Hi everyone!

This is part five of our adventure set in a macrocosm dedicated to the Dracula mythos. In our irreverence, of course, we’ve named it Dracula World. So, why are we here? One of our tulpas needs a second magical great sword. And what better way to obtain one than to steal it from the mythical castle of Count Dracula? However, if you’re new to this story, I highly recommend you start at the humble beginnings with the [Inn]

Last session, we made it through the dank swamps, encountering a village on the grand lake that separated us from the castle proper. In said village, we took stock of where we were in our trek and we realized that we had a really long way to go. In the end, we graciously accepted the strange (and seemingly cursed) swamp villager’s hospitality and went to sleep in a barracks of sorts.

A long time of space passed in real-world time as per usual until we could all get together for another session. This session’s crew manifest is:

My side:

Niky’s side:

Sasha was the first one to wake up out of everyone. It was an early morning, and the mists were still enveloping the houses in the village. Not that Sasha was particularly aware of that as anything but a minor detail, because his entire mind was filled with a strong, sanguine need for blood. Looking at us sleeping, he had two distinct impressions of the scene in front of him. One was seeing his comrades-in-arms safe and out of harm’s way, but there was also another, darker urge to see us as food.

Realizing that his more primal nature was now asserting itself, he quietly made his way out of our barracks and into the village. Passing the houses in the dead quiet of the morning, he became aware of some smells coming from inside that enticed him. But, for each of the houses, there was also a strong, alien smell that spoke of decay and a twisted darkness within.

A few moments later, he had completed a circuit of the village and determined two things. Firstly, there was a distinct lack of wildlife within its borders, secondly, there was absolutely no smell of the horse anywhere. He mused to himself that maybe this once, that was a good thing as he wasn’t really sure if he would have greeted the horse or simply drained it on the spot.

With his face growing ever grimmer and more feral, he ventured into the nearby swamp, stalking, and hunting for anything with a warm body to sink his fangs into. Ignoring the multitude of minor creatures, he soon found himself coming up on a ragged wolf that was chewing on a rotted carcass.

It obviously had wandered in from the same forest that we’d passed through earlier, in search of easy prey. But judging by its appearance, the bountiful hunting ground had been anything but nourishing for it. When Sasha quietly stepped into the small, shallow pool, it sensed the disturbance in the water and turned around with a snarl, ready for battle.

Sasha’s smile turned into a feral grin, he could smell the naked hunger coming off the creature, along with its alluring, intoxicating feeling of vitality coursing through its body. Such a strong, vibrant heartbeat too. Oh yes, he would certainly enjoy this feast.

The wolf was a lot faster than he’d given it credit for as it rushed him, narrowly missing him with a bite that had its jaws snap together with a thick, crunching sound. At this point, they’d both moved up to firmer ground, which offered a lot better footing. Sasha hissed with delight as he pounced on the wolf, with his strong hands seeking to pin it down to the ground so he could drain it. But the wolf wasn’t some cub on its first hunt, as it managed to slip free and get some distance between itself and Sasha.

Now, sensing that this wasn’t easy prey, but a rival hunter, the wolf tried to slowly circle around him. Sasha though, was beyond such considerations as the only thing on his mind was the pure lust for the red liquid rushing through its veins.

Again, the wolf surprised Sasha as it darted towards him and went for his throat. But, turning slightly, Sasha managed to present his shoulder to it which it bit deeply into. As he firmly grasped the neck of the wolf and tore it away from himself, the intoxicating smell of his own blood made him go absolutely feral as he violently slammed its body into the ground, stunning it. He sank his fangs deep into the wolf’s throat and drank deeply of its blood. Growling like an animal himself, he kept it pinned down as he gorged himself on its blood until its snarls turned into feeble whimpers which slowly ebbed out along with its life.

Hearing growling coming from behind him, Sasha quickly got back up on his feet and saw two bigger wolves behind him, definitely in better shape than this one. But, as they saw his blood-soaked face grinning and snarling at them, they both wisely turned tail and ran away as fast as they could.

The instinct to pursue them was almost impossible to resist, but eventually, his common sense prevailed. The fight was over, he had sated himself he reasoned. But there was always that nagging hunger in the back of his mind, whispering to him to hunt, kill, and feast until there was no prey to be found.

He made his way around the village, careful not to alert anyone as he headed for the lake shore. There he washed the blood off his face in the cold lake waters and sat down for a bit to bask in his revitalized state. It was intoxicating as he felt strong enough to rip the arms off a troll and pound it to death with it. When he inspected the wounds on his shoulder, he wasn’t at all surprised when he found that they’d healed within that short span of time. Taking off his shirt, he washed it as best he could, but ultimately, he decided to cut off a few bloodied pieces of cloth around the hole that the wolf had torn open as he wrestled it off himself. Burying the pieces of cloth in the mud, he made his back to our room and quietly laid down to rest a bit before the rest of us woke up.

(DM’s note: This is what happens when you ignore a bloodlust for too long as a vampire-kin. Sasha, being a half-vampire had the benefit of having a bit more control of his condition. But yes, it was down to a dice roll of him losing it in the barracks, thankfully he rolled high enough.)

Colleen was the second one to stir under her comforter as she yawned loudly and took stock of the surroundings around her. As she got up into a sitting position and rubbed her eyes, she said, “me bloody back hurts from this bed, I think I prefer wakin’ up in our damp tent.”

Circe nodded. “Yeah, and I’m hungry, like seriously fucking famished at this point. What’s for breakfast?”

Yawning and wrapping my comforter tightly around me, I replied, “trail rations as always.”

Andrei chuckled. “I swear Circe, the only two things on your mind are food and sex.”

