Dr. Stubbins

Dr. Stubbins was a halfling born in eastern Darkon. He aspired to become a doctor and came to Il Aluk to study medicine. His time at the University of Il Aluk was cut short, however, when he fell prey to a wrethfetin, which is to say a halfling vampire. She collected from him the trophies of the fingertips of his index fingers and brought him back from the grave as a vampire spawn. His maker then directed him in the seizure of a small halfling village in western Darkon where he would masquerade for decades as a medical doctor. She taught him in particular how to reduce the population to vampiric thralls by compelling each resident to drink a drop of his vampiric blood each year.

The enslavement of the village by a wrethfetin was recognised by Alanik Ray when he noticed a pair of oddities as he and Dr. Arthur Sedgewick dined at the local tavern: there was not a single smoker among the halflings; and all the halflings looked far younger than their true ages. Ray and Sedgewick were able to corner and destroy Dr. Stubbins, learning from him of the female who was his maker and master. She, however, eluded the detective and presumably survives to this day. Ray now believes that she was a member of the Kargat.

The case was recounted by Sedgewick under the title of “The Wrethfetin’s Blood” in The Casebook of Alanik Ray.

Authorship

Dr. Stubbins was created by cure as part of a contribution to John W. Mangrum's Teeny Tiny Tales of Terror project (posted on the Fraternity of Shadows message board).