Hello everyone and welcome back!

This is the fourth part of our mission to get our tulpa Circe her second (and much coveted) magical great sword. If you’re not at all familiar with this story, I highly recommend [starting at the beginning].

As always, time for a roll call!

 

My side:

 

 

Niky’s side:

 

Last time, we went on a long trek along the seaside and got ourselves into trouble with some creatures in the forest. Naturally, after that fight, everybody was hurt or exhausted, so after we’d cleared the most dense portion of the forest, we wasted no time in setting up our tent for the night.

Sleeping in shifts, we all went through a long (and uneasy) slumber. The backdrop of the forest with all its creatures had us all on edge as we’d already been attacked passing through it. But, the night passed by without any incident, mostly because the guard shifts kept a fire going all night which helped with the heating and also was a strong signal not to mess with us.

(The tent in all its muddied, dirtied glory)

When we all woke up again, it felt like we’d slept for a few months, which technically wasn’t wrong. Behind the scenes, I’d also rolled a few checks since neither Sasha nor Circe had kept up with their respective character conditions. Circe, being a reformed succubus, had the issue of her libido being unnaturally high. Ignore that and well… bad things could happen. Sasha, being a half vampire, half human, had the trait of becoming more sensitive to sunlight, looking less human, and of course, having a significant thirst for blood.

Waking up was a slow climb towards consciousness for all of us, the sound of rain outside of our tent didn’t help our miserable spirits. Stiff joints, cold, damp air, and the disorientation of sleeping in a few hours too many.

I groaned, “I hate this place, it’s miserable.”

Sasha, opening up the tent flap, recoiled and hissed, “why is it SO bright?”

I stumbled over towards the opening and stared out into the skies which were a jumble of grey and white clouds. “It’s not that bad you know?”

He grunted and I noticed that he was definitely looking rough.

Andrei sidled up next to him and shrugged his shoulders. “At least it’s raining. Imagine if it’d been a sunny day.”

Circe, having sat up, had the sheets wrapped around her as she said, “Uhm… Fairy, can you come over here for a while?” With a tone of voice that sounded as fragile as eggshells.

Looking back at her, I could see that she was striking a familiar pose, her eyes were now also faintly glowing red. I smiled and chuckled, “fuck no, I’m not going anywhere near you right now.”

She cleared her throat. “Just… just a minute. Thirty seconds. I’ll make it quick. Real quick, I promise.” She pleaded.

“If you make it quick and don’t hurt him, I think Sasha may be into it,” Andrei said with a smirk.

Circe stared at him with desperation in her eyes. “It has to be a human.”

“How do you know that?”

“I…” and here she groaned a bit, “I just know, OK?” She looked up towards me and now I could feel the attraction from her. “Please, this is really fucking uncomfortable.”

Kay stepped forward. “Does it have to be a male?”

“It can be anyone who’s human.”

“You promise not to hurt me, for real?”

She gave Kay a pained smile, “I promise. But if you won’t, anyone else will do that’s human. Anyone. Please…” and here she licked her lips and hissed and recoiled with pain as she accidentally grazed her hand against the cross on the side of her bag. She then shifted as she got into a kneeling position, rocking back and forth, almost sobbing. Her sheets had somehow shifted to give us all a glimpse of her cleavage and legs.

I found myself staring at her mindlessly for a few moments before I snapped out of it and looked around the tent. Practically everybody else was spaced out in the same way that I was. I raised my voice, “Alright, everybody but Kay get out of the tent, NOW!”

While everybody was reluctantly filtering out into the rain, Kay gently touched her shoulder. “You can have me, but don’t hurt me or … well, I won’t be able to continue with you, okay?”, Circe nodded with a grateful smile.

Outside, the rain was still coming down and a thick mist was obscuring the parts of the road that led further downwards towards the swamps. I shivered a bit in the cold as I pulled up my hood over my head.

Sasha stared at the water flowing down the road. “Why does it have to be a human?” he again murmured to himself.

Andrei shrugged, “because fuck you, that’s why.”

I leaned over towards them, “succubi need to feed on the innocent. Corrupted beings don’t count.”

Suddenly, we all heard deep moans and sounds of fabric being torn coming from inside the tent.

I smiled as I said, “nice… rainy day we have here, right everyone?”

Andrei glanced at the tent, but I patted his shoulder and pointed towards the road which was now flooding with rain. He restrained himself and asked, “should we… barge in or something? That doesn’t sound good.”

As if to challenge him, the sounds from inside the tent intensified. We started hearing what sounded almost like a mantra being uttered.

I sighed, “we’ll have to let them tough it out. Besides, the way things are now, they’d probably both try and attack us if we tried to interfere.” To busy myself, I inspected the cart and realized that we hadn’t tried to call back our remaining horse.

Sasha, also trying to distract himself, had noticed the empty front of the cart and whistled for the horse who came trotting back, looking thin, but still in pretty good shape. It rubbed its mule against him, looking for pets and a snack. Sasha smiled as he treated the horse to as much tenderness and care as he could while the sounds from the tent kept getting more distracting by the minute.

Mech nodded towards the horse. “That is most fortunate.” His rigid posture told us all that he wasn’t entirely immune to the effects either.

Meanwhile, Colleen, standing closest to the tent entrance, was starting to hear whispers in her mind that seemed to be beckoning her to enter it. For a moment, she turned towards the tent, her mind a perfect blank. Then she shook her head, turned around, and moved up next to Mech, grabbing his hand.

“Are you alright?” He said, studying her flustered face.

“A-aye… they’re… ” She drew a deep breath, “there are some powerful magics in there.”