Circe groaned. “I’m tired of trail rations. Maybe we should ask the villagers if they have any food.”

Sasha shook his head, “I don’t think you want whatever they call food.”

Andrei got up, checking his gear. “Days in here are wonky, so I say, let’s find the boatsman first, then we can eat in the boat on our way across the lake.”

“We should talk with Tida first,” I said rubbing my arms to get some warmth into them. “She’ll know the way to contact him.”

As we all packed up our gear and headed out into the village, the sun had risen a bit higher, but the castle across the lake was still enshrouded in mist. The villagers were out, but the whole feeling was that they hadn’t really gotten started with their chores for the day.

Addressing a villager who was coiling up some rope, I asked it, “Excuse me, but do you have any idea where we might find Tida?”

The villager grunted and pointed towards a couple of buildings that were a bit higher up and to the side of the village.

As we turned to look at the building, I muttered to myself, “well, helpful as I ever I guess…” Then I turned towards the group. “Actually, I have a good question for all of you, do any of you have anything else you’d like to do before we move on?”

Kay winked at Circe, “maybe we could let them deal with that while we make sure you don’t go crazy, hm?”

Circe briefly smiled back at her, “nah, I’m good.” Then she looked at me before she nodded to herself. “Yup, I’m absolutely a-OK.”

Kay shrugged her shoulders, “all I’m saying is, a quickie now is better than a 3-hour romp later.”

Giggling, I asked Circe, “wait, were you just checking my ass?”

“Yes, I was! I needed to know if I had any urges. And I don’t… my thing was that I need to do something, anything, at least once a day right?”

“Yeah, just… eh, jill off before bed and you’re good… I think.” I said with some uncertainty in my voice. My memory of the event between her and Kay in our previous session was still vibrant in my mind.

Kay opened her mouth as if to say something to Circe, but then frowned instead, clearly displeased with the whole thing.

Niky looked back to our barracks and then to us. “I’m gonna stay behind and… boil some water.” as she headed off to do just that.

With nobody else saying anything after that, we all made our way to the buildings and I knocked on a door that slowly opened into a pitch-black interior. “Tida?” I said to the figure inside, struggling to remember if she looked any different from the other villagers. The figure pointed to the house opposite. “Oh, thank–” I started before it slammed the door in my face. I sighed deeply and moved across the muddied road towards the other house.

“People man,” Andrei said with scorn in his voice.

“Creepy goddamn swamp villagers you mean,” I said, matching his tone.

“Eh, same shit.”

“I don’t think it counts as the same thing.” Sasha pondered.

As I knocked on the door, it slowly swung open by itself. Peeking inside, I could see that there was just enough room for a small fireplace and a comfortable chair. In the chair, swept up in rags, a figure was leaned back, clearly resting.

“Tida?” I said softly as the figure immediately jerked up into a more proper sitting stance.

Nodding, Tida replied, “yes… yes… you’ve finally awakened. You were asleep for so long that we feared that you would never wake up again.”

“Well, I did warn you when we first met.”

“Yes. But you were in a very deep, deep sleep. There was a debate on what to do with you. I argued you were cursed. That stayed everyone’s hand.”

I shrugged. “We exist in a different place sometimes, not knowing when we can come back here again. I suppose that makes us… cursed in a way.”

“Aaaaah. So that’s why you seek the castle.” She replied, not knowing how ironic her words were.

“We’re here to ask you how to summon the boatsman, to get across the lake.”

She nodded slowly. “Ah yes, the boatsman. It is said he was one of us. But if he was, he is from a time so far away that even our oldest stories have forgotten him.”

In the background, Sasha, as always, focused on trying to sense if she was truthful or not. This time though, instead of sensing nothing, he was sensing something he couldn’t interpret. It was like trying to lick a labyrinth, or seeing a color that doesn’t exist, or trying to sing a song that doesn’t have a melody. It was confusing him, and eventually, he stopped trying to make sense of it.

“So, can you help us summon him then?” I asked her, figuring the direct approach was the best one.

Getting up and going over to the hearth, she nodded. “Yes… but we will need a fresh heart.”

“Does it matter what kind of heart is presented?”

“Oh, anything decently large will do, we could use that horse of yours,” she said with a bit of hunger creeping into her voice.

“Oh, so it’s still alive? That’s a relief.”

“Alive yes. But not happy. It tried to run away. We kept it here, safe from the swamp.”

Sasha smiled, “I… may have something… it will take me a few minutes to get it though.”

I turned my head towards him, “Good, then arrange for it and we’ll get things started.”

As Sasha left for the place where he’d killed the wolf, Circe stepped inside the old shack.

“Uhm, do you have any food to eat? It’s not like we’re starving, but I’d like some change from our rations. I’ll trade you for anything good you might have.” She said, clearly being a bit rusty in the trading game.

Tida held up a bowl of broth that had a light brown color to it. Simmering in it were bits and pieces of something. A smile crept into her voice, “we have that of the swamp. We accept its bounty.”

“What .. kind of bounty does this swamp give you?”

“Oh…, some meats sometimes, other times it’s insects, roots, some fruits, herbs, dried grasses,” and she leaned down to smell her bowl, “simple things.”

“Would you be willing to part with some meat? I’ll pay you for it.”

Tida cackled to herself, “oh what hosts would we be if we took your money? No, I’ll signal the chef,” and then brushed past me and Circe as she let out a loud chittering, trilling sound. After a while, a door opened in one of the houses, and a villager stepped out to reply. “There,” Tida said as she moved inside and closed the door behind her.

“Maybe we should be cooking that ourselves, as to not impose too much on you…” Andrei said as he turned around and noticed the door was closed. “Damn, not again.”

