Chapter 2C: Indentured Servitude

Year 17

A year.

A year of this magical slavery has passed already and you’re far from thanking Ral for this despite what he told you. It hasn’t been as bad as it could be, but it certainly could be a hell of a lot better.

Boredom and tedium are the main enemies mainly because Ral has you doing an endless amount of mundane tasks such as cleaning his home or gathering shit for him and unfortunately, that usually consists of various plants in the forest. Which you suppose has made you a bit more knowledgeable about the outdoors, but that isn’t exactly knowledge you ever desired!

If you’re lucky, he’ll send you to Holgard to acquire something and that’s really the only time you bother going to that city. Only having a week of “slack” doesn’t give you a whole lot of time to go venturing out to Holgard like you probably would on a regular basis. Two days to get there, two day back. It’s hardly worth it most of the time hence why you tend to do all your thievery during these mundane trips.

The thing is, you don’t even really need to steal anything since everything is provided for you. You aren’t really doing it for the thrills either because you’re forever pissed about your situation. You’re more or less doing it just to stay in practice. The only good thing is you believe your time there is so infrequent and your mark so insignificant, that you haven’t ever drawn the ire or even the attention of any of the other criminal organizations in Holgard, let alone what passes for the law there.

Sometimes you’ll go to Dert to “practice” though you don’t really like to mainly because there’s no challenge. You suppose it’s just as well as you just doing it to keep your skills from rusting, because you certainly wouldn’t be getting rich from taking anything from those poor bastards that live there.

The people there aren’t exactly welcoming to you either and you feel like you’re going to get lynched at any time. If that ever actually figured it out that you’ve been stealing from the place as opposed to passing yourself off as a “herbalist.” (All that time gathering plants has at least come in handy for something)

You’ve been trying to figure out some way of escape, but there doesn’t seem to be anything for it. You actually did disappear for more than a week once, but you returned pretty quickly after two days of increasing pain. You can’t imagine what you would have felt any longer than that. Ral didn’t even seem fussed that you attempted it.

Killing Ral is out of the question since about the only thing you can do is briefly think about it on occasion. You’ve wondered if he has anything lying around that could break the spell, but even if you got lucky and found something of Ral’s that could help you (and could actually figure out how to use it), Ral keeps important rooms like his lab and his library magically locked. (And who knows what other protection he has)

So you’re stuck for now. In the meantime…

“Ah, you’re here good.” Ral says poking his head into your room
“Where else would I be? Not like I can go too far. Can’t you just track my location with the spell anyway?” You say.
“More or less, but considering it’s easy enough for me to just peek in the rooms of the house you have access to, I didn’t really see the need to do it immediately. Anyway, I have a job for you.”
“I just gathered a bunch of plants for you yesterday!”
“I’m actually in need something on the rarer side, that’s harder to get a hold of, I need you to get a plant called gray blossom. Fortunately I know someone who has it. Unfortunately, they probably won’t be willing to give it up very easily.”
“Oh? So I’m actually going to use my natural talents for a change?”
“In a manner of speaking yes, though if you can steal from a vampire, I’d be very impressed.”
“Did you just say vampire?”
“Yes, she’s the only person I know that has the plant that I need for my experiments. Or at least within the area and least amount of trouble to get it.

Easy for him to say, he isn’t the one that has to get it.

“I’m sure you’re aware that dismal village Dert has that huge graveyard not far from it, well she lives in one of the old crypts there. Now if you really feel your skills are up to the task, you could try to sneak in there while she’s asleep during the day and get the gray blossom, but I had a more conventional trade in mind.” Ral says and then produces a jar of red liquid. You can already take a guess what it is.

“Wait, she’ll just readily accept a jar of blood as payment?” you ask.
“This isn’t just regular blood, it’s a jar of sprite blood. She loves the stuff.” Ral answers
“Aren’t sprites really small? Looks like a lot of blood for a sprite.”
“Obviously that’s because it’s at least thirty of the little buggers. Now Isabella will probably try to use her vampire abilities on you like mesmerism, but don’t worry, that spell you hate so much will keep you perfectly safe from such attempts at charm or mind control.”
“Oh yeah? Well what if she decides to just rip my head off instead?”
“No it wouldn’t protect you from that of course. Though she doesn’t just go around killing people on a whim, indeed that’s why Dert still exists at all. This is also why I’m suggesting that you just give her this blood for the blossom. She might be difficult and try to barter with you or even imply violence if she got up on the wrong side of the coffin, but she’s not likely to just kill you. If she catches you stealing however, well her violent reaction is going to be on you.”
“Not sure if that wouldn’t be an improvement on my current situation.” You remark.

“You’ll find her in a mausoleum that says Mablava at the top front of it. From there, you’ll have to fumble around and find the secret button revealing the stairs that lead to the underground crypt where she makes her home proper. I think it’s somewhere on the bottom right wall. It’s been awhile. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll find it. I’d advise you to announce your presence and state your business right away before you even descend. Probably would be best to do this at dusk when she’s just getting up. If you do it in the day, she’ll be asleep and she won’t be pleased about you disturbing her slumber. If you wait until night, you might miss her since she might have left her home. Now assuming you didn’t piss her off, I’ll expect you back fairly soon. Off you go.”

Having given you your orders and the sprite blood, Ral starts to take his leave as if nothing else needs to be said, but you still have some concerns.

“Hey wait! That’s it? I mean shouldn’t you be giving me some magical weapon, or something silver at least?” you ask.
“What for? Wouldn’t do you any good anyway. Do you even know anything about vampires, or just what you’ve heard from stories? Look, if I actually thought your life was in any real danger, I’d provide you with either the proper equipment or the coin so you could go buy it. I dare say even if you do something foolish like try to steal from her and get caught, if you drop my name she’ll probably still let you off the hook, though perhaps with a nasty scar. This should be a simple enough task that you aren’t going to have any difficulties.” Ral says.

You don’t bother arguing any more since you know Ral’s made his mind up and is barking the orders that you’re going to have to obey anyway. You can only hope he’s correct about his vampire associate.

You make your way to Dert, which doesn’t take long. By the time you which the vicinity of the area, it’s still day time which means you still have time to spare waiting around before meeting up with this Isabella. Since you don’t especially feel like putting up with suspicious dumb ass yokels today, you decide that you’ll just head straight to the graveyard and wait there.

When you arrive, you never realized just how damn big the place was as you’ve only ever glanced at it from afar and certainly never had any reason to go there. In fact, it’s almost the same size as Dert itself, in fact, it may even be the same size. You can’t imagine why the village would need that big of a graveyard. Was Dert bigger at one point? Plague perhaps?

In any case you spend some time looking for the mausoleum and eventually you find it. It isn’t very big; though you imagine that underneath it is where all the space is. Must be for a family, though they must have been richer than everyone else in that village. This all makes you wonder if Isabella is an original inhabitant of this village or maybe she’s just making her home her in this place.

You also start wondering if there are other creatures potentially lurking about here. Ghouls? Ghosts? You haven’t seen or heard anything since you’ve got here and the entire place has been as empty and silent as a well…tomb.

As you creep yourself out, you’re getting less enthusiastic about just hanging around a graveyard waiting for night to come. Maybe you should just steal the gray blossom now while day still exists.
> You wait
Stealing from a vampire just seems like a bad idea even if you were properly prepared. No, you’re going to follow the rules to the letter on this one.

Time passes and eventually the sun starts setting and you begin looking for the secret button on the right wall. As it turns out, this uses up plenty of time because you have a hell of a time finding the damn thing since it’s in a near inaccessible place behind a solid stone sarcophagus.

After stretching and reaching for the thing, you hear a click and a section of the floor on the left side opens up. You look down, but only see a dimly lit stairway, which you hope leads immediately to Isabella since you don’t really want to potentially work your way through some catacomb maze.

You walk down a few steps and then call out to Isabella.

“Isabella?!” you shout.

A few seconds later you get a response.

“A visitor that knows me? This is a surprise. Your voice doesn’t sound familiar however, so I can only assume someone who knows me must have sent you and I can guess who that might have been.” You hear Isabella call back.
“Um, Ral sent me.” You say.
“(Sigh) I thought so. He’s too cowardly to face me in person, yet he probably wants something from me. Well come on down, I promise I won’t bite.”

You’re still a bit nervous about all this, but this is the task you’ve been given, so down you go.

When you get to the bottom, you find a better-lit crypt that is fairly clean all things considered. You see several sturdy coffins lining the walls and you can also smell a faint whiff of some sort of flower. Nobody is here, though you see another entryway, which looks like it leads further into the bowels of this place.

“Stay in the foyer! I don’t want you wandering about my home! I’ll be there in a moment.” you hear Isabella shout from that direction.

You aren’t kept waiting long when a woman appears from the crypt entryway. Ivory skin and long raven hair, beautiful and young looking though certainly older than you. Isabella is the exact idea of what people have in mind when (and if they bother to) think of a vampire, the only thing that’s missing is the royal or elegant clothes which isn’t wearing. In fact she’s not wearing clothes at all.

You might be more inclined to look at her naked body if she weren’t a vampire, but since she is, you aren’t sure what the etiquette is.

“Okay, you can stop adverting your eyes, I’m a vampire not a medusa. Besides, you know you want to look anyway.”

Well that answers that question.