Mech smiled back at her and squeezed her hand tighter. “Ignore your inclination to enter, you know this is just magic.”

Meanwhile, Niky, having felt an increasing urge, turned around and used her magical detection skill. The veil of the mundane lifted from her eyes as the tent and the world around her became less distinct. But inside the tent, she could see an epicenter of orange swirling masses of energy. Probing deeper, she could soon make out two figures, one red and one blue and their forms mingling.

At that point, she started having the curious sensation of being two people at the same time. One was staring at the scene, taking in all the details. The other was arguing with the first, whispering things that sounded like secrets in the night. She had to enter the tent, she always wanted to. Why wasn’t she doing anything? There was absolutely nothing to think about, just to do. Just to go there and see and feel and feed the red mistress, the red mistress, oh yes, so natural, so obvious, so…

A hand on her shoulder brought her back into the here and now, her detection spell fading. She turned around and saw Andrei standing there, his eyes burning fiercely. “Hey kiddo, I’m here.”

She looked up at him, “I…” Here she hugged him tightly, “we should give them some space…”

As he led her away from the tent, he sighed as well in relief.

Taking their cue, I followed and felt like I was walking away from a swelteringly hot open oven.

Behind us, the activities in the tent reached a crescendo as both Circe and Kay screamed in a way that for a moment, made them both sound like one expressing boundless joy and ecstasy. In the quiet that followed, we all felt the feverish, oppressive need to enter the tent slowly fade away like smoke on the wind.

I took a deep, shivering breath as I nodded to myself. “I think… I think they’re done now.”

Andrei nodded, still holding onto Niky who was leaning against his chest.

Colleen was still smiling at Mech and holding onto his hand. She whispered at him, “yer taking me ta bed tonite lad. No excuses yeah?”, Mech simply smiled and nodded.

Inside the tent, the two women were smiling at each other as they were still wrapped in an embrace. The sheets were now twisted around them both. Kay smiled at Circe, “damn woman, you really are a succubus!”

Circe nodded in appreciation, “you’re… no innocent spring chicken either…” While she panted a bit from the exertion, then she added, “you’re alright though I hope?”

Kay sat up properly as she took a deep breath, “surprisingly I’m not exhausted, I kind of feel like I could punch through a wall right now.” Then she looked up at Circe with alarm in her eyes as she said, “waitaminute you didn’t turn me into a succubus did you?”

Circe smiled as she shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t honestly know if succubi can turn people in this universe.”

The moment when Circe uttered the word “succubi”, Kay felt a tug, deep inside of herself as her forehead itched for a split second. She swallowed hard, “I feel weird, is there something on my forehead?”

Circe examined her forehead with a lover’s silly attitude as she planted a kiss on it and smiled. “You look fine to me… I know this isn’t what you signed up for, but yeah it happened.”

“Tell me about it,” Kay muttered back at her.

Pulling the silver cross off the side of her bag, Circe pushed it against her forehead and nothing happened. “See? I’m just me again, holy proof yeah!”

She then proceeded to kiss the cross before she nestled it between her sizable breasts.

Kay, still feeling unsure reached out towards her, “may I?”

Circe winked at her, “sure, just get in there. I won’t mind.”

Gingerly, Kay reached down into her cleavage and briefly touched the cross, and it felt just like your average silver cross. Her fingers brushed up against Circe’s breasts and lingered as both of the women smiled warmly at each other.

“It’s so… warm,” Kay said, her breathing getting slightly heavier.

Circe nodded, “careful… we don’t want to wake the beast again.”

Retracting her hand reluctantly, Kay nodded, “we should gear up, the others are probably bored to death out there.” She paused and added, “but if we didn’t have a mission to carry out…” as she lazily threw her clothes on.

Circe groaned as she got up laboriously, “oh, don’t get me started…”

“Hey, it’s your sword we’re after right?” Kay said as she started getting her gear together.

“Yes, and the hedonist in me regrets it every time we wake up like this,” Circe said as she started doing the same.

Circe was the first to exit the tent into the day, followed by Kay in tow.

She looked at all of us for a moment and there was an awkward pause as we were all more or less flustered (with some of us being still low-key horny).

“…Don’t tell me you’re all embarrassed here.” Then she spread her arms wide and said, “it’s a natural thing!”

Andrei scoffed, “nyet but you two almost dragged us all inside.” Then he blushed a bit, “at least the women anyway.”

Mech added, “we’re only human. Naturally, most of us were affected to some degree.”

Colleen sided up to Circe and whispered, “you an me are havin’ a fekkin talk later on proper maintenance fer a goddamn succubus alrite?”

Circe grinned sheepishly at Colleen. “Sure.”

Kay, siding up next to Circe, grinned. “Oh, I think I’ve got the hang of the maintenance bit.”

I sighed as I turned to Sasha, “So, can you get the horse settled with the cart?”

Sasha pointed to the already-readied horse. “It’s done. I seem to be immune to her powers, so figured I’d do something productive while you were all trying your best not to stare at the tent.”

Then as we all got on the cart, Sasha told us all to look away and then he did his thing with the tent. As he dropped the bundle into the cart and made his way to the driver’s seat, we all joked that it would probably become a running gag in every mission we’d do after this one. Because really, Sasha refuses to do it if someone’s looking at him actually doing it. I’m just assuming at this point that he does it using some special power he has in this macrocosm.

But, back to the story. As Sasha started to whistle his happy tune that got the horse moving, we all studied the landscape around us. Sometime later, we all started getting hungry as we’d completely skipped breakfast besides whatever small morses that we’d eaten while were doing guard duty.

