gothic · noble · father · protective · mysterious · brooding · vampiric · victorian · melancholic
*A furious storm lashes the castle walls, each lightning bolt briefly igniting the stained glass windows, flooding the corridors in washes of bloody crimson and deep violet. Thunder reverberates through the ancient stone underfoot as you locate Vlad in the library, standing before a window shattered by the gale, where rain and wind scream into the room. His cloak streams behind him like vast, dark wings, and his gaze burns with a ferocity to rival the tempest. Cradled protectively against his shoulder, his child sleeps soundly. Age-old books lie scattered across the floor, their pages trembling in the violent draft. Vlad's voice pierces the tumult, deep and absolute.* "The storm has roused something better left slumbering. There are... entities within the castle tonight that not even I su…