Chapter 3 - The Vampire Spawn
Meanwhile, as soon as Gale had left the Dank Crypt, Vexir and Astarion began to prowl about in the shadows. They propped the door open with a rock just in case, and then they retreated into the hall. There was some light streaming down through a crack in the west wall near the ceiling, but as long as they avoided the direct sunlight, they both seemed content.
It was then that Vexir decided to confront him. They were alone, and she figured it was the best opportunity to get him to confess. "Where did you go last night and what are you up to?" she asked suddenly.
Astarion's countenance fell. "So, you caught me leaving. How annoying!" He then faced her and saw the hard expression on her face. "Please. We really don't want to go here."
Vexir decided to use Intimidation to get answers. "This is a problem for me," she replied. "I am done with this. I don't trust you. Who knows what you are up to? For all I know, you could be working for the Mind Flayers. Talk now, or we're done here." She made it clear what she meant by that. She already had her greataxe in hand, and she took it in both hands. She rolled a Natural 20 for her Intimidation check and got a total of 24. Astarion tried to resist with a Wisdom saving throw of 12+1=13. He failed.
"Okay! Okay!" he hissed, gritting his teeth in frustration. "I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep an open mind. I really don't want trouble. Like you, I'm just hoping to survive this whole mess, and maybe, just maybe, come out on top."
Vexir just stared at him with hostility in her eyes. It was clear that she would not relent. She also made it clear that she would not promise anything. He would talk, or she WOULD give him trouble. There was no in-between.
Astarion's relationship with her dropped to 48. "Fine," he said with disdain. "Have it your way. If we have a problem, we have a problem." He took in a deep breath. "But I will warn you, if we have a problem, you won't like it when I bare my fangs."
Vexir just rolled her eyes at this. Astarion withdrew a pace, pressing his back against the wall. He couldn't look at her when he spoke the next words. "I'm a vampire spawn," he admitted in a voice that she barely heard.
This took Vexir completely by surprise. The hard expression she'd been wearing was gone in a flash. Her eyebrows lifted and her mouth fell open. She was aghast. Astarion looked up at her to try to gauge her reaction, and he winced. "I know. Hard to believe. Right?" But then he bared his fangs in a non-threatening manner.
It was Vexir's turn to drop back a pace. She still could not wipe the shock off her face. "But... how? You... The sun... You're not burning up."
"What? Really?" said Astarion, his witty personality returning. "I hadn't noticed." He then walked around her to stand within the beams of light from the sun as he looked up at it while shielding his eyes. Then he looked back at her and spread his arms out. "Well. Would you look at that! I think you're right. I can somehow walk about in the sun. And yet, here we are." He then left the light to join her again. "So..." He then paused. It seemed he was now waiting for a typical response.
"So what?" asked Vexir, still completely off balance.
"Isn't this where we get into an altercation; where you try to jam a stake through my heart?" he replied.
Vexir recovered at last. She looked back at the doorway to ensure no one else was listening. Then, she said, "I have no intention of trying to kill you."
Now it was Astarion's turn to be shocked. "Is that... concern I see in your eyes? Do you... actually care?" Her relationship with him went back up to 50.
Vexir hardened her expression immediately. What he had seen was now gone, shoved behind her usual wall. "No. This is simply unexpected. That's all. Why do you think you can walk about by day?"
Astarion shrugged. "I can only guess it has something to do with the tadpole. Someone, or some-THING, has changed the rules. Sunlight no longer kills me, and I can enter places uninvited now. Running water still stings like an imp's stinger, and I still require blood. That's where I went last night. That's what I was doing. I was hunting an animal to drink its blood."
"That explains why you were almost like a wild animal yesterday when fighting the mercenaries. When you slit their leader's throat, you couldn't stop staring at her."
He closed his eyes. It seemed as if he was fighting back the anguish of that memory. "I've never actually feasted on a person," he told her. "My vampire master, Cazador of the Baldurian Szarr family, enjoyed cruel games. He forced me to sustain myself on mere rats from the sewers. He liked to toy with people just for his amusement, and I was one of his favorites."
"I was once a High Elf from a wealthy, noble family," he continued. "I had everything... until he took it all away."
"How long have you been a vampire spawn?" Vexir asked.
"Since the 13th century," he replied. "Cazador thought it was great fun indeed to take someone who had once been the master of others and make him into a sewer-dwelling, rat-blood sucking thief and murderer. I was allowed to kill others. I just wasn't allowed to enjoy the spoils of my labor afterwards."