Colleen patted his shoulder, “It’ll be foine, yer worryin too much.”

“I’m not so sure about that, did you hear that noise she just made?” Then he added, “I don’t think they want to hurt us, but they seem different enough that whatever they think can’t hurt us might actually end up being bad. I don’t know about all of you, but I’d rather not spend the rest of the day in agony in some toilet.”

Meanwhile, the villager further down in the village beckoned us as it went back inside its house again. As we headed down into the village, we saw some villagers who were unloading some fish and other creatures from a net. One of them picked up a big club and smashed something out of view that shrieked briefly. It then started cutting into whatever creature it was with a big knife.

As we reached the house and we ventured inside, the interior was mostly like a big kitchen. Foodstuffs were hanging from everywhere in the ceiling, barrels were stacked against one wall, crates on another. The smell of food inside was odd, but not unpleasant.

Meanwhile, outside of the village in the swamp areas, Sasha had reached the carcass of the wolf where several birds, mostly crows were fighting over scraps. As he approached, they all took flight and he saw that they’d been very busy as the carcass was missing quite a few things now. He also noticed that some of the innards had been pulled out and that there were big footprints in the mud around the area leading off into a denser portion of the swamp.

Cursing to himself, he crouched down and examined the innards of the wolf and as fortune would have it, the heart was still there. Carefully cutting it out, he used some rags to make a make-shift bag that he used to carry it back with him.

Back at the lake, Niky had spent some time foraging around the lake for any roots or herbs that she could find. Scaring away a few frogs and going through some reeds, she found a bunch of small roots that smelled aromatic and delicious. She also found a few sprigs of something that reminded her of rosemary. As she returned up towards the village, she rejoined us at the kitchen.

The villager in the kitchen gestured towards it all, “food,” it said with a shrug.

Circe looked around with a glint of hunger in her eyes, “meat, any of it that you have. Please. I’m so hungry.”

“Meat… meat, of fish, or that which crawls or wolf and goat?”

Circe’s face brightened up, “oh! Fish please.”

The chef villager pulled down what looked like a dried fish, it had a very pungent smoked aroma to it. It placed it on a plate and handed it to her, “FISH!” It said with some hunger in its voice.

“Thank you so much,” she said before she carefully bit into it. “Oh! this is kind of soft!”

Circe: Oh.. this is .. soft!

The chef nodded excitedly, “yes, smoked, spiced, delicate.” Then it turned to the rest of us. “What do you desire?”

Colleen grinned, “Do ye have any sort of beer?”

“I’ll have some of that too,” Andrei said.

The villager went over to the various barrels and smelled them, then slowly shook its head.

Then it turned to me, “Yes?”

“I’ll have some vegetables if you don’t mind.”

“Ah! Yes, root and supple greens!” It said as it opened up a bag and pulled out something that looked like mixed bits of vegetables and placed it in a bowl. It moved over to some of the jars and pulled some pinches of what looked like salt and some herbs, seasoning it as it mixed some kind of dark grey paste into it with some water. Finishing it off, it handed me the bowl with a gracious bow and a spoon.

“Oh, this smells amazing,” I said as I ventured outside the house to sit down at a row of logs clearly cut out for that purpose.

“I will simply have some water,” Mech said.

“Yes, water, lively and pure!” The chef said as it poured some water into a cup. The water itself seemed to sparkle a bit more than usual, but once it settled in the cup, it looked just like any other water. Handing over the cup to Mech, it said, “drink up and be healthy!”

Mech nodded as he drained it immediately and nodded in satisfaction as he handed back the cup to the villager. “Delicious. I shall be outside.” Before he left the kitchen.

Getting a cup of water, Colleen headed outside as well and sat down next to me, frowning.

Seeing her state, I was reminded that I did have a bottle or two of cheap vodka that we’d obtained in the same macrocosm where Andrei had obtained his flask. I smiled as I pulled out the bottle, now looking a bit less fancy and without a label on it. “Hah! there we go!” But then I remembered Andrei’s flask and put it back into the bag again. “Could you serve us up some of that feel-good juice?” I said to him.

Chuckling, Andrei nodded as he pulled out his flask and let it do the rounds. Colleen was first as she took a big swig out of it and nodded, handing it to me. “Aaah, that’s a lot better than bloody fish I tell ya!”

Andrei smiled at her, “You should eat some too, it’ll do you good.” As he took a bite from his fish as well that he’d gotten inside. “This is damn good.”

Meanwhile, Sasha and Niky went inside and ordered the fish. But when the chef saw Sasha, it sniffed appreciatively in his direction. “Ooooh, wolf? Fresh!” Pointing to his makeshift ragbag.

He shrugged, “I… it attacked me, and I killed it. We need it for something.”

“Oh… so not for eating. I could make a strong, good stew with it.” The chef said with obvious hunger in its voice now.

Sasha, picking that up said, “sadly, Tida said we needed a fresh heart for… something.”

Nodding hastily, the chef went back to preparing plates with fish that it handed out, “Ah… if Tida said, Tida means. Yes yes.”

Meanwhile, another villager from the shoreline came in with a big basket of fish and other assorted creatures from the land and put it on the loud floor with a thump. As it exited the kitchen, the chef looked at the basket and sighed as its shoulders slumped a bit.

Soon enough we all had something to eat as we sat along the side of the house, watching the others working. My salad had some odd textures in some parts. After a few bites, I realized that the strange spongy texture of some of the darker bits was likely bark. Picking those bits out, I focused on the other parts which were roots and some kind of yellowish vegetable, and bits of seaweed.

