The Black Citadel

"You're either too wary or wise for not accepting a glass of wine from a vampire my mortal friend."

A vampire! You had a sneaking suspicion he was judging from his appearance and behaviour. You actually feel a little more relaxed that he has revealed himself to you. You have no idea where this meeting and conversation is leading, so you decide to play along for the meantime and think of some possible ways out of a potential deadly situation.

"The citadel is a strange place in this wide dark empty land, wouldn't you say? Of course, you've seen more of it than most mortals have seen or will ever see."

"Well, you could say that. To me the citadel is an enigma with many dark places, holding many secrets," you reply.

"This room in fact, is one of only two rooms in the citadel with a window and a view over Darkwood. Come, come to the balcony with me and look out at the night. We should enjoy it while it lasts with only one more hour until the dawn."

You get up and warily follow him out onto the stone balcony. He turns to you and says,

"I've been watching you for some time since you entered the central spire my friend. You've been causing such a disturbance. There's such a chaoticness about your recent actions here that seems quite attractive to me. But to my lord Wiculoth, well, just let me say you don't want to make a man like that angry, and that you most definitely have. "Now, my friend," he says, "tell me what your purpose is here exactly, a being of such brightness in a place with such absence of?"

You're not sure how to respond to such a straightforward question about you intentions here in the spire.

"Well, I'm here looking for a woman called Zirder, who is a mage like myself and a swordsman called Vandil. They've both been missing for some time and I've been sent here to find them. If there're both still alive, they have to be somewhere in the spire here."

"I assumed you would say something along those lines mortal. Yes that is the truth indeed, but not the whole truth. You have to realise though, to actually make it out of the citadel alive and with your friends, that will be an arduous task indeed. Wiculoth will be hell bent to stop you doing that in every possible way. Now, listen to me, to make it out of here you must first defeat Wiculoth. Though, this should be interesting news, to get to my master Wiculoth, you must first pass through me because I am the second guardian of the sacred stones. I hope you realise a vampire isn't an easy opponent mortal. So let's get this over with shall we?" he says. "I haven't got much time before sunrise."