Of Bloodlines

Season 02 - Episode 02.

Alaric procures a sample of vampiric blood and studies its strange properties.

Credits:

Alaric - George Ledoux
Ghoul - Matthew Curtis

Website: http://DeadhausSonata.com

Discord: https://discord.gg/XjUXa4v

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/DeadhausGame

Created by Apocalypse Studios

 

 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Twenty-third of Parat, in the year 218 after Deadhaus
In the war against Deadhaus, I’ve been driven to many deeds for which I have no pride.
I’ve abandoned men under my command to their deaths. I have willfully violated imperial edict
through my study of undead specimens. I have lied to conceal my secret purposes. And now,

(00:26):
worst of all, I am directly responsible for the death of another human being. The ghoul was merely
the instrument… it was my hand that wielded it. In warring against the damned, I have damned myself,
but I will gladly bear damnation if it means the survival of the empire.

(00:48):
If not for Thacea, my life would have ended like so many others long ago.
After the fall of the Old Empire, not all survivors flocked to the Thacean banner.
Many cities declared independence, but they soon realized how outmatched
they were by Thacea and so resorted to alliance. It took some decades to bring

(01:14):
the Confederation of Free Cities to heel--many men and resources wasted. The Fools' War, so it’s
called in Thacean history. The War of the Yoke, my father called it. Beller was a free city then,
a fisherman’s city that sat in the shadow of Sigstrand. We filled their larders,

(01:36):
and they promised protection from the dead, all without the burden of Thacean taxes.
Beller never saw the Fool’s War directly. It was always a faraway story, the greedy men who carried
the phoenix banner, who demanded we bow to a false emperor. We had few soldiers to commit to the

(01:57):
resistance, but our fish fed many that Sigstrand sent. I was 11 when I first saw the undead.
A drowned man washed ashore as I was fishing with some other boys. We gathered round,
never having seen such a thing. One of us thought to check its pockets for valuables.

(02:20):
The corpse lurched up and snatched him. I can still hear his screams as it chewed his face.
We ran. What else could we do? We told everyone.
Men came with spears and torches. The dead thing was destroyed, but it was only the first to come.
Others washed ashore in the coming weeks, few at first, then steadily more.

(02:45):
Fisherman feared to near the waters. Word was sent to Sigstrand, but no help came.
We resisted as best we could, but we weren’t soldiers. My father came home with a bite
wound one day. I helped change the bandages, but the wound didn’t heal. He soon grew sick.

(03:07):
The few doctors in Beller were overburdened with so many wounded. They could not help us.
I could still fish at least, still bring home food. That alone brought me solace.
The day before my father died, he was in a deep fever. He told me to stay away from him,

(03:29):
that I should not come near him ever again. He did not lie dead for long.
I remember watching from the cupboard as he shambled through the house, fumbling, knocking
things over, as if searching in a drunken haze. I have no doubt that he was searching for me.

(03:50):
I thought that I would die then. I remembered what the other corpse had done to my friend. But the
door flew open and I saw a man in armor. Sigstrand had finally answered the call, or so I thought,
until I saw his helmet adorned with a phoenix. He struck my father down with a silver blade.

(04:12):
This was a Thacean, one of those I’d been taught to hate since I could understand the word, but
they had come when Sigstrand had not. I broke out of the cupboard then, threw myself upon his mercy.
And what did I discover but the lie that I’d been told for so many years.

(04:33):
The Thaceans were not our subjugators. They were our protectors, the protectors of all mankind.
My savior was a young legionnaire by the name of Andor Rostad. He took me under his wing as a page,
and it became my intention to enlist with the legion as soon as I was of age. Though

(04:57):
little more than the ignorant son of a fisherman, I took an uncanny quickness to learning.
Within a year’s time, I was reading and writing. My knack for education did not go unnoticed,
and Rostad arranged that I should be sent to apprentice under an alchemist,
much to my dismay. I wanted to protect mankind from the dead, not dawdle about with potions,

(05:24):
I told him, but he assured me that knowledge would be the key to winning the war,
and that I could do more good for the empire through alchemy than a hundred men with swords.
I rose quickly in my studies, becoming an alchemist in my own right at 17,
but it never satisfied me. I wanted a more direct role in the war, but the legions would

(05:50):
not have me. The centurions insisted that my talents were put to better use elsewhere.
I wrote many letters speaking of my abilities and determination in an attempt to persuade them.
When I finally received a reply, the letter was marked with the seal of an open hand
with an eye on its palm, the sign of the inquisitors. They had intercepted

(06:17):
my correspondence and offered me the direct role in the war I was looking for. It wasn’t combat,
but it was a chance to put my abilities to use in dismantling Deadhaus. Once more,
I rose quickly in my studies. I found that few inquisitors were as learned as myself in alchemy.

(06:39):
It gave me an advantage. It took me nearly 30 years, but through my learning and efforts,
I came to head the very order that recruited me so long ago. I have added to the collective
knowledge of the inquisitors through my many studies and reshaped the order
such that alchemy is required of every inquisitor. It is, after all, the key to dismantling the dead.

