Dearest Grun,

Yes, I’m still catching up on my tale! At least, things began to look up at this point.

After dispatching the rats, we again followed Urkel’s map. It led to a staircase (which at this point we checked thoroughly before descending), and a passage that looked to be the vampire’s lair - much fancy workmanship, and lots of darts in the walls for Aramil to find. “Pockets” merrily stabbed me in the back.. with the healing sword, but I fear he’s having too much fun with that! There were three doors to choose from, and “Pockets” picked the central one after listening at all three.

Sure enough, it was a great throne room, and full of attacking wraiths! As we battled them, screams from behind let us know that the other doors must have held some surprises, too. Fafnir came flying into the throne room, Aramil was looking absolutely terrible.. and the vampire Kartharsis finally showed up. Out of nowhere, it appeared next to Drusilia and attacked.
The battle moved mostly into the room, but a fireball blocked the doorway with “Pockets” on the wrong side with the vampire! Thankfully, when the fireball swung away, “Pockets” was still alive and the vampire was gone.

Of course, it appeared as soon as it could get to Drusilia again - she really was tops on its list! Luckily, we had more room to attack it together. At one point it was even on the floor being grappled by Valon and a wildly swearing “Pockets” so that Drusilia could do her damage. (Its armor made it hard for anyone else to land a blow.) Suddenly, it turned to gas. We went for the metal door in the corner of the room, hoping to find its coffin before it had a chance to heal up and attack us again.

The room was a trap.. as soon as “Pockets” was inside and checking out the chest, bars came down across the entrance and an earth elemental appeared to attack him! I was trying to command it to stop, and that crazy half-human created another fireball - inside the small space! As if that would hurt anything but his friend - should I worry about that? He trapped “Pockets” in the hall with the vampire, too! Thankfully, the others were able to cast various spells to destroy the thing and someone got the bars to retract. “Pockets” returned to checking the empty box, and I smashed it up for stakes before we checked the last door in the room.

“Pockets” quickly found and fixed the trap in that doorway, and we found the vampire’s sarcophagus. We got holy water and acid and spells ready, and I shoved the lid off! The vampire was there.. and didn’t move. Valon and Drusilia realized that it had been hurt enough that it wouldn’t be able to move for an hour, thank Moradin! Valon pulled off the plate mail and staked him, and Drusilia used her mace to turn Kartharsis to dust. An evil creature has left the world!

Certain crazy party members began to divide up the vampire’s belongings, although I warned them they could be cursed. I went hunting for our real goal - the key to the Heart of Nerull! As soon as I found it I was ready to get going, but others wanted to find the vampire’s treasure. I pointed out that there were other evil creatures about, still.. finally, everyone agreed that they wanted to see the angel again. They’re awful dependent on that angel for some reason, but it got them moving at least!

We did check the other doors in the hallway; found, staked, and destroyed the other vampires, and discovered one musty tome for Fafnir to peruse later. We climbed out of the lair, went to the angel’s tower, and found that he was gone. Good for the angel, I said - and off we went to find the Heart of Nerull!

More later!

With love,
Ghelt