The Final Journal of Koril Benshay
~ Koril and Dorian Discuss The Fate of the Child in Brigdarrow
Early Summer 773 – The Village of Brigdarrow, Tepest.
When we arrived at the fur trapper’s house in the woods South of Brigdarrow, Solecto had preceded us and already moved on to journey through the Fracture - - alone - - a lone traveler . . . through the Fracture. Notwithstanding, he left us a ghastly vignette.
The parents of the small child had been sedated - - it seems Solecto mixed something of a poison and tested it on the wretched souls . . . a hallucinogen of sorts. In any event, he left the small child alive, malnourished and confused though she was, with her parents too senseless to care for her for what must have been days before our arrival.
The melancholy aspect of the situation meant nothing to me, my empathy had perished long before Tristen Apblanc - - decades ago - - Dorian and I hadn’t fed since returning north and the comatose couple was a welcome rejuvenation without the necessity of having to chase it down.
Though our relationship had been strained since our melee at that lake, our tenuous alliance remained, at least until we could complete the ritual - - and, to that end, we were most interested in proceeding with haste, not infighting.
Meanwhile, dispatching the three hags would be complicated and exhausting not least because we would need as much of our strength as possible to execute our final target - - Vlad Drakov. I remembered meeting the vile hags decades earlier with the traitor Erathos and they would prove to be problematic I was sure.
We sat at the farmhouse table and somberly discussed our options in the presence of the terrified child who pathetically continued to look to its deceased parents for a salvation that would never come. To expedite our task, it was decided to delude the clergy of Brigdarrow to execute the hags for us . . . I no longer recall if it was Dorian or I that first conceived the notion to use the child as a bribe for an audience with hags - - but I should like to take the credit for the ruse.
Regardless, it was decided I would make the delivery as I had a pre-established “relationship” with the vile women. I bragged of my ruby when making the delivery and made mental note of the blue ribbon worn in the hair of the little girl who would never be seen again (fully anticipating the disgusting hoarders would keep it as a memento after devouring her flesh in their bone-crushing jaws) - - I further took their hag’s eye knowing full well what it was.
From there I announced my stay and my ruby to all who would listen at the Spider’s Web Inn and further warned the clergy of Belanus that the child killing witches were in the area. To the clergy, I said they could be sure they have the right woman when they find the blue ribbon. Meanwhile, the crones’ greed would lead them right into town to come after my ruby.
I took further measures of planting evidence of “witchcraft” in the room I rented so that it could be discovered when the hags arrived to rob the ruby. Even the pale with the trapper’s family name, “Jensen” - - yeomen and their unmatched stupidity of superstition - - had I not needed their clergy to destroy the hags I should hope they were all flayed - - down to the last one of the insignificant wretches.
Dorian and I shall now leave the area at dusk for the Shadow Rift and Falkovnia and finally on to Darkon to complete the ritual.
One matter does weigh on my mind however. Rook has contacted us. It seems Erathos, Akold and Emalin Seatoe have managed to escape their fate at the cabin in Verberek. Moreover, Garath has apparently been cleansed and now travels with them as well.
While I do not fear them, insomuch as they travel together, they now have enough momentum behind them to ruin the delicate ritual . . . though I would not hesitate to destroy them, such measures are sloppy . . . and, I feel, the best course is to merely proceed as quickly as possible so that they do not get in the way.
~ Koril Benshay – Vampire of the Mists
~ Stangengrad & Drakov Fall to the Dead
~ Vlad Drakov - - shortly before the fall
