldn’t we lock the door in case there are vampires on the other passages?” Hendrickson asks. I ponder about it for a few seconds. “It’s better we leave it open.” I answer and motion for they to hurry. It’s true that a junkie could escape by the door, but if it did so, it would go right to the tunnel and run in to the commander forces . While if we closed and warded it, a junkie might look for another exit and spread the infection. Not that I worry, if we fail to reach their nest before they wake up, they would come first at the closest life force they could detect. Us.

Once we leave the hall the blood trail led us in to a small corridor with a low ceiling that forced me to keep my head low to avoid bumping it. We follow it in silence for a couple of minutes and pass by at least two crossways. There are more blood spattered on the corridor and signs of struggle, but they are old, while the trail we are following is made of older and fresher blood mixed. As if more then once victim was dragged this way. We reach a spot with two doorways, one each side of the corridor, the trail splitting and leading to both of them. Jackpot!

We stops for a few seconds while everyone gets ready. Then we tiptoe to the doors a Quick look inside the room shows me the junkies sleeping around the room. As I explained earlier in the day, I have no idea why the sun burns vampires to ashes, my guess it has to do about the spirit that possessed and created the first vampire, but whatever the reason, it also makes a vampire to burn life energy much faster to be active during daylight hours, even when not exposed to the sun. For that reason vampires will usually be asleep during the day, but that doesn't mean they can’t wake up. I counted at least 8 vampires in one room and another 5 on the other.

I point to the room with 8 of the creatures. “We go fast, kill them and move to the other room before they finish waking up.” Everyone nods and ready their weapons. I raise my hand with three fingers and start a countdown. Three, two, one. We rush in.

I focus my magic to create a sharp blade of reinforced ice on the tip of my staff and rush to the first vampire. I pierce it’s heart just as its eyes open. It let a shrill scream as the magic keeping it alive disperses and only it’s husk remain. To my side the detectives dispatch a vampire each stabbing their hearts with their short swords. Pyralis from the door cast s focused beam of heat that burns a hole on the chest of a forth one. Screams fill the room now and the remaining vampires are awake and starting to move, but they do so slugish. I charge the closest one, and it tries to jump me as I get close, I activate a shield and when the vampire momentum is spent against it I push the shield out throwing him against a wall. I use the range I have with the staff to pierce it’s heart before it can recover.

Another beam of heat to my right and another scream tells me that Pyralis dispatched a second vampire. Just as things were going well I see detective Hendrickson fly by me and hit a wall with a heavy thud. He falls to the ground like a sack of potatoes and stays down. I turn to find the vampire that thrown him chasing after the now unconscious detective. “Gaoth na sioc” I yell pushing my free hand out in it’s direction, and a cone of freezing wind hits him and the floors. It slow him down as his skin is damage by the cold and as he tries to balance himself in the now slippery ground. Just as he turns and lock eyes with me, detective West bull rush his back stabbing her short sword on his back to the hilt, piercing it’s heart.

As the vampire toples to the ground I feel a wave of fire shot right after the detective, but missing the vampire that was close on her tail. It tackles West and the both of them skid and roll on the ice for two meters or so before stopping, the vampire on top. I rush to them just as the creature bytes the detective neck. I hold my staff by tit’s base and swing it upwards hitting the vampire on the its belly where it’s not touching West’s back, releasing the stored energy while doing so.

It might have supernatural strength and speed, but it’s mass was still the same as when it was alive, hitting it with enough force to turn a small car upside down shots it upward smashing him against the ceiling. As the vampire falls back to the ground, I bring my staff in a downward swing while at the same time willing the ice blade to increasing it’s length and sharpness. Decapitating the temporarily stunned vampire, with an improvised naginata.

I rush to check West state, her neck was bleeding some, but the byte wasn’t deep and missed all her arteries. But she was out cold from the impact. Hendrickson looks the same. I leave them and rush to Pyralis side at the door. There is sounds comming from the other doorway, as the vampires are no longer sleeping.

Pyralis casts a wall of fire to try and keep them inside. My mind was working maximum speed as I yell to Lis. “Set the room on fire and I’ll block the door.” She summons a ball of fire in each hand and throw them in to the room. Twin explosions reach my ear as the balls of fire consumed the room setting everything on fire. She quickly does it twice more. Screams of agony and rage comes from the room, and I reach the door just in time to summon a pale blue shield of magic and block the first flaming vampire that rushed the door to try getting out of the room. The screams intensify for a while, and then start to slow down as the flames consumed the creatures. Just as I was about to congratulate myself a new round of screams pierce my ears, but not from the room, but down the corridor we came.

I look and see scores of small forms rushing ourway. Come on give me a break, couldn’t they take just a little longer to show up. I keep my focusing my magic on maintaining the shield, grab my combat stick and point down the hallway, I reach for the cold dark place where the power of winter resides and open the flood gates, channeling as much power from it as I can handle. It’s not only a cone of cold wind that releases from my focus, but a blizzard. The hallway freezes and the ghouls are forced to stop as I release the fury of winter in to them.

Were they regular zombies or even junkies they would have been popcicles by now, but same as with the dwarf, the gnomes kept part of their magical resistance when they turned.

As I overdraw from the well of power and loses my concentration the ghouls are still standing, damaged and slowed, but alive. The only noise coming from inside the room now was the roaring of flames, so I drop the shield and gesture for Lis to help me with the detectives.

I get Hendrickson on a fireman carry on and Lis does the same with West. Once we return to the corridor, the ghouls that were on the back of the two scores or so of undead gnomes rushed by the damaged and slowed ones and were quickly closing on us.

Having spent a good portion of my own magic, and exhausted the power of my connection to the well of winter, I decide to enact the best part of caution and run away.

As we run we pass through a second set of doors. I look back as the sound of the ghouls seems to be getting closer and notice two humanoid figures by those doors staring at us with hunger in their eyes. Great there are still more vampires alive. And the unfairest part of it all is that they being dead already, are ignored by the ghouls who keep chasing us and are gaining ground.

“Balla Sioc!” I shout while pointing behind as we run through the tunnel and a 8 cm thick wall of ice blocks the tunnel.