The Blood Maiden: Oneshot

## Oneshot: The Blood Maiden

DM’d by Tyrizzle

Scribe’d by Squidz

Edit’d by 5wise

“Bronswick Townine, at your service,” he greeted us, jovially enough. “We had already dispatched one group to investigate, just before we sent for you, but I’m afraid they never returned.”
We assured him that we will rescue the missing adventurers, should they have survived, and asked for details on the sightings.
“We have long suffered the odd unexplained disappearance, but no more than anywhere else. Lately, there have been sightings. The figure of a man, transforming into a bat.” He looked forlorn. “Finally I said: ‘Enough is enough!’ and I fear I sent those four adventurers to their doom. Since then though, no sightings or disappearances, and far fewer bats.”
We asked him where these sightings occurred, and he directed us to a fork in the road, a day’s travel north of town.

The day's travel was easy on the road and we spent much of the time surrounded by the serene grassy plains of Townsville. At nightfall, we approached the crossroads.
We searched out a good camping spot and set up for a night under the stars. Llevwin volunteered for the whole watch, as usual, since the automaton can stay awake all night. They cast a spell upon a nearby tree, planting a small bead of light that illuminated the surrounding area. Throughout the night, moths swarmed the light, and bats descended from the sky to snatch them.
Near daybreak, as Grok was doing his morning katas by the rising sun, Llevwin was catching a few moths when they heard a bloody scream from the north-east. They quickly woke Petar, explaining to him and Grok that they believed the source of the sound lay some hour and a half’s travel away.
We gathered up camp and set out, hoping that the source of the scream was our quarry.

Petar carefully attached his rope to a boulder and it hung down, over the mouth of the cave. Grok, uncertain, tried to test the rope with a tug. The half-orc nearly pulled the boulder out of the ground with his might, but did confirm that the rope was secure. Petar was first to descend, followed by the very heavy Llevwin, with Grok bringing up the rear.

Llevwin offered the beast one of their moths, which it ate happily, but the creature was not to be soothed for long. Moving on, we discovered that the opening was not a cave, but a tunnel, and we began to walk deeper into the rock.
Down and down we wound until finally, a huge cavern lay before us. The source of the smell was easy to determine, as piled up many feet high in this cavern were the grisly remains of countless humanoids. Some bones had been picked clean, but rotten, gray flesh still clung to others.
Petar extended his staff and climbed to the top of the grim heap. From his vantage point, he reported to us that he could see something fresher. Fearing the worst, Grok looked inwards, feeling for evil nearby. He noticed the essence of an undead creature further into the cave, but not so close as to deter us from inspecting the bodies

Trudging on, Grok met us at the site Peter had spotted. We saw the corpses of four dead adventurers, their armor still shining from the polish it received before embarking on their final mission. The plate metal appeared to have been peeled open by mighty claws and the flesh covered in marks of huge teeth; we were sure this was the work of a vampire.
Untouched by violence, a sword and a quiver of arrows, each silvered carefully to burn undead flesh. Also amongst their effects were two potions of night vision. From our new vantage point we could see another opening in the cave wall and Grok warned that in that direction lay undead.
Before we pressed on, we split up and searched carefully in the boneyard for anything else that might assist. We stumbled upon some scattered pages, dirty but readable. They appeared to be notes, taken by a scientist of sorts. The author described experimenting on the vampiric condition, seeking to create a new breed of vampire. He had abducted a child from its crib and had turned it here. From then on, the baby was fed only dead blood - usually toxic to vampires - from victims he had procured near Townsville.
Ultimately the experiment was considered a failure; the victim had transformed into a hideous beast and lost many of her vampiric powers. He referred to her as the Bloodmaiden henceforth and, although the experiment failed, the author also noted that she had gained some intriguing power to control blood, which warranted further investigation.

We tried to move though the next tunnel silently, but with our gear it was to little effect. Llevwin quaffed one of the night vision potions, so as to avoid necessitating another light spell. Further ahead, the tunnel ended abruptly, with only a sliver of an opening allowing further access to the cave network.
Turning sideways and shuffling we managed to make it through in single file. At the center of the cave lay a huge creature that we assumed to be the Bloodmaiden mentioned in the notes. We paused, unsure of our next move, but the Bloodmaiden was awakened during our entry, and began to stir.

Petar flew forwards with immense speed, foot extended to kick the creature, but overshot and landed behind her. Llevwin stayed back, firing their crossbow at the creature. She responded to our assault by thrashing around in the pool of blood she lay in, splashing red ichor about the cave as she did.
Several of the pools gathered and leapt toward Llevwin, who felt the burning of acid eating through their armor. Petar fell back to our side of the cavern, though not before landing a punch, and deftly avoided the Maiden’s talons as she clawed at him.
As Grok hacked at the beast, Llevwin moved frantically, scraping off the blood that coated them as much as possible. With most of the blood now on the floor all around them, they cast a spell to summon a spectral greatsword right beside the Maiden.
The sword went to work attacking automatically, each blow blasting the creature with magic. The Maiden screeched horribly and three red orbs rose out of the pool behind her back.
Her bloody orbs began to move, slowly but inexorably closer, each directly at one of us. Petar rushed at the nearest two, puncturing them both with one sweeping kick. Moments later, they exploded.
Petar was rocked by the impact, but selflessly, he leapt at the final orb. Lacking the strength to strike, Petar threw his whole body at the orb, shattering it in another explosion of bloody gore.
Hurt badly from the erupted projectiles, Petar drew back. Though, upon noticing his injuries, Llevwin quickly spoke some healing words and Petar felt some of his strength return.
Looking around, Llevwin saw the blood they had thrown off themself begin to twitch. They called out to us that they had calculated that our best chance of survival was to retreat, and we all agreed to escape the lair.
Grok offered to keep the Maiden busy to cover our escape, and grabbed Llevwin’s spectral sword from the air, making ready to attack with it. Meanwhile, Petar and Llevwin absconded through the small opening we had come in through.
As the half-orc made one final attack against the maiden, the blow connected with such force that it could be heard far out in the escape tunnel. As we looked back we saw Grok, dashing away from a surging wave of blood, sent forth by the Maiden. He managed to scramble through the hole before it arrived, and only a small amount of the substance made it onto him.
Behind us, the Maiden screeched in anger, and Llevwin recognised it as the sound they had heard earlier that morning. We regrouped out in the midden, by the corpses of the fallen adventurers.

Determination renewed, we went back into that tunnel again, this time with a plan: Grok stepped out first, ready to face the creature head-on, while Petar and Llevwin affixed one of our blankets to the opening of the tunnel, allowing it to drape over the entrance entirely. As Grok fought her, the blood jumped onto and burned him, but Llevwin opened the curtain and spoke healing words. While the curtain was parted, Petar launched darts doused in holy water at the creature, using some of the blessed liquid procured from town before we left.
The Maiden launched another tsunami of blood toward the tunnel exit, drenching the blanket in blood. The blood made short work of the curtain, but it had done its job. Still hurt from our first encounter and now worn down by the continued projectile assault from within the tunnel, the Bloodmaiden grew weary.
Grok seized the moment and once again claimed the spectral weapon from the air. He struck the Maiden true and the creature was slain, at last.

If the author of those notes was to return, and failed to see a carefully hidden tripwire, he would find a spring loaded bucket leaping toward him; doused in holy water, he may be less inclined to resume his dastardly experiments.