I was both surprised and disappointed that nothing happened during the night. I thought for sure that there would be some reaction to the mayor and the council members going missing, or about us sneaking around part of the city looking for the entrance to the underground. We got up relatively early and changed into our adventuring gear, stored everything we had left out and tied our hair up, then left the room and met everyone downstairs for breakfast. We all went into the large dining room and sat down at several tables that were close together.
I saw a few nervous faces, one of which was Josh's, who looked like he didn't get much sleep. “You stayed up most of the night making things, didn't you?” I asked, and he nodded several times. I held up a finger and made the tip glow with a bit of mana. “Want me to try and perk you up?”
Josh looked at my finger and then at my face. He had a determined look for a second and nodded again. I switched the mana for a little bit of Presence and reached out to touch his forehead to push it into his brain to stimulate it, and it met the thick band of mana. Since I wasn't sharing energy and was trying to force my way through, they weren't compatible and I pulled my finger away.
“Nothing?” I asked and he shook his head. I could have forced my way through; but, that wasn't what I was trying to do. I was showing him that I wasn't getting into his head easily. After a moment, a small smile appeared on Josh's face when he understood.
“The same thing woke you up after you collapsed in the capital, remember?” Jessica asked and Josh's smile grew. “Maybe I should get it done, too.”
“I think a few of us should have it done.” Diofra said. “We need a lot more ingredients, though.”
“It's a fairly big city. We should find several magic shops...” Jessica started to say when Viri the skill scribe came into the room.
“Good morning.” Viri said and sat down beside Maylia at our table.
Breakfast was served to everyone and Viri held up two copper coins to the waitress. She took them with a nod and left without commenting that Viri wasn't staying at the inn. We all ate our meals and left the inn and gathered outside in what could be considered a small park.
“All right, Josh.” I said with a smile. “Show us what you've been working on.”
Josh took out a huge wooden rack full of vials of liquid. “I only made enough of these for each of us to take ten.”
“Just ten?” Steven said with a chuckle and took ten, as did everyone else.
Josh stored his ten and the rack and gave everyone a nice metal cross on a simple chain, then he took out something that looked like a lawn dart, except it was made of wood.
“They are much heavier on the end.” Josh said and tossed it into the air about two feet and it flipped over and dropped to the ground. The very sharp tip stuck into the ground and we all saw the cross with the symbol of the Church of Light marked on it.
“How did you make that?” Viri asked, surprised at the thing.
“Desperation.” Josh said with a crooked smile. “The first dozen or so didn't work, so I had to add a strip of iron in the core.” He picked it up and looked at the tree not far way. He threw it and surprisingly, the thing flipped over and the tip pointed right at the tree and stuck in. “The weight and the fletches correct their flight, so the tip always points where you throw if you throw it hard enough.
“Why didn't you just make arrows?” Maylia asked.
“I did.” Josh said and took out six quivers full of arrows. “Each one has been blessed and should give any... of them... a very hard time.”
“How many lawn darts did you make?” Steven asked as he retrieved the one from the tree. The wooden tip was bent and he held it out... and we all watched as the tip straightened out and became sharp again.
“Enough for two each and they are reusable.” Josh said with a proud smile on his face as he took them all out and put them on the ground next to the arrows.
“Nice work, man.” Steven said and pat his shoulder. “These should come in handy for sure.”
“Okay, those with bows or can use bows, take the quivers of arrows.” I said and Diofra, Maylia, Imiryl, Evangeline, and Viri took quivers. “We'll stop at a shop and buy some of the best bows.”
I saw Afyne's hand twitch to take the last quiver, so I reached out and took it, then handed it to her. “Maylia will show you how to use these.”
“Not you?” Afyne asked and hugged the quiver.
“I don't use a bow.” I said and picked up one of the arrows with a Presence Hand and threw the arrow at the same tree that Josh had hit with the lawn dart. The arrow went right into the same hole and I hadn't taken my eyes off of Afyne the entire time.
“Show off.” Maylia laughed and retrieved the arrow. It fixed the slight damage it had and became perfect again. She gave the arrow to Afyne, who put it into her quiver with a slightly shaking hand.
