Vampire VI: Shepherds of the Night

[Helgraf]

Helgraf presents the next chapter in the eternal struggle...

Vampire VI: Shepherds of the Night

The Vampire
by Madison Julius Cawein

Spoiler

Show

A lily in a twilight place?
A moonflow'r in the lonely night?—
Strange beauty of a woman's face
Of wildflow'r-white!

The rain that hangs a star's green ray
Slim on a leaf-point's restlessness,
Is not so glimmering green and gray
As was her dress.

I drew her dark hair from her eyes,
And in their deeps beheld a while
Such shadowy moonlight as the skies
Of Hell may smile.

She held her mouth up redly wan,
And burning cold,—I bent and kissed
Such rosy snow as some wild dawn
Makes of a mist.

God shall not take from me that hour,
When round my neck her white arms clung!
When 'neath my lips, like some fierce flower,
Her white throat swung!

Or words she murmured while she leaned!
Witch-words, she holds me softly by,—
The spell that binds me to a fiend
Until I die.

A small city, nearly indistinguishable from others like it throughout Europe. Painted in phantom pale radiance cast from the full and lowing moon that hangs pregnant in the nighttime sky; her light shines down, ephemeral and wraith-like, limning the central fountain that is the city's best known landmark.

Lighting it, like a stage upon which the enactment of deeds most foul have unfolded. For a body lies impaled upon the slender spire, blocking the flow of the water that used to spray with grace and artfulness down to the waters below. Instead now, blood pours from wrists and ankles, staining the purity with its crimson patina, turning the symbol of hope and progress into a nightmare awaiting discovery by those mortals who call this city home.

It drip-drip-drips, and a singsong voice echoes in the night, originating from the bell-tower of the cathedral; a lone voice singing doggerel as would scarce make sense even were one standing beside the hunched and broken figure from which it slips forth in a susurrus. Clouds gather on the eastern horizon, blocking the stars, and eventually shrouding even the moon; when the last wisps of moonlight are strangled and gone, the man in the bell-tower falls silent.

The gray, overcast morning brings the first screams, as the citizens of the town discover the horrible murder. The guilty must be found - found and punished!

Helgraf was murdered in the night. Day one begins.

Reference: Rules & Roles Thread

Current Game Time: Endgame.
Headcount: The Vampires have triumphed. The village is deserted.
Current Events: None

Book of the Dead

Spoiler

Show

Helgraf (Day 0 Kill)
Fleeing Coward (Day 1 Lynch)
Lex-Kat (Night 1 Kill)
Cuthalion (Day 2 Lynch)
klanos (Day 2 Autolynch)
Malachi Lemont (Day 2 Autolynch)
Atreyu the Masked LLama (Night 2 Kill) - Feuder
Deathslayer7 (Day 3 Lynch) - Master Politician
oblivion6 (Day 3 Autolynch)
Penguinator (Night 3 Kill) - Resurrectionist
Sabeki (Day 4 Lynch)
Gray Mage (Night 4 Kill) - Confirmed Mortal, NSR
Recaiden (Day 5 Lynch) - Confirmed Mortal, NSR
Yumori123 (Night 5 Kill)
Murska (Day 6 Lynch)
Felandria (Day 6 Autolynch)
Sanity702 (Day 6 Autolynch)
GAThraawn (Night 6 Kill)
C'nor (Day 8 Lynch)
Aventine (Night 9 Kill)
Chessgeek (Day 10 Lynch)
gesalt (Day 10 Autolynch)
HedgehogRanger (Day 10 Autolynch)
Imperial Psycho (Day 10 Autolynch)
toasty (Day 10 Autolynch)
usourselves&we (Day 10 Autolynch)
Zar Peter (Night 10 Kill)
Szilard (Day 11 Lynch)
GnomeGninjas (Night 11 Kill)
tman2nd (Tanar Aerdoth) (Night 11 Kill)
Lady Tialait (Night 11 Kill)
Amidus Drexel (Night 11 Kill)
otakuryoga (Day 12 Lynch)
Atreyu the Masked LLama (Night 12 Kill)
Count Dingdong (Day 13 Lynch)
gesalt (Night 13 Kill)
Lex-Kat (Survived to game end, but lost due to Vampire numbers equalling Mortal numbers)

Tome of Victory

Spoiler

Show

ThePhantom
bladescape

[Penguinator]

The mystic had holed himself deep in his chambers. Books everywhere, all of them about the undead. How to defeat them, how to destroy them, how they reproduce... Everything of that kind. Shelves with vials of liquid and more books sat in every corner. Spell components littered the room, and a raven sat perched atop a skull. The man himself perched over a large cauldron, his finger sliding across a page as he dropped ingredients into the pot. A hint of this, a dash of that... He stirred, and a name was revealed. "Klanos."

