10.1 : Sixty seconds
And Destiny, she will be laying on the ground, the fur on her arm slowly turning red as it soaks up the pool of blood seeping out of the burned flesh of her back. Dying. Sixty seconds from now.
***
“Open it Destiny.” Serenity instructs, pointing at the small chest in the wardrobe. They are in Henrik’s bedroom in the Coffin shop. A small room containing just Henrik’s bed, a bedside table and the wardrobe they are looking at. All the windows in this building are shut. Downstairs is a room full of coffins. Upstairs in the next room, several large boxes Henrik claims he was forced to store by this lady he’s terrified by. And in the small chest they are about to open, if the coffin shop owner is to be believed, are the very bones Father Lucian has asked them to recover.
“Coffin man said no touch.” Hoskgak warns.
“Ah, good point, I can use my mage hand so I won’t touch it directly.” Destiny readies her magic. Despite the small room, she feels exposed. If one of those demon comes out from the chest, they will have to fight it close quarter, something Destiny dislikes. Still, with Hoskgak and Serenity right next to her, she’ll be fine.
Fifty seconds.
A shimmering glow in the shape of an arm extends out from Destiny, past Hoskgak and to the chest. Destiny directs it to reach for the latch. It seems unlocked. Click.
A wave of lightning erupts from the chest, knocking Destiny, Hoskgak and Serenity backwards. As they gather their wits, they are please to find they are alive - and, within the chest, they are equally pleased to find the sacred bones of Andralos! Success! Victory! But what kind of trap was this? And, puzzled, Destiny considers that her tail has warned her that not one, but two spells got triggered by the opening of the box. This mystery is worth discussing. What could it be?
Alarm. Watch reports people coming towards the door, from the room with the boxes.
Destiny shouts a warning. Serenity springs up and runs to block the door. She's knocked back by the man coming through. Behind him: at least five others. They look human, except for their pale faces, small fangs, and hungry looks, that give away their vampiric nature. Before the party can react further, several of the vampire spawns barge into the room.
“Ah, you found the bones. Well done. Now hand it over.” says the strong, tall one, seemly the one in charge.
Forty seconds.
At this very moment Destiny finds herself hatching a plan, the perfect escape plan for this rather sticky situation. They are outnumbered 2:1 with Hoskgak and Destiny still suffering from pie addiction and Serenity only at half health from the Hag’s curse.
On her right is a closed window leading to the street below, on her left is Hoskgak who has the chest within reach. If he grabs it, throws it to Destiny, she could open the window and make an escape. Perhaps Watch could create a distraction to buy time for the others to jump out the window also. They would then make a run to the church and…
Hoskgak grabs the chest with both hands, gives a barbaric howl and charges at the man immediately in front of him, barely noticing the bone-shattering blow he gets from the man's maul as he runs past. Then he runs past the next two in the room, narrowly avoiding their hits before ramming into the two into the corridor. They attack him with their swords and claws, but Hoskgak keeps running, clutching the chest tighter, shielding it with his own body. Cold metal pierces him, first hitting his armour, then sliding into his flesh. He loses his balance momentarily, but then steadies himself, seemingly for his final charge down the stairs. It's hard to imagine how Hoskgak could see with so much blood dripping down his face.
Moments later she hears the sound of Hoskgak’s heavy body tumble down the stairs. What was he thinking? They were suppose to run away. Why did he run into them and with the chest?
The leader disappears down the stairs after Hoskgak, presumably still after the bones.
No time to wonder, Destiny thinks. Maybe a version of her plan could still work.
Thirty seconds.
She reaches to open the window next to her. Now with a line of sight, she teleports herself to the street below.
“Watch, I need you! Come!”
Watch flies through the same open window, still invisible.
“Here’s the plan, we’ll run into the house from the backdoor and through it to the front door. With luck we’ll see Hoskgak at the bottom of the stair and then we can heal him before he bleeds out. We won’t be able to stop to see if he’s ok, we’ll just have to make a run for it. Ready?” Destiny explains, telepathically.
“Er. That is a stupid plan. Hoskgak is probably already dead. Serenity and Ireena will soon be dead also. Going back into the house filled with vampire spawn is a bad idea. We should just run while we can.”
“No! We must save them, Watch, we must! Hoskgak and Serenity are our companions, they are our friends!”
Destiny dashes towards the shop’s backdoor as she speaks . Watch reluctantly follows. But as she steps through the door she almost runs into one of the vampire spawn. Surprised, it takes a swing at Destiny and misses. Using all her Tabaxi agility she darts past the spawn towards the stairs. Hoskgak is lying lifeless at the bottom of the stairs. Towering over him is the leader, bending over to pick up the chest from Hoskgak. There is no way through to the front door without passing this man, and her way back is blocked by the other spawn. She’s trapped.
No turning back now.
Twenty seconds.
She incants the spell as she runs, channelling the maximum healing power she can manage. Surges of magical energy flows through her tail to her hands and then to Hoskgak.
The spawn notices Destiny and swings his greatsword, almost scalping her. Blood streams down Destiny's face. Miraculously she manages to stay on her feet, runs past him to the front door and out into the open square. She made it! Watch follows, but so does the man. Destiny keeps on running.
By the time she looks back, the spawn appears to have stopped his chase. Hoskgak emerges out from the same door, sees the spawn with the chest and tries to wrestle the chest from him. But he easily avoids Hoskgak and seems about to take a swing at him when Destiny fires a bolt of Eldritch blast at him.
Avoiding Destiny’s volley, it leaps to the side of the house like a spider, climbing out of reach from Hoskgak's greatsword.
Looking back at Destiny it sneers, “There’s no point running, he will get you in the end. If he got me, he’ll definitely get you too.”
“Watch, go back through the window to check on Serenity.”
“You really should quit while you are ahead!” Watch warns, but dutifully follows his mistress’ instruction.
Ten seconds.
Back in the room, Serenity is lying lifeless on the ground being watched by one of the spawn, who observes her death with the mixture of boredom and curiosity of someone for whom killing others is just a part of the routine. Another one, a bulky, mean looking bully, is holding Ireena in his strong arms. She is screaming, but helpless, and, importantly, unharmed.
“Mistress, I think I could reach Serenity unnoticed, with a lot of luck, find and feed her the healing potion that she got from the orphanage. But as soon as I do that, I’ll almost certainly be noticed even if I am invisible. So you will need to dismiss me before they get to me.”
“Got it, go!”
Five.
Watch sneaks in as planned and easily locates the potion. He starts feeding it to Serenity. The dead-eyed vampire notices something moving at the corner of her eye and rushes to the window to close it, but too late: Watch manages to empty the content of the potion into Serenity. She stirs.
Four.
The spawn says “Something is not right.”
“Now!” Watch screamed through their telepathic link.
Destiny clicks her fingers and Watch disappears just as the spawn spots the hovering potion flask.
Three.
Hoskgak runs past Destiny and shouted, “Come on Cat, we need to run!”
Two.
Destiny freezes, bloodied, exhausted and not running. She realises she's been crying.
“Ireena, Serenity! Sorry, we will come back for you!”
She turns and runs after Hoskgak.
One.
A bolt of burning heat smashes into Destiny’s back. She tries to call to Hoskgak, but blood comes out of her mouth. The world turns dark as she collapses face first onto the ground.
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