“Well? You going to tell me what Ral wants or are you going to just stare at my tits all night?” Isabella asks.
“Is this a trick question?” you ask.
“Look, I’m going to give you exactly one minute to tell me what the hell Ral wants or I’m going to start getting angry.”
“Apologies, I just wasn’t quite expecting this. Ral wants some of your gray blossom and in exchange he’s given me this, to give to you.” You say and pull out the jar of sprite blood from your pack.

Isabella walks over to you and when she’s right in front of you, you feel very anxious as she stares at you. You know Ral said she can’t charm you, but you feel like she’s doing SOMETHING to your mind.

She takes the jar from your hand and opens it, giving it a sniff. Her nose turns up and her demeanor becomes more annoyed.

“Ugh, what is this shit? Is…is this sprite blood?” she asks.
“Yeah, Ral said you liked it.” You say.
“Then he’s a forgetful fool or deliberately trying to insult me. I hate sprite, it was brownie blood that I liked! Either way it’s apparent he cares nothing for our time together and just wants something as usual. Biggest mistake in the recent century was going out with him.”

While that’s a bit of interesting information, you’re far more concerned about your own ass now that Isabella seems displeased.

“Okay, well I guess I’ll just leave and let him know then…” you say.
“Wait, where are you going?” Isabella suddenly grabs your arm. It isn’t a hurtful grip, but it is strong and cold. Her expression is predatory and you feel like you’re about to become dinner. Maybe she isn’t able to control your mind, but she’s doing a good enough job of putting fear into you anyway.

“I…don’t suppose it wouldn’t do me any good to beg would it?” you ask.
“No. However, I can see by this symbol on your arm, you are magically enslaved to Ral and despite him being disrespectful to me, I shall not act in kind and kill you since I know how hard good servants are to come by. I haven’t had one in decades. However, YOU have to make up for Ral’s failings.” Isabella says.
“So, what do I need to do? Go collect some brownies?”
“Hah, well that would be ideal. But you’d have to travel all the way to Gnarlwood to even find a population of them and even then I doubt you would have the means to even capture one, let alone enough to fill a jar. Not to mention that would take far too long and we need a quicker solution.”
“And what would that be?”
“You need to go get me dinner and the closest location is Dert obviously.”
“So you want me to go bring someone to you?”
“Ah, no. Not just anyone. I want you to bring me a child. Girl, boy, doesn’t matter. Youthful blood is always the best when it comes to humans.”

While you probably would have had some difficulties even bringing in a regular Dert citizen, you believe you could have justified it if you brought in one that tends to be an asshole towards you every time you visit. But a child? You’re a little hesitant on that request.

“I…I um…I’m not sure…” you say.
“Why not? If Ral told you he needed you to kill a child you’d do it.” Isabella remarks.
“And that’s only because this fucking spell would compel me to, it wouldn’t be like I’d enjoy it.”
“Tch. That’s an excuse. You could easily kill yourself rather than kill a child. The geas doesn’t prevent that.”
“Can’t you just do it?”
“Sure I could, but I’m asking YOU to do it. Now if you want the gray blossom, you’re getting that child for me, although…”

Isabella at this point presses her entire body against yours and sniffs you, particularly your neck.

“You’re a teenager, so I suppose your blood would do. It doesn’t smell like you’ve been befouling it with a bad diet at least.”
“I thought you said you weren’t going to kill me?”
“I’m not. I’m just going to drink a little of your blood and I’m not even going to bite you unless you ask me to. I’m giving you an out here. You can either let me feed on you, or go round me up a kid from the village.”
“How do I know you won’t just kill me or get so excited that you won’t stop feeding on me?”

Isabella chuckles a bit.

“You think your blood is going to be just so tasty that I’m going to lose all sense of control? You certainly have a high opinion of yourself! But honestly? You don’t know. But isn’t the mystery of the unknown making it all the more curious for you?” Isabella asks with a cold touch of her hand to your cheek.
“Not really.” You say.
“Well tough shit, because those are your options.”
> You get a child
“Okay, okay, I’ll do it. I’ll get a kid.” You say.
“Very well, although I was a little curious to see what you tasted like. Now don’t take too long, but then I imagine you won’t be able to anyway, what with your tether and all. Off you go and for your sake you better not make a scene and if you do, you better not lead a peasant mob here!” Isabella remarks.

You leave Isabella’s crypt glad that you made it out alive, but with very mixed feelings about what you’ll need to do next.

With night having fully fallen now, you expect that most in Dert are going to be in their homes. You try to remember which families have children, because in all your visits to the place, it isn’t like you’ve ever paid much attention to that aspect.

After a bit of thought one family comes to mind, middle-aged couple who have a simpleton for a son who has actually bothered you in the past with questions which you believe should make your task a lot easier.

You aren’t sure if just breaking in and snatching him in the middle of the night is the way to go though. Maybe you should take the less forceful approach on this since the boy is likely just going to scream out even if he is stupid.

You wait a bit longer in the graveyard before making your way to Dert, which by the time you reach it, is just as silent as the graveyard.

You sneak about the village until you reach what you think is the right house. After peeping into the open windows, you find that you were correct. The one you’re looking for is asleep on his cheap straw mattress. You can’t remember the boy’s name though, so you just start whispering “boy” to him

Eventually you wake the idiot up.

“Huh, whut?” the boy answers.
“Come on, its time to go.” You say.
“Aren’t you herb man? What you doing here?”
“Yes, I’m collecting a special kind of herb that only grows at night, but I need help finding it, specifically your help.”

You’re sort of winging it here, so you’re just making shit up as you go along and hoping for the best. It isn’t like you have much experience in kidnapping.

“But (Yawn) I’m not supposed to go anywhere after night. Mommy and daddy said I’m supposed to be in bed or else I’ll be whipped.” The boy remarks.
“It’s okay, I spoke to them already. They said you can help me, now come to the window, I’ll lift you out.” You say.
“I dunno…”
“Come on, aren’t you always asking me questions about what herbs, roots and flowers I collect for my profession? Come with me and you’ll find out.”
“Well…”
“Just come on, you can trust me. You see me all the time.”
“Okay.”

The boy gets up and goes to the window. The little shit is heavier than he looks, but with some effort you lift the boy up and outside. You still can’t remember what his name is.

“Where do we go now herb man?” he asks.
“Just follow me, and be REALLY quiet.” You say and soon the pair of you making your way out of the village as quick as you can.

Naturally as soon as you leave the village though, the boy starts to hesitate.

“Um…I’m not supposed to leave the village. Mommy and daddy said…” the boy says.
“Look, I said I already talked to them, they said its fine, now come on.” You exclaim
“But…but it’s really dark out here and there might be monsters deeper in the woods.”
“We’re not going too much farther, just follow me a little more.”
“…that way is to the graveyard! I’m not going there!”

At this point your patience has worn thin and you’re having difficulties with doing this anyway. Something inside you snaps and you punch the boy in the face!

The boy falls to the ground, but he’s tougher than you thought since it doesn’t knock him out. He does start wailing very loudly and running from you as soon as he gets up though.

“Shit!” you shout and start chasing him back to the village.

You catch up to him fairly quickly, but unfortunately for you, his cries have called the attention of the village, along with his parents who thought they heard noises earlier around their house anyway.

As you’re struggling with the boy and punching him in the face a couple more times to shut him up, an angry mob has already formed to lynch a child abductor such as yourself.

You abandon your task and just try to get the hell out of there, but several stones thrown at you impede your escape when one hits you in the head doing enough damage to cause you to collapse to the ground.

This is all the mob needs in order to catch up to you. No amount of pleading or explanation will appease this mob and they don’t even bother to lynch you anyway, they just stomp you to death as you lay on the ground and then set your battered corpse on fire.


Stealing from a vampire just seems like a bad idea even if you were properly prepared. No, you’re going to follow the rules to the letter on this one.

Time passes and eventually the sun starts setting and you begin looking for the secret button on the right wall. As it turns out, this uses up plenty of time because you have a hell of a time finding the damn thing since it’s in a near inaccessible place behind a solid stone sarcophagus.

After stretching and reaching for the thing, you hear a click and a section of the floor on the left side opens up. You look down, but only see a dimly lit stairway, which you hope leads immediately to Isabella since you don’t really want to potentially work your way through some catacomb maze.

You walk down a few steps and then call out to Isabella.

“Isabella?!” you shout.

A few seconds later you get a response.

“A visitor that knows me? This is a surprise. Your voice doesn’t sound familiar however, so I can only assume someone who knows me must have sent you and I can guess who that might have been.” You hear Isabella call back.
“Um, Ral sent me.” You say.
“(Sigh) I thought so. He’s too cowardly to face me in person, yet he probably wants something from me. Well come on down, I promise I won’t bite.”

You’re still a bit nervous about all this, but this is the task you’ve been given, so down you go.

When you get to the bottom, you find a better-lit crypt that is fairly clean all things considered. You see several sturdy coffins lining the walls and you can also smell a faint whiff of some sort of flower. Nobody is here, though you see another entryway, which looks like it leads further into the bowels of this place.

“Stay in the foyer! I don’t want you wandering about my home! I’ll be there in a moment.” you hear Isabella shout from that direction.

