The Undead Holn was a decadent minor baron in an isolated land. Unknown to anyone, he was also a werewolf who preyed on wanderers and the rare travelers in his lands. His wife, a moral ranger, heard rumors about the predator and rounded up a hunting party to bring it down. She soon cornered the beast, and before he could change and possibly ask for mercy, she plunged a silver dagger into Holn's heart, killing him. As he changed before the eyes of the hunting party, his wife fled, knowing the loyalties of his court. While they were involved with his burial, she moved quickly to assume power and began working to heal her husbands abuses and excesses. Occasionally, a lycanthrope in life will become undead when its life is over. Three nights after being killed deep in the woods, Holn sat up and pulled the silver dagger out of his chest. As a vampire, the dagger's (+1) couldn't kill him permanently. At first angry and confused, Holn has found that being outside of society had advantages that his former position didn't allow. He is free to move around as he wills, making allies in vital areas and slaves of those who opposed him. His former wife, not the Baroness Alalia, is in a situation parallel to their earlier one: she knows that there is a monster terrorizing the people, but not that it is her husband. Skirmishes between her knights and Holn's slaves and allies has revealed that he has at least two vampire slaves and several clever thieves on his side. The former werewolf's ability to control wolves is also used, mainly to cause a distraction while he strikes elsewhere. The Weapon Since the silver dagger was the cause of his death and so intimately linked to his transformation, this dagger can transmit the vampire's energy draining touch. Fortunately, by channeling the attack through the'weapon, the magic is slightly weakened, allowing those struck a saving vs. spells to resist losing two levels. This dirk is a large knife with a wide silver blade, highly decorated and monogrammed, clearly a noble's weapon. Balmer Holn Mephrides Back to White Knight #12 Table of Contents Back to White Knight List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Pegasus-Unicorn Productions This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com