(07:08):
I say this now after three days' work in examining a very promising find, a vial of vampire’s blood.
This particular specimen I did not acquire myself. There are other inquisitors at my command,
after all, and I’m not the only one pursuing knowledge of the dead.
Most of us are set to this purpose, to the degree we can pursue it under such restrictions.

(07:34):
No whole specimens, animated or otherwise, may be studied, because they are simply too dangerous.
Even with every precaution taken, even if it seems they are truly dead,
they are unpredictable. It has cost me much in underestimating them.
But recently, an inquisitor was traveling with an Ashen Templar in pursuit of a vampire.

(08:00):
They uncovered its lair and waited for dawn to strike. I had attempted something similar some
months ago, but was unsuccessful. It was my intention then to acquire a sample of blood,
but when it became clear that was impossible, I tried to burn the creature. I wrote of the ensuing

(08:20):
disaster that cost the lives of many knights. But where I failed, the other inquisitor succeeded,
or rather, the templar did. He subdued the vampire long enough for the inquisitor to
extract a sample of blood. If only those of the Ashen Ring weren’t so few in number.

(08:42):
Vampire’s blood appears no different than human blood to the naked eye.
The only noticeable contrast was that, even after traveling a day to reach me, it had not blackened
or clotted as a human’s would, but sloshed about its vessel, bright red. Disturbingly, the sample
was reported to be a full vial, yet when I received it, only half the substance remained.

(09:09):
At first, I suspected some sort of treachery and set to filing a report on the incident. But after
I had written and sealed my letter, I noticed that there was even less blood in the vial.
I set it down and watched it for half an hour, and sure enough, the blood appeared to shrink,

(09:30):
even though the vial was plugged. I extracted a single drop and placed it under a magnifying lens,
but as I attempted to examine it, the droplet shrank in on itself and disappeared.
It was as if the blood had a will to evade being studied. There was a time I would

(09:52):
have considered such a thing nonsense, but now I dared not rule anything impossible.
“Alaric von Beller is losing his blood,”
the ghoul spoke from its cage, reminding me of its existence.
“What do you know of it?” I asked, still fixated on the blood.

(10:14):
“Bring it to us, and we shall see.” I retrieved the vial and approached the edge of the cage.
“Closer,” the ghoul beckoned. I stepped as close as I knew I could.
Its claws snapped around the bars and it pulled its face between them.

(10:41):
When last I wrote of the ghoul, it had no claws, because it had no limbs, neither arms nor legs,
but in just over a month’s time it managed to regrow all of them. It must consume flesh
in order to regrow its own, however. I’ve tried mixing various poisons, acids, and foul

(11:03):
substances with the flesh I feed it, but the ghoul has yet to be dissuaded from consuming anything,
and merely comments on the “seasoning” of its meals with remarkable accuracy.
Still, there’s been little trouble from the creature since its escape
and recapture. Sometimes I almost forget that it’s there, caged in the corner of my laboratory,

(11:28):
but I have no doubt of the treachery that turns within its rotted mind. “Take off the cap,”
it requested, and so I did. The ghoul pressed its face as close as it could to the bars,
sniffed deeply through its nasal slits, and rattled in its throat. “Vampire.”

(11:50):
“How do you know this?”
“We can smell it. Old curse. Three pieces.”
I had learned by now the futility of pressing the ghoul on its cryptic answers, but of its olfactory
prowess there was no doubt. In the weeks since its recapture, it has often commented on my work with

(12:11):
remarkable accuracy, which it always attributes to smell. Though ghouls may lack eyesight,
they are far from blind. I suspect it even smelled the traps we laid for it in the graveyard,
discerned them from the scent of the leaves concealing them.
“None of that is useful enough to warrant any meat,”

(12:33):
I said, returning to my table while the ghoul hissed in its cage.
I then set to work as quickly as I could with what little remained of the ever-diminishing substance.
Placing a drop of the blood on a silver plate produced a violent but unsurprising result. It
was much like throwing water on a hot skillet. The blood hissed and evaporated in an instant.

(12:59):
Much more surprising, however, was that even inside the vial, if the blood came near silver,
it began to boil. I dared not experiment with this further, lest I destroy the entire sample.
Few other materials produced a reaction in the blood. Lead, gold, iron, the drops placed

(13:22):
upon them were unchanged, and so were returned quickly to the vial before they could disappear.
I suppose these substances might cause a reaction over a longer period, but it would be impossible
to test that before the drops vanished. Only the glass of the vial remained in contact with the

(13:42):
blood for any significant duration. Or maybe the blood was reacting to each of these substances;
maybe that’s why it was disappearing. Even the components of the undead confound me.
I tested many herbs and poisons against the blood.
There were no reactions. Where human blood would have curdled in the presence of venom,

(14:07):
vampiric blood remained unaffected. It simply shrank in on itself as it always did.
In all my tests, only two other substances caused any noticeable change. When placing a drop of
blood into a bowl of water, both liquids appeared to rapidly heat, becoming steam instantaneously.

