The Offering

The Offering is an encounter in Dark Dynasty
==Enemies==
* Skeleton Mage (1235 Gold, 152 XP, 95 Energy, 7 HP) 
* Vampire Dark-Caster (1235 Gold, 152 XP, 95 Energy, 7 HP)
==Transcript==
===Introduction===
"What is all this?" the vampire asks.
"They're corpses," the skeleton replies.
"I can see that, you idiot! Who did this?"
"I recognize them," another vampire says. "They're the bandits from the dungeon. The ones who were going to be executed in front of the peasants."
"Then what are they doing here?"
"I don't think they're doing anything," the skeleton says.
The vampire glares at him.
"I want to know who brought them here and killed them!"
"You could raise them and ask."
"Ah! You're not as stupid as you look!"
"When I was alive, I was the finest wizard in-"
"Silence!"
The conversation taking place in front of you is bizarre. But the sight it accompanies is abominable. The room beyond the doorway is a ritual chamber of some kind. Tall, fat candles burn along its edges, granting light to its windowless expanse. At its far end is an altar, beneath a painting of a goat gushing blood from a slashed throat. That artwork might seem a gruesome sight, were it not for what's on the floor.
Occult symbols have been daubed on the stone in blood -- crimson circles, pentagrams, and twisting runes. In the middle of all this is a heap of butchered bodies, the remains of swarthy men in leather garb who look to have been cut open by ruthless hands.
Vampires and skeletons dressed in mages' robes are gazing upon those macabre furnishings, their backs to you.
"Ve vant to suck your blood," you say.
They turn. And from the glares on their faces, none of them are familiar with that passphrase.
"Who are you people?" a vampire asks.
"Did you do this?" another adds, gesturing at the corpses.
"Kill them and question them as zombies!" the 'finest wizard' suggests.
"Yes!" the vampire hisses. "I believe I shall!"
===Conclusion===
"Damn you!" howls the last of the vampire spellcasters.
Dust pours from around the arrow. The missile clatters to the floor as the hole widens, the dead flesh now drifting to the floor a dark cascade. Soon there's nothing left but a grey-black mound, from which Tessa retrieves her shaft.
"What do you think happened here?" Rakshara asks. The oroc gazes down at the pile of bloody corpses.
"A sacrifice," Brachus replies. "Blood and life offered up to those powers that relish such things."
"For what?"
"That's no concern of ours," you say.
As you leave the ritual chamber behind, thunder booms in the distance.
Category: Dark Dynasty