Journal Log of a Man At Arms for a Sir Williamson at his Castle Keep in the border princes.

(I think I may extend this into a series, switching from 3rd to 1st person every now and then.)

 Written in the Bretonnian Year of 1470, BY the Warden Demosk Man at Arms of Sir Williamson.                                                        

Day 1

The year had been most uneventful for our lord, we have mainly stayed in his Keep overlooking the local village and farmland. Why in any gods name would anyone live in these desolate lands the Imperials refer to as the lands of the Border Princes. Well... other then its on the border of nothing. But It is not my place to question such things, the Lord wished it and it is so.

Day 2

There is 40 Men at Arms that came with our Lord, including me, I don't know how the Lord found out I could read and write, but once he did. warden I became.... along with scribe, Retainer, Watchmen, Banker, and accountant... somedays I just wish I was just another illeterate inbred peasant. At least Life Would be easier.

Day 5

Past 2 days uneventful, but something odd today, the winds become colder.. but yet its the middle of the summer? Some of the men fear Dark Magic, egh... old wives tales if you ask me, must be an early fall.... yes that must be it.... an early fall.

Day 6

The Night Patrol Didn't come back last night, I went out with the early watch and found the local village was deserted.... I swear I saw the Villagers here yesterday, no sign of any wrong doing.... its starting to get to the men.... they really are thinking about Dark Magics about... there's still 34 of us, so we can still man a search part for the villagers. I must inform the lord, but his doors are barred. Maybe he too is becoming anxious about the situation.

Day 7

Still no word. No more search partys either, we have barred the Keep Doors, and hope we can hold out, I attempted to speak to the Lord again today. No answer. I will try again tommorow. He must be informed.

Day 8

Today was.... well today was most... unpleasent. We broke into the lords rooms and found him dead... but yet not.. he was like a zombie from the stories we used to hear as children, he took down 2 of my men while we were still in shock, thankfully I awoke from my spell and thrust my blade through his skull.... My Lord is dead... we have no way to contact anyone... only 26 of us, and I'm stuck in charge! May some god shine mercy on me.... only 8 days agoe everything was fine.. now this.

Day 12

It has been 4 days since last entry. It took us alot of time to grieve over our current loses.. and we can not find the Lady of the Castle.. she is no where to be found, like the villagers, just gone. Well.. no... the Villagers found us. They are all dead, they haven't broke into the Keep yet, but they just stand outside of the gates looking at us with dead eyes. No moans... nothing, just silence.. the silence is killing us.

Day 13

How humorous this is my 13th days entry in my journal. We found on the 3rd floor that the window barring had been twisted to allow entry.. we are pretty sure it wasn't a zombie.... no Zombie could have climbed 2 levels, and done this to Fellian... were still finding pieces of him in the hallways.. poor bastard, down to 25.

Day 15

Whatever climbed in here 2days ago is still here.. one of the night patrols ran into it in the hallways.. well... we think they did, looks like they put up a fight, 4 more men dead.. slaughtered Welliks head was found on the other end of the hallway. 21


Day 17

2 DAYS! Only 2 days.... we are down to 15 men, Ordered the men into the Dining hall and we are all here now. The doors are barricaded. enough food and drink for maybe another week.... The damn thing broke into the barracks killed the 2 door Guards and killed 3 in thier beds, Gregiore it looks like had enough time to draw his sword, but he too was found dead, somehow impaled through his guts on his own bedpost...... what is this thing?

Day 18

The Halls are dark now, the sun has been blocked by the clouds for over 2 weeks, and that thing has opened the front gates, zombies shuffle the hallways, some of our own dead shuffle the hallways now....

Day 20

Food didn't last as long as I thought it would we are on the last of it now. Tommorow we mount an assault to take back the keep... all 15 of us......

Day 21

We survived, all 15 of us crashed out of the dining hall into the hallways, the closed hallways worked to our advantage, we held them off with our polearms, and the quickest of us dodged in and went for the killing blow, we pushed them all into the Main hall, found the pitch, and burned them all.. the fires stilll roar.. and the stench... the stench is almost unbearable, worse then the plague houses. Lost only a couple of men, a little slow on the dodge they were, Quenlly was one of the Polearms when we went past a maids closet... maid was still in there.. undead, she dragged him in and ripped out his throat, we impaled her undead self too the wall with 3 spears, I can still hear its wailing. The other one Hasel accidentally fell into the main hall when he was pouring the pitch in... we cant take any chances, I lit it anyways.

Day 23

One of us finally had enough of the undead maids wailing and be-headed her. I think it was Neville... sadistic bastard impaled its head on a stick and placed it on Pierces bed. Was kind of funny actually.

Day 25

13 of us, all of us found her.. the lady of the castle.. and the thing, both one in the same it seems, at first we didn't know, 2 of the men went up to her and she ripped off one of their heads, and she thrust her other hand through the others chest.... then it was pretty obvious. 5 of the men charged her pole-arms extended  and hit her straight in the chest. They then lifted her off the ground onto the wall, she actually swiped off one of the blades and threw it at one of the men, the blade went through his helmet and he slumped to the ground dead. the other 4.. drew their swords and struck her with those, she grabbed one of them and ripped his throat out with her teeth, the other 3 backed up to us then, and she broke the pole-arms shafts, she was walking again.. bad. We ran for it. 8 of us made it back to the barricaded dining hall... what happened to the other one.. I don't know.


Day 26

We Ransacked the armoury today, all 8 of us are Armed and Armoured as best we can to fight this thing, found one of those flintlock pistols those pompous Imperial bastards have, think I'll bring it along.

Day 27

We found her again, by the time I got there 2 of us were down, Offut shield didn't even slow her, she went straight through it and ripped his heart out, and Helmustch didn't even have an upper body anymore. The rest of us charged her again 3 in the front, 3 from behind we thought we had her, but then she jumped onto the ceiling and was crawling on it upside down, one of the men somehow caught her dress, she didn't like that, she came back down and flattened him against the wall, the impact was so hard his body pushed some of the stones out of the wall, the rest of us attacked and she backhanded 2 of the men unconscious, and slammed me against the wall with her other hand, one of the others actually stuck her with a sword, nothing happened, she looked at it, the guard, grabbed his neck and snapped it. I was still getting choked on the wall, and I had lost my sword... thats when I remembered the Pistol, I pulled it out, and before she had time, I put it under her chin and pulled the trigger.

I Dont know how she did it, but it wasn't a killing blow... now she had a hole under her left eye, then one of the men came slammed his Polearm into the left side of her head, and the other man slammed his into the other side. Still not dead, she released me and attacked one of the men who just craked her skull, I grabbed my sword and jumped her from behind, me and the other man slashed her from the back, while the first cowered behind his shield, until finally she fell... but she was  still alive.


Day 28

We.. the 5 of us left.. cut off her limbs and she still was alive, screaming at us, cursing us in some unintelligible language, we didn't care.. after all we had been through, she could curse us all she wanted, we would curse her in our own way, after she was limbless we through her body into a coffin and nailed it shut, we went out into the courtyard, dug the deepest ditch we could and through it in there.... I'm betting she was still cursing us.

Day 29

We Burnt the rest of the Keep down, now its just another ruin in the Border Princes, No one should find her for centuries. I hope. We now go report in Person to Lord Kittrick of the accurance and hope he judges us with mercy, and doesnt think us crazy.



                                                        - Warden Demosk Selentavi

 (Warden Demosk was granted pardon by Lord Kittrick and for his endeavours was placed into Lord Kittricks own Household as Head Warden. Sir Williamsons lands were raised, and over the top of the Vampires burial ground a Very Very heavy memorial was placed. )