“When we get into the thick of it, it'll be my job to get the arrows back.” I said, which surprised a lot of them. “I won't be leading from the front this time.”
“Why not?” Jessica asked, concern on her voice.
“Josh is the vampire expert.” I said and we all looked at him. “I suggest we all listen to him.”
“I... I'm not. I just...” Josh said.
“...know everything about vampires.” I said. “You saw the skill list yesterday. You know what to expect, don't you?”
“I...” Josh looked at everyone's faces. “I can't...”
“I'm not saying to lead from the front like I usually do.” I said and everyone turned to look at me again. “I'm saying while you maintain your buffs and heal people, tell us what to do and how to react to what the vampires do when we encounter them.”
“You... you're putting this all on me?” Josh asked, surprised and a little shocked.
“You're the one that chose to have a permanent mind block spell cast on yourself to protect your mind from a vampire's mental probes.” I said. “Can you think of anyone else here with your expertise?”
Josh looked at Viri, who had answered their questions yesterday about vampires.
“I only know about their stats.” Viri said.
“Oh, I just remembered.” I said and took out the thick book I found in the mayor's bag of holding. “I think I found a book about them.”
“WHAT?!?” Jessica and several others, Josh included, yelled.
“Geez, keep it down.” I said and held out the book.
“Vampire Lore: The First Age.” Jessica said and took the book reverently before opening it to the first page and started to read the contents. “It's written in Ancient!”
“That's probably why Afyne and I could read the title.” I said, offhandedly. “It was in the mayor's bag of holding.”
Everyone, except Maylia and Afyne, stopped moving and turned to look at me with surprised faces.
“You can take things from other people's bags of holding?” Viri asked, her voice sounded scandalized.
“Only under certain circumstances.” I said as a qualifier.
“What circumstances?” Kara asked, her eyes narrowed slightly.
“The owner has to be dead or dismembered.” I said truthfully, because those were the only times I had done it. “Otherwise, they could just say no.”
They all visibly relaxed.
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“Saaaaaay...” I looked at everyone with greedy eyes and wiggled my fingers at them. “...what are you hiding in your bags of holding?”
“NO!” They all yelled at once and took a step back from me. Maylia, Afyne, and I burst out laughing. The tension I had inadvertently caused faded and several of them smiled.
“Jessica, give that book a speed read and let us know...” I started to say.
“It's only conjecture and 'witness' testimonies.” Jessica said, and I heard the quotes around the word witness, which meant she doubted their validity. “No actual facts.” She closed the book and handed it back to me. “Viri's scribe skill was more accurate.”
“It was probably a book from the Countess' library.” Viri said and looked at it. “It looks pretty old.”
I stored the book in with the bodies and looked at Josh. “I want you to take a few minutes to tell Jessica's communication spell how you made these things so we can send it to the queen.” I said and held up a vial of Holy water, then pointed to the lawn darts and the arrows. “Assuming they aren't trade secrets.”
“I probably could sell them; but, I want these creatures wiped out.” Josh said, and we could hear the steel in his voice. “Jessica, prep the spell.”
“Good man.” I said. “The queen wants them destroyed completely as well.”
Josh nodded, and he and Jessica started to record the message for Josh to describe everything. I turned to Diofra and asked her to send a very quick message to the queen to warn her that an important detailed message from the emissaries was coming. Diofra sent it off and about twenty minutes later, Josh was finished and Jessica sent the message off. The ball of light was quite a bit bigger than normal.
“I hope the size doesn't slow the thing...” I stopped talking as the ball of light zoomed away just as fast as a normal one. “My hope was realized!” I exclaimed and Afyne and Maylia laughed.
We left the little park and went to the closest place to buy bows. It didn't take long for everyone to find a bow they liked, along with some protective gear like gloves and a wrist guard, and I bought it all. I quieted the protests by once again saying I was taking it out of their cut of the loot. It was surprising that they didn't question me about it after saying that.
I guess just the implication that they were spending their own money worked to calm them, even though they weren't actually spending the money. I thought in amusement.