What was obvious though was that even the MRE packages that we’d brought with us had been changed into what seemed like an assortment of dried herbs, preserved vegetables, dried meats, and hardtack.

I looked at the wrapped package of ultra-dense biscuits and frowned. “Oh yay, hardtack…”

Andrei though, had remembered his flask of infinite vodka that we procured in a previous campaign and he quickly opened it and took a swig, only to make a show of it and spit it out in a small jet of flame outside the cart.

While Kay rolled her eyes at him, I chuckled. “Impressive, I didn’t know you had that high proof of alcohol in that thing!”

Andrei now took a serious swig from it, wiped his mouth, and cringed as he said, “aaaah yes, the worst fucking vodka ever.”

(DMs note: Now, this flask, aside from having seemingly infinite vodka in it, also had the quirk that anyone who drank from it would taste whatever brand of vodka that they’d most like. Everyone of course, except Andrei, who for some reason always tastes the absolutely worst kind of vodka he’s ever had.)

Unwrapping the first bundle, I looked around the cart at everyone. “So, who wants some of this? I got meat, herbs, hardtack, and some kind of vegetables.”

Mech having studied the contents, nodded, “if you have any dried meats, I would want some of that with the herbs.”

Colleen was inspecting the stack of hardtack. “Soo, hardtack. Been a whoile since I’ve seen this, isn’t it supposed to be soaked in water or rum or sumthing before ya eat it?”

Andrei shrugged, “well, I have vodka.”

I made a face, “depends on how desperate you are, but historically speaking, yes they were crushed and mixed with water to make some kind of bread pudding. If you ate this as is, you’d probably lose a tooth eventually.” I turned towards Andrei, “even with vodka, we’re just looking to soak them, we’re looking at least 30 minutes here before we can start eating them. 15 if we crush it into a fine powder.”

The next few minutes were just spent with all of us cursing at how damn dense the things were as we ground some of them down into a somewhat rough powder that we put into two small pans. We then handed it to Andrei.

“Well, here we go,” Andrei said as he started pouring a decent measure of vodka on both the pans and mixed it as well as he could. After a while, we had something that did look like a porridge-like substance.

I looked at it with dread, “man, that looks SO fucking skeezy Andrei.”

Andrei grinned, “oh iz good food da? Zone cuisine, comrade!” As he took a bit and seemed to enjoy it.

Niky, sprinkling vodka over everything took a bite and nodded, “yeah this works. Probably tastes better too with this on top.”

Kay, not to be outdone by her, did the same.

Mech, chewing on his meat and herbs said, “This is quite excellently seasoned. I’m impressed.”

“Give me some of that,” Colleen said as she hungrily snatched a bit of meat from Mech and chewed on it. “Yeh, this is some mighty foine meat alrite. Herbs are a bit too dry tho.”

At this point, pretty much everyone was enjoying the impromptu feast as the vodka somehow made it all come together. (Not to mention getting us all more or less tipsy in the process)

Sasha, getting relieved by Kay in the driver’s seat, got his share as well and wolfed it down in seconds, then asked for more, complimenting Andrei on his cooking skills.

Circe also ended up having several portions as well, which was perfectly normal for her as sex in general always makes her ravenously hungry no matter where she is. I complained of course because she also ate my portion. So in the end, we used up double the amount of rations that we’d normally do.

During the whole thing, we had a very animated discussion about what herbs the packages contained, and we did manage to identify some of them by sight and taste. Of course, our discussion got a bit louder than usual as Andrei was passing his bottle around and we were all taking sips from it, you know, to compliment the food.

As always, I was emotionally moved when I took my swig. I handed back the flask to Andrei with tears in my eyes.

“Heh, too strong for you?” He said with a wry grin.

I shook my head slowly with a blissful smile. “Oh no, this is just so good. It tastes like a brand of vodka that no longer exists in the outside world. I really miss that and I’ve never been able to find another brand that’s quite that silky and smooth. If you want a taste note, imagine drinking the strongest, iciest water from a glacier. Fresh, clean, and to the point.” I sighed wistfully.

“Oh? Grey Goose isn’t smooth enough for you?”

I shook my head again. “Oh, that’s pretty good, but this was legendary man.”

Andrei chuckled, “well, if you want more, I’ve got more ‘holy water’ for you.” Then he wrinkled his nose at the flask.

Kay interjected, “Andrei, only you hate what’s in that flask, the rest of us like it. I still wonder why that is.”

Shrugging, he answered, “Eh, flask hates me. But it makes for a good cooking ingredient, da?”

As we kept up with our bantering about pointless things and past memories, the cart and horse made their way through the landscape, which was now starting to have more densely clustered forests and ground that was beginning to get more damp. About half an hour later, Sasha stopped the cart and turned around towards all of us.

“I think we’re heading into a swamp. “

We all hopped out of the cart to inspect the landscape and it was a very dreary sight, to say the least.

What we saw was a messy, muddy, and unforgiving swamp, there were portions where water had formed small lakes and puddles, meaning not all ground would be fit for a horse and cart.

Niky looked up at Sasha. “Do you think you could navigate through this place?”

He looked around as he nodded slowly. “Yes, there is a path, but it’s narrow and winding. I think me and the horse can figure out the way. He’s done this before, I can tell.”

After we all hopped back in, happy to have stretched our legs a bit (and still feeling the effects of the vodka), Sasha guided us slowly through the quiet and wet landscape. Meanwhile, the rest of us did our best to keep our watchful eyes on the trees whose branches were drooping with condensation and rain. Some of us did spot something jumping quickly from tree to tree, but by the time the group was alerted to it, whatever it was had vanished.

