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| Laros Valkia To Marland Royal Army Northern Border Command Report of lieutenant Laros Valkia, 4. legion, 3. company, 12. platoon Subject: Incident in routine patrol on Mistwood & North Imperial Highway Sir, As ordered, I searched sgt. Kivilinna's patrol from Mistwood and found it after a quite of work. I found impossible to follow the patrol's official route neither turn the patrol back to it, because all the roads shown in my map were grown inpenetrable or were otherwise useless. Therefore I recommend reformation of regulations given to the patrols. They should have some means to communicate with border garrisons and mark their routes around the forest. I'm also quite disappointed with the equipment, training and weaponary of the border troops. Patrols are also too small to arrange proper night watches and take care of bigger problems, such as brigands or smugglers. They obviously need better bows and chain mail (only sgt. Kivilinna had chain over his breast). Their readiness to work in fastly altering situations was also poor. There wasn't any remarkable problems before arriving to the Broken Shovel inn along the Imperial Highway. We took care of some hawkers of illegal liquor and liquidated their products. The inn seemed to be even more peaceful than usual inns along the trade routes. Patrons were nearly all merchants, noblemen or scholars. Problems started, when a group of vampire hunters arrived and tried to test all of the customers with garlic. Of course I and my men threw those rascals out, as I believed them to be same kind of adventurers and criminals than other scum wandering around the northern wilderness. That was a decision that I regret. The evening carried on and things got more and more weird, when people at first started to see ghosts and then ran to the nearby swamp for finding a treasure, which they actually even found. Later, one of the vampire hunters was found dead from the stables of the inn. Murder was committed same way than vampire attacks in old legends and found vampire symbols near the deceased. It hinted to a mentally disturbed person or even something more scary. I decided to not take risks, so I decapitated the hunter's body to prevent it from waking up. After that we had some problems with the rest of vampire hunters who wanted to take their dead companion with them. I of course refused and the hunters ran away. Straightly after their disappearance we heard screaming. When investigating that, we found both of the hunters dead with their throats cut. Me neither sergeant Kivilinna couldn't imagine any situation where somebody could come so near to them and then cut their throats, than maybe group of people they trusted -or something supernatural. After that I decided to close the inn and wait for morning, while securing the inn itself: I wanted to be sure that everybody were in the house all the time and will eat some garlic to prove them to not be a vampire and protect them from possible vampire attack. I knew that it was probably overreacting, but I didn't want to take any risks. Scholars tried to found some sense of the happenings while me and my men guarded the doors. One of the patrons, a luxury merchant, had a bodyguard, who I conscripted to my service by justification of Royal law about siege or other immediate danger situations (5. section, 3. moment). He was severely wounded in action and I demand he to be granted a standard pension of a disabled war veteran, because he injured when serving his majesty the King and our Country. When it was about midnight, an armed group in dark robes approached the inn from forest, failed to identify themeselves and resisted all orders to cease their advance. They attacked us and forced us to withdraw inside. Leader of the intruding group was talking Taborean with a southern accent. Enemies didn't wear any visible armour, neither hadn't they shields or other means of protection. Still they were totally resistant to all strikes of weapons by my men and forced us to retreat upstairs. There they caught us and it revealed that nobleman, who were a visitor in the inn was their master. He took one of the other patrons, a young villager male and talked something about choosing two paths, either killing the old nobleman with a dowel or biting his sister to death. Boy choosed the latter option and bite a crying girl, seemingly his sister, to throat, drinking her blood. After that brutal and absurd scene, some of the minions of the old nobleman shouted "kill them all". During the chaos that followed, we were now able to easily take down and kill all of the enemies, except two of them, who escaped. The old nobleman and the farmboy disappeared to the night during the fight. Female soldier of my patrol, Emella Paju, was killed in action during that fight. When cleaning up the mess we found the innkeeper dead from the kitchen, obviously killed by intruders. I have seen things that I can't explain with common sense, because they don't make sense. It could be, that I have just imagined many of the things for the darkness, but following facts are after all sure: 1) Three vampire hunters, innkeeper and one of my men were brutally slain by an unknown vampire cult, or even real vampires. 2) The Royal army was arrogantly offended by force. 3) These offenders clearly execrise dark arts and practice illegal rituals related to black magic. Therefore I recommend sending an well-equipped investigating troop to find and arrest the old nobleman and his young protege. Some scholars should be also send with the troop, the vampires (or "vampires") obviously follow old customs and rituals of vampire legends and therefore all information about those legends could be valuable. I volunteer immediately to serve as such a vampire hunter. Old nobleman was using the name of "lord Drakenstein", was long and thin, having pale and aristocratic features. The younger man had quite ordinary clothing and features, he looked just like everybody in the small peasant villages. Doctor Colven Marrerus, all of my surviving men and patrons of the inn can prove all that I have written to be truth and only the truth. Long live the king! Laros Valkia Lieutenant, Border Guard Pelaajan j�lkihuomautus J�tin kummituksen pois raportista, sill� se ongelma ratkaistiin ja vampyyreissakin lienee tarpeeksi sulateltavaa esikunnalla. |