There was a bang.
There was blackness.
Dieter opened his eyes, waking from an unsettling but unremembered dream. Or, at least, he thought it was from a dream. It certainly felt like a dream. Then again his head rather hurt, and he wasn't quite sure where he was… was he in the forest? Had he been drinking?
Groggily blinking his eyes and getting up, he tried to assess his situation, only to wonder if he had been awake before and this was the dream. He was in the forest – no idea how exactly he had got there when the last he remembered was being home with Ingrid, Wilhelm, and Manfried – but it was eerie and wrong, dark in ways out of campfire tales and nightmare. The trees around him seemed almost winter-dead, but dark masses somewhere between leaves and clinging moss filled the gnarled limbs, blocking out the sky with their opacity.
Feeling unsteady on his feet and wondering if he had been drinking, Dieter concluded that he must have not just been drinking but got so black-out drunk that Ingrid kicked him out of the house to sleep it off, and he'd wandered away. That wasn't like him at all though. Even in his wilder youth he had never been that drunk, and since meeting Ingrid he'd set even that much wildness aside. Struggling to remember what could have happened, he had a vague recollection of… of a visitor? Had there been a celebration?
Looking up and not seeing the sky to orient himself, Dieter began to seek out a clearing or something. What sky was visible didn't look like daylight, but despite himself he couldn't say it was that particularly dark. It was a peculiar and strange sort of lighting that was all just… off. Was it overcast? Where even was this place, it was his job to know the forest and this was no part of the forest he could drunkenly stumble to within a night.
After a few minutes stumbling about the unnaturally quiet and strangely dark but navigable forest, Dieter found his way to a deadfall clearing where the sky was clearly visible. The sky was a bleak grey-black fading to blue-black, so perhaps it was early dawn or twilight. He looked up for any stars he could see to orient himself by.
"Oh."
Judging from the black sun hanging in the sky, surrounded by an eye-searing ring of hideous light and alien constellations, Dieter was either still dreaming, or he was dead.
Upon thinking the latter option the part of his memory that he could not access seemed to confirm that suspicion. He was probably dead. He felt his heart sink at that, but not as much as he might have expected, all things considered. Especially since this ominous realm certainly didn't seem anything like what the man in church talked about.
"Sure don't see any angels here," Dieter muttered to himself even as that left few good options as to what he might meet.
{Turn around} a voice echoed inside his head.
Dieter did so before his mind really caught up with implications of the words and how they were spoken, and immediately recoiled in fear and horror from the pillar of painfully bright alabaster and gold light that had not been there a moment ago. Strangely, fear quickly boiled away to a raw, animalistic need to attack. Not rage, but a primal response to lash out that Dieter almost failed to control.
{Kneel, parasite} the voice that came from everywhere and nowhere and yet could still instinctively be understood to come from the pillar of light. The fearful need to lash out quickly changed to actual anger at being ordered to do something, but Dieter managed to restrain these unsettling reactions. He was not exactly the most pious man, but he knew the stories the priests had told throughout his life, and he figured attacking this thing would not end well for him. He even tried to actually kneel, but his knees refused to actually lower that amount. He instead assumed a sort of stooped posture, ready to spring forth but still his best attempt at being deferential.
{Acceptable, even mildly commendable given your nature} the voice declared somewhat disdainfully.
"What… what are- no, no, where am I?" Dieter asked, his lips curling away from his teeth on their own accord as he struggled to look upon the being before him. Through the blinding radiance he could vaguely make out the outline of person and a vast set of wings.
{We are a Messenger of the Choir Celestial, and we find ourselves speaking to you from within the bounds of the Underworld. Your internal assessment of death is logically sound, but the conclusion is only half true.}
Dieter just blinked in confusion a few times.
{Your act of pious hospitality was betrayed. The guest you invited to your home had naught but ill intent, and repaid your kindness with violence. Your wife was slain, your sons orphaned, and you are now here, beyond Paradise in this existence} the pillar – angel? – explained. Dieter's heart went through a strange series of backflips at the revelation of the death of his wife and that his children were now without their parents, one that he was not entirely comfortable with. The thought of his children in peril caused a far greater degree of panic than the loss of his wife that disturbed him on some level, while the idea that there would be no Heaven for him engendered no response.
"Where are my sons?" Dieter snapped, partially talking over the last bit of the angel's explanation.
{They remain safe, for now, in the care of the one you called Brother Heinrich} the angel explained, causing Dieter to relax marginally. The priest was a good man and would take care of the boys, at least in the short run. {We must now discuss you.}
"Me," Dieter replied, now not quite sure where this conversation was going to go.
{You, Dieter, Son of Walt and Brigit, are neither alive nor dead, but are undead. The invader to your home was a vampire, a soul stealing abomination born of the Underworld and the Void} the angel somehow pointed to the black sun and annulus in the sky despite being mostly an indistinct pillar of light. {You were bitten, but in the struggle you managed to slay your attacker, although in the process you also ingested some of their blood.}
The description sparked a set of memories within Dieter, reminding him of screaming. He remembered a shot… no, not just a shot, but his whole powder horn going off. Going off very close to him…
"I'm… I'm a vampire?" Dieter asked.
