Vanstrom Klause

Vanstrom Klause is one of the brutal henchmen of Lord Drakan, member of the Vyrewatch who rule Morytania from the capital, Darkmeyer, and a former Myreque member. Vanstrom is the main antagonist of the Myreque quest series, and is responsible for the murders of at least two Myreque members.

History
It is unknown how old Vanstrom is, or who his parents were. In the Return to Canifis novel, set in the year 164/165, he appears as a middle aged Human, and a very prominent member of the Myreque, so he is presumed to be anywhere between 25 to 40 years old by the current year. As he is now a Vampyre, he is now immortal, however in Postbag From The Hedge, issue 40, he recalls the days of the Mahjarrat, although this may simply be from a secondary perspective. It has been confirmed by Mod Ana, the developer of the Myreque quests, that she will not refer to any of the events in the RuneScape novels for the quests.

As a member of the Myreque, he was highly valued, seemingly able to easily travel between Meiyerditch, the Myreque base at Hope Rock, and Canifis with great ease, and always accomplishing an escape if captured, leading some to cast doubt on his status as a commoner from the slums. He is first encountered by the Misthalin Embassy, of which consisted of Kara-Meir, Sir Theodore, Doric, Castimir, Arisha, Gar'rth and Lord Despaard, amongst several others. At this time, he is imprisoned by Malak, along with Pia and Jack to serve as a sacrifice to the Werewolves of Canifis. After a daring escape led by several members of the embassy, he leads them to the Myreque hideout on Hope Rock.

At the plateau of Hope Rock, it is discovered a band of escapees from Meiyerditch reside, along with the infamous Master Peregrim, a Gnome who had gone missing some years prior, after his hot air balloon like contraption broke free of its tether in Varrock and carried him over the River Salve. Using nets made from the Giant Snails that reside nearby, the band of escapees, about 50 in number, had constructed a large net underneath the balloon to carry them westward over the Salve. The plan goes ahead, with the balloon nearly ready to take off, when a sudden ambush by the werewolves of Canifis leads to a desperate scramble to get the balloon off the ground. In the midst of fighting a werewolf which had managed to climb on board before the balloon took off, Vanstrom secured himself to a rope, and jumped overboard with his attacker. When on the ground, he severed the remaining mooring line, setting the balloon free, carrying the others with it and ending any hope of his escape as he left to fend off the ravenous wolves.

Nothing is heard of his time after the escape at Hope Rock, although it is presumed he was not killed, and was instead taken to Drakan or the Black Prince to be converted. In the four years since his conversion, he appears to have gained considerable power amongst the vampyres, seeming to be a direct underling to Drakan, possibly an advisor.

As a Vampyre
Vanstrom was first met by the player in the Hair of the Dog tavern in Canifis on a mission to locate the Myreque to supposedly give them weapons. However this was a trick of his, used to determine the location of the Myreque's hideout in the Hollows.

After the player located the Myreque in the In Search of the Myreque quest, Vanstrom revealed that he had used the player to discover the Myreque, and murders two Myreque members, but due to the assistance of the player, the rest managed to escape and flee.

He is later seen telling Gadderanks to collect blood from the villagers of Burgh de Rott. Vanstrom is believed to have ordered Vampire Juvinates to ambush Ivan Strom on his way to Paterdomus, as Veliaf mentions Vanstrom wanting to capture him. This attack failed, however, and Ivan was able to reach the Temple.

After returning to Meiyerditch he was last seen discussing plans with Ranis and Vanescula Drakan before spotting the player who was standing on the wall at the time, having just finished sketching Castle Drakan for Safalaan. He descended upon the player and initiated battle. However, the Vyrewatch possess the unique ability of foresight, allowing them to anticipate attacks and block them before they can be hit. Because of this, the player was not able to hit him, and was defeated. Vanstrom was about to kill the player, but Sarius Guile, a human servant to the Vampyres, stopped him. He then disappeared into the night.