[usourselves&we]

An aging woman in a dark blue cowl walks the path she normally takes every morning, the cane slung on her back will not be needed here. Time is a luxury and she will use every second of it.

((Don't fell like randavoting, just wanted to get the ol' blind girl moving.))

[Sabeki]

He looked down from the shadows into everything and nothing. Looking for all, seeing everything, and knowing all. He leaned towards the corpse of the now deceased Helgraf, and shook his head. ' What a mess...' He tried to think of who would murder Helgraf, and remembered a certain person he thought might have done it. Nobody... He murmured.

[Tris]

Upon spotting the murder, a young man named Tristram points at HedgehogRanger.

"I saw you sneaking around last night! you must have been the one murdered this poor man!"

[Helgraf]

He looked down from the shadows into everything and nothing. Looking for all, seeing everything, and knowing all. He leaned towards the corpse of the now deceased Helgraf, and shook his head. ' What a mess...' He tried to think of who would murder Helgraf, and remembered a certain person he thought might have done it. Nobody... He murmured.

((I'll mention this once as a general warning to everyone - voting for someone not in the game does not count as a vote, and will not count as activity to prevent autolynch. Just something to keep in mind. The rules & roles thread (linked in the first post) gives the guidelines for what other vote types do not count.))

[Cuthalion]

From the doorway of the grocery store, a young man with a mop of blond hair comments, "Ach, well, tha' un' seems ver' suspishus. An' wha' was he doin' out in tha night, anyway? Everyone knows ya're gun' get killed if ye do thin's lahk that."

Tman2nd.

[Sabeki]

((Quick question, is all of this going to be RP? Not that it would be bad, just curious.))

[Cuthalion]

((Quick question, is all of this going to be RP? Not that it would be bad, just curious.))

((I doubt it. Just decided to run with the flow.))

[ThePhantom]

Things are staying quiet in the Paris Opera House. Through once the news that central fountain has been defiled that may change. Who knows? Perhaps someone who lives here knows, or maybe not.

(Sabeki)

[Helgraf]

((I doubt it. Just decided to run with the flow.))

((RP is not required, but it is encouraged. It helps maintain the atmosphere. Also, if you use a character name, I will try to use it in narrations that mention you.))

[toasty]

The innkeeper's son, the bartender at the local tavern, thinks he heard someone leave the inn late at night. "It has to be one of the travelers. Or at least someone who stayed very late last night, later than they should have been." ((Klanos))

[Aventine]

One of the travelers frowns at toasty the barkeep. "Why blame travelers? More likely it was a local with a grudge."

[Yumori Zatsuken]

Edward wakes up in 5AM, seeing a commotion,

What the hell? It's 5 AM..

He went outside, seeing a dead body. He then sees the body, with its familliar face, he says

[COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]Damn ... I should be able to post this as my news for the town.[/COLOR]

[Felandria]

The madame of the brothel stepped outside to take a look at the gloomy sky.

She brushed a strand of long red hair from her face and spots the corpse in the distance.

She mourned silently for the deceased and hoped that the murderer, or murderers, would not escape justice like a Fleeing Coward

[Cuthalion]

((RP is not required, but it is encouraged. It helps maintain the atmosphere. Also, if you use a character name, I will try to use it in narrations that mention you.))

((Duly noted. His name shall be Alexander.))

[Imperial Psycho]

One of the outsiders, the travellers that so often passes through the village adds their viewpoint. After all, it's not like they can be allowed to leave, with an unsolved murder case in the town.

"Could it have been a Gray Mage?" The tall stranger asked. "They're always making trouble, or so I hear."

[Szilard]

Frank Szinatra was singing in the tavern as only he could:

"Strangers in the night... exchanging glances,
"Wond'ring in the night... what were the chances
"We'd be sharing love before the night was throooough..."