{Yes} the angel stated. {You are such a being, but also a particularly rare example as well. The act of a vampire feeding drains the victim of their life force, their very soul. Death by complete draining leaves the corpse a husk into which the blood of the vampire can be introduced, reanimating it as an instrument of their will. You died with your soul damaged and the blood able to find a hook in the holes, but still attached. You are a rare but not unknown breed, a vampire patriarch with a mostly mortal mind.}
"A vampire patriarch? Wha… I'm just a huntsman!" Dieter protested.
{The vampire patriarchs and matriarchs are the members of their kind with no superior. Most come from lesser ranks growing beyond the control of their masters. Some come from wicked mortals who toy with powers they should not, and are damned for their actions. A rare few come from mortals who slew their progenitors before expiring in such a way as to rise, such as you. Very few of those individuals have living descendants, hence why we are here. Make no mistake, you had many sins in life, but none so unforgivable as to damn you to this existence where you are barred from Paradise… but there are times where the Celestial Choir finds use in individuals such as you. Sometimes there are souls we would prefer passed through the Void rather than sent on to their unholy masters, and so we may find cause to ally with your kind. An individual such as you, who yet retains some scraps of mortal morality, whose passions include the care for your living descendants? Those such as you are most preferred.}
Dieter processed this, processed implications he knew too well, and then asked, "You wish me to be your hitman?"
{A vulgar way of putting it, but yes. Merely to exist you shall commit mortal sins, but if pointed in the correct direction and keeping away from the most egregious of activities, the Celestial Choir can be convinced to not just leave you in peace, but to aid you and your lineage.}
At the mention of aid to his lineage, Dieter felt an almost overwhelming compulsion to automatically agree, but some other part of him held him back from blurting such things out. Still, he knew well enough not to bind himself hastily to dangerous agreements, so instead he asked, "What would you have me do?"
{The vampiric ability to drain life force and remove the soul from the body is a potent weapon against enemies of the Celestial Choir such as demons, fae, and even certain other undead, but at the moment such targets are beyond you. Initial targets will be more mortal in scope. Given the circumstances of your death, we would allow you time to put your affairs in order, and may even lend aid in doing so, but would expect immediate assistance in recompense.}
Mulling this, Dieter asked, "How much time to get affairs in order are we talking about here?"
{A few years before we would reconsider our offer} the angel stated.
"A few years?!" Dieter asked in shock. He had figured a month or two at most.
{Time has different meaning for beings such as we than it does for mortals} the celestial being said with what could be considered something of an equivalent to a shrug. After a second Dieter also realized that the angel's statement was an inclusive "we", as he was being included in its assessment. That realization almost knocked him off his feet, as there was a part of him that was bone keep confident in the statement of immortality.
"So what, I just run off and… I dunno, what would I even do?" Dieter asked in confusion.
{Kill people, inevitably. Should you spend the majority of your time within the Underworld, the hunger for the blood and life force of others will only slowly creep up on you, but should you return to the Living World then the hunger will come much more quickly. Given the particular circumstances of your death and the venial sins that cling to you, we can also see that the option to only partake lightly is not available to you. The gluttony of your life has followed you as an insatiable frenzy when feeding} the angel said in assessment.
Dieter gulped at that and ran a hand down his stomach. He did like to eat but… huh, that was strange. Where was the paunch he had spent so many years building up from the fruits of his hunts and his wife's cooking? Looking down, he actually noticed for the first time that he was wearing only scraps of burnt cloth over a gaunt, skeletal frame, his stomach caved in beneath grotesquely prominent ribs. Within the colour bleached light of the Underworld's black sun he wasn't entirely sure of what other changes had been inflicted upon him, but his nails appeared to have a distinct yellow cast while having a number of ragged points.
{It has also been brought to the attention of the Celestial Choir that the Dead and Undead with still living family that they care about tend to use their time to meddle in the affairs of the descendants. Spending the next few years setting your sons up to be independent without you may help keep your soul stable and your morality mostly compatible with mortals. How you choose to do that is up to you though, as your activities with your local lord before death may continue, to your sons' benefit and the detriment of the enemies of the nobility.}
Dieter considered that. The baron, he did like to ask him to put his skills at tracking and stealth to 'less than legitimate' purposes at times, and Dieter had generally gone along with it because he was supposed to listen to the orders of the baron that didn't contravene the king and priests' orders. And he'd never really done anything wrong really; just spied on people when they thought they were alone, carried packages through the woods, or occasionally spooked someone. He already knew that he could do all of that exceptionally well, and more. There were stories of nobles making deals with powerful creatures, and even if the baron couldn't meet his needs he could surely put him in contact with the right sorts to make the best use of his talents.
"Anything I should know about if I were to do something like that and maybe I started causing trouble you wouldn't like?" Dieter asked, rolling a few ideas around in his head.