Circe was wolfing down her fish and washing it down with vodka from the flask as she said, “this is soft, but also kind of crunchy. I think you can eat almost all of this,” as she gnawed off as much fish as she could get off the bones. Finishing her plate, there were only bones left over as she put it down. She grunted in satisfaction as she leaned back. “Oh yeah, this is so much better than trail rations.”

Colleen shrugged as she was chewing on a scrap of leftover meat from the trail rations that had gotten a bit drier than usual. “So, we’re headin’ out or what?”

Andrei nodded as he got his flask back and took a sip. “Yeah. We should get moving, or at least find Tida to help us on the next step.”

And as we all filtered into the kitchen to return the bowls and cups, we all graciously thanked the chef whose body language suggested that it was pleased with our reception of its food.

Heading back up again to the house, we knocked on the door again as before. Tida opened it while sniffing the air, cackling to herself. “Ah! Fresh, bloodied Wolf! It will please the boatsman…” then she turned towards Sasha, “hunted it yourself, did you?”

Sasha, staring at the black oval, suddenly felt the sensation of a grin, very wide and very ravenous coming from her. “So, what do we do next with it?”

Tida pointed downwards towards the water and the rickety-looking dock. “Place it there and wait nearby. He’ll come. He always does.” Then she paused for a moment. “He will be very pleased with this, a strong powerful wolf’s heart will appease his inner demons.”

“So, how long do we wait then?” I said, wondering if we were going to be making a day of it.

“Long enough.” She said over her shoulder as she went inside her house, closing the door behind her.

Heading down to the dock, I turned to Sasha, “I suppose you could stay here and meditate with the heart close by while the rest of us do other things.”

He nodded, “yes, after this morning’s hunt, I could really use some peace of mind.”

Circe grinned, pulling Kay closer to her. “Well, if we’re going to be doing ‘waiting things’ I think me and Kay are going to be doing some ‘maintenance’ up by the barracks. That is, if you’re up for it?”

Kay replied with a mocking noble tone, “oh, why yes my dear, I would love to join you for some quality time.”

As both of them headed up, Mech stayed behind, observing the villagers, curious as to what their lives were like. Colleen stayed next to him, having a quiet conversation. Niky decided to head to the other side of the village to see if she could scrounge up some more roots and herbs and whatever else she could find.

(DM’s note: In real life, me and Niky took a break here to make some food, because the feast had made us both very hungry. Of course, while making said food, I was also keeping an eye on the dock to see if anything was happening, because, after all, it was my macrocosm that this plays out in. And Sasha, being Niky’s tulpa can’t very well exist in my head. When we disengage from our chats, the simple explanation is that since I get no input from her about what her tulpas are doing, they sort of idle in the macrocosm until we return to the chat.)

While I was eating, my mind’s eye observed that the mists, instead of burning off in the daylight, were thickening considerably. Meanwhile, Niky, having finished her foraging, returned to Andrei, and together they unloaded the supplies from the cart, including the holy water which they distributed across everyone in the party. (After all, water bottles, even small ones are pretty heavy if they’re made out of glass)

Finally being back, we all sat around and talked for a while about nonsensical everyday things. At this point, the mists had completely obscured the lake and were slowly filtering into the minuscule bay by the docks. Then we all heard a nautical bell chiming as a very large flat-bottomed boat silently came gliding out of the mists.

My eyes widened as I took in the craft and the quiet boatsman, patiently waiting for us without saying a word. Sasha, still in a meditative trance, stood up and climbed aboard first.

Andrei, hurrying after him, stopped at the edge of the dock, looking around for the heart. “Where the hell did it go?” Shrugging to himself, he also climbed aboard the boat, followed by the rest of us.

As we got aboard, we saw Sasha, still entranced, bowing to the boatsman before sitting down off to the side.

Colleen, looking up at the impressively tall figure, said, “hey there boatsman, what toll do you take for passage across the lake? What coin do ye take?”

We were all startled when Sasha, still in a daze spoke with a dark, deep voice, “the toll is a drop of your blood, to be paid at the end of the journey.“

The boatsman, turning around to Colleen, revealed a stern, ashen, and timeless face that seemed to be cut from stone. He nodded curtly at her.

Andrei, being worried, examined Sasha to determine if he was possessed. Finding nothing really wrong with him, except his dazed state, he settled in next to him.

As if sending the worry in his mind, the boatsman stared at Sasha for a bit and then touched his shoulder which caused Sasha to stiffen momentarily before he drew a deep, shivering breath, now having regained his own sense of self.

Colleen looked at the boatsman and said, “So, yer not acceptin’ copper coins then…”

There was a brief shadow of a smile crossing the stony features of the boatsman as he spoke with his own voice this time, “no, that is not the kind of journey that you will be taking here,” and then he paused a bit, before adding, “but I advise you all to be still, this lake carries much in the way of forgotten, putrid atrocities. Some may yet live.”

With that, he started moving his large oar in the water and we briefly caught a last glimpse of the swamp village before we found ourselves enveloped in the thick mist. For a long while, the only thing that we heard was the soft creaking of the wood and the sound of the water rushing past the sides of the boat.

“So, boatsman, are you in league with Dracula and his kind?” I found myself asking him out of the blue.

A long pause went by before he turned partway around, looking at me with his stony face. “I go where I’m needed.”

With that, he turned back again and continued slowly rowing with his large oar.

I shrugged, “well… I guess that’s as good of an answer as we’ll get.” Then I leaned back, “well, either way, It’s a big lake so it’ll take some time before we arrive over there.”