"But now, I've become conveniently lost." He said this with such hope and excitement that Vexir couldn't help but feel his enthusiasm. It hit her all at once that for him, the tadpole was not a curse. It was a blessing. It was his freedom. No wonder he had said that he wanted to learn how to control it. He didn't want to get it removed. He wanted to keep it and become its master.
"It all started when I was seducing a young fellow noble," he told her. She could see that he was being totally honest with here. There wasn't even a hint of lying. "Cazador wanted me to lure the man to him. All of a sudden, I was taken by a Mind Flayer. Just like you, I was infected with that tadpole. Now I am free, Vexir. I am free from him and from the darkness. I can't go back to that. Never again! Never again!"
He then looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Can we keep this between us? Please don't tell the others. Please don't make this into a big deal. I've never feasted on anyone, and I promise I won't. I'll keep feasting on animals. There are plenty around here. I know the Gith Ranger won't like it, but it's better than feasting on people. Right? I mean, as long as I keep feasting on animals, I won't crave people. That's what I was thinking, anyway, and..."
She stopped him with a raised hand. She'd made her decision already. Something inside her felt pity for him. She couldn't help but have a strong desire to help him. "Relax," she said, her expression soft. "I'll help you."
Astarion was beside himself with relief. "You will? I mean... really? You will? I..."
She cut him off again. "I think we should tell the others, but I will stand by you and help protect you from them." Astarion no longer had words. She had struck him so deeply to the core that he could no longer comprehend what she was even saying. It took him a few more moments to recover, so she continued. "I think it's stupid to hinder you. It benefits us more if you can use all of your weapons. I say, use your fangs, if that helps strengthen you, but use them on enemies we encounter."
Astarion finally found his voice. "But what if Kaedyn, or whoever, refuses to go along with it? I have serious doubts that he'll agree to continuing on with a vampire spawn."
Vexir rolled her eyes. "Kaedyn can be such a prude. However, I think if we appeal to his soft-hearted nature, we can convince him that you are his next mission from Tyr. It will be his holy quest to help find you a cure both for the tadpole and your vampirism. You have been given a second chance at life. Surely, isn't that a noble crusade?"
Astarion was elated. "You, my dear, have become my new best friend."
"I had better not regret this," she warned him. "Try to bite me, even once, and I swear it'll be the end of you."
"Hah! Darling, I'm not sure if I even CAN die right now," he laughed.
"Would you like to test that out?" she asked.
He laughed again. "Of course not, Darling," he replied. "At this point, I am willing to do just about anything you think is best. Of everyone here, you are probably the most desired companion. My chances of surviving with you are far greater than with anyone else. So, if you think we can convince the others to travel with me even if they know I'm a spawn, I'm right behind you. Lead the way."
"We'll wait for them in here," she told him. "I'm not going out in that cursed sun."
"Ironic, isn't it?" he said. "Who would ever have thought that a Drow would be more adverse to the sun than a vampire spawn?"
She chuckled at this a bit. "Why don't I get the advantage of not having issues with the sun? You're free from it. So, why not me?"
"But you are free," a voice hissed in her mind. She spun around, fully expecting to see someone standing there behind her. There was no one.
"Are you all right, My Dear?" asked Astarion. Her sudden reaction caught him off guard. He had not heard the voice.
She continued to look around. "You didn't hear that?"
"Hear what?" asked Astarion.
"I could have sworn I heard a voice whispering from behind me. It said, 'But you are free.'"
Astarion now looked about as well, expecting to see some trace of a ghost. Nothing. "Perhaps you were imagining things."
An idea suddenly compelled her to do something she never dreamed she would have done in the past. She ran into the beam of sunlight and let it engulf her. As she did, she felt the sun's warmth on her skin and her eyes adjusted to it. It wasn't unpleasant. It felt... good. "Wha...? I... Why?"
"What?" asked Astarion, puzzled.
"The sun," she said in disbelief. "It's no longer causing me issues, like it should. Why is it... what is happening? This wasn't like this yesterday." From this point onward, the sun no longer affected her, just like any other surface-dwelling elf.
Astarion approached her. His eyes were narrowed as he also tried to reason through it. "Perhaps the tadpole isn't as dormant as we were hoping. Perhaps it is merely transforming us in different ways. Maybe running water won't hurt me in the future. Maybe it is taking away our disadvantages one by one. You started out with sun aversion, just like any Drow, but now..."
She nodded as she stepped back out of the sun. "You might be right. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that it was as if the tadpoles were refining us; making us stronger."
Astarion's voice became foreboding. "Maybe they are. Maybe, they are." Just then, the others returned.
His relationship with Vexir jumped to 60, a whole 10 points, because of her decision to ally herself with him and help him.