{The sins you will commit are beyond our concern, and those who would make use of your talents will be judged in turn. The Celestial Choir would make use of your abilities to deal with immortal problems of appropriate consideration, but will also offer minimal aid should your sins draw the attention of mortal authorities. Keep your predations to the wicked and minimize your impact upon the world, and your worth may be judged sufficient to provide greater aid against those of greater zeal than sense. We may even tolerate limited non-hostile contact with the enemies of the Choir depending upon context. That said, if you do not wish to test the bounds of our tolerance, we suggest being extremely careful with the siring of subordinates.}
Dieter nodded at that, although a part of him found the wide latitude he was being given to be rather odd. The priests never made angels out as being a particularly tolerant bunch. Still, at the mention of 'siring' he felt a sort of instinctual knowledge bubble up.
"I can… I can make two – no, three? – different kinds of subordinates, but the third doesn't really count. I think," Dieter said, mostly to himself.
{Correct. In the ordering of mortals, there are four orders of vampires: patriarchs, lords, knights, and ghouls. Patriarchs gain their abilities based upon the lack of chains upon them and thus their ability to impose said chains upon their subordinates.}
Closing his eyes and thinking about it, Dieter nodded and said, "Anyone I kill by feeding can rise as a ghoul if I will it so, but unless they are regularly feeding it would be a massive drain so I can will them back to corpses. Only patriarchs are so dangerous though. Ghouls are mindless creatures that exist only to feed and in doing so pass the life they steal on to their masters."
{Correct. Wiping out villages and turning them to a ravenous horde to march against mortal armies will fast see the Celestial Choir losing patience and considering you a threat to be dealt with directly.}
Dieter half-snarled and half-blanched at the threat, but he nodded and said, "If I drain someone and then feed them a bit of my blood I can deliberately animate them as vampires proper. 'Knights' are made casually, 'nobles' require significant starting investment though. Nobles are also dangerous in that ghouls and knights are incapable of acting against their masters, while nobles have some will of their own and can overcome the orders of patriarchs and matriarchs with some effort."
{Correct. Nobles may only rise to the position of patriarch by slaying their progenitor, but ghouls and knights that have fed enough are able to cobble together facsimiles of human minds and wills from scraps of the souls they rip from the living. Vampires that have risen from mindless ghouls to full blown patriarchs and not been put down are all invariably inhumanly monstrous and cunning.}
Dieter almost immediately and instinctively knew that there was something else that the angel was not mentioning, but he held his tongue. He had a feeling that such knowledge was not readily shared even if he would likely learn of it on his own anyway. Past dealings with the baron had taught him when to keep his mouth shut during such moments. Nodding along, Dieter consulted that well of internal knowledge and said, "Aside from having their own will and generally being stronger, nobles can directly create knights in a manner similar to how patriarchs make nobles, and ghouls similar to patriarchs making knights. Knights can only make ghouls, but generally only do so if on orders from a superior. The bite of a ghoul can only transfer the ability of a patriarch to animate their victims."
At that last bit Dieter paused and frowned. Turning this information over in his head instead of just recollecting it from the abyss, he asked, "Knights cause problems without careful supervision, don't they? They are intelligent but have no… no wisdom, no will of their own, and if given vague directions will attempt to fulfill them in the way of vampires."
{Correct. Nobles scheme, require investment, and can usurp, but can be given broad directives and specific instructions and be expected to fulfill them as a human might. Knights require careful guidance and close supervision not to start indiscriminately killing. Both need to have their hungers managed. The Celestial Choir recommends minimal creation of such subordinates, although the need or desire will inevitably arise.}
"So… I think that covers it? I help you, you help me, and I just… help my sons, maybe the baron?" Dieter asks.
{To begin. You may also wish to begin by establishing yourself in the Underworld, which is where most of the Undead will make their lair for at least part of the time. With some effort patriarchs and nobles are able to cross between the two realms, giving them a place to hide from mortal vampire hunters that is most difficult to access, although it does split their attentions.}
"Right…" Dieter said with a nod as he noticed a feeling in the back of his skull that he was pretty sure was related to what the angel was talking about. While part of him wanted to run right back to his sons, he also recognized that in his current state it might not be a great idea, and figuring some things out first might be useful.
Choose one…
[] Dark Father in the Woods – Attempt to pick up where your life ended, as a hunter raising his sons… only with more unnatural thirst for the blood of the living. You can probably hide from the world while still raising your sons though.
[] Baron's Own Monster – You've worked for the baron before, surely your new status and abilities will be of use to him or one of his superiors. Such mortal contacts would help your sons rise up in the world, but is more likely to draw negative attention.
[] Carving a Demense – The Underworld is a strange place, but it is also a place of power. Perhaps spending some time to get established here would lay a good foundation for the future, even if the boys would be left alone for a while.
[] Heaven's Hitman – The angels seem to know what they are doing, maybe you should just go along with them for a time to figure things out. You will surely be rewarded, although it will delay assisting your sons or building up your own powerbase.
Optional: All but Heaven's Hitman may optionally have the – [] Call Ally: Celestial Choir kicker added, increasing the odds of success but requiring a task to be done in repayment.
AN: Sometimes you just need to write
