Terno Dattel

[Dredi]

Name: Terno Dattel
screenname : preggy

Tammar was the name of a large town in Thesk, just boarding the lands of Thay, housing just over 3000 people, it was'nt especialy large or small but it was home.

It had been a great many years now since the attack of the Tuigan horde and bandits who walked the streets. Things had been rebuilt, land was once again being cultivated and new generations had been born, one such child was Terno.

He was always strong and bullheaded, quickly charging into situations that could easily have been solved with talking and taking even the slightest crosses against him or his family very personaly indeed.
He was quickly inducted into the malitia with little other options open for him, taught to use blade and bow under a decendant of an Orc, one of the 100 honoured soldiers thought as heroes by the town when they swept through it generations back, purging it of bandits, of the unholy and the evil. if only for gold

And now it was years on, he stands a trained soldier, disiplined, strong and efficient with his blade. And a New Threat has arisen. There were roumers first, then allegations and threats and then, when the first were sighted under naught but the moonlight of selune the people of Tammar knew, Vampires had arrived and with them death.

Even with all their troubles, all their prepareations and training. There was nothing, nothing that could have prepared them with what was to come. Each night people were found dead in their beds, bites found on their wrists and neck - wherever the blood flowed strong.
And for the first few unfortunate souls a day later they rose again. Pale but immortal in their grace.

The town fell into a state of fear. Bodies had to be burnt, rather than buried, the moment the last of the suns rays fall below the horizon the town fell to a deathly silence. Only the most daring of the malitiamen would brave the streets at night and all but the strongest or perhaps the luckiest met their deaths in the unforgiving darkness.

It was not but two nights before the elders governing Tammar sent out a plea for help. To all neighbouring cities and villages, anywhere there may be an army, or a hero strong enough to fight the vampire covern aptly named The Butchers

Many groups came, were they so called vampire hunters even a small army sent by Surthay but they were all killed,either slaughtered in the night, by traps and pitfalls on the route or even in straight up combat for those who found safe passage.

Eventualy the towns cries caught the attention of Lady Lexius a Tyrran preistess of legendary proportions. She walked with a long staff and no shoes with a golden orb hanging from a silvered chain attatched to the point of the staff, simple grey robes draped over her shoulders. Terno, as one of the few remaining Malitiamen by this point, was charged with guiding her to the coverns lair, no easy task by any means.

The trip was uneventful, stepping through the bodies over cursed ground, Lexius walked with such smooth grace moving past the traps and pitfalls without even a hinderence with Terno not far behind keeping to her footsteps as a matter of life or death.

As the bloodied open feilds ended the ground began to rise into hills and cliffs, a path much more trecherous and with the time traveling, the sun was not going to stay much longer in the sky. Darkness already begining to creep in around the folds and bumps of the area with the sky lit up a rose red in the distance as the sun retired with unearthly grace.

A cave lay ahead set into the side of the cliff. It, unlike the rest of the sunblasted rocky landscape around them was clean, free of blood or death, a single clean point in what could be a 3 mile strech between the town and here.
This had to be it.. who would want bodies on their doorstep afterall.
The last of the sun dissapered over the horizon settling the cliffside into a thick darkness.
Scuffles were heard almost immidiately up and over the cliff and around them.

Bolts fired and rockocheted off the nearby rocks, shattering into peices before laying to rest quickly they rushed into the cave, a small cantrip creating enough light to make their way through. The rocky insides of the cavern were grey and uneven the occasional torch on the walls.
Things fell silent once again, the assailants from the cliffs had left them for some reason, failing to follow them into the cliffside.
The cavernous walls led into a brightly lit room, it appeared to had been mined through into another room a small noble family crypt it seems was left unnamed and forgotten for however many years into the side of the land.

There was movement. a swarm of bats fluttered past the torches one of them braving the outside and flying past them both, carrying on down out of the cave followed by a swift brush of air and a puff of smoke.

They stepped inside, a pale man struck Terno over the back of the head as he entered sending him to the ground in a daze, Lexius casted something quietly sending the spawn burning, screeching in pain as he tried to get away from her to little avail, with a swift move of her hand she planted a stake in his chestm turning him to dust in an instant.

After helping him to his feet the continued, passing through into the main room of the crypt where most of them seemed to be gathering, suckling on the still blood of a still breathing malitiawoman who had gone missing 3 nights previous. She fell to the floor with a lifeless thud her own world thinning to blackness as she died before the pair.

Lexius calmly pressed the staff onto the ground, unphased by the womans death the golden orb attatched to the tip opened up creating a bright and blinding light spreading out in all direction, screeching and hissing ensued then there was silence once again. A sudden gust blew past them as the creatures turned to dust, and then to gas as they retreat to their safe havens.

Terno rushed to the body, checks her pulse and with a grim shake of his head stands again and thats when it happened.
The elder had not been in the room with the rest, he had already left, he was already behind them and he struck, peircing the thin robes lexius wore, only to be met with the clank of metal she turned around and pushes the creature back, she discarded the simple robes revealing the brilliant Gold and Silver armour underneath drawing a silver flaming longsword and begining to engade the vampire while terno could just sit and watch, well out of his league.

They faught for what felt like a hours, she supported herself with her magic and he was simply unfellable.. shruging off or damn right regenerating any wounds received, then the killing blow came when there was the familiar sound of metal rushing throughb flesh as his blade peirced her armour, blade driving direcly into her chest. She fell. Her blade hitting the ground to join her staff with a metallic crash.

And thats when it happened.. cowardice turned to courage, and courage to anger as he took up the fallen preistesses sword, plunging it deep into the creatures chest, the alchemical silver hissing away inside the vampire as he fall defeated to the ground melting away into gas and fleeing.
Taking no more time to mourn her death, he took up her blade and her stakes as he set off searching for coffins.

Pulling them open one at a time, plunging the stake in quickly and moving on he cleared the crypt within minutes, sheer determination driving him, this wasent the time time for hiding and crying, this was time for vegence. Every one of those coffins he opened, and each one screached the same as it died, right down to the elder himself.

Leaving the cave with only her blade, the bodies of several men armed with crossbows littered the enterence - the people who had shot them earlier, but they were no vampires, more hunters sent with the promise of payment from the town who had met their end to the coverns feindish elder.

It was a long trek back in the midnight breeze but it gave plenty of time to think.. think of what to say when he get back, to his family, and to the people of Tammar, a hero had fallen to a justworthy cause, but.. this was grave news indeed.
She would be honoured for years to come after her death.
And it would be an unforgettable experience for him, with only the tranquil of death to rid him of it.

// Phew, that was ALOT of writing, ive not yet got a chance to properly type read or spellcheck this, so if theres anything, throw me a PM and ill fix them up best i can. Otherwise Enjoy! ///

[Black Rider]

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