You aren’t kept waiting long when a woman appears from the crypt entryway. Ivory skin and long raven hair, beautiful and young looking though certainly older than you. Isabella is the exact idea of what people have in mind when (and if they bother to) think of a vampire, the only thing that’s missing is the royal or elegant clothes which isn’t wearing. In fact she’s not wearing clothes at all.

You might be more inclined to look at her naked body if she weren’t a vampire, but since she is, you aren’t sure what the etiquette is.

“Okay, you can stop adverting your eyes, I’m a vampire not a medusa. Besides, you know you want to look anyway.”

Well that answers that question.

“Well? You going to tell me what Ral wants or are you going to just stare at my tits all night?” Isabella asks.
“Is this a trick question?” you ask.
“Look, I’m going to give you exactly one minute to tell me what the hell Ral wants or I’m going to start getting angry.”
“Apologies, I just wasn’t quite expecting this. Ral wants some of your gray blossom and in exchange he’s given me this, to give to you.” You say and pull out the jar of sprite blood from your pack.

Isabella walks over to you and when she’s right in front of you, you feel very anxious as she stares at you. You know Ral said she can’t charm you, but you feel like she’s doing SOMETHING to your mind.

She takes the jar from your hand and opens it, giving it a sniff. Her nose turns up and her demeanor becomes more annoyed.

“Ugh, what is this shit? Is…is this sprite blood?” she asks.
“Yeah, Ral said you liked it.” You say.
“Then he’s a forgetful fool or deliberately trying to insult me. I hate sprite, it was brownie blood that I liked! Either way it’s apparent he cares nothing for our time together and just wants something as usual. Biggest mistake in the recent century was going out with him.”

While that’s a bit of interesting information, you’re far more concerned about your own ass now that Isabella seems displeased.

“Okay, well I guess I’ll just leave and let him know then…” you say.
“Wait, where are you going?” Isabella suddenly grabs your arm. It isn’t a hurtful grip, but it is strong and cold. Her expression is predatory and you feel like you’re about to become dinner. Maybe she isn’t able to control your mind, but she’s doing a good enough job of putting fear into you anyway.

“I…don’t suppose it wouldn’t do me any good to beg would it?” you ask.
“No. However, I can see by this symbol on your arm, you are magically enslaved to Ral and despite him being disrespectful to me, I shall not act in kind and kill you since I know how hard good servants are to come by. I haven’t had one in decades. However, YOU have to make up for Ral’s failings.” Isabella says.
“So, what do I need to do? Go collect some brownies?”
“Hah, well that would be ideal. But you’d have to travel all the way to Gnarlwood to even find a population of them and even then I doubt you would have the means to even capture one, let alone enough to fill a jar. Not to mention that would take far too long and we need a quicker solution.”
“And what would that be?”
“You need to go get me dinner and the closest location is Dert obviously.”
“So you want me to go bring someone to you?”
“Ah, no. Not just anyone. I want you to bring me a child. Girl, boy, doesn’t matter. Youthful blood is always the best when it comes to humans.”

While you probably would have had some difficulties even bringing in a regular Dert citizen, you believe you could have justified it if you brought in one that tends to be an asshole towards you every time you visit. But a child? You’re a little hesitant on that request.

“I…I um…I’m not sure…” you say.
“Why not? If Ral told you he needed you to kill a child you’d do it.” Isabella remarks.
“And that’s only because this fucking spell would compel me to, it wouldn’t be like I’d enjoy it.”
“Tch. That’s an excuse. You could easily kill yourself rather than kill a child. The geas doesn’t prevent that.”
“Can’t you just do it?”
“Sure I could, but I’m asking YOU to do it. Now if you want the gray blossom, you’re getting that child for me, although…”

Isabella at this point presses her entire body against yours and sniffs you, particularly your neck.

“You’re a teenager, so I suppose your blood would do. It doesn’t smell like you’ve been befouling it with a bad diet at least.”
“I thought you said you weren’t going to kill me?”
“I’m not. I’m just going to drink a little of your blood and I’m not even going to bite you unless you ask me to. I’m giving you an out here. You can either let me feed on you, or go round me up a kid from the village.”
“How do I know you won’t just kill me or get so excited that you won’t stop feeding on me?”

Isabella chuckles a bit.

“You think your blood is going to be just so tasty that I’m going to lose all sense of control? You certainly have a high opinion of yourself! But honestly? You don’t know. But isn’t the mystery of the unknown making it all the more curious for you?” Isabella asks with a cold touch of her hand to your cheek.
“Not really.” You say.
“Well tough shit, because those are your options.”
> You let her bite you
“I can’t do it. I mean I’m flexible on a lot of shit, but yeah I just don’t think I can go get a kid for you to chow down on. I mean I’m not judging since I know that’s what you have to do, but I can’t be a part of that.” You say.
“Hm, how wonderfully moral of you. So does that mean I have your invitation to bite you?” Isabella asks.
“I…I guess so. I’m just going to roll the dice here and hope to Yag that you’re honest.”
“Oh I’m honest.”

Isabella smiles and at last you see her perfect white teeth complete with the slightly large fangs. You just hope this isn’t the last thing you see.

Isabella pushes you up against a wall and presses up against you in a half seductive half predatory fashion.

“So…are you ready?” she whispers in your ear.
“As much as I can be I suppose.” You answer.
“I want to hear you say it. I want you to beg me to penetrate your skin with my teeth and feast upon you like the chattel you are.” Isabella demands.
“Wha…what?!”
“Say it!”
“Okay! Okay! I want your fangs inside me! I want it so badly! Give it to me!” you exclaim.

Without another word, Isabella bites down on you and you feel her fangs enter. It hurts at first and then it’s uncomfortable, but after a few seconds of Isabella sucking, you’re starting to just feel weird. It’s kind of sexy really.

As she’s doing her thing on you, you start to feel dizzy and light headed. You think you might collapse, but Isabella is holding you up so you don’t fall.

Oddly despite believing that you’re very likely going to die, you decide to at least get one thrill out of the situation and wrap your arms around Isabella’s lovely naked body and grab her ass in the process.

Then you pass out.

The next day you wake up in the middle of the graveyard. Your neck is sore and you’ve got a letter in your hand. You read it soon after you realize you’re not dead.

Thank you for a lovely evening. Your blood was quite delicious; I suppose you were right to worry that I may not be able to contain myself, however I resisted much to your relief no doubt.

In your pack, you will find several gray blossoms from my garden, I hope Ral finds that adequate because he’s not getting any more from me and you can tell him he’s still an asshole.

I have also kept the sprite blood. I don’t like to drink it, but I know of other uses for it.

May your servitude to Ral end soon.

Isabella

P.S. Don’t be a stranger, now that you know the way.

A dubious offer to be sure, but at least she seems to like you, or your blood at any rate.

It’s a little sad that vampire violation is the best thing that’s happened to you since leaving Teckleville.

At least you didn’t kill a kid you suppose and you got to touch a vampire’s ass. So, that’s something.

After checking your pack for the gray blossom, you get up off the ground, rub your neck a bit, and set off back towards Ral’s place.

When you arrive, Ral is in his lab so you just go lay down since you still feel a bit lightheaded from the blood loss.

Eventually Ral finds you.

“You’re back. Well?” he asks.
“There are a bunch of gray blossoms sitting on the table over there.” You say.

Ral looks and goes to gather them.

“Hm, didn’t expect to get this much. Guess she really liked the blood.” Ral says.
“I’ll say.” You snort.
“You didn’t have any trouble?”
“Not really. She was very accommodating.”
“I am very surprised to hear that.”
“Oh, she did tell me to tell you that you’re still an asshole.”
“Ah, well that does sound more like her.”

Ral, satisfied with your explanation and quite frankly just happy you got him what he sent you to get, takes his leave.

You suppose you could have told him the whole story, but would it have even mattered or would he have even cared? No to both.

Besides, you figure what happened between you and Isabella was “special” enough that it should just remain between the two of you.
> You time passes...
Year 19

“…and stay away from my daughter, mage minion!” you hear the angry farmer shout as you run away and still attempting to get your pants back on.

You soon make it out of Dert and take a breather.

Ever since the citizens of Dert finally realized that you were “working” for Ral, (Nobody ever really bought the herbalist story) their attitude towards you hasn’t gotten any better. If anything they’re even less friendly.

Good thing for you they’re a bunch of ignorant cowards at heart because they’re reluctant to just string you up since they think it might draw Ral’s ire somehow. A few even believe you’re magical. You aren’t really going deter that sort of thinking despite the reality that Ral could probably give a shit if you got killed or not.

Of course some (like bored wayward farmers’ daughters) find your “mysterious aura” enticing. Another type of thinking you aren’t exactly going to deter either.

Still, you probably shouldn’t push your luck. Fear and hesitation can easily be overridden in a quick moment of violence. Then again, it’s not like you’ve got much else to do with your time.

You return to Ral’s home and find that he’s actually expecting you AND he doesn’t have a menial task for you for a change.

“I need you to go get me a blood gem.” Ral says.
“Blood gem? Gee, that sounds like it involves vampires again.” You answer.
“No, no, no. There aren’t any vampires this time around, just a lot of sotakians or lizard folk as you might call them.”
“Didn’t know there were any sotakians in the area.”
“There aren’t, you’ll be going to Sotak Swamp. The sotakians use blood gems in their idols, so just seek out one of those and you should be good.”
“Uh, not that I don’t live to serve thanks to the spell that forces me to, but isn’t that pretty far away? I don’t think I’m making it back in a week and that’s if I even knew how to get around there in the first place.”
“Don’t worry about that, you’re going to have a guide and you’re going to be teleported to a relatively close to where you need to be. When you get the item and back to the original location, you’ll be teleported back here.”
“Hm, well I guess that makes things slightly easier, who is this guide?”