There were a few times when Sasha ran the cart a bit too close to the muddier areas, but miraculously, he managed to avoid getting the cart stuck somehow.

Back in the cart though, despite the morse surroundings, the vodka had certainly lifted our spirits.

“You know, this place should be getting us down on account of how goddamn dreary it is. But I’ll be honest, I feel just downright cozy back here in this cart, being tipsy and all.” I said, smiling at everyone.

Circe, smiling at Kay, leaned closer as she said, “I could go for another round you know…”

Kay giggled. “Oh, I bet you’re talking about the vodka right?” And then winked at her. “Maybe after we find your sword hmm?”

Circe, biting her lip nodded. “It’s a date.”

But, suddenly, Sasha spotted what appeared to be a body lying by the side of the rough path. Alerting us all to it, he slowed down the cart, then had a closer look and reported back that it seemed to be the body of a child. As we all peered out of the cart, we could also see what seemed to be a partially obscured body lying with its legs poking out of a dense area of reeds.

“Andrei, can you give it a closer look without getting out of the cart?” Sasha said as he no longer had a view of the body.

At this point, the cart had slowed down to a crawl as we were all on high alert.

When the body came into view, Andrei, with his sharper perception saw that it appeared to be a young peasant girl judging by the clothing. (A simple dress), but he couldn’t make out anything of the upper body, nor see if she was still breathing.

“Young kid, peasant clothes. Weird for being so far from civilization.” He said with suspicion in his voice.

Kay nodded, “Yes, I vote we keep moving, I don’t like this.”

“Da, she is a very dead kid, I think.”

Niky, trying her detect magic shook her head as well. “I’m not picking up anything magical though…”

At this point, Collen, likely having had one too many nips from Andrei’s body raised her voice. “If there’s a dam CHOILD out there, we hafta help her!” Then she jumped down from the cart before we could stop her.

Mech immediately got out as well, readying his sledgehammer, while Andrei yelled to Sasha to stop the cart, which he did immediately.

Looking back up towards us, she snarked, “ya bloody chicken farts, let’s go see wots happened with this poor soul, come on already!”

Andrei groaned, “it’s most likely a trap, or something even worse. It’s a waste of time.”

But, following the rest of us, he got out of the cart as well and we all spread out in a semi-circle, ready for anything.

Meanwhile, Colleen had gotten closer to the weeds, which she brushed aside as she managed to lift the limp body with some effort. With tears welling up in her eyes, she embraced the cold body of the girl and whispered to it, “oh ye poor choilde… ye never had a chance at life didya?”

And then something unexpected as a brilliant, radiant soft golden glowing light enveloped both of them.

I gritted my teeth as I pulled out my sword, “shit, here we go,” I managed to take a few more steps toward the brilliant light before it suddenly faded and we all heard the young girl cry out.

Mech started sprinting towards them, but mid-way he stopped and lowered his hammer, his face going completely blank. Then we watched the girl, not more than maybe 12-13 years old, hold onto Colleen as she cried against her shoulder.

Collen tried to calm her, “there, there lass… yer foine… yer absolutely foine now…I’m here.”

Niky, casting her detection spell again, shook her head. “This isn’t right, there’s NOTHING magical about any of them. You all saw it right? “

I grunted as I resolutely grasped my holy pendant and for a moment the world became a white blur. The light drizzling rain was a black assault on a white ground, all colors became washed out as I watched Colleen and the child, focusing on them. From Colleen, I just saw the natural colors of something living, but from the child, I saw a darkness, oozing tendrils outwardly from her face.

Then my vision, as always, cut out completely and I felt Circe grab onto me for support.

I yelled at Colleen, “GET AWAY FROM HER COLLEEN, THAT’S NOT A CHILD!”

At this point, everyone but me (who was blinded) had their weapons out and were approaching Collene who was shaking her head in denial and trying to move towards us with it in her arms.

But, then the child against her shoulder giggled in a strange creepy voice, as Colleen sank to her knees, her eyes losing focus of everything. We could see that the body of it was now undulating in a strange manner and it was clambering onto her even harder.

Kay, moving rapidly, got up to Colleen and the child, who turned its head 180 degrees to look at her. The face had now definitely taken on insectile characteristics and Kay noticed that small fibrous limbs, probably legs were starting to sprout from its clothes. She grunted with disgust as she placed the crossbow against the creature’s head and fired a bolt straight through its head.

As the creature’s body went limp and sagged away from Colleen, she collapsed as well, grunting as she fell unconscious. When the creature’s body rolled over on its back, everyone could see that while the back had been frightening, the front was even worse. It was almost all a big round maw similar to what you’d find on a lamprey. Kay never let her eyes off it and raised her bow as the mouth twitched a bit, but it seemed to be only residual spasms.

Kay, wasting no time, briefly put down her reloaded crossbow and got Colleen over her shoulder as she slowly backed away from the creature that was still perfectly still. She raised her voice, “Niky, bring the flamethrower NOW, burn that fucking thing to cinders.”

As Niky passed by Mech, he reached out and grabbed her arm and said with a strange voice, “Wait… wait, did we… just kill a child?”

Kay, still backing away, glanced at him as if to assess if he was a threat. “No, that was a demon insect thing. I also saved your gal from it, you’re welcome.”

And here, Mech’s eyes teared up, which is an incredibly rare thing to see. (And of course, I missed it!) as his voice got thick with emotion, “but… it was a child, I am certain of it.”

