Here it is, lets see how well I've done keeping up

[Guest]

Where to begin? Ok, several years ago a lot of us were members of The Society of the Blood Rose. Well, while there, Venis and Tasha were kidnapped while Christmas shopping for their families. They were taken away to a castle where the ancestor of Venis’ sire demanded she help him. See, Venis was born a witch; she was turned into a vampire at age 21. A short time later, she joined her sire in forming an Army of Vampires. For the next hundred years they rained terror down upon the lands. They attacked all villages big and small along their way. There was raping and pillaging and entire villages set ablaze, not to mention the number of lives lost to feed the army. After about a hundred years Venis asked her sire if he was bored yet and ready to go home. He informed her that he had set a goal … to eliminate the entire human race. Heh, no one ever said he was the sharpest tool in the shed.

Well, Venis knew that the repercussions of such a thing would be astronomical. But her sire was a direct descendant from the first … the original vampire. The ruling body over all vampires was The Vampire Council. Well The Council couldn’t touch him because of who he was. So there was no way to stop him. But Venis knew that to end the human race would end the vampire race as well. Because without humans how would vampires survive.

So she went to the council, they couldn’t do anything, she couldn’t kill him without dying herself. So she underwent a trial of 100 battles and was deemed worthy of becoming a God. This made her omnipotent and able to defeat her sire without it causing her, or any that she herself had turned, any harm. She was deemed the Goddess of Protection because she went through all of this to protect the humans and the vampires from extinction. When she defeated him she burst into flames. They figured that it was going to happen every time she is under tremendous stress or her emotions got the best of her. And it does.

So as The Vampire Goddess of Fire and Protection she joined the Society of the Blood Rose. The first person she met there was Gawain Cauthon, her little furball and one of her best friends. Later, a werepanther from a pack that she used to belong to through marriage, found her at The Society. She took Tasha in and took her under her wing. She helped her overcome the trauma of her past. She also met her husband at The Society. The Vampire council told her that they were in need of a new God of Death. She had chose Gawain at first, but shortly after she met her husband, Gawain gave up his Godhood. So again they needed a new God of Death. She chose her husband. For both she had to undergo the same ritual that she had undergone for herself because she was the one who had chosen them. Her Husband, Kahn Jordianthan, is the God of Death and Ice. While she was away from Rhy’Din he was turned and is now a vampire as well.

That brings us to the here and now, Venis and Tasha had been kidnapped by the ancestor of Venis’ sire. They were held captive for many years and tortured in an attempt to get Venis to do his bidding. Seleen was Venis’ Lt. of her army. She was at the castle where they were being held. She was placed in charge of caring for Venis while she was being held in a comatose state. Venis was incased in a glass coffin that floated upon a pool of holy water in a room where the walls were completely wallpapered with holy relics and items blessed by a catholic priest. She was fed through an IV drip. Every few months she was brought out and asked if she was ready to do what was asked of her. Every time she refused, they tortured her. One torture was the pouring of holy water down the entire left side of her body. Now as a God this cannot kill her, but because she is vampire it left her scared from head to toe. After about a year or so they realized that torturing her was getting them nowhere. So they began to torture Tasha. She wouldn’t let Venis give in. Tasha’s room was wallpapered with sterling silver spikes keeping her from trying to get out. They used silver blades and spikes and piercings to torture her. They had no idea that Seleen kept periodically upping Venis’ IV drip.

Venis began contacting her husband through a mental link hoping that he would never give up hope of her being alive. They were going to try and gather Venis and Tasha’s friends together to retrieve them from their captives, but ‘the best laid plans …’ and all. Venis stopped contacting her husband for a long time, building up her strength. Then the next time they brought her out to try and get her to do as they wished she was more powerful than they anticipated. She burst into flames and began to burn down the castle around her. Most of the occupants being vampires they fled. Her captor stuck around to fight it out with her. She battled against him and brought him as close to death as she could. Then Venis, Tasha, and Seleen escaped.