Ral points to a small winged being flying in from the next room. You guess he’s a fairy of some sort, but you couldn’t guess what kind. He doesn’t look happy.

“This is Tych, your sprite guide. He’ll be able to direct you to where you need to go.” Ral says.
“Sprite huh? Weird to see one alive this time rather than just the blood.” You say.
“Yes, Tych you could say was most inspired to save his own life when I first encountered him. In return for his servitude rather than death, it was he who gathered twenty of his kind in one place and made that process a whole lot easier.”
“Wait, how long has Tych been here and where’s he been? This is the first time I’ve seen him.”
“Oh he’s been here maybe about as long as you have and you haven’t seen him because I tend to keep him in my lab where I can keep a better eye on him. Sprites, like most fairy folk tend to be tricksters and Tych in particular is one of the more treacherous of his kind. In fact you may find him to be very friendly towards you since he’ll probably be trying to convince you that you two should work together to escape. I of course advise you not to listen to such nonsense that will only get you into more trouble.”
“Great, and you’re sending this little devious bastard to guide me?”
“As long as you insist on sticking to the task I’ve given you, he won’t be able to resist helping. So don’t listen to anything else he says and you’ll be fine. Think of it this way, you’re his direct superior and what you say goes.”

You’re not sure about this, but as always you have little choice in the matter so you gather up what equipment you believe is going to be useful and return to Ral who says a few words and before you know it, you’re blinded by a flash of light.

As you’re still shaking off the effects of temporary blindness, your guide is in no hurry.

“Take your time plivik. It’s been awhile since I’ve been outside so I’m going to enjoy every moment we’re out here.” Tych says in a high pitched squeaky voice that almost makes you want to laugh.
“Where exactly are we anyway?” you ask finally getting over your condition and finding yourself in new surroundings.
“Oh we’re in Gnarlwood Forest, not too far from the border of Sotak Swamp. More specifically we’re in a fairy circle or an old abandoned one at least. Of course even abandoned ones have magic to them, probably why Ral sent me with you too. Makes the teleportation connection easier for him to cast. He’s not nearly as powerful of a wizard as he thinks he is.”
“Hm, well he’s still got the pair of us doing his dirty work.”
“True plivik, but that won’t last forever. If we work together we’ll be able to overcome his magic that’s binding the both of us to him.”
“Oh? How so?”

Tych giggles a bit.

“Ral has made a big mistake in letting me come back here! We fairy folk as you may know are magical by nature, but I cannot break our magical chains by myself. However, my village isn’t too far from here and it would help the both of us plivik. With their help, Ral’s spell could easily be overcome.” Tych says.
“Why would they help me? I’m not a sprite.” You ask.
“What does that matter plivik? You’re still a being in need of help. I can see you’re not a bad person, and just like me, you are just forced to serve a bad master. If you tell me to guide you to the other sprites, we can go right now.”
“You keep calling me plivik, what does that mean?”
“Oh, it’s just a word in my native tongue. Just means friend.”
“We’re friends all of a sudden?”
“We both don’t like Ral and wish to be free of his chains correct? I’d say that already makes us have enough in common to be friends even if we just met, plivik.”
“Ral said you would be friendly towards me to do something underhanded and that I shouldn’t pay any attention to what you have to say unless it directly involves the task.”
“Well of course he’s going to say that, plivik. He wants to keep us divided. He also told you that I lead twenty of my people to be ground up into into blood paste. I guarantee that I would never do such a hideous thing even to save my own life! He used a spell to capture us all and it was only by pure luck that he decided to keep me around as a pet to torment. You know he keeps me in a glass jar on his lab desk and shakes it around?”

You can see how this is going to go. You’re going to have to play “Who’s the liar?” the whole time during this task.

“I think we should stick to the task for now.” You say.
“Oh I understand your hesitation. How about this, we go get the blood gem first and when we return here then you can decide to return to Ral or go to the sprite community I mentioned. That should give you time to decide whether I’m trustworthy or not. Just think about it okay?” Tych says.
“Hm, I suppose that’s reasonable.”
“Great! Now let’s get this task underway then.”

Tych goes on to tell you due to his own capture, he’s hoping that his information about the area is still the same. He tells you that from your position he knows that there should be a sotakian place of worship within a day’s walk.

“Now if we head north and then west there’s a clearer path to where we need to get to. We’re going to have to be careful to avoid elven patrols though. Just hope they aren’t on heightened alert because that’s going to make sneaking around a lot harder.” Tych says.
“I don’t suppose the fact that we’re planning on desecrating one of their enemy’s idols would make them friendly?” you say.
“A good idea, but it wouldn’t make any difference. Elves are a bunch of territorial assholes. They think EVERYTHING in Gnarlwood forest is under their control. As a human, you’d still be seen as an interloper and most likely killed. And as for me, well let’s just say it wouldn’t be much better than Ral’s magical enslavement.”
“Sounds like it would just be easier to immediately go west and bypass the patrols.”
“You would think that, but chances are it would take just as long due to all the high marshes and sinking bogs in the area. That’s not even counting whatever creatures are lurking there. Not even the sotakians make their homes that way and consider it sacred ground due to the daquala population in the area.”
“Wait, what’s a daquala?”
“Oh, they’re a creature about the size of one of your dogs but a whole lot more vicious and meaner. They can also camouflage themselves to practically be invisible. However, I don’t think they would necessarily be a problem, they tend to sleep a lot and most of them should be hibernating this time of year. You’re more likely to get swallowed by quicksand or a giant swamp serpent honestly. Still, I suppose if we got lucky it would cut our time by half. Up to you, plivik.”
> You go through the swamp
Either way sounds dangerous, but if one way is going to be quicker, you might as well take that one though you have one major concern.

“You sure these daquala things are hibernating?” you ask.
“As I said, most of them probably are this time of year, but that’s not certain. I still say the quicksand and sinkholes are more of a hazard, since I’m going to be able to tell you if daqualas are in the area. Their camouflage doesn’t work so well against Sprite eyes.” Tych remarks.
“Good, then you keep a look out for those things and let me worry about where I step.”
“Very well plivik.”

Before you set off, you break off a piece of a low hanging branch so you at least have a good sized piece of wood to test solid ground with.

Doesn’t take too long before you and Tych get to the edge of the forest where the ground is starting to become more noticeably wet and softer. You start using the branch as well as relying on Tych to scout ahead.

Tych goes on to say, he’s fairly certain that there is a smaller sotakian village if you keep heading west. He also mentions that it should still have some sort of idol since the sotakians are pretty serious about their worship.

As you and Tych travel through the swamp, you find that Tych is a bit overly talkative in general. He even acknowledges that he is, but he’s just so happy to talk to ANYONE who isn’t Ral. Most of his talk concerns Gnarlwood and Sotak swamp and how elves are a bunch of assholes, so it isn’t completely useless banter though you’re more concerned with his chatter calling attention to you what with the invisible monsters possibly around.

“Hey look, while I get that you like to talk, I also like to live. I’m already not happy about being ankle deep in water, so cut with the chatter and keep an eye out for those invisible things or whatever your magical pixie eyes show you.” You snap.
“Pixie? I’m fucking sprite, not a fucking pixie you fucking plivik!” Tych angrily responds.
“…fucking friend…what? Wait a minute, what does plivik REALLY mean?!”
“Take a guess asshole! Fucking pixie…”
“Alright! Alright! I fucking apologize! Shit, I didn’t realize there was that much of a damn difference!”

Tych sputters for a moment, as he’s too angry to even speak about your ignorance on the matter.

“There are a shitload of differences!” he exclaims.
“Well how would I know, both of you guys are tiny and fly around with your little wings right?” you say.
“How would you like it if I called you an orc instead of a human because to me you’re both big, ugly and stomp around on your feet because you’re not blessed enough to even have wings in the first place?!”
“Ah, but orcs are green and that’s a very obvious difference!”
“And pixies have less shiny wings! Have you even SEEN a pixie? They’re not as pretty as we are and live around fucking fungus! If they didn’t have wings they’d be as low as brownies!”
“Okay, keep your voice down, you’re getting all excited and the whole point I was trying to make in the first place was for you to shut the hell up.”
“No! I’m not going to shut the hell up when it comes to…”

And then right before your eyes, you see the side of a large reptilian face pass right in front of you as it swallows Tych whole. The rest of its long legless body follows as it splashes back into the water.

It might not have been a daquala, but Tych did mention large water serpents in the area.

The serpent makes a second pass and while you block with the branch you have, you still get knocked down.

Now that you’re in a more prone position, he serpent attempts to coil around you. You pull out your short sword at this point and give it a few hacks, which is enough to cause it to swim away though you aren’t entirely sure if it’s gone. Not like the water is transparent enough to see through given how muddy it is.

You stand up and make your way out of the area as quick as you can. You dropped your branch somewhere in the water when you got knocked over and with Tych dead, you try to go back the way you came because you certainly aren’t going to be able to navigate through the swamps this way.

