As the group looked up at the castle atop the hill, they decided it would be a good idea to check it out. As the group moved towards the castle, however, they were greeting by a snarky voice atop a withering tree, “Food has appeared on our doorstep, boys. Go get ’em!” A pale skinned man in a top hat ordered what looked like vampire spawn to attack the party. However, the spawn were easily taken down, and he himself also took some damage, before he burst into a swarm of bats and flew off towards a different tree.
Here, he changed back, but was waved off and away by another pale skinned individual; “Scram, Runt!”
At this, Runt burst again into a swarm of bats and flew off in the distance, towards the castle at the top of the hill. The woman sitting idly atop the tree, who introduced herself as Elana, sounded cheerful and bubbly. She addressed the group, saying that, seeing how easily they defeated Runt’s spawn, her father would be very interested in meeting the group. After some convincing, the group started to follow her towards the castle, even if wary about the situation they were walking into.
Within the castle, the group was lead into what looked like a throne room. Here, Runt was sitting atop a support beam high above, along with many more individuals that looked similar to him and Elana; along with a lot of bats flying about. Sitting on the throne was an imposing looking man, with an Orsimer woman sitting next to him, and a hooded figure standing on his other side. Looking closely at all the people in here, all of them had a light glow in the eyes, and whenever anyone spoke, one could glimpse a pair of sharp fangs among their teeth.
The man on the throne, who identified himself as William Riente, the leader of this vampire clan, offered his help with a task the group was undertaking, if they were willing to help him with one of his. He tasked the party with eliminating a noble within Solitude, who coincidentally was the brother of the Jarl of the city. He also told them that the target was a werewolf, although this was not the real reason why William wanted this man dead.
In return, the group requested that the Riente clan dealt with King Marcellus in Markarth, a big ask, but with some convincing, the Vampire Lord said that he would get his clan to carry out this task. Before leaving, the group did not accept the offer to join the vampires in a feast, something which they promised to do after their mission was complete. They were then escorted through Blackreach by Elana, who tried to convinced the group that being a vampire has a lot of benefits. When they arrived close to an area with a viable passage into Solitude, the group entered a building, where they saw a group of werewolves who looked quite ready for a fight.
