With Belkar at his mercy, Malack begins to drain the life out of Belkar, but has second thoughts. Instead he begins to drain the blood out of him to turn him into a vampire.
Cast[]
- Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
- Mr. Scruffy ◀ ▶
- Malack (also as vampire) ◀ ▶
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Belkar lies on the floor frozen by the Hold Person spell. Mr. Scruffy stands on his face.
Mr. Scruffy: HISSSSSS!!!
- Panel 2
Mr. Scruffy attacks Malack, "scrtchh! scrtchh! scrtchh! scrtchh!"
- Panel 3
Malack pushes him aside with his staff
Malack: I have no quarrel with you, feline.
Mr. Scruffy: Mrrow?!
Malack: You are a faithful servant, as am I.
- Panel 4
Malack: Upon your master, I visit the blessings of my own.
Malack: May your next not lead you to such dangerous places as this.
Mr. Scruffy: rrrrr!
Mr. Scruffy bites Malack's tail.
- Panel 5
Malack holds Belkar in his claw. He is surrounded by a black glow.
- Panel 6
Malack: Although…
The black glow is gone; smoke trails up from Belkar's body.
Malack: I must confess that seeing Tarquin interact with his sons has put me in a reflective frame of mind.
Malack: I do miss the company of others of my own ilk.
Mr. Scruffy pulls at Belkar's cloak.
- Panel 7
Malack: Perhaps I have been too inflexible in the past.
Malack: Perhaps Tarquin, fool though he can be, has been correct this whole time.
- Panel 8
Malack: Perhaps I SHOULD make more children.
Malack takes Belkar's head in his mouth and sinks his fangs into his face, "SCKLTHNK!'". Blood flies and a black glow surrounds Belkar.
D&D Context[]
- A Vampire in D&D 3.5 is a template that can be overlaid on any other type of race and class combination, rather than a separate monster type as it was in previous editions. Thus Malack can be both a vampire and a lizardfolk cleric. Malack uses the Blood Drain special attack on Belkar here, which drains 1d4 points of Constitution per round.
Trivia[]
- This is the first time Malack is revealed to be a vampire. And his offspring that Nale destroyed would be vampires he sired rather than biological children—this was foreshadowed on #764, when Malack was worried adopted children would not have a special bond.