Author’s note: I’ve recently started a PF2 stream with a few friends on the Twitch channel Roll the Role. The premise: A crew of dhampirs with the same ‘sire’ have banded together to make coin, a name for themselves, and sort out their complicated past and future. This takes place after session one.

[ < A Prologue ] [ Dhampir$: Save the Princess (session two) > ]

Leaving Alkenstar before dawn, Anna had hoped to be enjoying the clean air of the countryside by evening. Instead, she found herself anointing her room with scented oils to keep the acrid smoke of the city at bay. They’d made good progress, but the smokestacks were hard to outpace. 

She sat at the tiny writing desk and took out her journal. It was a habit from childhood, drilled into her by an endless stream of nannies, who saw it as a calm and harmless pastime for a girl who was too curious by half. Perhaps if she had been interested in the arts or other mundane affairs, they would have been more comfortable with her explorations, but after the frog incident…

Well, they preferred a medium that was more easily put out of mind. 

Anna dipped her pen and began to write…

✱✱✱

12 Gozran 4720 ~ Rusty Bedfellow Inn ~ North of Alkenstar

Lenore has been taken. I expected one of us would one day be carried away, but I thought it would be a crowd with torches and pitchforks, or perhaps a duke in desperate need of a scapegoat. I didn’t expect a dragon. And a dragon with portal magic. 

Even stranger, her abduction came with a vision.

I do suppose I’m getting ahead of myself. We had been asked to take care of a small matter of a cult in the outskirts of Alkenstar. A rather dull matter, but cults have  a nasty habit of creating larger issues for us down the line (either adoration, admonition, or in the worst cases, both), so better to be nipped in the bud. Even better if we’ll be paid for it.

It was just as we were putting ourselves to rights that the portal opened, and poor Lenore was snatched away. We had no time to react, though I’ve spent more time than I like second guessing our actions. Perhaps if we had a counterspell ready, or one of us had moved faster…

Ah, well. I’m sure Lenore is fine. She’s unparalleled as a warrior, and resourceful as well. She wouldn’t have made it this far if she weren’t able to take care of herself. If anything, we siblings persevere…

But speaking of siblings… 

I’ve never been one who’s prone to visions. Poor aunt Martina was plagued by them, and I heard my mother would have episodes, but they never struck me. I had assumed that they skipped over me… until now. I would have been ready to disregard it as an overtired mind, but Cyt and Samael experienced them as well. A cold plain, a love for one’s kin, a thirst for blood, a need for revenge…

I do believe we have family in the North, which is where we believe Lenore was taken. It can’t be a coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidences. 

I should write of the unfortunate events of the bar, but I find myself growing tired, and I’m certain we’ll rise early. Suffice it to say, it is likely a good thing that we chose to leave Alkenstar for a time. 

✱✱✱

Anna sat back from the journal, yawning. From the darkness came a tutting. ภ๏Շ שєгץ ɭค๔ץɭเкє(in a creepy font) Not very ladylike

One of the shadows in the corner of the room had solidified. Anna hadn’t called her eidolon forth, but that rarely stopped her companion from showing up. Anna gave her a rueful look. “My accommodations are rubbing off on me. ‘Rusty Bedfellow,’ indeed. I’m shocked they didn’t rent by the hour. You’ll keep watch, my pet?”

Silence was the only response, but that was better than the usual morose retort. Before long, Anna was tucked into a bed that would be better used as kindling under whoever managed the cleaning staff, and was asleep.

✱✱✱

It was not a peaceful sleep.

She was back in her room, in the sickly light of the LeClerche manor. She stood at her window, watching as Maizon made his way to the main road, and hopefully to a caravan that would take him to the Mwangi Expanse. Jace was gone. Her father was gone. Most of the staff had left, save for their aging butler and a plain-faced chambermaid who she suspected he was tupping. Even them, they were planning on moving on as soon as Anna signed the papers…

She looked down at them. Their solicitor had drawn them up, likely while her father’s body was still warm. He’d laid out the particulars for her: She wasn’t quite alive, and her kind wasn’t known for being fecund. Therefore, wasn’t it in the best interests that she quit her claim on the LeClerche estate? She would be given a settlement, and a distant cousin (from a branch untouched by tragedy) would absorb their titles and estates. The name would be given to one of his mewling brats, and really, isn’t that what her mother and father would have wanted? To have the name continue? 

She looked up. The fog had swallowed Maizon. The house was silent. She had never felt so alone, and the dread of it threatened to swallow her whole. Her kind could live as long as elves, and just two decades in, Anna had lost everyone—

A knock sounded. “Miss?”

The solicitor. Anna swallowed her growing despair and turned. “Enter.”

The door opened. The man her father had retained was in his middling years, youth being eaten away by fine lines and touches of gray. He wore a vest that Anna was certain he thought was the height of fashion, but that Absolom had given up on three seasons ago. He gave her a sad-eyed smile, acting out the part of the sympathetic compatriot.

“How are you doing today, Miss Anna?”

“As well as can be expected.” She realized her eyes were too dry, but it couldn’t be helped. Another side-effect of her ‘condition’: She rarely cried. “I hope the day finds you well.”

“Much the same. Your father and I hunted often. I was so stunned when I heard his horse had thrown him. He was an excellent equestrian.”

“If his death surprised you, then you couldn’t have studied our history too closely. Horses were a popular way to go. I always told Daddy he should avoid them.” 

The solicitor cleared his throat nervously. “Well, he was a man who little liked being told what to do.” Oh, he’d heard. “Have you had a chance to read over the papers?”

“I have. Do you know, I think Daddy liked riding because he thought he’d sorted the curse. He did all sorts of things he shouldn’t have…” Anna picked up the papers and started to leaf through them. “Ate fish with bones. Boated. Fenced. He even liked to toy around with firearms, though he was a terrible shot.”

“Er, yes, quite the character. Do you have any questions about the settlement?”

Her gaze landed on the settlement. A heady amount for a peasant. A paltry amount for one who might live as long as an elf. “I don’t know if I would have called him a ‘character.’ But he really thought he had beaten it. Even if he hadn’t, he was still a credit to the name, don’t you think?”

“Yes, just as your cousin shall be. I’ve heard he’s quite the bright lad. He’ll marry well, I have no doubts. It’s what your father would have wanted.”

Anna smiled, keeping her lips pressed together. “My father is dead. What he wanted doesn’t matter.” And she tossed the papers into the fire.

The solicitor cried out as the flames consumed them. He reached, but a word of magic made the flames hungry, consuming the parchment in seconds. He turned on Anna, hatred in his eyes. “You prissy little bitch…” He stepped towards her, one hand going for his pocket. Anna, too late, realized how alone she was, how easy it would be to pay off the servants. He pulled out a gun. “You know, maybe this is easier. The despondent daughter eats a bullet and saves the Howes some gold–“

A hand wrapped around the man’s neck, inky black and trailing a dark smoke. In an instant, the solicitor was thrown across the room, cracking the plaster and wrecking the wainscotting. His head lolled at an unnatural angle and his eyes stared blankly. Anna found herself staring at a dark form, a woman, but her face was gaunt and her eyes shone with a terrible light. ๓เรรรรรՇгєรรรรรร…(In a creepy font) Misstress… it hissed in a voice from beyond the grave, and it reached for her. Anna heard someone screaming, and it took a moment to realize it was her own voice. The hand touched her cheek, and all went black.

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