Day 9: The Crystal in the bell tower

So, as we were leaving the small village, we heard a tolling of a bell. Thinking little of it we continued on our way talking as we did so, or at least that's what we thought. The toll had put us into some sort of trance. Luckily the one who came to extinguish our lives took an interest in me and thus spared us. The man called himself "V" at first, but eventually confided in me his name was Rue. He told me that he had been conducting experiments that did get a bit out of hand and that normally he would have killed us before continuing, but this time he wanted to strike a deal. He saw that I wasn't a full vampire, that the sun didn't affect me as much as it did him and his other brethren. In exchange for letting him run tests on me he would aid us in shutting down the experiment, move on with his life, and owe me a favor. He was an interesting fellow, he had very flippant mannerisms for one so old. We talked for a bit about his involvement with the "submitted" and what had happened. As I understand it, he had his own goal which he used the submitted to further. In fact, he seemed to be wary of them now. He told me that something big is coming and that we should be careful. I accepted his deal, I asked for two favors in return, however. One was the man's friendship. I think that threw him a bit but undoubtedly will be way better in the end than anything else I could have asked for. Second was to spare Kino in the event anything happened between us, he agreed to not take out any anger that we may accrued on her and even give her 300 years of revenge attempts if I was to be killed. Overall, a major win, I thought about telling Hendrik and Estall, but Estall is rather blood thirsty and Hendrik naive, so I chose to go with half of the truth. Claiming that V was a researcher who had his research stolen from him.
 
After a quick conversation with my party, much quicker than I thought it would be we just entered the tower. I must say I am really surprised that nobody asked any questions. All the better for the lie I suppose but it does make me worry for their safety. Anyway, we climbed the decrepit tower killing zombies, and kobold vampiric things along the way. It was all very simple and by the numbers. I did have two intense bouts of annoyance as Rue decided to watch our ascent and was caught by Estall's religious eye, and later when new and ornate jars of vampire blood were placed so that we could use it to defeat the vampire spawn at the top of the tower. Again, my party seemed wholly uninterested in these events and simply moved on with their lives. The blood collection was a bit annoying as it seems as though people listen to Estall more than they listen to me. I'm not opposed to him being the leader, but you would think the man who could read the language and drinks blood would be the primary authority when blood, or strange languages, or magic pop up. One day that may bite them in the ass as I do love to tell people I told you so. The vampire spawn was no match for us now, if she was to begin with, and Estall managed to destroy the crystal easily enough though it did destroy the tower in the process.
 
We left the tower and looted the village. We found out the girl(June) that Cal rescued has a sister(May) in Asora, or at least that is where she was last. Unfortunately, the only paintings or pictures in the home were child drawings so I have yet been unable to contact the sister. It seems like Cal will be taking care of her though. I must say I'm not sure about him. He probably is a decent fellow, I trust him with the child, but he seems like someone who will become a thorn in my side one day. He and Rue have some sort of history, bad history, but he was tactful enough not to out me when I told my version of events to Estall and Hendrik.
 
As we were travelling Hendrik smelled werewolves and you know how he is with werewolves. I may need to speak to him about his hatred though as he seems to really like to downplay their strength because he thinks they are mindless beasts. The fight we got into was actually fairly easy, but the leader wasn't able to join due to Hendriks strange blood magic. I don't think it would have gone as smoothly if he had been entered into the mix. Only the girls have magic weapons, and my magic is more of an annoyance as I am now so fighting werewolves is a slog. Luckily Hendrik has silver daggers, but he seems overly protective of them. He should just give them to Estall since he doesn't use them anyway but whatever.
 
Our protracted fight was entertaining though. I like that tall lady who is travelling with us. She seemed tense at first but now she seems to mix well with us. Always has a joke on her lips and a laugh in her heart, she even seems interested in my brand of magic. I doubt she could do it, but if she is truly interested, I would show her. Estall has chosen well. I'm still not sure about the other one. She tried to joke with me a few times now, but they were weak attempts as if she was afraid of me, or us. She also doesn't mix as well. I suppose it doesn't matter really, I have more important things to worry about and they are already spoken for.
 
Listen brother if your experience has been anything like mine, we are probably embroiled in dozens of plots and conspiracies at this point. I hope your keeping a log of them because its already starting to become sloppy on my end. I'll find you.