(DM’s note: At this time, Niky was asking me what her foraging had uncovered before we embarked on the boat. (IRL, she had been eating food too) My reply was that while foraging, she found some more of the rosemary-like herbs, a decent amount of good bark which she suspected could be used for healing salves, a whole trove of potatoes, some roots which she determined to be horse radish, a bunch of some interesting ferns, a few really delicious looking big brown mushrooms and a small intensely yellow mushroom, and lastly, a very neon green looking mushroom which compared to the other mushrooms, looked very pristine.)

Andrei, still somewhat keeping his eye on Sasha, got out his flask and took a swig from it. “Anyone else wants some?”

With the flask again making its rounds around the group, Colleen mimed something at me which at first, I didn’t get. When I realized she was trying to say something without talking, I said, “Colleen, you can talk. He’s not going to kill you because you say something.”

She gave the boatsman a suspicious glance, “ye sure? I’ve read a lot about ferrymen, especially Charon, who’s a rite bastard.”

Kay gave her a warning glance, “I would not use those words.”

There was a rattling sound coming from the boatsman, it took us all a moment to realize that he was in fact chuckling to himself.

“Well, I’m pretty feckin’ sure this ain’t the guy. Fer one, he doesn’t accept coins.”

“Better to not insult him while he’s graciously taking us across the lake though, right?”

Colleen nodded, “fair point,” as she took a big swig from the bottle and passed it to Mech.

Mech first took a small sip that he swallowed, and then a bigger swig which he spit over the railing into the lake, “for the lake goddess,” he said with a serious expression on his face before he handed the flask back to Andrei.

“There’s a lake goddess?” I said, wondering if I’d somehow missed a cue to there being one.

“I am not sure. It felt like a decent gamble to sacrifice something to her if she does exist.”

Andrei sniggered, “this could be that moment when we find out the lake goddess is a recovering alcoholic and now wants to kill you since she got drunk again.”

Kay sat in silence as she gave Andrei a death stare that meant she was likely considering pushing him overboard into the cold water.

I chuckled, “So hedging your bets huh?”

Looking out over the water, Mech nodded, “yes.”

“I wonder if this mist is his doing or if it’s something else producing it now. You all saw how quickly it came out of almost nothing.”

“It is the lake itself that creates it.” the boatsman said suddenly and then quieted again.

In the dead silence after that, I turned to Niky and said, “so, pleased with how your foraging went?”

She shrugged, “bits and pieces so to speak. I’m glad I found potatoes though.”

“Potatoes… you know, I just realized that we didn’t see any potatoes in their kitchen.”

Mech, having stared at the mist turned around, “perhaps they do not consider potatoes pleasant to eat,” he said with a tone of voice that made it clear he’d been likely thinking about that detail.

Niky handed me a potato, “I’m pretty sure though this is a potato, you don’t need a botanist to figure that out.”

Holding what looked like a fairly robust russet potato in my hand, I turned it over a bit before handing it back, “yes, that’s a pretty good-looking potato alright.”

“And that is how we abandoned the expedition and started a potato farm,” Andrei said jokingly.

Me, leaning into the joke, said, “you know, we could do that. Just… wherever we end up on the other side, just go: ‘Fuck it Dracu–‘,” and no sooner had I started saying the name before I felt my stomach recoil as I leaned over the side of the boat and violently threw up. When I leaned back in again, cleaning off my mouth, I saw the boatsman turned towards me with his hand displaying some kind of sign.

His face was again still, as if cut from stone when he said, “you have already uttered its name once on my boat, do not do it again.”

I nodded, still kind of out of breath as I said, “understood. My apologies.”

And with that, he resumed rowing again as if nothing had happened.

After a while, I ventured another question towards him, “pardon me for asking, but if you felt this way about his name before, why didn’t you object at that point? We would have all taken great care not to use it again.”

Without turning around, he replied curtly, “one should not tempt fate more than once in a day,” then after a moment’s pause, he added, “speak no more of it, for you are heading into its lair.”

“Alright, I understand, thank you for clearing that up, ” I said while leaning towards Niky and whispering, “why do you think he keeps referring to him as ‘it’?”

Niky shrugged, whispering back, “maybe because it’s not alive?”

“By the gods, let that be true,” I replied back.

Kay, making an effort to sound courteous said, “so… since we’re heading into the castle… do you have any insight? Anything that may save our lives? I will gladly pay for it — in blood, if needed.”

The boatsman nodded at her, “trust nothing. Not even… no, especially not yourselves. Your minds may sometimes not be your own within that domain.”

“Interesting, so much blood do you want for that? I can pay you right now if you’d like,” Kay said as she got up and moved closer to him.

“If you come back with it intact. Certainly. Though I do not believe you will,” he said, looking gravely at her. And with that, he retracted the paddle from the water as we now sensed the boat was slowing down. In front of us, a large, sturdy, tall dock seemed to magically materialize out of the thick mist as the boat slid up next to it. “Your stop,” the boatsman said with a slight nod towards the ladder leading up to the dock above.

I bowed towards the boatsman, “thank you,” as I moved closer to him, stretching out my arm towards him. He raised his hand and held it briefly over mine and for what felt like a fraction of a second, I felt as if my awareness was replaced with static. I shook my head.

“Your debt is paid,” the boatsman said as I looked back towards the others who had seemingly experienced the same thing themselves.

I wasted no time in climbing up the ladder to the dock above.

When Sasha moved forward, the large boatsman grasped his shoulder with a grey, muscular fist that looked like it too had been cut out from stone. And suddenly Sasha felt a strong, vibrant strength coursing through him. “You did well for someone so young. If you return, summon me with this and I’ll take you anywhere you wish.” And with that, the boatsman put a green, polished orb the size of an apple into Sasha’s hand.

Sasha carefully stored the orb in his backpack, while the rest of us got up to the dock. He gave the boatsman one last look and said, “thank you.” before he too clambered up the ladder to join us.