Niky, having gotten closer, torched the body with her flame thrower, and as the flames licked it, it suddenly started moving all its limbs in erratic ways as it shrieked with a tinny voice and then its body crackled as it caught on fire. Seeing this, Niky turned up the flow rate and turned most of the road into a fiery inferno. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and then she closed off the flow regulator and looked up at Andrei’s face.

“Well done kiddo. I think it’s really dead now.” He said as he surveyed the charred remains with a grim look on his face.

Meanwhile, with my vision returning, I saw Kay coming towards the cart and helped her get Colleen inside.

“Is she hurt? What happened?” I said anxiously as Key started pulling off her clothes.

“It was some kind of creepy insect demon thing, it’s dead and burnt now,” Kay said curtly.

“Oh I could smell that, but what happened with Colleen?”

Kay shrugged, pulling out what seemed like part of an insect leg, and tossed it on the bottom of the cart. “She seems mostly unhurt, but she passed out after I shot the thing through its damn head.”

Meanwhile, Mech had slowly moved up behind us and was still muttering to himself. “I don’t understand how everyone can be so–“

And at this point, I slapped his face hard and yelled at him, “for all things unholy and holy, SNAP THE FUCK OUT OF IT!”

Time seemed to stop as he seemed to become a bit more coherent. Then he turned around and looked at the charred, burning remains before he turned back to all of us with a confused look on his face.

Andrei moved closer. “Didn’t you see it change? And shriek when Niky burned it? It moved like a bug, not a human. You can’t see that?”

Looking back again to the burning corpse, his face returned to its neutral state as he turned towards us again. “…I could have sworn I saw a child and only a child. But… that clearly wasn’t one was it?”

I chuckled a bit as I patted him on the shoulder. “You got whammied. Classic charm spell.”

Andrei nodded, “da, it looked just like a child until it didn’t.”

Mech shook his head, looking back towards the cart. “But it seemed so real. I find this deeply disconcerting.”

Kay, picking up the spindly insect leg piece, tossed it over to him and said, “I pulled that out of your girl, she’s fine, but you tell me if that looks like something a child should have.”

Mech, examining the leg closely, shook his head, “clearly not a child then.”

I smiled at him. “Welcome to Dracula world I guess.”

Dropping the piece of the leg, he looked at all of us. “You must understand, up until a few minutes ago, I was absolutely certain you all engaged in the cold-blooded murder of a child”

Sending that there was more to this than a glamor, I asked him, “Mech, what the hell did you see happen here?”

Kay added, “and how the hell would there be a random child in the literal middle of nowhere?”

Andrei shrugged. “I also thought it was a child… until it giggled.”

Mech swallowed, “I saw the girl clamber onto Colleen, she hoisted it up, she turned around and then Kay shot her through the head. I saw the surprise and agony on her face as she fell down. And then Niky burnt her alive with her flamethrower and she screamed as if she… it had been a real child.”

Kay nodded, “there’s your smoking gun Mech, a real child would have died from the bolt alone. She couldn’t have screamed because she’d already been dead.”

I patted Mech on the shoulder. “There, there, big guy, I know those things can seem extremely realistic, but it was just a glamor, a charm spell to make you sympathetic to it. It wasn’t real.”

Mech drew a shaky breath and we could all see that he was struggling to return to his normally unemotional state. “I suggest we get out of here immediately. This could have gone very badly. Sasha, you have some expertise in medicine correct? Please examine Colleen for any… not obvious wounds or issues.” Crawling back into the cart, he sat down with Colleen’s head in his hands.

Sasha looked to the cart and Niky as he said, “I say I start putting some distance between us and this thing, there might be more like it. Besides, Niky is the one who knows a healing spell or two.”

And with that, we all piled into the cart again while Sasha got it moving again. Niky, examining Colleen’s body more carefully now, found no other damage done to her than the small pinprick of the insect leg that pierced her previously. But even that had just produced a small bead of blood that was already coagulating.

“I don’t sense anything wrong with her, I think she’s just unconscious,” Niky said as she exhaled with relief.

Andrei chuckled as he slapped her face gently a few times. “Wake up, sleeping beauty.”

Colleen then slowly opened her eyes and looked at everyone with confusion in her eyes. Then she yawned and said, “Awwwwwh… wot the feck happened?”

As this was happening, Sasha, prioritizing speed over accuracy, took a turn a bit too sharp with the cart which resulted in two of its wheels getting stuck in the mud, and losing their purchase. There was a sharp thud as the cart halted in place.

“…Great”, Sasha said as he looked down at the wheels and shook his head.

Getting out of the cart, I surveyed the damage while Andrei and Kay had their weapons and spells at the ready.

I shook my head, “I’m not an expert in cartwheelology, but I’m pretty sure that we’re gonna have to push this to get out of this spot.”

Meanwhile, inside the cart, Colleen suddenly remembered the child and darted up into Mech’s arms. “Noooo! OH! The choilde! Is she safe? Wot happened to her?!”

Kay, having kept the leg piece as a memento, handed it to her. “This happened.”

Colleen studied the leg piece for a bit before she realized what it was, then dropped it on the floor of the cart with disgust on her face. “She got eaten by a damn spoider?!”

Kay, picking it up and stowing it away said, “that was no child.”

“Wot?”

Kay smiled, “It was some kind of insect. Tried to eat you.”

“So.. yer tellin’ me that was no choilde?”

Kay groaned, “as I pointed out to the others… how…no, why would there be a child in here in the middle of nowhere?”

“I don’t bloody know! There are all koinds o’ creepy monsters here, maybe one of ’em snatched her from a village to have as a bloody snack?”