Venis sent Seleen ahead because of how weak she was after the battle. Venis and Tasha waited for Seleen to send back a coach and some other things to get them and take them back to Rhy’Din. So that is what Seleen did. First thing she did was go to Venis’ castle and keep where she kept a coach and horses. She had them sent to retrieve Venis and Tasha. Then she went to the house that Venis shares with her husband. She knew from first glance that it was not what they were looking for. Venis wanted some place quiet and tucked away where they could recuperate before returning to their loved ones.

So Seleen traveled back to the Keep and found it to be uninhabitable. But between the house and the keep is a town called New Haven. They were opening a new Inn there. Seleen thought it would be perfect. So she again returned to the house to get some money to pay for the rooms in the Inn. When she returned to the Inn she found Gawain Cauthon there to check in as well. She thought she would be in trouble for him being there. She didn’t know him personally, having never even been to Rhy’Din, but Venis had constantly told her stories whenever she had a chance to. And a lot of the stories included her best friend Gawain.

So Seleen offered to pay for his tab and sat down to visit with him at the bar. She wanted him to know what she was up to without coming right out and telling him. While she was sitting there a lot of things started happening. Kahn came home and discovered that she had been to the house and had taken the money. He set out for the keep, it was some land willed to her by a fallen paladin who had fallen in love with her and tried to betray his wife with her, and stopped at the Inn to rest the horses along the way. That was when he found his wife and decided that as long as she was at the Inn he would be too.

Venis, sharing an Alpha Bond with both her husband and her best friend, knew that Gawain was there when they arrived. Hence the slight quivering of the coach. But when her husband arrived and touched the coach it truly began to shake. Venis was shaking because of her loved ones being so close. It was more power than she was physically able to handle.

So her head employee Manny was trying to find out from Seleen where he was supposed to unload everything to when Kahn showed up at the Inn. So Kahn went in and got some rooms for himself and his men. Seleen had gotten a room in the cellar for her, Venis and Tasha. Manny and his men were supposed to be taking shifts guarding the Inn, but right now Kahn’s Rangers are on that task. Manny and his men are unloading the cargo from the coach. Seleen, Kahn, and Epiphany, an employee of the Inn, are tending to an Injured Centaur.

There is a woman who has just arrived at the Inn on a unicorn, Angel. Vesta went out to warn her of the chaos inside. There was a man who came to the Inn in a suit of armor who is sitting at the bar drinking an ale, that would be Alirus, no one has talked to him yet. There’s a man walking in the garden with De’Ryanna, that would be Elisha. One man at the bar has sat down to a plate of pancakes, he's Leo. A woman named Madeline arrived at the Inn while Seleen was over talking to Gawain and asked for a job. She began helping immediately and the man, Daviticus, was making her a little uneasy while he was cleaning his blades at the bar so Seleen made point of showing her fangs so he would know to not start any trouble. Leo told him to see a healer. Before even Seleen arrived a woman named Vesta had arrived and while she was outside looking to catch a bus she met the centaur, Nephalei, who is now injured. Her injury happened when a little boy lost control of his cart. Azline is running away from everything, Armandeus is taking care of her after he was relaxing. He had also been the one to help Leo and make him his blueberry pancakes. Inion arived to the Inn as well and she was discussing a room with Elessar at the front desk. Steffen was traveling for a month before he came to the Inn and was Epiphany's first customer. Epiphany also found time to bake Armondeus a birthday cake. De'Ryanna and Gawain will be conversing in his room later, after he leaves the bar and she gets back from the garden walk of course. And Armondeus has discovered television.

So that makes, four men at the bar, one woman working behind it, one man in the garden with an employee, another employee over tending to an injured guest with the God of Death and Ice and the Lt. of a vampire army. Two women just ariving to get rooms, one is at the desk, the other just getting there. One woman who has already gone to her room, I think. Another man who has already gone to his room, again, I think. One woman informing another that there is much chaos inside the Inn. Nine employees of the Gods unloading the cargo of one coach, six employees of the Gods guarding the entrances and exits of the Inn and sitting up on the roof. There’s a wolf, a white tiger, a panther, and a housecat on the premises as well. And The Goddess and her best friend are in the coffins in the coach, but that is the part that no one is supposed to know.