Your only hope is get back to the forest and follow the road into the swamp and hopefully from there you’ll be able to find a better path to a lizard village. This isn’t a good situation.

And of course it only gets worse when it gets darker and you’re jumping at every unfamiliar sound thinking that it’s some beast ready to pounce. Naturally you end up going thigh deep into mud thanks to being preoccupied.

You curse and struggle at first until you remember that you’re not supposed to struggle when in this situation. Of course you’re waist high by the time you remember.

You stop struggling and try to find something solid to grab on to so you can pull yourself out. For once you get lucky and manage to slowly drag and twist yourself so you can grab ahold of a rotten stump.

“Okay. Okay. I can get out of this…” you say to yourself.

It takes awhile and sometimes it feels like you’re being pulled in deeper by some force other than just nature, but eventually you make it and drag yourself out. You’re soaking wet, muddy and tired, but you’re out.

“Shit…thank Yag…damn…” you pant.

Not wishing to be in this part of swamp by the time its pitch dark, you get up using the stump once again as leverage, along with a nearby soft rock.

Soft rock?

And that when you find out your left hand was not on a “soft rock” at all, but a sleeping daquala who completely drops the camouflage when you wake it up.

It’s so quick that you don’t quite see what it really looks like except that it has many teeth.

Many MANY sharp teeth.


Year 19

“…and stay away from my daughter, mage minion!” you hear the angry farmer shout as you run away and still attempting to get your pants back on.

You soon make it out of Dert and take a breather.

Ever since the citizens of Dert finally realized that you were “working” for Ral, (Nobody ever really bought the herbalist story) their attitude towards you hasn’t gotten any better. If anything they’re even less friendly.

Good thing for you they’re a bunch of ignorant cowards at heart because they’re reluctant to just string you up since they think it might draw Ral’s ire somehow. A few even believe you’re magical. You aren’t really going deter that sort of thinking despite the reality that Ral could probably give a shit if you got killed or not.

Of course some (like bored wayward farmers’ daughters) find your “mysterious aura” enticing. Another type of thinking you aren’t exactly going to deter either.

Still, you probably shouldn’t push your luck. Fear and hesitation can easily be overridden in a quick moment of violence. Then again, it’s not like you’ve got much else to do with your time.

You return to Ral’s home and find that he’s actually expecting you AND he doesn’t have a menial task for you for a change.

“I need you to go get me a blood gem.” Ral says.
“Blood gem? Gee, that sounds like it involves vampires again.” You answer.
“No, no, no. There aren’t any vampires this time around, just a lot of sotakians or lizard folk as you might call them.”
“Didn’t know there were any sotakians in the area.”
“There aren’t, you’ll be going to Sotak Swamp. The sotakians use blood gems in their idols, so just seek out one of those and you should be good.”
“Uh, not that I don’t live to serve thanks to the spell that forces me to, but isn’t that pretty far away? I don’t think I’m making it back in a week and that’s if I even knew how to get around there in the first place.”
“Don’t worry about that, you’re going to have a guide and you’re going to be teleported to a relatively close to where you need to be. When you get the item and back to the original location, you’ll be teleported back here.”
“Hm, well I guess that makes things slightly easier, who is this guide?”

Ral points to a small winged being flying in from the next room. You guess he’s a fairy of some sort, but you couldn’t guess what kind. He doesn’t look happy.

“This is Tych, your sprite guide. He’ll be able to direct you to where you need to go.” Ral says.
“Sprite huh? Weird to see one alive this time rather than just the blood.” You say.
“Yes, Tych you could say was most inspired to save his own life when I first encountered him. In return for his servitude rather than death, it was he who gathered twenty of his kind in one place and made that process a whole lot easier.”
“Wait, how long has Tych been here and where’s he been? This is the first time I’ve seen him.”
“Oh he’s been here maybe about as long as you have and you haven’t seen him because I tend to keep him in my lab where I can keep a better eye on him. Sprites, like most fairy folk tend to be tricksters and Tych in particular is one of the more treacherous of his kind. In fact you may find him to be very friendly towards you since he’ll probably be trying to convince you that you two should work together to escape. I of course advise you not to listen to such nonsense that will only get you into more trouble.”
“Great, and you’re sending this little devious bastard to guide me?”
“As long as you insist on sticking to the task I’ve given you, he won’t be able to resist helping. So don’t listen to anything else he says and you’ll be fine. Think of it this way, you’re his direct superior and what you say goes.”

You’re not sure about this, but as always you have little choice in the matter so you gather up what equipment you believe is going to be useful and return to Ral who says a few words and before you know it, you’re blinded by a flash of light.

As you’re still shaking off the effects of temporary blindness, your guide is in no hurry.

“Take your time plivik. It’s been awhile since I’ve been outside so I’m going to enjoy every moment we’re out here.” Tych says in a high pitched squeaky voice that almost makes you want to laugh.
“Where exactly are we anyway?” you ask finally getting over your condition and finding yourself in new surroundings.
“Oh we’re in Gnarlwood Forest, not too far from the border of Sotak Swamp. More specifically we’re in a fairy circle or an old abandoned one at least. Of course even abandoned ones have magic to them, probably why Ral sent me with you too. Makes the teleportation connection easier for him to cast. He’s not nearly as powerful of a wizard as he thinks he is.”
“Hm, well he’s still got the pair of us doing his dirty work.”
“True plivik, but that won’t last forever. If we work together we’ll be able to overcome his magic that’s binding the both of us to him.”
“Oh? How so?”

Tych giggles a bit.

“Ral has made a big mistake in letting me come back here! We fairy folk as you may know are magical by nature, but I cannot break our magical chains by myself. However, my village isn’t too far from here and it would help the both of us plivik. With their help, Ral’s spell could easily be overcome.” Tych says.
“Why would they help me? I’m not a sprite.” You ask.
“What does that matter plivik? You’re still a being in need of help. I can see you’re not a bad person, and just like me, you are just forced to serve a bad master. If you tell me to guide you to the other sprites, we can go right now.”
“You keep calling me plivik, what does that mean?”
“Oh, it’s just a word in my native tongue. Just means friend.”
“We’re friends all of a sudden?”
“We both don’t like Ral and wish to be free of his chains correct? I’d say that already makes us have enough in common to be friends even if we just met, plivik.”
“Ral said you would be friendly towards me to do something underhanded and that I shouldn’t pay any attention to what you have to say unless it directly involves the task.”
“Well of course he’s going to say that, plivik. He wants to keep us divided. He also told you that I lead twenty of my people to be ground up into into blood paste. I guarantee that I would never do such a hideous thing even to save my own life! He used a spell to capture us all and it was only by pure luck that he decided to keep me around as a pet to torment. You know he keeps me in a glass jar on his lab desk and shakes it around?”

You can see how this is going to go. You’re going to have to play “Who’s the liar?” the whole time during this task.

“I think we should stick to the task for now.” You say.
“Oh I understand your hesitation. How about this, we go get the blood gem first and when we return here then you can decide to return to Ral or go to the sprite community I mentioned. That should give you time to decide whether I’m trustworthy or not. Just think about it okay?” Tych says.
“Hm, I suppose that’s reasonable.”
“Great! Now let’s get this task underway then.”

Tych goes on to tell you due to his own capture, he’s hoping that his information about the area is still the same. He tells you that from your position he knows that there should be a sotakian place of worship within a day’s walk.

“Now if we head north and then west there’s a clearer path to where we need to get to. We’re going to have to be careful to avoid elven patrols though. Just hope they aren’t on heightened alert because that’s going to make sneaking around a lot harder.” Tych says.
“I don’t suppose the fact that we’re planning on desecrating one of their enemy’s idols would make them friendly?” you say.
“A good idea, but it wouldn’t make any difference. Elves are a bunch of territorial assholes. They think EVERYTHING in Gnarlwood forest is under their control. As a human, you’d still be seen as an interloper and most likely killed. And as for me, well let’s just say it wouldn’t be much better than Ral’s magical enslavement.”
“Sounds like it would just be easier to immediately go west and bypass the patrols.”
“You would think that, but chances are it would take just as long due to all the high marshes and sinking bogs in the area. That’s not even counting whatever creatures are lurking there. Not even the sotakians make their homes that way and consider it sacred ground due to the daquala population in the area.”
“Wait, what’s a daquala?”
“Oh, they’re a creature about the size of one of your dogs but a whole lot more vicious and meaner. They can also camouflage themselves to practically be invisible. However, I don’t think they would necessarily be a problem, they tend to sleep a lot and most of them should be hibernating this time of year. You’re more likely to get swallowed by quicksand or a giant swamp serpent honestly. Still, I suppose if we got lucky it would cut our time by half. Up to you, plivik.”
> You take the forest path
While you’re going to have to stomp through the swamps eventually, if you can avoid the areas that contain vicious invisible beasts that would probably be better for your survival.

“Okay, we’ll take the long way.” You say.
“Probably for the best.” Tych remarks.

As you and Tych travel through the forest, you find that Tych is overly talkative. He even acknowledges that he is, but he’s just so happy to talk to ANYONE who isn’t Ral. Most of his talk concerns Gnarlwood and Sotak swamp, so it isn’t completely useless banter though you’re more concerned with his chatter calling attention to you.