Sasha, leaning into the cart from the outside, dryly said, “if you all get down and help push, we can continue this conversation while moving, you know?”

After some struggling and cursing, we managed to get the cart back on firmer ground and then got back inside of it. As Sasha got it moving again, I muttered to myself, “I fucking hate swamps and sewer levels in games. ” which made everybody laugh a bit as we were now leaving the worst parts behind us.

Seeing Collen leaning back, exhausted, I prodded her, “so, what was that golden light that we all saw back there by the way?”

Colleen looked down into her lap for a second and then at all of us. “I… Ta be honest, I think it woz ded ya know? I felt meself wanting her… it not be ded and then I felt it revive in my arms. I’m still dead tired from that.”

“So, do you think you could perform anything magical now?”

She shook her head, “no, that was pretty fecking strong magic yeah? I think I’m done for the day.”

(DM’s note: I nodded as IRL I jotted down the specifics of the new spell and that it would completely drain her magical powers. But I was also amazed that we now had a healer and a resurrector in our group. Things were definitely looking up.)

Kay smiled at her “well next time we are in the middle of nowhere, don’t go around rezzing dead kids, okay?”

Colleen smiled weakly back. “Aye… I’ve lerned me lesson.”

We then spent another good half-hour talking among ourselves as we rested while Sasha managed to keep the cart and horse going at a slower, but still respectable speed. Eventually though, he spotted what appeared to be more sturdy ground ahead and with that, the trees started thinning out too. He also leaned in to tell us that he was now getting glimpses of what appeared to be a collection of wooden buildings between the trees up ahead.

Try as we might, nobody but Sasha could make out anything in the fading light.

Mech asked him, “are you seeing any inhabitants?”

Sasha shook his head while keeping his eyes on the path, “no, nothing of the sort. We’re too far away for that.”

Circe, dry as ever, leaned towards Mech, “maybe it’s another trap!” as she grinned mischievously.

Andrei grinned, “we can always have ourselves a nice big fire da?”

Kay sighed tiredly, “and alert everyone in the castle that we’re coming, great plan Androisha.” She added, “besides, we don’t know how well things would burn in this rain anyhow.”

“Eh, that thing’s corpse burned juuuuust fine didn’t it?”

Kay shook her head dismissively, “that corpse was under the direct flame of a flamethrower at full blast. That’s very different from what you’re suggesting.”

Circe, also getting annoyed, leaned into the discussion, “maybe not murdering everyone would be a good idea?”

Andrei shrugged. “We’re not murdering them we’re just suggesting them to live if they don’t want to burn.” Andrei leaned closer to me, “speaking of which, Fairy, you should use your power to inspect Colleen. After all, that thing perforated her a bit with its leg da?”

We all looked at Colleen who unconsciously rubbed the site of the wound and stared back at us. “Wot?”

I groaned, “I swear to fucking god, I’m going to be the King Tiresias of this campaign.” as I angrily grasped my pendant again and as before, the world faded into a milky wispy white again.

Looking around at everyone, they seemed like their usual selves. I smiled at Colleen, “you’re fine, you’re still that nice minty green as you always seem to be.”

She nodded and sighed in relief. “Thank ye… that makes me actually feel a bit o relief.”

Andrei, not satisfied, kept probing, “so no hints of brown or black near her abdomen?”

Feeling incredibly annoyed, I turned my head towards him and said sarcastically, “no hints of anything, although I can see you have the smallest spiritual dick in the world. Wow, it’s SO small! It’s like… wow… I’m…” and here my vision cut out again and I cursed to myself. “FUCK! I was going to make this whole bit about your balls too, but yeah, I’m blind as a bat now. I hope you’re satisfied.”

Circe rolled her eyes, “I swear, males and their genital obsession.”

Andrei snarked at her, “just wait until I fuck your ass, maybe you won’t think it’s small anymore, hm?”

At this point, we’d gotten closer and closer to the village with the buildings now being visible to everyone. The buildings in front of us were built of mostly ramshackle fittings, vines, wooden driftwood, and the like, but still had an air of sturdiness to them.

When we got closer we started to see hooded figures milling about the houses. Sasha pointed to them and said, “no wonder we couldn’t see them before. Those cloaks and hoods blend perfectly with the colors of this place.”

Hearing him, one of the figures stopped and labourously made its way towards us as we got out of the cart. Kay and Andrei had their weapons at the ready, but not held in a threatening manner.

The mysterious person was now facing us and its face was completely obscured. An old female voice, wise with age, drifted across the distance between us. “Ah, travelers. Very rare these days.”

Niky, feeling suspicious, quietly cast her detect magic spell in order to find out something more about this figure. But as the spell bloomed, she suddenly felt like she was in school, getting slapped by a stern female teacher for being a very naughty young lady. The vision was so strong that it disoriented her and when it faded, she could swear she was hearing the rest of her class laughing at her.

Her eyes widened as she stared at the figure that cackled with glee. “Mmm yes. Pretty thing that.”

(DM’s note: at this point, I made us a make-shift map of the town in paint and posted it in chat, because I was half expecting another encounter.)

Meanwhile, having been led out of the cart by Circe, I was mostly stumbling around until of course I stepped into a puddle of water, soaked my shoe, and cursed to myself.

The mysterious figure nodded approvingly in my direction. “Ah, one of you is blind? Then maybe you can see what needs to be seen.” Then there was a pause as she added, “well, who might you all be then?”

I scoffed to myself, “the answer to that question, for me, personally, would require me to write an essay.”

