The Great Vampire

When the world was young and the wood was green, a Great Vampire dwelt in the Mountains of Mirkwood. The mountains were a grim and frightful place even then, before the Shadow fell fully upon them. The Elves built their Refuge in the bright valleys, and turned their gaze away from the foreboding hills.

The vampire — an ancient spirit in the shape of a bat — troubled the Elves, and Prince Thranduil went in hunt of the monster. He found the Vampire’s lair in a nightmarish chasm deep beneath the mountains, and climbed down to battle her. The vampire’s dreadful spells bewitched the prince’s guards, and Thranduil was forced to fight alone.

Songs are still sung, more than three thousand years later, of the duel of the vampire and the Elf-prince. The two fought for a day, as the vampire stalked Thranduil through the lightless caves. In the end, Thranduil found a crack that led out into the open air, just as dawn was breaking.

The vampire wriggled through the crack after Thranduil, but was blinded by the sudden light, and the Elf took the opportunity to behead the vile creature. While the lesser spawn continue to blight Mirkwood, the defeat of the Great Vampire was a grievous blow against the Enemy.

Valdis may appear in any of three forms.

First, there is her true shape: an old woman, once comely maybe, but now bent and haggard with long years in the wilderness, wearing only the vile skin of a long-dead Giant Bat draped around her filthy shoulders. Gobbets of dried blood stain her mouth and sagging breasts, and she fumbles blearily amid the bat droppings with sightless eyes. If the company can sneak into the cavern without making a sound or using any light, this is the form they see.

Second, she can shroud herself in a magical illusion. In this form, she becomes both beautiful and terrible, a dark queen of the night, young and seductive, to be desired and feared in equal measure. If Valdis knows that the companions are coming, she may take on this form and try to seduce one of them (especially if they are Miserable because of the vapours, and therefore vulnerable to her influence). She may also use this form to bargain with the company.

Third, she can become a huge vampire bat, more vicious than any the companions have yet faced. This is the form she uses when flying to Dale.

• Valdis offers to withdraw her Vampires from the Woodland Realm, if Thranduil recognises her as Queen of the Mountains of Mirkwood.
• She may point out that the companions are in her stronghold, far from the light, and that she commands Orcs and Vampires and all manner of frightful things. She will spare them... for a price.

• Item

--

--