(14:30):
But why? The dead that washed up in Beller were unaffected by water. Could this perhaps be an
undiscovered weakness specific to vampires? Come to think of it, I don’t recall ever seeing,
hearing, or reading about vampires exposed to water… perhaps they avoid it? I was able to

(14:55):
bring the vial near water without causing harm to the blood inside the way silver did. Even
submerging it left the blood unaffected, so long as it remained encased in glass.
The other substance that affected the blood was salt. Once more, the reaction was violent,

(15:16):
like a pinch of gunpowder sparked off when the droplet touched it. This time, bringing the
vial close to the offending substance caused the blood within to move away. Fascinatingly,
drops of blood placed on a surface would roll away from grains of salt placed near them,
like two heads or tails of a magnet that repel each other. If every path by which the droplet

(15:43):
attempted to escape was blocked by salt, then the blood would boil away. So, it seems that water,
silver, and salt are poison to vampires. But why can the blood be brought near water, but not salt?
Why does silver boil it instantly, but salt repels it first?

(16:06):
I simply lacked enough of the substance to test these bizarre reactions further. Less than a
quarter of what I started with remained after my initial tests. I had to make the most of it,
which was unfortunate, considering that the next experiment was to expose it to sunlight.
The reaction was subtle, but unmistakable; the gradually diminishing nature of the

(16:31):
blood accelerated. I snatched it from the light as soon as I noticed this.
Torchlight, regardless of intensity or proximity, seemed to make no difference in the rate of loss,
but neither did total darkness. Only the presence or lack of sunlight had any measurable effect.
My next test was to place a drop of blood on dead tissue. No reaction, neither with a moth, a rat,

(16:59):
or a cadaver. The blood simply shrank away. Similarly, no effect was produced
when dropping the blood onto live specimens. Very little remained in the vial at that point.
“What effect might this blood have if placed on you, ghoul?”
“On? Unchanged.”

(17:21):
“And if you were to consume it?”
“Perhaps a test would tell.”
“You don’t know?”
“Vampires do not allow us to taste them.”
I sighed and looked at the pitiful quantity that remained. “Why does it diminish?”

(17:43):
“A punishment.”
“I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of asking what that means.” If I didn’t know better,
I would have thought the ghoul grinned at that. “Is there nothing I can do to prevent this?”
“Only as vampires do.”
“How… do you mean to say it diminishes while inside them?” At once,

(18:09):
the realization dawned on me, and I rushed with the blood to another table.
Using a needle, I drew some of my own blood
and left a drop on the table, then added a small drop of the vampire’s.
When the vampiric blood touched mine, the two droplets violently converged, and the resulting

(18:32):
drop remained on the table for much longer than before. Had my blood nullified the vampire’s?
I placed a grain of salt near the droplet, and it rolled away, it was fully vampiric. Eventually,
it faded, but I now knew the truth. I squeezed a drop from my syringe into the diminished vial.

(18:56):
The vampire’s blood visibly pulsated as mine mixed with it, but was otherwise unchanged.
When I brought the syringe near the vial, the vampire’s blood stretched closer to my own,
as if attempting to merge with it through the glass. Seeing how little was left, and

(19:17):
realizing that it would soon be gone, I emptied the full volume of my syringe into the vial.
The crimson mixture roiled and brightened for a moment, then fell still. I brought the vial near
the salt, and the entire volume of blood leapt to the furthest end. It was completely vampiric.

(19:42):
It is known that vampires feed on the blood of mortals, but these experiments show that,
in the absence of mortal blood, a vampire’s blood will consume itself.
This is why it appeared to constantly diminish. It wasn’t being fed. I can only imagine what an
existence full of this substance must be like… a sensation of constant disintegration, punctuated

(20:10):
by brief moments of elation upon feeding. But there was a deeper realization in this discovery.
If I could feed the blood in the vial, I could replenish it. Given enough mortal blood,
I could theoretically produce larger quantities of vampiric blood over time.

(20:31):
And it seems that the nature of the vampire is the nature of their blood. Much can be
learned of our adversaries in this way, and most encouraging is the fact that it is technically
not a violation of imperial law. Still, there is no need to report my findings just yet.

(20:53):
I will keep this vial hidden in my laboratory,
surrounded by a ring of salt. I refuse to underestimate the dead again, even just a
tiny piece of them. I will feed the blood with my own until I can requisition the appropriate
livestock for a more permanent supply. The more I intend to produce, the more fuel I will require.

(21:18):
And that’s nothing to say of whatever limitations there are on this conversion. Rostad was correct,
though I was too young to see it when he told me. Knowledge is the key to victory against Deadhaus,
and there is no price for this knowledge too high that I shall not pay it.

(21:39):
-Alaric von Beller, Grand Inquisitor of the Thacean Empire