Characters: Zak Trueblood (Rel Vobud) - Pat[0], Mena Timaly (Time Renald) - Denise[0], Lorraine Jace (Lori) - Marie[0], Jethro (Tom) - Dean[0], Kesh (Tes Larya) - Kim[0], Andre () - Gene[0],
The characters continue in their chase of LeBlank and his party. As the day turns into afternoon, the anticipation is great. It is a warm day and the party is tired from 6 days of hard travel. The party decides to travel quick but stop mid-late afternoon so they won't hit the party till the next day. Scouting the area, Mena sees a river and notices the ferry coming to the near side. Cassandra scouts out the ferry landing site. At the end of the road is a dock and a sign:
Ferry: 1SP per person, 5 SP per wagon/cart
The river is about a half mile across. The ferry uses a large rope stretched across the river to keep from being swept down stream.
Watch order is: Mena and Zak; Foren and Cassandra; Sven and Foren. The night goes uneventful. The next morning, the party gets to the river and finds that the rope is slack. It looks like the rope is cut on the other side. The party helps with fixing the rope but it takes the entire day to complete the repairs and get the party across.
They stop at the Bellamy Inn in Jordan for the night. They learn that LeBlank did not stay the night in town but sold his horses, bought new ones and continued. At dinner, they meet a youth named Gibson who is a silversmith heading to the other side of the mountain to a town Flint where he has a job with the silversmith there. He is looking for traveling companions and asks the party if he can travel with them.
The party will have to spend the night on this side of the river. There is no other way to cross that would not take all night. After they set camp, things are quite till early in the morning.
Watches were Mena and Gibson; Foren and Cassandra; Zak and Sven.
They travel for a day and find that they did not gain much. The wagon ruts where not too deep.
During first watch, they are attacked by squirrels. Mena kills the squirrel easily.
During the night, they are hit with a fear spell and only Mena saves. Ninjas attack during the fear spell.
The road to the west slowly heads into a great forest and the mountains. Gibson says that he hears a sound and heads into the woods to investigate. Mena follows and Cassandra follows her and the party follows them. After a comedy of errors, the party joins up.
After much discussion which is overheard by the vampire, they decide not to storm the castle but go back and get more help from the Duke. Later, after the vampire leaves, they decide to look the castle over before they leave. They discover that the castle is easily entered. They pick locks, oil and remove hinge, and moved quietly into the compound and took out the two guards. One of whom was Gibson! They find the two rooms for the guards and footprints leading down into a mausoleum. Inside the mausoleum, they find several coffins and the sounds of dripping water. They detect evil and find the vampire's coffin.
They wake her and don't attack her. They convince her that they mean good. She tells them that LeBlank has control over her in that the Knife will give here freedom from being a vampire. They promise to help her to become free if she will help them find LeBlank. She agrees to help them by driving the wagon in the evening. The party agrees but will keep close watch on her since she could turn on them. Party is already nervous from their trouble with Gibson.