“I think that's everything we need.” Josh said, and I nodded. He led us all outside. “Prepare yourselves. Those of you with swords, charge them with mana when we get to the sewer grate.”
We all nodded and followed him several blocks to the mayor's building while Maylia gave Afyne some very good tips for handling a bow along the way. There were already people out and about, even this early in the morning, and we moved on several more blocks to the right building. We entered and went down into the basement and Steven pulled the grate out of the floor, along with some of the floor.
“Oops.” Steven said and put it down quietly off to the side of the now fairly large hole.
“Yeah, thanks for announcing us.” I said. “By the way, I don't detect anyone within my range.”
“What is your range, by the way?” Jessica asked, curious.
“About seven hundred and fifty feet.” I said.
“Your eyes are covered and you can see two football fields away?!?” Steven asked, incredulous. “I can't see that far normally!”
I chuckled. “Actually, the only thing that impedes your sight is the curve of the planet... and the things on it, of course.”
“Wh-what?”
“A planet is round, so the horizon stops you from seeing anything past it, or about three miles away.”
“You're kidding!” Steven said, his face completely surprised.
“If you're at sea level.” I said as a qualifier and grinned. “If you were on a mountaintop at night, you could see a campfire thirty miles away.”
Everyone stared at me with surprised expressions.
“You would be well above the normal horizon limit, so you'd see a lot more of the things around you.” I said. “The higher up you are, the more you'll see.”
“Which is why the city and town guards have short towers built into their guard houses.” Maylia said, catching on immediately. “If you can see three miles on the ground, you can see a lot more than that if you are two storeys up.”
“Wow.” Jessica said and everyone just stood there.
“So, is everyone distracted from thinking about vampires?” I asked, and a few of them chuckled.
“I was.” Josh said and Evangeline took his hand and held it for a moment, then she let it go and held her bow properly.
“I'll lower everyone down.” I said and held a hand out to Maylia. She could levitate herself; but, I wanted to show everyone an example of what I would be doing. She took my hand and I used Mana Presence Levitation on her and floated her down into the hole. Everyone except Kara and Afyne watched with rapt attention as Maylia descended down about fifteen feet through a small tunnel and then another ten feet to the tunnel it was attached to.
“Me next!” Afyne said and took my hand, and I sent her down into the hole.
“I can't believe you're taking her along with us.” Josh said, his voice full of disbelief.
“I'd rather have here where I can see and protect her, than leave her at the inn with a single guard and hope that she doesn't get taken.” I said and held a hand out to Imiryl. I lowered her down into the hole and she moved over to protect everyone. We were lucky that it was the end of a tunnel and they didn't have to guard in two directions.
“I can jump down.” Steven said and went for the hole.
Josh grabbed his arm and stopped him. “We're trying to be quiet, remember?”
Steven sighed and looked at my hand.
“I'm only helping the ladies like this.” I said and held a hand out to Viri. She giggled like a little girl and eagerly took my hand and I lowered her down into the hole. I helped the remaining women down into the hole and looked at Kara. She nodded and stepped forward. Her hand twitched to take mine, then she sighed and jumped down into the hole herself.
“She really doesn't want to touch you, does she?” Josh whispered the question.
“You're wrong.” I said and picked him up with my levitation technique without touching him. “She wants it very, very badly.”
“Then why...”
“She's afraid she won't be able to let go.” I said and Josh went down the hole with a look of shock on his face. I sent the other men down into the hole and lowered myself down.
“We're getting a weak light from the charged weapons.” Josh said.
“Perhaps those that can see in the dark should take point.” I suggested.
“Right. Okay.” Josh said. “Let's do that.”
Maylia, Kara, Allirynn and I moved forward and everyone followed closely behind us. The tunnel was fairly large at ten feet across. It appeared to be natural; but, with no way to know how long it had been here, it could have been dug and the sides had worn away over time. The tunnel twisted and turned as we walked deeper underground. We ended up going a lot farther than we had above ground as the tunnel snaked around back on itself several times in an almost spiral pattern, never actually crossing, and I felt the edge of the earth pass out of my detection range.
“We're really deep.” I whispered. “The end's coming up and I still don't feel anyone around.”
