Learning How To Heal A Vampire (Astarion x Y/K)

Kethric Thorn

"Ah! Wonderful, more friends to join us in fight!" She motioned to the front doors that they had kicked in "today, Kethric Thorn finally knows what death feels like."

"Sounds good," I smiled as we all headed in. They already had taken down half the people in the main hall.

The orc woman narrowed her eyes at me, "you! What are you doing with them?! You serve The Absolute!"

I mistystepped to her, my dagger already drawn slashing at her, "I serve no one," I growled at her.

She swing and I dodged, "tsk, how disappointing." She was strong and was able to cancel out any spell I tried to throw her way. But I was faster with my dagger than her. I was able to puncture a lung and make her bleed to death.

We secured the main floor, clearing out everyone. The white haired elf spoke to us by the stairs. "We have this floor, you should find Kethric in one of the floors above."

"You should join us" I smiled at her, "I think you want him dead more than anyone else." She nodded, "perfect, up we go!" We went up a floor, there were only a few people so it was easy to clear. They all seemed to be guarding an office, blocked by a large licked door. "My love, would you be so kind?"

He smiled and nodded as he began to pick the lock, "I still love hearing you say that," he said quietly. After a moment we all heard the click of the lock, the door swong open. "Voi la! We're in!" We all entered a study. Books overflowed the many shelves. I was reading some of the titles and grabbing a few for me to read at camp.

Gale was staring at one bookcase in particular. I went over to him, "something wrong friend?"

"Somethings off about these shelves. They open, question is how."

"It's a castle, you probably have to pull a certain book." Astarion joined us looking at the books.

"Should we just start pulling?" I grabbed a book and yanked it.

"NOO!" They shouted in unison as a strange offering bowl appeared next to the shelves. "Are you mad my dear? That could have killed us!" Gale yelled at me.

"Well, it didn't." I went to the bowl looking at the small writing allong the rim. I looked around, "what would Thorn sacrifice?" I pondered out loud before my eyes landed on a dead body on the ground. I went to examine it and saw the in tact, but cut out heart. I reached in and gently grabbed it, "here we go!" The party looked disgusted with me but Astarion smiled and nodded in approval as I placed the heart in the bowl, the noise of clanking gears filled the room as the two bookcases swung open. We entered and were shocked at the corpse of a mindflare tied down to a table. Diagrams and notes written on papers pinned to the walls.

"What in the seven hells was he doing?" Astarion asked out loud breaking the silence.

"Oak Father Preserve us, this is where your tadpoles were changed. I can feel the twisted magic." Halsin picked up a tadpole in a jar and showed us. It was a dead version of the same tadpoles that the camp leaders had.

"So he was the one experimenting on the tadpoles." I took a closer look at the illithid. "But why? Was it really all for just some god?"

"If one is devoted enough, they'll do anything for their God or Goddess." Shadowheart said softly. "But how do we put a stop to this?"

"We kill the source. We kill Thorn." We heard the sounds of thumping on the floor above us. "That must be him."

"Well, let's go get the bastard." Astarion twirled his dagger in hand as we made our way out of the study and up the stairs onto the roof. The Nightsong stood in the middle of the opening, Kathric Thorn was looking down on us from a landing. Cloaked skeletons lined the side walls. His eyes narrowed at us, more specifically at me.