Feeling inspired, I got out the large bottle of vodka that I had, leaned over the side, and yelled down, “for the road, wherever it may lead you!” As I tossed it down to him.

Casually snatching it out of the air with little effort, the boatsman opened the bottle, smelled it, and then nodded approvingly up towards me as he toasted me. Then he drained the entire thing in mere seconds and then replaced the cap on it and gently set it down in a crate. After that, he slowly reversed the boat and within minutes the mists had swallowed him up as if he’d never been there.

Andrei, taking in the lay of the land said, “so, I guess we find a safe place and make camp for the night?”

I nodded, “I suppose so, it’s getting late, and I’d rather not go into that castle just before midnight. After all, lore does say that midnight, and especially the stroke of midnight holds a lot of… oh…”

At this point, the wind changed, and the mists seemingly parted as if by magic and we realized that it wasn’t just an elaborate dock area that we were in, it was actually a small, ruined town. A run-down naval office was sitting just at the edge of the wharf and beyond that, the town.

Feeling a strange sense of Déjà vu I said, “there are legends about how the towns next to the castle were struck first when he decided to expand his influence. This is clearly the first town; it’s been shown in many pieces of media over the years.” I paused here for a bit and then added, “while we might find shelter for the night, we likely won’t find anyone who’s alive in here. This place has been deserted for decades if not centuries.”

While the lake had now cleared up somewhat and the area around the shore and dock were clear, further up, the mists still shrouded the castle. Wasting no time, we all spread out in pairs and started searching the nearby structures to see if any one of them was intact enough to use as shelter. Some of the structures looked withered and ready to fall apart at the faintest gust of wind. Others looked more intact but were missing a wall or had great holes in them as if something large had hit them.

Further up the once beautiful, cobbled road, we found a house that looked almost completely unscathed apart from the weathered look of it.

When Andrei broke the silence, we all jumped a bit, because the oppressive nature of what had happened to this little town had made us all jumpy. “I think this looks sturdy enough.”

Niky, joining him, nodded, “yeah, it even has a door that works!”

“Maybe we should just go with the bloody tent again? I don’t trust this place,” Colleen said as she gave the house a critical stare.

“The tent… ah, fuck, I was busy with the spell…” Sasha said.

Niky stammered, “B-but, we unloaded the cart, we thought you’d stashed it away somewhere.”

Sasha shrugged, “Yes, under the seat as always. I thought you knew that.”

I chuckled, “well, I guess we’re out of a tent too now. So yeah, we’ll have to take shelter in these houses then I guess. Everyone good with this one?”

Andrei nodded, “It looks to be in one piece. Sure. Let’s check inside first though.”

There was a tense moment as we all moved closer to the house, most of us pulled out our weapons as Andrei snuck up beside the shutters and listened for a bit.

“I’m fucking paranoid right now,” I whispered to Circe.

” One of you open the door, if anything comes out, I’ll slice and dice yeah?” She said with a grin on her face.

Andrei waved to us to be quiet as he tried to lift some of the shades to get a better look at what was inside, but all he could see due to the fading light were shadows and vague shapes. As he moved up to the door and pushed his ear against it, he was surprised when it silently slid open. Stepping back, he was about to say something when Circe in a reckless show of idiocy kicked the partially open door ajar and rushed inside.

We all heard a loud thump from the inside and Circe yelling, “OW, FUCK!” Followed by a chorus of sharp squeaky noises as a horde of bats came out the door. As they flew away, we all briefly saw their tiny silhouettes against the rising moon.

As we entered the room, we saw Circe, splayed out on the floor, moaning quietly as she was cradling her knee which she had bumped into a sturdy round wooden table.

Looking up at us, she groaned, “daddy, can I go home now? I hate this place so bad.”

I helped her up into a sitting position as I sat down heavily on one of the chairs and exhaled, “while I’m not as old as my character in this macrocosm, I think I’m getting too old for jump scares.”

Andrei, ignoring both of us started moving around the room, checking the interior.

Colleen checked on both of us as she said, “Yer alrite you two? Ye both seem a wee bit pale.”

Circe groaned as she got up and steadied herself against the table and then sat down on the other chair which protested loudly. She looked down at it as if challenging it to defy her and break. She looked up at Colleen, “I’m fine now.”

I nodded as well, “same here, I’m just… not used to being jump-scared in my own mind is all. That really scared me.”

She smiled at me, “ye’ll be foine lad.”

Meanwhile, Niky was using her flame thrower as a makeshift lantern, scouting the room, but after a while she came back to us with Andrei, having inspected it all.

Andrei was the first to report, “I’ve been prodding and kicking some of the walls here and checked the roof, it seems good for a night or two. We’ve got a decent amount of debris that I think used to be a bed and some other furniture. We could rig that up against the door when it’s time to sleep.”

Niky replied, “I found a stove back there in the corner, but no wood.”

“Da, we can use some of the debris for that I think.”

I looked up at them, “that’s good, with no horses nor a tent, we’re really in a tight spot here. But, I have to tell all of you, a swarm of bats usually is a precursor to … the thing. After what the boatsman said, I’m avoiding even uttering its name you know?”

Andrei nodded, “well I can’t see any mirror. But da, better not speak the name. Better safe than sorry.”

“Am I the only one who’s feeling like I’m gonna get attacked any second?” I said, looking around the small house.

Circe shook her head, “no, I feel the same way. Like there’s something behind me.”

“Indeed,” Mech said, startling us as he had quietly entered the room.

“I’ve got no feckin clue, feels alrite ta me. I think yer all just a bit easily spooked is all,” Colleen said as she looked down at the floorboards.