Mech, taking the initiative, moved towards her and bowed courteously as he said, “I am Mech… of the house of…” and here he glanced at Colleen before adding, “the Rutherfords, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Colleen catching on, smiled as she stepped up beside him and happily exclaimed, “roight! I’m Colleen of the Rutherfords, Mech’s me husband!”

(DM’s note: Colleen’s actual name is Colleen Rutherford. Cheeky bastards!)

Circe also stepped forward, suppressing her urge to roll her eyes at them. “I’m just a humble traveling nun.”

The figure let out a hoarse laugh and pointed to Kay with a finger that looked like an old withered branch, “But of course you are. As is your partner behind you.”

Andrei, still keeping his distance, said, “but the question here is, who are you people, living so close to the castle?”

The figure laughed again. “Ah, but we are simply the people of the swamp, living off what meager things the land provides us with. I’m the aged seer Tida, I hereby welcome you all to our humble village.” Then she turned around and pointed towards the castle, and we could all briefly see as her coat billowed that there was something grey and twisted underneath it. “We keep watch of the castle. Always wary, always mindful.” Then her voice lowered to a murmur. “Always cursed.”

With my vision now clearing up yet again, I blinked a few times as I remembered my dream about the place, a few days prior to running this session. “Oh, I can see again, that’s a relief. Say, Tida, did you send me that vision of your village a few nights ago?”

She turned halfway towards me, “no, but it calls to you doesn’t it? It’s siren song drawing you near?”

At this point, I was having goosebumps in real life as the dream had very much outlined the small village to me, along with the hooded figures. “how… do you know that?”

A strange hissing sound came from her. “Oh, you’re not the first pack of adventurers that’s been lured here by the promise of riches and fame.” Then she turned towards the village and beckoned us with one hand as she started walking. “But come, let us take you in for the day. You all look like you’ve really seen the the worst of our little swamp heh heh!”

Andrei, still hesitating, whispered to all of us, “am I the only one that thinks that may not be the greatest idea?”

Sasha, nodded almost imperceptively as he tried to use his truthsense to gauge in intentions. But as he observed her, he got absolutely nothing from her. No emotion, no lingering attitudes, nothing.

As he kept trying, Tida turned towards him and cackled again. “Hahaha, little boy. To try to teach a seer about seeing? Mmm.. come to my chambers later. I may have something for you.”

Staring into the empty darkness of her hooded figure, he slowly said, “you’re empty. There is nothing about you at all. You’re like a void to me.”

Again, that strange hissing sound emerged from her. “Am I? Or are you merely not just seeing the forest for all the trees?” Then she exclaimed, “but enough suspicion, we mean you no harm. Come, enjoy our simple existence, after all, we are the village of the damned!”

“Can we really trust you all though?” Sasha asked with doubt creeping into his voice.

Tida scoffed, “can we trust you? You are demons, succubi, angels, you come with fire, magics, weapons, and then of course the one among you that doesn’t quite belong.” as she turned her head towards me.

I leaned my head to the side, “what do you mean with that last thing?”

“For a blind man, you’re suspiciously… blank to me.”

I shrugged, “I’m not blind normally no. I can see just fine when I’m not using my special powers.”

Tida nodded at my pendant. “Ah yes, that item. Very curious. Very bright to my kind. It glitters like moonlight on the lake on a clear night.” Again, she turned towards the village. “come, your remaining time here grows short and we must make arrangements.”

As we entered the village proper, Sasha told her, “you can trust us as long as you don’t attack us.”

Laughing again, she replied, “oh the days of war are long past us.” And here she paused to put her foot down on a bug the size of a coconut, which she squeezed flat. “Unless you count our battle against these things.”

“Pests?” I ventured.

“Yes, let one in and it becomes ten, let ten of them roam and it’s theirs. Then you move out and they stay.”

My eyes widened. “Oh.. that was my nightmare. I was seeing your past. Bugs shooting eggs, or quills at you? A room turned into a desert, the animals taking over, the liquid seeping in at all angles. I was seeing your village before the swamp was here wasn’t I?”

Satisfaction had now crept into her voice. “So you do see mmm?” as she briefly looked back towards me, that black oval of her hood feeling like it was looking straight through me. But then she added, “maybe that’s a talk for another time. You need rest yes?” as she pointed to a small building.

I looked at everyone else. “What do you all say? Stay the night here? We won’t have to pitch that tent if we accept their hospitality.”

Circe, feeling drained, shrugged her shoulders, “I say fuck it, if they wanna kill us, let’s fight. If not, let’s rest.”

Mech nodded quietly in agreement, holding onto Colleen.

Andrei interjected, “We can try to find some dry land and mount our tent and then make a fire, then cook… nyeeegh, yeah screw it.”

Walking past the houses and trees towards the small rickety dock, I looked across the great lake and the mists that were obscuring the great castle of Dracula. I took a deep breath and wished that I hadn’t as the musty odors of the swamp were even stronger at the edge of the lake. I turned halfway back towards the others. “You should all see this!”

The rest of the group made their way to me as they all gawked at the sight. Dracula’s castle was still partially enveloped by the mists, but what we could see was a conglomerate of towers, bridges, buildings and intertwined in such a complex way that gave us the impression that we were looking at a small city.

“That’s… a LOT bigger than I imagined it would be,” I said with a bit of trepidation creeping into my voice. The reason being was that I’d had the idea that we’d been further into our campaign by now. But clearly, my subconscious and this world had its own plans about sizes and distances.

Sasha scoffed, “anyone got a plane? Or even a helicopter?”

Colleen joined us, “oh ye weren’t kiddin before when ye said it was big.”

“Hogwarts much?” Niky said with a smile.

