Adventure 15, Part 5: The Duchy of Beracul

Golman Village

This was the first stopover in the duchy. It was a litte rough here; there was a frontier feeling about the village with its strong dependency on fur trapping and mining. There seemed to be little in the way of outside trade, other than by Beracul's own citizens. The people were rough and strong, but stooping a little under the heavy tax burden imposed by their Count. The villagers here spoke little of places outside the duchy. If anything the party detected a current of fear among the people, but it was hard to say if that fear was directed towards the presence of such noble visitors or at the count himself.

The following morning the party moved out; this place was unlike the others they'd encountered on their journey.

The City of Furniss

Some of the same fears the party has already run into on Golman persisted here. But the city itself was quite a place. There was a simple beauty to the stoneworks which formed many of the building fronts as they walked towards the city square. This place clearly prided itself on the quality of its masonry; the party knew the people here were famous for this, but there seemed a level of pride in the quality of these buildings.

The square seemed even more impressive than the outer areas of the city; almost as though the ruler wanted to make a statement about the quality of their stonecraft. The party checked into the Farus Inn - which was a very high class, but expensive establishment. The city didn't seem to cater for the average traders, almost like those kinds of visitors were actively discouraged. The Farus Inn was aimed at visiting dignitaries. The cost of accomodation here was twice as much as other places they'd stayed at on the road, but this was also much more exclusive than they'd been used to. As expected, the count soon learned of the party's arrival, and an invite to dine with the count was received later that evening. Unusually they were not invited to join the count that evening, but the location of the count's castle, four or five miles out of the city, made such a journey that night impossible. Instead they'd been invited for the following evening.

The next morning the party had time to kill; they decided to take in as much of the glorious city as they could. A brief visit was made to several of the mining supply companies in the middle of the city, and they spent some time introducing themselves to the mining guild. After they'd done what they believed would be enough to maintain their facade of a mining trade delegation looking for expansion opportunities, they went on to do some sightseeing.

A visit to the catholic church of St Christopher was the highlight of the day. Here the head priest seemed to have been expecting them; and soon exposed the truth of their mission. The chief priest, Holb Emmanus, was clearly no lover of the undead ruling the town or the Kingdom. He'd a passing respect for the King, but had a particular dislike to vampires. He had been working with Count Garramus Hune, aiding many of the Kings spies in the city to undermine the Count. The count, of course, suspected, but with the weight of the church behind him, Holb was a stronger political opponent than many others who would oppose Count Beraculs treatment of his people.

The party confided in him about their mission, and he offered to help in any way he could. What the party really needed was a foolproof method to kill a vampire permanently; Holb had heard of a way, but was quite surprised that this was the party's mission. He told them that the only way to be certain was to decapitate the slumbering vampire and simultaneously drive a stake through its heart. Just to be safe, they should also fill the mouth of the creature with holy wafers. He gave the party a large supply of wafers just to be certain - he was quite prepared to give them as many as they wanted. He did point out that, to be certain that the job was done right, that the stake must be driven through the heart at exactly the same time as decapitating - the party realised that they did not want the vampire to regenerate if they were carrying the head across country to hand to the King.

After this meeting a brief visit to the Temple of the Four followed. They were surprised to see blood stained altars here - the temple was the sight of some unusual sacrifices, and this was an activity they'd not witnessed before now in these places. Asking a few questions about the book of Sumtoth did not get them very far; the local priests were unfamiliar with the tome. The party left straight away.

A quick trip to the bath house followed, this helped them prepare for their meeting with the count later that day.

The hour to depart for dinner soon arrived; the count sent a carriage to save them all a walk to his castle. They passed slowly along the winding and rising road that lead up into the lower slopes of the mountains north of the city. The closer they drew, the more the clouds moved over; a light rain began to fall, which steadily became heavier. As they came within sight of the gatehouse the sound of thunder could be heard above the towers of the stronghold.

The carriage took them through the gates and up to the main building, where the party were met by the count's footman. He lead them inside, to a drawing room next to the dining hall, where they were offered wine, and where they were introduced to the count's wife, Countess Elena Beracul, and another visiting dignitary, Count Mereth Arobren, who was visiting from his duchy to the north-east of Beracul. Elena was a well bred lady in her forties, but had a charming manner and soon set the party at their ease.

Eventually the Count Beracul himself arrived; he was a very polite, and almost jovial host; he soon invited them all his guests to join him at the dinner table. They all went into the smoky dining hall, lit by many candles and by a large fire in the hearth which keept the room very warm. The meal was served, and along with it came more wine.

Conversation over dinner ranged from the merits of the Duchy's mining industry, to its masonry craftsmen; the party's plans for new mines were the subject of much discussion. The Count seemed pleased with their ideas - he had though that there was always more room for ore and stone mining around the mountains of his land, and more tax income for himself was always very welcome. As the evening progressed the party relaxed more and more; maybe too much for Jim and Formil who seemed to take more of the wine than was good for them. After the meal, as they all relaxed at the table and discussed their early careers - and Formil let slip that they were on a special mission for the King. The others tried to cover his slip; the Count seemed not to notice - not even a raised eyebrow - but it was done. The party had given away part of their secret to their arch enemy.

Shortly, the party retired to their rooms in the castle, but Fax, Randy and Insorce decided to return to the dining area to gauge the effect of Formils lack of discretion. Jim and Formil stayed in their rooms to try and clear their heads of the excesses of alcohol that they'd drunk.

As the visitors drew close to the dining room, they ran into Count Arobren, who seemed to be heading back towards the guest quarters. They stood and chatted for a little while before Fax tried to raise subject of suspicions about Beracul. He tried to subtlely let Mereth know that the count was a vampire, and that he could not be trusted. His most leading question was to ask if Mereth would like some of the success that Beracul had enjoyed for so long, that if he was to help them with their task that maybe the King would see fit to redistribute parts of the Beracul duchy, and maybe some of the valuable mining and stoneworking trade, to Arobren's care. Arobren saw things differently to the party. Why, he asked, would one of Beracul's closes friends and advisors want to take over from his mentor? Why would another vampire want to take Beracul's lands. The party backed off but could not avoid a fight. Fortunately for them, the count could missed his first blows against Fax, who had been handling the talking, before Insorce managed to turn him back; Mereth changed to a cloud of gas and drifted away. The friends hastily returned to their room to collect Jim and Formil before returning back to the dining area to confront Beracul; their cover was now truly blown.