Vanstrom proceeded to report the encounter with the player to Drakan, who became troubled because of the Myreque presence in Meiyerditch and granted Vanstrom exceptional power permissions to fight off the Myreque. After being granted the extra powers permission, Vanstrom began an aggressive campaign against the Myreque, having the vyrewatch cut off their supply routes, block off naval access to Meiyerditch and carry out an assault on the mercenary transport route that ended in the capture and execution of Marius. Using information tortured out of Marius, Vanstrom began an extensive search for the Myreque base.

At the same time, Vanstrom's heavy commitment to eliminating the Myreque allowed for the Meiyerditch vyrewatch to go mostly unsupervised, allowing for rogue groups to form and for blood tithing to grow irregular and ineffective, which dissatisfied several vyrelords and made their respect for both Vanstrom and Drakan decrease.

Taking advantage of this loss of favour, Vanescula Drakan began to aid the Myreque, proposing a new final goal to them in which they remove Vanstrom and Drakan from power and place her instead, since she would implement the use of special ancient potions to feed the vampyres so they wouldn't require human blood anymore and thus could free the citizens of Meiyerditch. The Myreque hesitantly agreed and they began to hatch a plan to assassinate Vanstrom.

Vanescula helped the player obtain the branches of the Blisterwood tree to forge weapons that could harm vampyres, overpass their foresight ability and be more effective in combat than the Flail of Ivandis. After the player and Vanescula obtain those weapons (and after along the way Vanescula also slays her brother Ranis), the player and Vanescula ventured to Vanstrom's residence in order to execute the plan.

The player confronted Vanstrom in his office, who was awaiting him and ready for combat. After a long, bloody battle the player finally manages to kill Vanstrom, dealing a catastrophically enormous blow to Drakan's control over Morytania.

Vanstrom in Combat
Vanstrom Klause is shown capable of firing red balls of magic while in human form which kills two members of the Myreque immediately during In Search of the Myreque.

Vanstrom, in the Darkness of Hallowvale quest, finds the player spying on Castle Drakan on a mission for the Myreque leader Safalaan. He attacks the player on the walls of the castle and a brief battle is initiated. Vanstrom is shown to be level 169 and fights unarmed, but it is impossible to kill him as he is a member of the Vyrewatch. Instead, whenever the player attacks him, a strange mind-shield appears around him and the player's attack deals no damage. Now that the player possesses the Ivandis flail, they are able to kill him in The Branches of Darkmeyer. Using the Blisterwood weapons are even more effective.

During the quest, he is fought once again, being now much more powerful. He uses 2 normal attacks, one magic and one melee, as well as a series of special attacks. He only uses the magic attack when the player is not within melee range, and neither can be blocked by prayer, nor can any of his special attacks.

He is immune to the Ring of recoil and deflection curses, although the rest of the Ancient Curses still have an effect on him. He is extremely weak to the Blisterwood Polearm, the weapon hitting unusually high for its stats. For a guide to kill Vanstrom, see The Battle with Vanstrom.

Trivia

 * During the cutscene where Vanstrom Klause reveals himself for his true self in quest In Search of the Myreque, a graphical bug occurs where he does not appear to have a mouth and just an empty space.
 * He is one of the few NPCs to be sitting in a chair.
 * It was previously thought that Vanstrom might be related to Ivan Strom, as his first name is in Ivan's. (IVan-Strom') This was confirmed to be false during Branches of Darkmeyer.
 * Vanstrom is one of the few NPCs to be voiced. He can be heard shouting his attacks before using them, speaking before transforming, and he is also voiced at the end of the trailer for the quest.
 * Even after completing Branches of Darkmeyer, Vanstrom Klause will be sitting in his chair in the northeast part of the bar in Canifis. If you try talking to him, he will say "I think we have been through this before haven't we?" and his NPC name will change to Stranger. This is, of course, if you haven't already done it after In Search of the Myreque.

Vanstrom Klause