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Van Richten's Monster Hunter's.pdf - Askadesign.com

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L<br />

indiscernible from the ornate architecture<br />

which graces many castles, so<br />

they may be<strong>com</strong>e a sudden and terrible<br />

hindrance to vampire hunters who<br />

thought they had caught their quarry<br />

alone. Gargoyles are so malicious that<br />

a vampire need only summon them<br />

and they will do the rest, without need<br />

of instruction. They seem to sense<br />

goodness and delight in torturing it.<br />

I have also mentioned previously the<br />

ability of the vampire to charm the<br />

unsuspecting. A simple look into the<br />

eyes of the creature and an<br />

unfortunate hunter be<strong>com</strong>es the<br />

vampire’s ally or willing victim. Yet an<br />

even more frightening prospect is that<br />

of a vampire who can charm you even<br />

while it is in gaseous form! There are a<br />

few of those, by report, who have<br />

charmed their pursuers when they<br />

believed it to be helpless and on the<br />

run. As the vampire swirled into airy<br />

mist, it twirled in hypnotic patterns and<br />

left the hunting party dumbfounded,<br />

glassy-eyed, and altogether helpless.<br />

No matter that it was near death; it<br />

convinced its new devotees to follow it<br />

off a cliff and was rid of the danger.<br />

Another specific vampire who is<br />

particularly dangerous while in<br />

gaseous form is the one whose lifedraining<br />

ability remains intact in that<br />

form. I have seen a young warrior cry<br />

in triumph upon dealing the blow to<br />

the vampire that dissolved it into mist,<br />

only to find himself immersed in that<br />

mist, swooning and dying before my<br />

eyes. He suffered no pain, no injuryonly<br />

a look of dizziness and then<br />

death.<br />

Experienced vampire hunters have<br />

witnessed their prey taking gaseous<br />

form while attempting to escape or<br />

when severely injured, but few have<br />

seen the creature simply step through<br />

a nearby wall while in solid form. Yet,<br />

as I have once seen, there is a unique<br />

vampire or two who can do just that.<br />

Unlike the wizard spell passwall,<br />

which, as I understand it, requires the<br />

presence of even the tiniest fissure in<br />

(3

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