#104 Count Heisenberg's Laboratory: the Pit of Despair

"Where do you think you're going?"

Count Valter paused at his wife's acerbic tone. Her recent experience on Barfun Moor had rendered her even less charming that usual. "To my laboratory."

"Of course," scoffed the Countess, "always hiding away in your cave. When are you going to start contributing to our efforts? You know The Hunt demands more of us."

"My experiments are progressing, but you cannot hurry these things."

"Hah!" she scoffed. "Are you even going to tell me what you are working on yet?"

"Not yet, I want it to be a surprise. Now I must go, the lunar conditions are efficacious this night."

Countess Zkyla waited until the door had closed behind him. "Boritz?" she called.

Immediately, another door opened silently and a towering vampire entered the room. So much more attentive and obedient than her husband.

"Follow the Count and find out what he is up to in his damned laboratory. I have become impatient with waiting."

"Yes, my Lady Courtesy."

Lavandería Brillante's sepulchre

The location of Count Heisenberg's Laboratory was no secret: in a graveyard adjacent to Heisenberg Mansion, hidden beneath the sepulchre of Lady Lavandería Brillante. The problem for Zkyla - and at this moment Boritz - was how to gain entrance. 

Even for a vampire as swift of foot as he, it was a struggle to catch up with the scuttling form of Count Heisenberg as he darted among the mausoleums. But even as Valter scampered up the steps to the ornate sepulchre, Bortitz was close enough to hear him rasp a password as he paused beside the shrine outside. Then the Count disappeared into the darkness. 

Boritz checked about for scents, and satisfied that none of Valter's Bloodborn were in the vicinity, he secreted himself between a pair on ancient tombs with a clear view of Lavandería Brillante's sepulchre. And now, like the patient predator he was, Boritz would wait. He had the password, and once Valter had finished for the night, he could explore the laboratory at his leisure. If Boritz was a vampire who smiled, he would have done so now: the Countess had ordered him to carry out precisely the same mission that his true masters had given him. So if he was found out, he would simply be spying for Countess Heisenberg, and the Brotherhood of Mannfred would remain undiscovered.

* * *

As it happened, the wait was not as long as expected. The moonlight was soon obscured by clouds, and persistent rain lashed down upon Boritz's hiding place. Within an hour, the Count emerged again, accompanied by the hunched form of his assistant, Hansine Margolius.

"Again the subject was too weak," Valter muttered to Hansine as they passed Boritz, "even with the moon obscured! If we can find more subjects we shall try again tomorrow night." The pair scurried off into the darkness towards Heisenberg Mansion.

Boritz emerged from his shelter, checked around and climbed the slippery steps to the sepulchre. Looking inside, he saw what he had always found there - pitch darkness; nothing. He stepped back and looked at the shrine standing sentry-like on the right hand side of the archway. It was covered with the wax of countless candles, into which fresh bones had been thrust like offerings. He shrugged and spoke the words he had heard the Count speak: "The pit of despair."

Nothing happened.

He tried again, exchanging his own resonant baritone for an imitation of Valter's squeaky, murine voice. Still nothing. Rain lashed down upon the impassive tomb.

Sighing, he cleared his throat and imitated the melodramatic, rasping croak that he had heard the Count affect: "The Pit... of Desp-airrr..."

Instantly, the darkness within the sepulchre abated a little and a set of wooden stairs became visible. Checking once more that he was still alone, Bortiz entered and descended into the gloom.

The laboratory was cluttered an eclectic mixture of academic paraphernalia: part torture chamber, part alchemical workshop, part astrological observatory, part necromancer's lair. Shelves groaned under the weight of arcane manuscripts and potion bottles. The top half of a deadwalker was impaled on a wall spike, head turning unnaturally as its dead eyes followed Boritz around the room. The floor was scattered with an incongruous mixture of torture implements, cushions and skulls, and more skulls adorned numerous alcoves in the walls. There were astrological instruments too, apparently Sigmarite in origin, and far beyond the learning of Boritz. Hearing soft groans under the stairs, he spotted a pallid human man restrained upside down in stocks over a large, dark red stain on the dirty cobbled floor. 

But the pulsating heart of Count Heisenberg's laboratory was a golden vat of fresh, crimson blood. It rested, not on a stand, but upon three monstrous, undead hands, their clawed fingers moving constantly, gently agitating the vat's contents as they carried it around the room. On the edge of the vat, help upright by a skeletal torso, was a large necromantic tome. Boritz immediately recognised the Count's handwriting and eagerly started reading. This was were he would discover the nature of Valter's experiments...

Boritz could not help being impressed by the Count's diabolical ingenuity. He was attempting to create something he called 'Blaukryst Veltz', which would surely be a great weapon for the Vyrkos Dynasty and propel the Heisenbergs to newfound power and influence within the Hunt. As the Count had assured the Countess, success did indeed seem immanent, but the main challenge appeared to be finding suitable vampires to be the subjects of the experiments. This was not surprising - those who were weak enough to be forced to take part were too weak to endure the procedures.

Suddenly, an actual smile broke out on Boritz's face. This was the opportunity the Brotherhood had been waiting for. A chance, not only to manipulate the power struggles of the Gravelords of Barfunweltz in their favour, but perhaps to acquire for the Legion of Night a valuable new weapon...

 

It took a while, but I had a lot of fun scratch-building and kit-bashing this scenery piece. I really enjoy starting out with only the vaguest of plans and seeing where the limitations of my bits box, materials stash and recycling bin take me. The subterranean laboratory is hidden by a section of 'rock' which slides away. I did have a worrying moment just after I'd finished painting the outside when I realised the paint had 'glued' it shut! Luckily, breaking it open again only did minor damage which was soon remedied.

#105 BATTLE XXIII - THE DELIVERANCE OF SALAS NOVA