Niky, summarizing things, said, “So, we have a couple of rickety chairs, a table, an old stove, and back there, I also saw what looked like a back door.”

“A back door?” I said as I got up and went back with her to it, she lit her flame thrower again with the pilot light barely illuminating the door.

As I examined the door, I realized that the handle had been removed and the dark circles I touched turned out to be the heads of nails. I turned to Niky, “Oh… yeah this door’s secure, someone nailed it shut,” and here I looked closer at it, “with a LOT of nails.”

Andrei moved closer to us. “You know, this sounds like something out of a Poe story.”

I looked up at him, feeling some alarm at the realization. “Niky, can you get the flame thrower closer to the floor?”

As she leaned down, we could all see a very darkened, iron oak wood floor. As with the door, it had been driven down with the same sturdy nails too. And as with the door, someone had made damn well sure that they weren’t going to be pushed up easily either as there were more nails than you’d usually expect.

I nodded, feeling that same sense of unease washing over me, “that looks decent enough.”

“Fuck, where’d my sleeping cot go?” Circe said suddenly.

It was at this point that we all realized that in preparing for the boat trip, we’d all completely forgotten about our cots that were still cozily nestled away in the house at the village.

(DM’s note: There was some lively discussion in chat about how and when and how and what we should have done and could have done and wanted to have been done. Circe argued that of COURSE, her character would remember to pack her cot, but she was voted against by everyone else who said that if we did indeed forget, we forgot.)

“Oh come on, you’ve never slept on a stone floor, we Russians do it all the time!” Andrei said with a boastful grin on his face.

Circe stared at him as she was leaning against her backpack, “I’ve spent weeks sleeping on a stone floor harder than this you know? Try that and then have ice-cold showers in the morning. I bet you’d break within a few days.”

He shrugged, “it will make a man… or a woman I guess… out of you.”

Sasha, smiling at him said, “Andrei not everybody likes it rough you know?”

“I don’t like it either, but it’s good for you every now and then.”

“Careful, you’re sounding dangerously close to me, Andriosha,” Kay said with a smirk on her face.

“Oh shut up Kay, you’re just insane.”

Circe scoffed, “It’ll give me a fucking bad back is what you mean. That’s why I’m doing this. I’d rather have my ass hurt than my back when I wake up next time.”

At this point, we started discussing whether or not to barricade the door with the table and the chairs, but Sasha told us all that he needed to go hunting and slipped out for a bit into the cold, humid night air. As he crawled down towards the docks, he followed the road to the right where the bluffs got higher until there was a three-meter drop down to the water’s edge. He soon found a place where the cobbled stones of the dock had cascaded down and formed a big mound of rocks enabling him to get down to the water.

Once he was down there, he waited quietly for anything to make a move in the dark waters below. For a while, all he heard was the waves hypnotically lapping against the stonework until suddenly a dark green tentacle emerged from the depths and grabbed him before he could react to it. He tried to scream of course, but there was no air left in his lungs to even do that, the tentacle was more powerful than anything he’d ever felt, and it was slowly squeezing the life out of him.

Trying to reach his sword, with an almost herculean effort, he got it out of its sheath, but as the tentacle suddenly tightened, the searing pain made him drop the sword which clattered uselessly against the rocks below. Looking down, he now saw that a huge creature which looked like a big slimy mass was emerging from the waters below. Its big eye had a yellowed sclera and the iris was an iridescent bright red that seemed like it held an inner fire inside of it. Below the eye was a sort of beak that split open in six directions, showing off a huge darkened hungry maw.

Meanwhile, back in the house, we were all settling in for the night, talking about nonsensical things, completely unaware of what was going on down at the dock.

(DM’s note: For those of you who have followed this blog since the start, you will note the discrepancy here. I will address this later in a separate post as it’s at least a full page of explanations of how we do things with two hosts and a bunch of tulpas.)

Sasha, meanwhile, feeling the desperation, managed to get off a few blood missiles aimed at its maw, some struck the beak, but others made it inside the maw where they struck the sensitive tissues within. The creature below howled in pain and up by the house, Andrei with his exceptional perception, was the first to hear it.

“Did anyone else hear that loud shriek?” Andrei said as he got up from the floor.

Circe, half asleep, drowsily said, “probably the thing that’s going to eat you later, whatever.”

“Wot kind of shriek was it?” Colleen said as she too got up.

“Painful, not human, I don’t know. All I know is that Sasha went hunting and that sounds like trouble. I’m going to check it out.”

Meanwhile, the rest of us had gotten up, Colleen jostled Circe with her foot, “Alrite Circe, get yer arse up, we’re apparently NOT stayin’ in this house.”

Circe groaned, then gave us all a spiteful look, “I hate all of you right now.” Then she laboriously got up and sighed, “I swear, if we find Sasha having killed some fucking Rabbit, you all owe me a new cot.”

As we made our way out of the house, wondering where the sound came from, Sasha was still fighting for his life as the tentacle was still crushing him with insane strength. The creature was in pain as it flailed its tentacles around and the one carrying Sasha smashed him against the pier with a loud crash.

The crash of course stunned him to the point where he was knocked unconscious, but fortunately for us, we now had a location that we rushed towards. Once we were down by the docks area, we were all shocked to see an unconscious Sasha being lowered down towards the mouth of the creature. But, hearing us, the creature stopped as it turned its eye toward us with its beaked maw clicking in a way that made it obvious that there was nothing but naked hunger coming from it.

Tentacles again shot out quickly from it as Andrei, Circe, and Colleen were grabbed. The rest of us managed to just barely dodge them as they came at us with the speed of a whip lashing out at you.