He has much to criticize when it comes to elves and says it was they who started the war with the sotakians in the first place. And ever since that point, now everyone else who lives in Gnarlwood forest that was more or less minding their own business has to deal with the consequences.

“The sotakians were perfectly content on staying in their swamps before the elves pushed them. The sotakians would just take a few elves every now and then for their primitive sacrifices, it wasn’t personal and the sotakians never tried to encroach on their territory.” Tych says.
“I can’t imagine WHY the elves would take that badly.” You reply.
“It isn’t like the elves couldn’t afford to lose a few of their number given how much they rut with each other. Not to mention as I said, elves are a bunch of territorial assholes. They just used their war as an excuse to try to lord it over the rest of us that live in Gnarlwood. Demanding tribute, conscripting us to help them. Nevermind the fact that the rest of us don’t have problem with the sotakians. A bunch of degenerate hedonistic imperialist assholes is what they are.”
“Interesting. Elves generally don’t have that reputation of being particularly interested in conquest, well other than the sexual kind I suppose. I dunno, I haven’t really run into many save for passing by a few aggressive whores in Holgard.”
“Hm, well luckily for you humans, you’ve already established your dominance in this land. If you were in lesser numbers, the elves would be trying to conquer you lot as well. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the elves hadn’t sent out their people to go purposely mate with humans and other races to create more half breeds in the world.”
“What would they gain by that?”
“Spies of course! Half elves would make excellent spies to gather information about the rest of the world and human governments in particular. Mark my words plivik, there will come a day when elves will try to pull their bullshit on humanity. I know you humans already tend to be foolishly entranced by their superficial looks. Ugh, dunno how anyone could find those freaks attractive.”

Yep, Tych certainly has strong opinions on elves.

Most of your journey is uneventful and despite Tych’s ranting. Eventually you do get weary of the sprite’s squeaks and tell him to keep it down. Tych apologizes and complies.

As night begins to fall, you decide to camp for the night so once again you find yourself a tree you can climb up and reasonably sleep in.

“What are you doing, plivik?” Tych asks as you climb up a tree.
“Maybe you sprites can see in the dark, but I can’t unfortunately. Not to mention I need to get some rest if I’m going to go steal the eyes from sacred sotakian statues tomorrow.” You respond.
“Hm, I suppose you’re right. Very well my wings could use a rest too and it’ll be nice to sleep outside rather than a glass jar for a change. (Sigh) Just wish I could sleep with my beloved Gink tonight. Even the sight of her would be most welcome.”
“You’re married?”
“You surprised? Though I’m not married in the way that you probably are thinking. There was no lavish ceremony like you big legs seem to like to have. Gink and I just bonded under the moon in private and made our commitment statements to each other. We’re the only ones that matter, so why all the need for a crowd to watch?”
“Makes sense to me actually.”
“What about you?”
“What about me what?”
“Do you have someone?”
“No. I mean I had someone for a few months, but it didn’t last…anyway I wasn’t married and honestly it’s not something I’ve ever thought about. Especially not now.”
“Yes, I suppose our predicament would put other concerns first. Remember though, it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Tych flits away and goes off to find a soft leaf to sleep on. You remain awake for a little while wondering if Tych is lying about everything, telling half truths, or being completely honest.

Eventually you fall asleep.

Later you wake up to Tych’s squeaky voice.

“Wake up! Wake up, plivik! Elves are in the area and they’re on the move!”
“Huh? What? Here? Now? I didn’t even hear anything!” you respond, suddenly waking up and catching yourself before you fall.
“Well no, they aren’t right here under us plivik, but close enough! I woke up early and did a little scouting north. There are a bunch of them marching down that well trodden path that leads into the swamp. It looks like a war party.”
“So are they going to attack a lizard village?”
“I would imagine so.”
“I guess taking the path is completely off the table now.”
“It is until they clear the area which might be awhile.”
“Do you know what village they’re going to attack? Were we heading in that direction?”
“I actually did hear some of their conversation and they’re striking the closest one on the border and fully intend on wiping it out. I think I know which one that is and it’s a fairly large one. Makes sense that they would send so many soldiers. Our destination was going to be a little to the southwest when we reached the swamp. A smaller village that was further in the swamp.”
“Would both of them contain idols?”
“Well the sotakians are pretty religious, and they usually have one somewhere in their villages, why?”
“I’m just wondering if instead of me trying to sneak around a lizard village by myself that maybe I shouldn’t just shadow the war party and snatch the gems from a village that’s going to be raided instead.”

Tych gives you a concerned look.

“I don’t know plivik, that sounds pretty risky. As I said, the elves are likely to attack you as well.” Tych says.
“You’re probably right, if only because they’re going to wonder what the hell I’m doing there, but lizards are still going to be their primary targets. At least if I get seen, there’s going to be enough distraction on both sides that I might avoid getting targeted. If I get caught in the other village, it’s just going to be me by myself surrounded by lizards and I don’t expect you’d be much help.” You respond.
“Way to have confidence in me, plivik. I’ll have you know I can fly about the other village without causing any attention and give you a run down on how to best approach the place. Certainly seems safer than what you’re proposing.”
“Hmm, okay, we’ll go with your idea again.”
“It is the safer course I assure you, plivik. I am also happy that you have so much trust in me.” Tych responds.
“I’m just hoping I don’t regret it.”

Since you’re intending on going with the original plan, Tych says that he’s going to go back to watch the elven war party and let you know when the path is clear. He suggests that even when they do finally all pass by, it would probably still be best to keep off the path proper and just follow the general direction of it until you get to the swamp. From there he’ll once again guide the way and scout ahead.

As Tych takes his leave, you sit back and wait. You sort of feel like you haven’t been doing much on this task, though you suppose Tych IS your guide so it makes sense that he’s doing most of the work to get you to your destination.

You don’t know how long you wait, but it’s enough that you end up going back to sleep for a little while. The second time Tych wakes you isn’t quite as jarring.

Having been given the all-clear reassurance, you climb down from the tree and follow Tych as he leads you into the Sotak swamp.

The swamp is about like what you imagined, it’s muggy, very wet and filled with a lot of little biting and stinging insects. (Though in Tych’s case, they aren’t all that small and he tends to perch on your shoulder for most of the way) You don’t encounter anything too bad; save for a couple of the larger reptilian predators (Tych says they’re crocomoths) and in both cases they’re busily feasting on something else and you slip by unnoticed.

Despite you practically being up to your knees in muddy water you’re making good time all things considered and then that’s when you hear a faint sounds in the distance coming from the north. Sounds like a horn.

You walk a few more minutes and that’s when you begin to hear a lot of splashing, several voices shouting and heading in your direction from the south and getting closer by the second.

“Those must be sotakians!” Tych says.
“Shit, I just realized, that horn sound we heard was probably was some alarm from that other village getting attacked. There’s probably going to be a shitload of lizards heading our way!” you say.
“We have to hide!”

Tych at this point does exactly that and flies away! Whether he’s completely left you or not is irrelevant because all that matters now is you finding your own hiding spot.

You don’t know how many are heading in your direction and how spread out they are, but all you can do is hope you stay out of their sight.
> You hide in some tall reeds
Hiding underwater holds the danger of drowning on top of getting stepped on and getting discovered. You’ll take your chances with tall reeds and hope for the best.

You run to the left and hide in a thick clump of reeds getting as low as you possibly can without actually being completely submerged.

You keep your weapon ready as you hear the splashing of several bodies heading your direction. You expect one of those lizards to suddenly stumble upon you at any time. You only hope you kill him so quickly that none of his fellows notice.

Unfortunately, you’re paying so much attention to if the lizards are going to stumble upon you, you don’t notice the nearby snake nest that you’ve stumbled into.

You suddenly feel several small piecing bites in your flesh. This causes you to jump up and yell involuntarily as you quickly try to get the colorful little snakes off of you. Of course this then calls the attention of not just one, but several lizards who were running by at the time.

They notice you and after a few hisses and something in a language you don’t understand, three of them move in to attack you while the rest continue their other mission of defending their settlement.

Besides outnumbering you, the lizards are bigger than you and probably faster than you in this sort of environment. They’re also most definitely better warriors than you.

However, none of that really matters because you’re currently in no condition to fight or flee from the sotakians. Whatever type of snakes those were, they were highly poisonous and you just got bit by several of them.

By the time one of the lizards even reaches your position, you’ve fallen to the ground vomiting, your heart beating much to fast, and you feel like the interior of your body is on fire.

Your eyes roll in the back of your head and then you lose complete consciousness before dying face down in muddy water.


While you’re going to have to stomp through the swamps eventually, if you can avoid the areas that contain vicious invisible beasts that would probably be better for your survival.

“Okay, we’ll take the long way.” You say.
“Probably for the best.” Tych remarks.

As you and Tych travel through the forest, you find that Tych is overly talkative. He even acknowledges that he is, but he’s just so happy to talk to ANYONE who isn’t Ral. Most of his talk concerns Gnarlwood and Sotak swamp, so it isn’t completely useless banter though you’re more concerned with his chatter calling attention to you.

He has much to criticize when it comes to elves and says it was they who started the war with the sotakians in the first place. And ever since that point, now everyone else who lives in Gnarlwood forest that was more or less minding their own business has to deal with the consequences.

