From: jcarl@jabba.ess.harris.com (Joe Carl Jr.)
Subject: [Hunters] introducing Darvos
Summary: Introducing Darvos
Keywords: Hunters, Darvos
Organization: Harris Corporation - ISD
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 21:39:39 GMT


[ADMIN:  This is my first post to APDI, so if you like this let me know.
If you have constructive critisism, I'll gladly listen to it.  I'm
introducing a character called Darvos to the new startup thread called
Hunters.  I've submitted a description of Darvos to the Generica character
listing, so if you want to get to know Darvos faster you can look there.
Others should be joining in soon.  I hope you enjoy it]

*** A lantern lit room with no windows ***

Darvos looked up from the tome he had been studying and rubbed his eyes.
He was tired, for he had been working long hours and his preparations were
almost complete.

"I hope I have not forgotten anything" he said with a thick Transylvanian
accent. 

He look back at the tome, it was titled "To Kill a Vampire" by Von Helzig.
This wasn't exactly what Darvos was looking for, but it was close.

Darvos got up from the table he was sitting at, and scanned the room.

Not so much a room but a cellar.  A heavily modified cellar more like a 
laboratory.  A stair well from the room above was in the north side of the 
west wall.  Two book shelves equally spaced were on either side of a large
table in the south wall.  The heavy table was filled with beakers, bottles
and strange bubbling concoctions.  A small area was cleared where Darvos was
working.  A large ornate pentagram was built into the floor, centered along
the north wall.  A cold blacksmiths furnace and anvil was in the north east
corner. Two large openings in opposite sides of the cellar allowed a slow
moving stream of water to enter from the east and exit to the west.  The
water came from a tap off of an underground river tributary. They were
perhaps large enough that a small halfling might be able to crawl through,
if not for the grates bolted to the openings to stop any rats from getting in.

The water followed a path chiseled out of the floor till it split around
an island in the center of the room.  It merged on the opposite side to
flow out the west wall.  The water was about 1 foot deep and about 5 feet
wide, enough to be submerge and drown a struggling person.

Darvos stepped away from the table where he was reading and walked over to the
cross plank that allowed him to cross to the other side without getting wet.
He could have jumped, he was still in good physical shape even though he
was getting past his prime.  He pulled his sepia colored cloak close as he
cross over the plank to the island in the middle of the cellar.  It floated
wide when he released it upon reaching the granite stoned floor of the isle

On the island was a tall box shaped object covered with a black drop cloth.
The drop cloth was attached to a rope that fed through a pulley, and the end
dangled about 5 feet off the ground in front of the box.  

Darvos reach out and pulled on the rope, the drop cloth rose to reveal a
tall glass box large enough to hold a man.  The box had a glass door with
glass bolts and a glass latch with a glass lock.  Attached to the top of
the box were glass posts. Hanging from the posts were strands of garlic,
and prayer beads.  He looped the end of the rope around a normal boat
cleat attached to the floor.

Darvos inspected the glass door carefully.  He look to the floor where it
appeared the glass box was bolted with glass bolts.  He extended
his arms into the air above himself.  He was 6' 4" and his arms couldn't
reach the ceiling of the glass box if he were inside.  He reached out and
pulled on the the glass door latch, and it held.  He pulled hard and still
the door held.  He then stepped back and kicked at the glass door with all
of his might.  He was no strong man, but was stronger than average for a
45 year old, and still the door held.  The glass box reverberated with the
the blow.

Darvos had spent an enormous amount of money to pay for the high level spell
needed to turn the glass into something as strong as steel.  Someday he'd
be able to handle magic of that caliber, but not yet.

Darvos pulled a glass key out from his jerken and unlocked the padlock on
the latch.  He then passed his hand in front of the latch and it glowed
a soft red, a pull on the latch handle and the glass door opened with a
soft whoosh of air.

"Unless the beast is a mage himself, I believe this will hold him" Darvos
thought.  "Hmm, Let's make sure it is air tight".  He shut the glass door
and waved his hand over the latch and it ceased to glow red.  He replace
the glass lock and locked it.

He stepped back a bit to give himself some room to cast the simple spell.
He chanted briefly to himself and looked to the interior of the glass box.
A cloud of billowing fog was building inside the glass box.  He circled the
box searching for any leaks. There were none.  

"Good, even if it goes vaporous he is still trapped"

He loosed the rope from from the boat cleat and let the drop cloth cover
the box again.

"And until I am ready for my experiments, I need not worry about its gaze
either."  Darvos smiled to himself, he felt like he had thought of
everything.

He walked back over to the bookshelves and pulled out a book.  He sat down at
the table and opened the book to a blank page at the back.  He picked up
his quill and wetted the tip from an ink well at the table.

"Tonight we start our hunt for a vampire", Darvos thought, "but until the
others show up I can make a few more notes".


---
--
Joe Carl Jr.               "If you ever drop your watch      |Deep Thoughts
jcarl@jabba.ess.harris.com  in a pool of molten lava,        | Saturday Night
                            let it go, cause man it's gone"  | Live
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