[Guest]

((Warning: It's a long read ya'll, but here's the whole story as to why they are here and not at home.))

"Give me just a moment please." She grabbed up the clothes she had pulled from her garment bag and dissapeared behind some wine racks to change. She emerged wearing a flowing black dress with short sleves and a full skirt. Her boots having been exchanged for suede pumps. She sat back down and crossed her right leg over her left.

She took a long swallow from her wine glass and refilled it. Then she began. "To address all the questions I'm going to have to start from just before the abduction. Vlad had sent me and his granddaughter Szuszanna ((Yes, spelling correct)) out on patrol. We had been wandering for a couple of days when we were attacked. I was unable to protect her ... she perished. I took her ashes back to the castle, and Vlad lost his temper."

She set her glass down and rose from her seat. She pulled the dress down in the back to show the still healing scars from being whipped by a whip that had been soaked in holy water. Then she sat back down.

"It took him a few days to track you down Venis. None of us knew where you were. His intel for Rhy'Din was very limited. But he managed to track you down. That was when he sent those idiot men to abduct you. They were supposed to grab one of your loved ones too. It was to be whomever you were with. Luckily for us it wasn't you Kahn. He would have had a field day having a God of Death present to do his will.

When those idiots got back with Venis and Tasha Vlad emediately told Venis that he wanted her to go into heaven or hell and retrieve his granddaughters soul. He wanted her put back into the pile of ashes that had been her body. Venis of course refused, and was beaten for her efforts. You killed what, seven of his human servants that day? Either way, he ordered that the two of them be locked up.

He had made Venis' room special. There were so many holy relics in the room, and blessed crosses, no mere vampire could survive in there. Venis was simply getting drained of energy. There was no way she could escape from that room. Not even if she left her body. He limited her food intake to one glass of bloodwine a day.

Tasha's room had been prepared for her while they were being brought from Rhy'Din. The walls were lined with sterling silver spikes and just under the top layer of the floor was some sterling silver plates. It was like a sub-floor. It was intended to keep her from digging out.

Tasha was getting fed twice a day. He wasn't trying to weaken her, he wanted her strong in case he needed her. Once a week he brought Venis out of her room and gave her a bottles worth of bloodwine. Then he would ask her if she was going to retrieve his granddaugter yet. Venis kept saying that her soul was in Limbo and she couldn't go there to get it.

She blamed Vlad for the Limbo because she had been an innocent child when he violated her and then turned her into a vampire. So she had still been considered pure at her time of death. But since she had come back as a vampire she had commited so many attrocities, and even being a vampire was bad. So it had not been deceided if she was to go to heaven or hell.

Venis kept stalling and kept stalling. Each time she wouldn't get the soul she was punnished. The first was the getting locked away and not getting fed. Then there was the getting put into a walk in freezer. He left her in there for over three months. She hadn't enough energy to create fire to stay warm. Another punishment was getting sliced with the blade of a holy sword from a Paladin. But the worst punishment was the pouring of holy water down the entire left side of her body. She was severly scared from head to toe. Even her hair looks fried"

She looked up and saw Venis lower her head for a moment. "But she remained strong through it all. It was a little over a year before they started torturing Tasha. Vlad hoped that Venis would see her friend getting tortured and give in. He thought that if the sight and sound of it wasn't enough, that the getting sick from her being in pain would do it.

Tasha would never let Venis give in. They started torturing her with silver plated jewelry. They would pierce her ears or her belly button, other places. Then they moved to sterling silver, piercing her flesh with it. After a few more years of torture, they figured they had to up the stakes. They would put Tasha in a cage and poke at her with sticks until she shifted.