“The sotakians were perfectly content on staying in their swamps before the elves pushed them. The sotakians would just take a few elves every now and then for their primitive sacrifices, it wasn’t personal and the sotakians never tried to encroach on their territory.” Tych says.
“I can’t imagine WHY the elves would take that badly.” You reply.
“It isn’t like the elves couldn’t afford to lose a few of their number given how much they rut with each other. Not to mention as I said, elves are a bunch of territorial assholes. They just used their war as an excuse to try to lord it over the rest of us that live in Gnarlwood. Demanding tribute, conscripting us to help them. Nevermind the fact that the rest of us don’t have problem with the sotakians. A bunch of degenerate hedonistic imperialist assholes is what they are.”
“Interesting. Elves generally don’t have that reputation of being particularly interested in conquest, well other than the sexual kind I suppose. I dunno, I haven’t really run into many save for passing by a few aggressive whores in Holgard.”
“Hm, well luckily for you humans, you’ve already established your dominance in this land. If you were in lesser numbers, the elves would be trying to conquer you lot as well. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the elves hadn’t sent out their people to go purposely mate with humans and other races to create more half breeds in the world.”
“What would they gain by that?”
“Spies of course! Half elves would make excellent spies to gather information about the rest of the world and human governments in particular. Mark my words plivik, there will come a day when elves will try to pull their bullshit on humanity. I know you humans already tend to be foolishly entranced by their superficial looks. Ugh, dunno how anyone could find those freaks attractive.”

Yep, Tych certainly has strong opinions on elves.

Most of your journey is uneventful and despite Tych’s ranting. Eventually you do get weary of the sprite’s squeaks and tell him to keep it down. Tych apologizes and complies.

As night begins to fall, you decide to camp for the night so once again you find yourself a tree you can climb up and reasonably sleep in.

“What are you doing, plivik?” Tych asks as you climb up a tree.
“Maybe you sprites can see in the dark, but I can’t unfortunately. Not to mention I need to get some rest if I’m going to go steal the eyes from sacred sotakian statues tomorrow.” You respond.
“Hm, I suppose you’re right. Very well my wings could use a rest too and it’ll be nice to sleep outside rather than a glass jar for a change. (Sigh) Just wish I could sleep with my beloved Gink tonight. Even the sight of her would be most welcome.”
“You’re married?”
“You surprised? Though I’m not married in the way that you probably are thinking. There was no lavish ceremony like you big legs seem to like to have. Gink and I just bonded under the moon in private and made our commitment statements to each other. We’re the only ones that matter, so why all the need for a crowd to watch?”
“Makes sense to me actually.”
“What about you?”
“What about me what?”
“Do you have someone?”
“No. I mean I had someone for a few months, but it didn’t last…anyway I wasn’t married and honestly it’s not something I’ve ever thought about. Especially not now.”
“Yes, I suppose our predicament would put other concerns first. Remember though, it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Tych flits away and goes off to find a soft leaf to sleep on. You remain awake for a little while wondering if Tych is lying about everything, telling half truths, or being completely honest.

Eventually you fall asleep.

Later you wake up to Tych’s squeaky voice.

“Wake up! Wake up, plivik! Elves are in the area and they’re on the move!”
“Huh? What? Here? Now? I didn’t even hear anything!” you respond, suddenly waking up and catching yourself before you fall.
“Well no, they aren’t right here under us plivik, but close enough! I woke up early and did a little scouting north. There are a bunch of them marching down that well trodden path that leads into the swamp. It looks like a war party.”
“So are they going to attack a lizard village?”
“I would imagine so.”
“I guess taking the path is completely off the table now.”
“It is until they clear the area which might be awhile.”
“Do you know what village they’re going to attack? Were we heading in that direction?”
“I actually did hear some of their conversation and they’re striking the closest one on the border and fully intend on wiping it out. I think I know which one that is and it’s a fairly large one. Makes sense that they would send so many soldiers. Our destination was going to be a little to the southwest when we reached the swamp. A smaller village that was further in the swamp.”
“Would both of them contain idols?”
“Well the sotakians are pretty religious, and they usually have one somewhere in their villages, why?”
“I’m just wondering if instead of me trying to sneak around a lizard village by myself that maybe I shouldn’t just shadow the war party and snatch the gems from a village that’s going to be raided instead.”

Tych gives you a concerned look.

“I don’t know plivik, that sounds pretty risky. As I said, the elves are likely to attack you as well.” Tych says.
“You’re probably right, if only because they’re going to wonder what the hell I’m doing there, but lizards are still going to be their primary targets. At least if I get seen, there’s going to be enough distraction on both sides that I might avoid getting targeted. If I get caught in the other village, it’s just going to be me by myself surrounded by lizards and I don’t expect you’d be much help.” You respond.
“Way to have confidence in me, plivik. I’ll have you know I can fly about the other village without causing any attention and give you a run down on how to best approach the place. Certainly seems safer than what you’re proposing.”
“Hmm, okay, we’ll go with your idea again.”
“It is the safer course I assure you, plivik. I am also happy that you have so much trust in me.” Tych responds.
“I’m just hoping I don’t regret it.”

Since you’re intending on going with the original plan, Tych says that he’s going to go back to watch the elven war party and let you know when the path is clear. He suggests that even when they do finally all pass by, it would probably still be best to keep off the path proper and just follow the general direction of it until you get to the swamp. From there he’ll once again guide the way and scout ahead.

As Tych takes his leave, you sit back and wait. You sort of feel like you haven’t been doing much on this task, though you suppose Tych IS your guide so it makes sense that he’s doing most of the work to get you to your destination.

You don’t know how long you wait, but it’s enough that you end up going back to sleep for a little while. The second time Tych wakes you isn’t quite as jarring.

Having been given the all-clear reassurance, you climb down from the tree and follow Tych as he leads you into the Sotak swamp.

The swamp is about like what you imagined, it’s muggy, very wet and filled with a lot of little biting and stinging insects. (Though in Tych’s case, they aren’t all that small and he tends to perch on your shoulder for most of the way) You don’t encounter anything too bad; save for a couple of the larger reptilian predators (Tych says they’re crocomoths) and in both cases they’re busily feasting on something else and you slip by unnoticed.

Despite you practically being up to your knees in muddy water you’re making good time all things considered and then that’s when you hear a faint sounds in the distance coming from the north. Sounds like a horn.

You walk a few more minutes and that’s when you begin to hear a lot of splashing, several voices shouting and heading in your direction from the south and getting closer by the second.

“Those must be sotakians!” Tych says.
“Shit, I just realized, that horn sound we heard was probably was some alarm from that other village getting attacked. There’s probably going to be a shitload of lizards heading our way!” you say.
“We have to hide!”

Tych at this point does exactly that and flies away! Whether he’s completely left you or not is irrelevant because all that matters now is you finding your own hiding spot.

You don’t know how many are heading in your direction and how spread out they are, but all you can do is hope you stay out of their sight.
> You hide underwater
You quickly grab one of the many reeds nearby, break it and put it in your mouth as you sink underneath the muddy water you’ve been stomping through. You just hope that YOU don’t get stomped on. Getting trampled on by multiple lizard feet would be a pretty ignoble death.

Of course this isn’t even counting whatever the hell might be lurking under the water ready to swim into your ear and lay eggs in your brain. (You have an overactive imagination sometimes)

You lay on the muddy swamp floor, trying to make yourself as small as possible. Doesn’t take long before you hear the sounds of lizards shouting their incomprehensible language and running past you, though it’s very muted and garbled due to you being underwater.

Despite the water being muddy and your sight getting blurred in the process, you do see a couple of large looming figures run past from your prone position. A couple of the sotakian’s taloned feet stomp near you. One right near your head, but you get lucky and none of them actually step or trip over you.

Still, you aren’t sure if all of them have passed so you’re reluctant to move, fortunately Tych returns and flies near your reed. You can’t quite make out what he’s saying, but you think you see him waving his arms like an “all clear” signal, so you sit up out of the water and catch a good breath.

“That was quite the bit of quick thinking, plivik.” Tych remarks.
“Are they all gone?” you ask in between breaths.
“Yes, I believe so, quite a lot of them actually. From above, I could see them spread out all over the nearby area, you got very lucky. I doubt if running to the left or right would have escaped their gaze.”
“Where did you go?”
“As I said plivik, I just flew straight up until they passed. Are you surprised? You already claimed I wouldn’t be useful in a fight.”
“Yeah I suppose not. Actually with that many, pretty sure I’d be dead as well.”
“Glad you’re not holding a grudge plivik. In any case, our destination should be a whole lot manageable to deal with now. I suspect only a few sotakians remain in the village so your job should be easier. I will still scout the village to let you know the best approach of course.”

You’re really hoping that will be the case, because as sopping wet as you are now, you’re not exactly in the highest spirits and are eager to get this shitty task over with.

You and Tych make your way to your destination and sure enough the sotakian village is fairly empty. There are still a few lizards around and sure enough a couple of them are guarding a big lizard statue in the center of the village with blood gems for eyes.

Fortunately Tych also mentions that there are some bamboo cages with elves in them. He says they look miserable and in terrible condition (he mentions that pretty gleefully), but he thinks if they got free, they’d certainly try to make a run for it.

So that’s your plan, you’re going to create a distraction by releasing the prisoners.

