Baylum had just finished purifying a crypt that some of the residents had become a little restless in. Unfortunately it had taken him longer to purify the crypt than he thought so he had to walk back to town after the sun had gone down because stay all night in the country was a death sentence when you are alone.
On his way back down the mountain through the forest he felt like he was being followed. Listening carefully to his surroundings he could hear something on either side of him sneaking through the underbrush. Seeing a clearing ahead he picked up his pace a little.
When he got to the clearing he sat on a log in the middle trying his best to make it look like he had let down his guard. Hearing something approaching slowly from behind him he slowly grabbed the hilt of his short sword that had been blessed by Baelontrish the God of Light.
He heard whatever it was start running towards him and that is when he pulled his sword from his scabbard and stood up and faced his opponent. When he finally saw what it was fear gripped him tighter than ever before. It was a Vampire Underling.
Vampire Underlings are not that strong alone. An untrained teenaged boy could kill one with a little difficulty if it was by itself, and a child could get away from it and escape. They are what happens when young or newly turned Vampires give birth. Usually when they do they birth anywhere from 5 to 20 Underlings. They are about 3' tall 60 lbs. and are not that intelligent. They also can't evolve into a stronger Vampire so they are generally used for hunting dogs by higher undead. The thing about them is they are never alone. They usually run in packs of 3 to 15 and are always accompanied by at least their handlers that are at least half Vampires or stronger.
Seeing the underling jumping at him he swung his sword and cut it in half with just enough time to hear three more coming at him. Two from the right and one from the left. Doing a back spinning step to the left he swung his sword again and cut the single underling in half and faced the other two. He quickly cut one of their heads off and was about to do the same to the other when six more came running at him. Three from either side.
He killed the one then immediately put his back to the tree to hold off the rest.
After 20 mins of fighting he finally felled his last opponent, but he wasn't unharmed. He had a large gash on his leg where one of the underlings dug its 3" claw into it and his left arm had been bitten.
Knowing that he didn't have much time he grabbed a bandage for his leg and quickly wrapped it then wrapped his arm as he started moving quickly towards town. After wrapping his arm he held his sword at the ready while he hobbled his way through the forest.
Just then he heard some clapping from behind him and knowing he couldn't out run the person he stopped and slowly turned around. Looking over his shoulder first he saw that the person clapping was a Lower Vampire Lord and had three Lower Vampires with him, along with another 12 underlings.
With his eyes glowing red and his bluish grey skin with black hair, wearing light leather armor and a pair of gauntlets with built in claws, he said with a very confidant low voice, "You know, I really hoping for more entertainment from a Cleric with a blessed sword before I drank him."
Seeing the small horde in front of him Baylum took a fighting stance and said, "Well if I'm going to die might as well do it right. You want entertainment here I am."
The young Vampire Lord smiled and said, "Ok then." and gave the signal for all the underlings to attack.
As the 12 underlings moved to attack Baylum pulled a talisman from under his robes and held it in his left hand with his sword in his right.
Just as the underlings were within sword reach he activated his talisman and a bright flash of light blinded the underlings and Vampires for about five seconds. While they were incapacitated he started to slaughter as many underlings as he could before they came to their senses.
He had cut down the five closest before he had to move and by the time they knew what was going on he had killed another two and was swinging at another when they started to react but it was too late. By the time they were ready to fight back there were only four left and they were no match for him.
Within 30 seconds there was only two left and that is when the Vampire lord sent the 3 Lower Vampires in to fight. By the time they got there though all the underlings had been slain and Baylum was waiting for the three Vampires.
As they were coming for him he reached into the pouch on his belt and pulled out a handful of graveyard dirt. To most living things this dirt isn't much of anything, but it can temporarily blind most undead. When they got close enough he through it at them hoping to slow them down.
Luckily he hit two of them in the face and blinded them but the third one was able to dodge it and attack from the side. Seeing the third Vampire coming at him he was glad that all it had was its claws that were equal to small daggers and no match for his sword.
Even though he had the advantage of the weapon the vampire had speed and strength and the two that were blinded were still half able to fight because of their other senses.
Baylum fought mostly with the third Vampire and whenever the other two came at him to attack because they couldn't see he was easily able to block and counter attack them. Even with that it still took him almost 15 mins to kill the three vampires.
When the last one fell the Vampire lord started laughing and clapping with gusto. "WOW! I'm impressed. When I decided to come out tonight I never thought I would get this quality of entertainment but I was wrong." He started clapping again. "Good job, you had me on my tippy toes the whole time. Really got my undead heart pumping so much I've worked up quite an appetite. This will be the best meal I've had in a long time. Thank you for that." then he dashed in for the quick kill.
Just when he was 10' away Baylum raised his hand and shouted causing a white holy light to come out of his hand and paralyze the Vampire Lord in front of him.
After the Lord dropped to the ground in complete surprise. Baylum kneeled down and looked down at him saying, "If I had known that you were in charge of this hunt then I wouldn't have played the bait game and taken so long to kill you all." looking at the lord in disappointment. "I would have just killed immediately and been on my way." Standing back up he said, "That's too bad, I was hoping to get a few more of you ticks this evening."
Then with one quick swing of his sword he beheaded the Vampire Lord.
Casting a quick spell to heal his wounds he started walking back to town.
About halfway there he felt a very faint pulse of holy energy so he headed that way.
After walking a couple minutes he came across a small cottage that looked like it had been broken into. He could also hear a babies cry from inside the cottage.
Slowly approaching he noticed the door had been splintered and he could smell blood. When he stepped inside he saw an adult man and woman lying on the floor with numerous lacerations all over their bodies, but that wasn't all. He also saw 7 underlings and a Lower Vampire dead on the floor with bashed in heads and broken limbs. One even had a kitchen knife in its eye.
Hearing the babies cry Baylum went to the crib and examined it. It was a new born boy with a little tuft of Strawberry blonde hair on his head.
Knowing he would die if he left him Baylum wrapped him in his blanket grabbed a couple of other baby clothes and cloth diapers and headed out the house and back to town.