At that point, someone in the bar yelled "It's 'Shepherds of the Night' ya idiot!" and threw a bottle at him. Not knowing where it came from, Frankie blamed Aventine, the traveler in the bar. Of course Toasty the barkeep would never do it. Then again, the tab...

[Wizibirb]

A dark gloomy atmosphere hung over the crowd, it was as if a Phantom was terrorizing the town. But all of this was oblivious to Ozias as he skipped around town seemingly no care in the world. It was after all a day to relax, it was the weekend and no chores needed to be done.

[Lady Tialait]

Bah! The rain was ruining her dress. Why couldn't the city be more cheery? It was fine, it was fine. She would have to deal with that once she was someplace dry. Maria rushes into the Cathedral shaking a few drops of rain from her hair. A lovely woman, pale of skin with ebony flowing locks of hair. She had come to the city to make money, and there were few ways for a young woman like her to do so. Her choices her narrow, but she had chosen to use her looks and few skills to join the world's oldest profession. After asking around the city she had only one name on her mind, "Madame Felandria"

[Murska]

(( I'll be very busy for a couple days with a military exercise. Sanity.))

[GnomeGninjas]

"Helgraf is dead! There's murderers in this town! Everyone panic!" Screams Jim the Baker as he runs through the town. He was planning on baking the cake that Lady Tialait had ordered yesterday but now that people are dying he isn't sure what to do, maybe he should run away.

[HedgehogRanger]

"It was toasty!" cried the town drunk, Heinrich. "I saw him sneak out of the bar last night, which is mighty suspicious if you ask me!"

[Zar Peter]

The morning dew glanced on the telescope beside the wheelchair. The old man in the chair, Lord Peter, fully wrapped in two blankets, slowly opened his eyes. What's happening? He remembered watching the sky at night and then... he must have fallen asleep. And now everyone is running around like crazy. He remembered the war, where he had seen a Fleeing Coward running and shouting like Jim the Baker seconds before he was shot. Sadly Peter's eares weren't as good as his eyes so he did not really hear what Jim shouted but it seemed to be important. He searched for the bell to inform his butler to steer him down from the rooftop. Hopefully he will be informed about the news today.

((That's not a retaliatory point for Reverse WW, FC, you just happened to be Nr. 17 on the list))

[Szilard]

Her choices her narrow, but she had chosen to use her looks and few skills to join the world's oldest profession.

((Corn seller? ))

[Gray Mage]

The old man was sitting inside the church, oblivious to what was going on outside. It has been a long time since Geoffrey had been active in the doings of the city. Nowadays his eyes and ears aren't the same, and his body doesn't act like he wishes. Most days he just drift around, absorbed in his own thoughts.

((Fleeing Coward))

[Lady Tialait]

((Corn seller? ))

(( Obviously. ))

[toasty]

"It was toasty!" cried the town drunk, Heinrich. "I saw him sneak out of the bar last night, which is mighty suspicious if you ask me!"

"What rubbish. Certainly there are strange going-abouts, but surely it was not me! Ask my father! I was in the inn all night. I feel asleep in the common room."

[GAThraawn]

The scruffy and bedraggled man ran a hand through his hair as he put down his knife and blew the last few shavings off the piece of wood in front of him. Honed to a fine point, he tested it gently with his thumb, then added it to the pile with the rest. Beside the stack of stakes sat a decanter of clear water and a pistol, cocked open with bullets littering the surface of his work table.
"Almost ready. My preparations are nearly complete. Soon it will be time to confront..." A hideous scream pierced the night air, disturbing his work. A resigned scowl crossed his features as he lifted himself to his feet, slotting the instruments before him into various pockets on his long leather coat. Confident that he knew what awaited him, he strode out into the darkness.

"You, there, villager! What's your name, Aventine! Where..." He stopped himself as he came upon the fountain, blood and gore still spewing forth from the fresh kill, evidence of the latest fiend of the night at work. It was not a pleasant task he had taken upon himself, but it was a necessary one, and each sight like this that crossed his path merely served to remind him how vital his role in this world was.

Because there was only one creature so dark, twisted and malevolent as to be responsible for these wanton acts of carnage and despair.

Llamas!

[usourselves&we]

The old woman in blue finally makes it to the same bench in front of the fountain where she normally sits. It's a bit noisier today for some reason, and Jim is doing his normal routine. That boy really needs to learn to calm down and go with the flow.

((GnomeGninjas))