Andrei cursed as he got off a fireball that hit the creature next to its beak, the skin sizzled and blacked as the creature bellowed in pain, squeezing everybody it held in anger, dealing damage to them all.

Circe tried to use her considerable strength to break free of her tentacle, but at this point, the creature was so enraged by this sudden influx of new food fighting back, that it hardly even registered her attempt.

Kay drew her sword as she’d previously lent her crossbow to Sasha to hunt with. She swung her sword at the tentacle but missed as it suddenly danced out of the way.

Colleen, trying her best to aim at the creature, cursed loudly as she shot a beam of her holy light down straight into its maw. As the beam struck the creature, it bellowed loudly again as now its mouth was beginning to bleed.

Niky, wasting no time in getting closer to the edge, let her flame thrower do its own roaring as she shot a plume of fire toward its eye. The creature turned itself away instinctively but still took a lot of burning damage from the fire licking its side. It shot out a tentacle towards her, but after it got engulfed in the flame, it started to crisp up and even though the creature tried to keep its considerable weight tethered to the rocks, it now found itself having trouble holding onto the dock itself.

I dashed forward towards one of its tentacles gripping the side and swung at it, but the tentacle undulated away from me and almost grabbed me, so naturally, I missed.

Sasha, having regained consciousness, looked down at all of us and felt his hope return as he felt his vampiric bloodlust take over. Grinning satanically, he slashed a deep gash into his hand with his sharp nails and watched as the blood poured out into his palm. The resulting missiles managed to navigate around the tentacles, and all struck right into its beaked maw.

The creature tensed up for a moment as the missiles hit, and then there was a meaty explosion from inside as it opened its beak to roar. Instead of a roar though, a disgusting jet of blood came spurting out from the hole, covering Sasha completely.

Then as the tentacles lost their tension along with the dying creature, Sasha and Colleen managed to twist themselves so that they landed on the docks. But Circe, being a bit further out, could only curse her back luck and yell as she fell several meters down into the cold, icy waters.

As the dead creature was now starting to slip back into the water, Circe emerged from the side, clambering furious to get out of it. She looked up at me as if she was blaming me for it and Sasha, feeling a bit more himself shouted down to her, “Circe, while you’re down there, see if you can be a dear and find my sword for me?”

Circe, completely drenched in icy cold water, found the sword and walked over towards the dead creature, stabbing it several times while yelling, “FUCKING.PIECE.OF.SHIT.MONSTER.FUCK.

YOU.AND.ALL.YOUR.CHILDREN!!!”

And then she sat down, leaning against the rocks and breathing heavily. As Sasha clambered down and pulled the sword from her numb hands, she looked up at him. “I hate this plate so hard.”

He nodded with a faint smile as he helped her back up to the docks again.

I looked at her outfit, now completely drenched. “We need to get you out of those wet clothes as soon as possible.”

Gritting her teeth she hissed, “You don’t fucking say?!”

I turned around and counted everyone as I said, “are the rest of you alright?”

Colleen groaned, “yeh, a bit bruised, but I’m foine. That bugger had a grip like a woman givin’ berth I tell ya.”

Sasha grimaced as he felt his chest, “I think I have a fractured rib or two.”

I chuckled, “can we all agree now that we’re going to take this place a bit more seriously?”

Nodding while feeling the rest of his body, Sasha said, “yeah, I thought you were just being paranoid.”

As we made our way back up to the house, a cold wind started blowing which chilled us all to the bone. Circe was shivering so much that she had trouble walking. When we reached the house, she hurried inside and started going through her backpack in search of anything that might offer some warmth.

Cursing her back luck, she turned to us who had entered and closed the door behind us, and said, “does anyone have any spare clothes? I’m freezing to death over here.”

Kay winked at her, “you could always wear me dear.”

I removed my hooded cloak and handed it to her, “this is what I can spare.”

She quickly wrapped herself in it and kept shivering as she arranged her wet clothes on the other chair, “this sucks.”

Kay hugged her to share some warmth as she said, “I’m sure your dress will be dry by the morning.”

Meanwhile, Andrei, having picked out the sturdiest pieces, joined Sasha in barricading the door.

Examining the small wood stove, I found that it seemed mostly intact. As I opened the small door to it, a big black beetle crawled out and scurried away somewhere in the dark. Inspecting the interior, I found it to be mostly empty save for something that could have been ashes once. I started breaking up debris as I said, “well, either Circe canonically dies of frostbite, or we get a fire going before we go to sleep,” and then I stuffed the oven full of them, leaving a decent pile left.

I turned around to everyone, “anyone got a light?”

As Niky moved closer, I shook my head, “that’s way too much fire. We need something more subtle.”

Andrei scoffed as he moved forward and gently placed a finger on what probably used to be a chair’s leg. When it burst into flame a moment later he said, “she could have probably done it, or set the cabin on fire. We’d been warm either way.”

As the stove started heating up, the room became a bit cozier as the light from the fire lit up a bit more. Outside, the wind was still howling and rattling the shutters and the door. We all sat down on the floor, leaning against our backpacks.

Circe had taken a chair and moved it as close as she could to the fire. “C-can we call it a night now everyone?”

Andrei, having wrapped himself and Niky up in his cloak, nodded. “Yes, but we need to talk about that big creature that almost got Sasha. We need to be more prepared for things like that in the future.”

Leaning back against the wall, I relaxed a bit, “yeah, another time perhaps, it’s getting late, and we need our sleep, both in and out of this universe. But one thing is clear to me now though.”

Andrei turned to me, “and what’s that?”

“The kiddie gloves have come off.”

And with that, we all drifted to sleep on the wooden floor while the night got ever colder outside.