Once they had her in panther form they would use silver plated sticks to poke at her. Venis would litteraly throw up from the pain, she even passed out a few times. But they just wouldn't give in. They threw Tasha into a pit a couple of times with some very large werewolves. She always came out pretty banged up. When that still wasn't working they started getting her to shift and then having rather large beings, I'm not sure what they were, hold her and sqeeze her to halt her shifting. She would get half-shifted and get stuck that way for days.

They gave up for a while, wanting to let Tasha recouperate, because it wouldn't do to kill her. They stopped Venis' feedings all together. She slipped into a comatose like state. She was placed in a glass coffin and it was set afloat in a pool of holy water. She was fed through a very slow introvenious drip of pigs blood.

I started upping her doseage slowly whenever I had a chance. She was still being brought out and asked to retrieve the soul periodicly. She still refused, but was too weak to fight. After a while she was able to form a mantal link with Kahn. She visited him a few times that I know of. She would always look a little more pale afterwards.

So I kept upping her IV drip little bits at a time. I think she stopped contacting Kahn after a while, I guess to save up her strength. She would always pretend to be just as weak as before when she was brought out.

But one night, Vlad called for her, and they already had Tasha out as well. She was still weak herself. They forced her to shift again, and stopped her shift partialy through. But she struggled even harder to fully shift this time. It always caused her pain to get stuck in the middle.

That was when we heard her bones. They weren't just cracking and reforming, they were breaking. And the sound of her muscles tearing, it was so unbareable. It wasn't the normal sounds of a lycanthrope shifting, it was the sounds of someone getting crushed alive. That was when Venis lost it.

She burst into flames and began to throw streams of fire across the room. She burnt those who were crushing Tasha and when they let her go she ran at Vlad with all her might. Only to be met with the back of his hand knocking her across the room. Venis set the dinning table on fire that he had been sitting at. He jumped up rapidly and backed away. He appeared to be trying to find a way to flee the room.

Several vampires and other beasts and beings were trying to get into the room. They would either meet with an attack from Tasha or fire from Venis. I, of course, had to back up my sire. I carried two guns on me at the time. One with silver bullets and one with wood chips mixed with a radioactive material that absorbed UV rays. So I just started shooting.

Venis ran two lines of fire across the floor and up the wall on either side of Vlad. She intended to stop him from fleeing. Most of the beings who were attacking us fled the building. Everything that would burn was burning in nearly the entire castle at that point.

Venis got in Vlad's face and told him in no uncertain terms to leave her and her loved ones alone. I ran to my rooms and grabbed up all the clothes I could. I went into their rooms and grabbed up the diaries they had been keeping. Then we headed into the basement. Venis and I had a coffin each stored down there from when we were waging war on humanity. She and I grabbed them up and we fled the castle.

By the time we had gotten out into the garden, fire had overtaken the castle. I'm pretty sure Vlad survived the fire. But all the exertion of the fighting and then carrying the coffins out had taken it's tole. Tasha passed out and fell to the ground. Venis' fire extinguished and she too fell to the ground.

Venis told me where I could find a portal that would bring me here, to Rhy'Din. She told me to first go to her house and see if Kahn was still living there. If he was I was to go to her keep and see if it was inhabitable. If not, I was to find somewhere safe for them to heal and recouperate.

Well, I did as I was told. I went to the house, Kahn was obviously still living there. So I headed to the keep. I passed through New Haven on my way. When I got to the keep I saw that there were only some employees living there with their families. I sent the nine who are here with us back through the prortals to get Venis and Tasha. I packed them some bags with clothings and such to go with them on the coach. I threw in some other things that I thought would come in handy. Leviathan and Midnight were there as well, so I had them go on the coach too.

Meanwhile, I needed to find a place for us to stay that was a little better equiped to handle their recouperation. I remembered seeing the signs for this Inn when I had passed through New Haven. I thought it would work, but I needed money to take care of the tab.

Not knowing what type of currency I would need, or how much, I checked the treasury in the castle of the keep. I got some different currency's there. I didn't really pay attention to how much of each, I just grabbed up some. But there were other currencies I didn't find, so I returned to the house. The guards let me pass and enter into the house with not a word, probably because of the crest upon my cloak.

