• It was dark, and the winds were raging, our group needed to find shelter from the brewing storm. There were eight of us out on our venture; two of the others were my brothers. We were sent out ahead of our clan by our chief to scout the hills, before long the storm stirred and we were forced to seek shelter.

    It wasn’t long before we found a good cave to hide out in, we lit our torches and set up a camp and had two men search further down into the caves. Nobody said anything, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who had a bad feeling about the caves. Our group leader was going over our supply list, and I myself was standing lookout near the entrance of the cave when the six of us heard the screams of our comrades. All of us snapped to attention, and our leader began barking orders to arms.

    It was only a couple of minutes later, and the other four were in full orcish armor complete with their orcish axes and one of my comrades wielded an orcish hammer. I took point in our formation, followed by my two brothers, then our leader, and the other Orc warriors in the rear. We were at least six hundred feet deep before we smelled the stench of rotting meat and decaying flesh. I only hoped we had stumbled into a wolf or bear den.

    Another two hundred feet and we finally spotted torch light, when we look to our leader for direction, he made a hand gesture telling us to snuff out our torches. We did. We snuck closer to the source of the torch light, and when it was within view, so were the cloaked creatures that were devouring our comrades. They were in a lower part of the chamber, about five feet lower than the tunnel we followed to get there.

    We had heard stories of the flesh eating creatures, (diseased, undead fiends unnatural to our world) but now I was sure that we were seeing them with our own eyes. There were at least twenty of the cloaked figures, possibly thirty, and no way of knowing how many hid in the shadows. They all looked frail to me, that must have been what our leader thought too, he mad another hand gesture when we all looked to him for more orders telling my brothers to take out their crossbows, and a second hand gesture to tell the other two orcs and I to ready our weapons. Again we did as we were told. One of my companions and I carried axes, the other wielded a war hammer. With a third hand gesture, the three of us began our charge of the creatures, when we were within striking distance two crossbow bolts flew over our heads into the hearts of our undead enemies.

    The two creatures the bolts pierced turned to dust almost instantly, and all the others looked up from their fiendish feast to glair at the interruption of their diner, and the death of their brethren. We were on them before they even had time to rise to their feet, I chopped on in two from its left shoulder through its right kidney, before my axe was half way through the creature, it turned to dust before me. My friend beside be slew one in a similar way, and our man with the war hammer crushed in one of the creatures skulls, then when it started getting up again he smashed in its back over the creatures left shoulder blade, and that one too turned into dust.

    The creatures were quick, it was difficult to keep and eye on any one of them, when one finally came too close, I drove my axe into it’s chest turning it into dust. One of my brothers had struck another of the creatures through the heart; dust fell on me from above. The creatures were now running up the walls and across the ceiling and attacking us from above. Our comrade with the war hammer was being swarmed, but he swung his hammer with such ferocity that he was slaying two of the fiendish creatures with a single swing. Unfortunately, it was not long before he was overwhelmed and killed.

    I swung my axe sideways through the air killing my third adversary, and with the momentum of that swing struck into another of the creature’s chests, turning both of them into dust. As I swung my axe down killing my fifth opponent, I realized more of the fowl creatures had come, stronger, older creatures. There were only four of these reinforcements, (three of them wielding broadswords and one with a scythe) and all of the room’s previous occupants had been slain. Then suddenly one of the creatures moved it’s hand and there appeared a crossbow bolt in it.

    I myself was unharmed from the battle thus far; my surviving companion from the melee seemed to have only a couple of scratches on him. Our leader and my brothers now joined us for a final showdown against the accursed creatures of darkness.

    Without the slightest hint of warning, the four undead warriors charged our ranks. One of the fiends with a broadsword went straight towards our leader who parried and came down with his axe severing the creatures arm at the elbow. The creature in a rage began it’s charge against him again and our leader brought up his axe and it came down again through the creatures head, severing it in half, and curving the swing down through it’s heart, and the first of the four newcomers were slain.

    At the same time, my brothers fought off the second of the stronger creatures with broadswords through practiced strike and defend tactics. They had seemed to have the creature on the defense for a moment, abut then it sliced off one of my brothers heads, but the creature was quickly destroyed by my other vengeful brother, a quick chop of his axe through its collar bone ended its unlife quickly enough.

    The third and fourth creatures both charged my other companion, I came to his aid as quickly as possible, but it was not fast enough, they had chopped of both of my companions legs off at the knees, and ripped off his right arm before leaving him their to bleed. The creature with the scythe turned to charge my surviving brother, ducking under my brothers axe swing he sliced off his right leg at the knee. Then the creature turn around and sliced my brother in half just under the rib cage.

    The other creature then turned to face my leader who readied his axe and charged. The creature moved to the side, but my leader threw his axe into the belly of the creature. While the creature lay on the floor bleeding as my leader stepped up to the creature retrieved his axe and swung down, but before the axe made contact, the creature drove it’s sword up, and at the same time the creature turned to dust, and my leader fell to the floor bleeding, but alive.
    I was left as the only opponent of the final creature, the one wielding the scythe; I could only presume it to be the leader. I readied myself against it, and it charged me, scythe raised in an attacking position. When he reached me, I blocked him with my axe, and stopped his charge cold. He then broke off of our deadlock, and brought his scythe around to slice of my legs. In response, I pushed in towards my enemy, and smashed in his head with the handle of my axe. He stumbled backwards, and I used that time to swing my axe down at it. Unfortunately it moved to the side, and brought its scythe across my left arm, severing it at my elbow.
    I tried to swing my axe one handed, but I was unable to use it effectively against my stronger faster opponent. The creature then stopped its attack, and kicked my axe from my good arm, and then it used its scythe as a cane rather than a weapon. At that moment, it told me that I had a choice now, and that I must answer now. It asked me if I would choose not to die and join it in its recreation of its clan, or die there, and then.
    I chose, then and there, undeath, unlife, and my still barely living leader chose the same. We became the second and third of the creatures new clan, and we pointed the creature in the direction of our previous clan, a clan of the living. We infiltrated the clan camp every night for weeks before they noticed the missing clan members, and soon our own clan was strong enough to take another half of the living, and finally all of them joined our ranks. We were now the new vampire clan of the region, even more powerful than it had been before, and I was its second, no longer was I just a simple warrior, now I was a vampire, I WAS A GOD!!!