You cautiously approach the village and sneak around the huts, hoping that none of the little lizard children wandering around suddenly stumble upon you. When you get to the cages, Tych wasn’t kidding about the elves. They look like they might have been in here for weeks and they’re skinny even for elves.

However, when they see you, they take notice, but say nothing. You reinforce this by putting your fingers to your lips and then working on the lock. The lock itself isn’t even metal, its’ a simple latch mechanism that can easily be opened from the outside, so it’s child’s play to you.

The prisoners looks so thankful and a couple even whisper a few things that you don’t understand in their native tongue, but you assume its some sort of thankful. They all start to make their way out and then that’s when you nod to Tych and get out of the immediate vicinity.

Tych flies over to the sotakians and begins shouting at them and pointing over in the direction of their prisoners. The sotakians are a bit confused at first by some sprite yelling at them and would probably swat him down, but when they look to where Tych is pointing, they find their escaped prisoners a lot more important to chase down.

The lizards guarding the statue, along with most of the others chase after the prisoners who are now running for their lives. With the village nearly completely empty of any warriors of any kind, you make a dash to the statue and begin prying out its eyes.

While you’re not exactly slow in this task, you’re certainly not fast enough to escape completely unnoticed, especially since there are still lizard children and a few mothers (At least you’re assuming the remaining adults might be female, you can’t tell) still in the village and notice your desecration. They begin hissing and converging on your position.

With the gems in your possession, you pull out your sword and begin making a hasty retreat out of this accursed swamp. Lizard children might be small, but they still have a full set of sharp teeth and piercing talons. They’re fairly fast too, especially since they’re used to this environment. You have no choice but to cut a couple of the little scalies down in your escape, but not before they lay in some good bites and claw slashes on your arms and legs.

It’s probably only because of these casualties, that they stop pursuing you as the rest of them get scared and the mothers wish to keep the rest of their broods safe. (You hear some odd wailing noises behind you)

Eventually you put a lot of distance between you and the village. You sort of lost him again in all the mayhem, but you soon find out that Tych is never far from your position.

“Whew! That got intense! I almost thought you weren’t going to make it plivik, with all those sotakian children trying to eat you.” Tych says.
“I didn’t think I was for a moment.” You answer taking a breather.
“This might be a weird question, but do you feel bad for killing sotakian children?”
“What?!”
“I mean I know it was a matter of life and death, but still…”
“Damn right it was a matter of life and death! I didn’t enjoy it if that’s what you’re asking, but then I didn’t exactly have time to worry about the moralities of killing little scaly children either, who I might add were probably more dangerous than typical wild predator. Felt like I was getting attacked by a pack of animals rather than anything with higher intelligence what with all the growling, hissing, biting and tearing.”
“Apologies plivik, I just sort of wanted to know what kind of person you were. Just as you weren’t completely sure about me, I also wasn’t completely sure about you. I am glad to see you are a person that doesn’t enjoy killing even if you are pragmatic by nature. It would have made me hesitant to take you back to my village even if I do desire freedom.”
“Hold on, who said anything about going back to your village? We got the gems, we’re going back to Ral’s.”
“You still don’t trust me, after all we’ve been through, plivik? Don’t you want freedom? All we have to do is go back to my village and we can be free of Ral’s spell! I can even lead you safely out of this forest and have you back on your way to Holgard or whatever other human settlement you had in mind to go to. And you could even think of those blood gems as your reward for this whole shitty experience. Those have to be worth quite a bit. Not like they’re common.”
“Why don’t we just get out of this fucking swamp before I think anymore about this okay?”
“Very well plivik.”

Tych shuts up for awhile and the pair of you make your way back. You feel like once you’re out of the swamp, the worst of this will be behind you. You have some concerns about potentially bumping into more lizards or even elves, but Tych is fairly confident that won’t be the case.

“The sotakians barely ever retreat and especially not on their own territory. Also, the lot that came from the other village will have probably cut off the elves from any sort of escape. Those stupid pliviks are going to be completely massacred. Elves deserve what they get. I hope the sotakians also hunted down those other ones and recaptured them.” Tych remarks.

Strange that Tych should be so concerned with your possible enjoyment of killing when he himself obviously gets a lot of pleasure from elven suffering. You get the real impression that elves must have done more to him than he’s already said. It’s the only explanation for his sadistic hatred.

When you make it back to the forest, night is beginning to fall. You walk a little longer and eventually you make it back to the tree where you slept the first time you passed through this way.

The next morning Tych is buzzing in your ear about heading back to his village again. Considering you’ll arrive at the fairy ring in a few hours, it isn’t surprising that he desperately wants a final answer from you about the subject.

He already made some of his points yesterday. Besides the obvious freedom, you’d be pretty well off with the blood gems you have.
> You go to his village
Tych’s offer is too tempting and despite a few times where he flew away and hid, he still helped you out in the long run. Ral on the other hand has done nothing but enslave you and when he isn’t having you do menial labor, he’s sending you on dangerous missions like this one.

You might as well risk it. If it doesn’t work or Tych is just planning on freeing himself somehow, you can always just head back to the fairy ring. You can make up a story to Ral, not like he’s going to care as long as he has his blood gems.

“Okay Tych, let’s go to your village, but I’m REALLY putting a lot of trust in you and hoping you’re planning on freeing us both as opposed to saving your own ass somehow.” You say.
“Oh, we’ll both be free, don’t worry! Come on let’s go plivik, I’m really excited about this!” Tych beams and flies off at a slightly faster pace than usual.

You spend the better part of the day following Tych who really is so excited that you nearly lose him several times in the forest. Several times he stops to wait and laments the fact that your big clumsy legs aren’t fast enough to keep up with him.

Eventually you get to a point where Tych tells you to stop.

“Okay, hold on plivik. We’re getting very close, but I better go ahead first. Not like we invite a lot of big people into our villages.” Tych says.
“Where is it anyway?” you ask.
“It’s up high in the trees. What? Did you think we lived on the ground like you wingless pliviks do? I’m going to go see the elder and tell him what’s going on, I have no reason to believe that he won’t help.”
“Hmm, I’m still half expecting you to just disappear.”
“You followed me this far and you still don’t trust me? I’m coming back plivik, just wait here.”

Tych flies upward towards the very high nearby trees. You watch him the entire time until he completely disappears in the foliage. You continue to look up and around to see if you can make out some sort of sign of a fairy village, but you can’t see anything. Eventually you stop straining your eyes and neck and just lean up against one of the trees and wait.

Unsurprisingly, you’re waiting quite awhile. You start thinking about leaving as it begins to get darker, but you’re just hoping that Tych is taking a long time because he stopped to fuck his wife or something.

Tych eventually returns and calls to you as he’s flying down.

“Hey plivik you’re still here! Really glad you are, I told you I’d be back. I told the rest of the village and they’ll all be coming down to meet you soon since we can’t very well expect you to come meet us.” Tych says.
“What’s going on exactly?” you ask.
“It’s like I said, in order to break the spell it’s going to require the entire village’s help. Involves a lot of chanting, magical power and shit.”
“And shit? That doesn’t sound very specific. Do you know if this will even work?”
“It’ll work, trust me.”
“It better because…ow. what the hell…”

You feel a little sharp jab in your arm. At first you think an insect has bitten or stung you, but upon closer in inspection it’s a tiny arrow.

You pull it out and they look at Tych who just shrugs his shoulders.

“Hey I did say I’d come back and that you’d be free. I didn’t say you’d come out of this alive.”

Before you can even make the attempt to lunge at Tych (who just flies out of the way) you are suddenly hit by several tiny arrows on all sides. It’s like multiple needles going in your body and while it isn’t the most pleasant feeling, it isn’t the thing that kills you.

The fact that they drugged everyone of their arrow is what kills you, or rather helps lead to your eventual death.

You fall to the ground completely paralyzed, you can’t even speak, but you’re fully aware of your surroundings. You watch as several sprites descend from the trees. You can’t make out much from your position, but it looks like one of them flies over to speak with Tych.

“So you say this human is the one that captured you and the rest your company?” the elder asks.
“Not by himself, but he was helping the wizard that did. I can’t bring them back and I couldn’t kill the wizard, but I at least hoped that bringing this plivik to the village could at least give the families some measure of justice.” Tych remarks.
“It won’t ease the pain for most, but I suppose it will bring a little closure since we never did know what the hell happened. We assumed it was elves or even sotakians.”
“I’m just glad to be home and finally free. I thank you elder for managing to release me from that dreadful magic.”

As you listen to Tych spin more lies, it suddenly occurs to you that yesterday he referred to the elves as pliviks. And he’s certainly no friend to elves. You wish you had caught that before, because it’s obvious that word is something insulting and given that he’s been calling you that since he met you, that pretty much says it all on what he ever thought about you.

The elder tells the rest of the sprites about how Tych is to be honored by bringing home an enemy that led to the deaths of so many in the village. And in his honor he is going to allow Tych to marry one of his many daughters.

Sonofabitch wasn’t even married.

After a few more lies and speeches, the sprites finally descend on you to celebrate Tych’s homecoming along with dispensing justice; this will take the form of a feast.

You never knew sprites ate flesh, but you soon learn first hand as several sharp teeth start chewing on your body.

It’s agonizing being slowly eaten alive; especially since they’re so small this doesn’t kill you quickly.

But after nearly a week, your chewed and bitten body finally expires.