I went inside and the animals all seemed very happy to see me. I went into the vault and took some gold and some other moneys that I hadn't found at the keep. I left a parchment with Venis' crest upon it for Kahn to find so he wouldn't think he was robbed.

I returned here to New Haven and came to this Inn to get us some rooms. I requested the darkest possable rooms with an option to upgrade. Lady De'Ryanna had it set up for us to be put down here until you are both well enough to move about. Then we have three rooms on the top floor with Kahn's rooms.

When I got here there was a man also checking in. It took me a moment to realize who it was having never met him before. It was Lord Gawian. He and I sat down at the bar while I awaited the coach. We talked about his life and the parts of it that he had seemed to forget, until he fell asleep. Then he went to his room.

When the coach arived, Manny came in looking for me and met Lady Epiphany. She inspected the cargo in the coach and then was going to help him find me. But before they found me, Kahn and his party arived. So while Manny went back outside to deal with Kahn, Lady Epiphany came and found me.

When I got up to go outside I saw some of the men bringing in a cantaur named Lady Nephalei. She was accompanied by a human named Lady Vesta. While we were tending to Lady Nephalei, Vesta went outside to meet a woman who rode up on a unicorn.

Kahn has posted two guards at the front door, two at the back door, and two upon the roof. We finished helping Lady Nephale and then we got the coach unloaded. I offered to pay for a couple of nights stay for Lady Nephalei and Lady Vesta, they seemed a little out of sorts and I thought we should do what we could to help. I also picked up the tab for Lord Gawain."

She got the paper that Andrew had been writting things down on and read it over. "At current count we have the following beings accounted for within the Inn. Lady Epiphany, Lady De'Ryanna, Lady Madeline, Lord Elessar, and Lord Armandeus are the employees of the Inn. Lady Epiphany is here with us of course. Lady Madeline is upstairs tending bar and checking other guests in. Lady De'Ryanna is in Lord Gawains room. Lord Elessar is speaking with a guest. And Lord Armandeus is fixing breakfast.

Amungst the guests we have the following. There is your nine employees, and six Rangers. Then there is the four of us. There's Lady Angel, female vampire here with us. Lady Vesta is a human female, and she's bouncing around upstairs talking to everyone possable. Lady Nephalei is at the bar, she is a centaur. Lord Tarinilis is a half-elf male, he's at the bar. Lord Leo is also at the bar, he's human we think. Lord Aiden alsoappears to be human, he's checking in. Lady Amaya is at the bar, she has just checked in, she also appears to be human. Lady Azline has checked in and is headed to her room after a stop at the bar, we think she's human. Lord Cadmon Lennan Dewayne is a human male who has checked in and gone to his room after ordering breakfast. Of course we have Lord Cauthon amungst us, he is in his room right now. Lord Daviticus Jeckel is a Demon Slayer, he's at the bar. We might want to keep an eye on him, he might be trouble, or he might come in handy should trouble find out you two are here. Lord Elisha is a lycanthrope, not sure what kind yet, and he's with Lord Elessar. We have Lady Inion, we arn't sure what she is yet, she appears to be in her room already. And lastly we have Lord Steffan, he's also checking in and appears to be human. We think that's everyone.

As far as we have gathered there are no signs that the Lych or the Drider have found out you are back in Rhy'Din. There has been no word of Lady Gypzee as of yet, and we have seen no signs of the Paladin's family either. The others on the list are still being located as well. But so far, no leads. Someone thought they had seen Lord Chop, but it was a case of mistaken identity. No word on Terren, Alexander, Dreconis, or your daughter Krystal either, I'm sorry Venis. We just havn't found them yet. Does anyone else have anything to add?"

She took another long drink from her glass of bloodwine and remained silent. Waiting for anyone to add anything or ask any unanswered questions.

((And yes, I am writting a book, three in fact, so anyone who doesn't want their charries mentioned by name speak now or hope for royalties if I get the books published and they sell. LOL ))