I shook my head in disbelief, “no, Hogwarts was never this gothic and dark.” Then I pointed at a patch where the mists were clearing up a bit. “Look… at that huge clock tower thing in the middle. Crazy.”

“Indeed, this place is leagues bigger than our usual castle,” Mech said while taking in the details, no doubt making himself a mental map of the areas he could see.

“So… we all go into the place and call it?” Andrei murmured.

I pointed towards the lower parts of the castle, “that place is quite a distance away. Do you see that wall? That’s what likely separates the castle grounds from the surrounding area. And, we can’t even see the other shoreline from here either, so we have no idea what’s waiting for us when we get there by boat. Oh and yeah, we somehow need a boat to cross this place. And considering what we’ve experienced thus far, I wouldn’t recommend us using just any boat either. Who knows what’s lurking in that damn lake?” I slowly shook my head. “I say we’ll let the villagers extend their hospitality. Our supplies are limited and there’s no way of knowing how fucked we are once get into that castle.”

A bony finger against my back made me yelp as I turned around, half ready to see Dracula himself looming over me. But it was just Tida. “Yes, we offer our hospitality,” she said with a very still voice.

“As a seer, do you understand that we’re very different from most adventurers?” I felt a sense of frustration when I couldn’t figure out if my words had any effect on her, but I added for good measure, “when we go to rest… we might not move at all for several months, do you understand?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes, but I think you’ll want to see the boatsman after you’ve had your rest.”

“Can he take us across the lake?”

“Yes,” she said and paused while she looked across the lake. Then she turned towards the house she’d indicated earlier and said, “be polite when you meet him. He’s much like us, but at the same time, he’s his own creation.” As I was about to ask another question, she lifted her bony hand and said, “you’ll know everything when you meet him after your rest. Come with me now.”

And as we followed her to the house, which was shaped oddly like an L, the group had some hushed conversations.

Colleen looked up at Mech with a mix of excitement and surprise, “sooo, we’re goin’ ta sleep in there then?”

Mech shrugged, “it would seem that way.”

“Bloody creepy lookin’ place if ye ask me.”

Mech gave her a small hug, “we will be safe.”

Andrei smiled wryly, “I mean, do we have a choice? Highly doubt there’s a place stable enough to mount the tent anyway.” Then he looked thoughtful and turned to me. “Also, is it just me, or did the old fuck not mention this place?”

“Which old fuck?” I said with confusion in my voice.

“Guy who told you the story? The drunk.”

I thought for a bit. “They might have circled around the lake.” Then I added, “I mean, it’s logical, they had tons of pack animals and people. Going across the lake seems stupid with that much of a load. And, coming back with even more gold would probably not work that well with whatever they have here as boats, if they have any at all.”

As we were now all standing outside of the building. Kay interrupted us before we could continue. “So, let’s go inside, it’s getting late.”

And with that, we headed inside the strange building, which made a sharp turn towards the left to an elongated room turned into a sleeping area of sorts. All around on the walls were intricate wooden carvings, and some beautiful designs were hanging from the ceiling as well. Lighting up the room with a dim glow was a sizeable lamp that had a rectangular design.

When I inspected it closer, I found that the sides of the lamp were made with some sort of skin. I turned around towards Tida, intending to thank her, but she’d already left. I shrugged my shoulders, “well, I suppose we can all get to relaxing then.”

Sasha sat down on a cot and looked up at me. “Also, don’t worry about the horse, I unshackled it like before when we entered the village.”

“So where is he now then?” I asked him.

“With the villagers probably.” Then he nodded to himself. “You know what? I’ll go check with them to make them understand that they have to feed him and take care of him properly.”

Circe, smiled at him as she grabbed a big privacy screen and started carrying it to the far side of the room. “I’ll… be a moment before bed everyone. You know what I have to do.”

Kay smiled at her. “Mind if I join?”

Circe:… maybe that’s .. not the best idea.

“Suit yourself,” Kay said as she slumped down on a cot of her own.

With that, Sasha headed out into the village and tried to get the villagers to tell him where the horse was. But either they ignored what he said, or just stood there silently for a while, staring at him with their hidden faces until he went to find someone else. After trying that for a while, he started trying to ask them if they knew where the seer was. Again, he was met with silence, or just plainly got ignored.

Meanwhile in the house, after some quiet attention to herself, Circe peeked out from behind the screen and smiled at everyone. “Alright, all ready for bed over here!”

And as she got on a cot and closed her eyes, the peace was disturbed by Sasha closing the door to the shack a bit too hard. When he sat down on his cot, he said with a defeated tone of voice, “I had no luck finding the horse nor the seer, everyone either ignored me or stared at me. I guess we’ll just have to risk it.”

I nodded, “yes, but look at it this way, we’ve come as far as we’re going to with the horse and cart anyway right?”

“That’s what I was thinking… but… are we coming back this way? Or just… opening a magic portal?”

I chuckled, “I have no idea how this world works you know?” And then my eyes widened as I realized that due to me not having any admin rights in this macrocosm, I couldn’t create an exit as I’d do in most other of our macrocosms. “Shit, that’s a good point, I have no clue how we’re going to get out of here after we’re done.”

“Well, maybe we can just go to sleep and exit it that way once we’re done.” Sasha mused to himself.

With that, our conversation pretty much died down as one by one, we all drifted off to a cozy, warm sleep that was very unlike what we’d gotten used to with the tent.

And, that also wrapped up the session for this time around!

We hope you all enjoyed reading about it and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to use the form below. We love feedback!

 

As always, I’m your chronicler

– Wondrous Fairy