“No wonder we couldn't find the crack.” Viri said, barely above a whisper. “I don't think anyone has ever gone this deep before.”
We came out of the tunnel into a pitch black room and Jessica cast a spell. Various sized orbs of light flew out and floated around the room, and in the middle of it, was a floating mass of blackness. I picked up a small stone and tossed it in and the gaping maw appeared and swallowed it.
“No need for a thicket of trees underground, I guess.” I said.
Jessica and Diofra took out their Truesight squares and there was nothing on the other side of the portal, except a flat area.
“Hunter, be careful.” Maylia said.
I prayed silently and felt god's Presence and his consciousness descend upon me and I gave him my arm out of habit. He could see through the crack and frowned with my mouth. I felt his Presence seep under my skin and used me like a puppet and stepped through. It was empty for as far as the eyes could see. With my detection range expanded, thanks to god's Presence, I 'saw' a castle near the edge of my range behind us.
My body walked around the portal and we looked at the structure. It was massive and was at least a few hundred feet high. It was also run down and completely empty.
“It looks to be about a thousand years old.” My mouth said with god's voice.
“This is both good and bad.” I said.
“Yes, it means we have nothing to fight... and that they all came through years ago, however many there were.”
“Goddammit.” I said with feeling.
“I can only do so much.” He said with my mouth.
I laughed. “Yeah, it looks damned enough already.” I said and looked up for a few moments to let god memorize the star patterns. After that, we walked back around the portal and stepped through it, pulled it closed, then sewed it shut with Presence and healed it.
“I've got good news and bad news.” I said, whispered thanks and amen to god, then turned around to face everyone. “The good news is, I didn't have to fight anything on the other side.”
Steven spoke a curse that I had been quick enough to divert from Afyne's sensitive ears. “They're all already here.”
“You got it with one guess.” I said and looked at everyone's faces. “They've been here for years, if not longer.”
“Only here?” Viri asked, hope in her voice.
“HA!” Josh barked. “We wouldn't be that lucky!”
“You all heard the queen's edict.” I said. “She wants them eradicated.”
“Then we're still on the hunt.” Allirynn said. “Daylight will give us some advantage.”
“If they go outside.” Imiryl said. “We're going to need a lot more group scribe spells.”
“No, we don't.” Jessica, Diofra and Josh said at the same time.
“You memorized it?” I asked, and they nodded. “Free daily spells?”
“Two each of Holy Light, Fireball, and Mass Scribe.” Diofra said.
“Two Mass Sleep, six Mass Scribe, and four Mass Holy Light.” Jessica said, and everyone turned to look at her. “I have twelve free spells.” She said. “I haven't prayed to the Goddess to see if she'll grant me any extra, though.” Her face flushed a little red. “I don't want to be greedy.”
“O-kay.” I said and looked at Josh. “What about you?”
“Four Mass Holy Light spells.” Josh said. “I can use my mana crystal to cast the Mass Scribe as many times as I want.”
“Your mana refills that fast?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Then you're still our point man.” I said and smiled. “Let's get back up to the surface and start hunting these things down.”
No one spoke as we all headed back up the long winding tunnel. I was tempted to jog or run; but, I didn't want us all too tired at the end to fight. We made it all the way back by midday and I levitated everyone out of the tunnel and into the basement of the building above. Steven slid the grate back into place and Jessica cast some odd spell to make it look like it wasn't damaged.
“It's just an illusion that will only last a few days or so.” Jessica said.
“There's people in the building now.” I said and looked up. “Seven of them on the second floor.”
“Isn't it supposed to be abandoned?” Evus asked.
“Yes.” Viri said. “I hope it's just teenagers carrying on.”
“We all do.” Josh said. “Jessica, use one of your free Mass Scribe spells as soon as we enter the room.”
“What if they're more than ten feet away?” Jessica asked.
“Don't worry about it.” Both Josh and I said at the same time.
“It looks like all of the spells cast today will have double boosts.” I said and motioned to the door to go up the stairs. Most of them smiled as they passed and we went up the stairs to see who was unlucky enough to become our targets.