Lisa’s a big ghoul, she’s going to have to fend for herself. Besides, the best way you can defend her is if you kill Travis as quick as possible.

Since Travis likes to talk shit, you might as well respond in kind.

“Okay Travis, you got me on that one. Cherish the moment because it’s the last chance you’re going to get. In fact, if you were smart, you’d just run now. I know deep down you’re scared and just too arrogant to admit it.” You exclaim.
“Scared? Me? I’m not the one who is floundering around like kitten in the river right now. Seems to me, that you’re the arrogant one who doesn’t know when he’s beaten.” Travis retorts.

You see a figure out the corner of your eye getting ready to cast a spell and you rush forward to kill it. Another illusion, but you know enough not to stick around as two bolts of lightning barely miss you.

“Is this your plan? Attempt to kill all my illusions until you single me out? Shit plan and doomed to failure. I can keep this up all night. You on the other hand, will have to turn in when day breaks. And whoever that other vampire was, is going to be too busy chasing down Heather. You’re alone out here and fucked. The best you can hope for is a stalemate before you run like a bitch before the sunrise. You won’t get it though, vampire ashes aren’t easy to come by.”
“Yeah, yeah, just keep telling yourself that and ignore the fact that you aren’t pissing your robe right now.”

You play more dodge the magic spell with Travis and continue to taunt him the whole time. You aren’t sure if it’s taking him off his offense, but you’re getting frustrated that you can’t seem to locate him. Destroying his illusions when you can, while satisfying, doesn’t bring you any closer to your goal since he’s just creating more. You don’t know where Lisa is in all this either, but you’ve got bigger concerns right now.

Eventually Travis gets lucky again and one of his illusions zaps you in the chest with a lightning bolt. It tries to finish you off with a fireball, but you narrowly escape. At this rate he’s going to set the whole forest on fire.

As you’re taking protection behind a tree and recovering, you suddenly hear screams coming from behind a cluster of rocks.

“Shit…did she really get him?” you say to yourself and swiftly run over towards the screaming.

And there you see Lisa partially on top of Travis and chewing through one of his arms while he desperately tries to punch her with the other, shrieking the entire time.

“No, no more of that.” You say and break Travis’ free arm so he can’t flail it around at Lisa any longer. His screams of agony don’t get any longer, and in fact he begins to just stop making much noise at all.

“Yeah, looks like the shock and blood loss are kicking in. You’re lucky that Lisa got to you first. If it were up to me, I would have stretched out your torment a lot longer.”

Travis tries to speak, but all he can do is bubble up some blood from his mouth and struggle to stay awake.

“Guess there’s one silver lining in this for you, you’re getting eaten by someone who doesn’t make any pretenses of what she is right? I’m sure she appreciates your respect, along with your flesh.”

Lisa finishes chewing through Travis’ right arm and then gives him one good chomp on the side of his neck, which finally kills him, though it doesn’t kill Lisa’s hunger and she continues to feed.

“You did good Lisa. Thank you.” You say and kiss her on the top of her head which finally allows breaks her attention long enough to briefly nuzzle against your leg before returning to eat.

“I hate to break up your feast, but we have other matters to take care of, come on, let’s head back to the Dornan camp. Hopefully Isabella didn’t kill the other one. Oh, you can bring his arm with you.”

Lisa wastes no time in following you back to the camp, though there is still one thing you’re wondering about.

“Lisa, how the hell did you single out Travis in all the illusions?” you ask.
“Oh that was easy. I just sniffed him out.” Lisa answers as a bit of meat flies from her mouth.
“How? I couldn’t even get his scent.”
“You were right about him being scared. He had pissed himself. Easy to get scent for me after that. I hunt in the sewers all the time, you know. I can usually single out the origins of bodily waste under the right circumstances. It took some time for me to perfect that skill, I’ve always wanted to tell you about it, would you like to hear how…”
“Um, okay Lisa. Maybe another time.”

Funny how you desperately trained yourself to try to block out the various “aromas” of the sewers, meanwhile Lisa completely embraced them. Whatever works you guess.

You soon return to the camp and go through the bodies since Isabella isn’t around. You don’t really find much though, at least not any more that what Heather told you. Having little else to do, you decide to sit and wait, while Lisa eats one of the Dornans.

Time passes a bit and you start to wonder if you shouldn’t just go back home. This was more of Isabella’s thing and if she’s not here then you really don’t have strong feelings about getting revenge on Ral. Sure it would be nice, but you’ve had enough of fighting wizards for tonight.

Unfortunately Isabella comes back just as you’re thinking on this, with Heather over her shoulder.

“I’m guessing you didn’t leave yours alive.” Isabella asks.
“Nope, I’m afraid Lisa’s hunger took care of that, but I figured you’d show restraint since I was certain you wouldn’t place too much faith in us anyway.” You respond.
“Didn’t know Lisa was even going to be around since you told her to stay put. In any case I suppose you were correct in thinking that I wouldn’t believe you to have as much restraint, so this one is still alive. Knocked her ass out when I finally caught up with her, so I haven’t gotten any information from her yet. I guess we can do that together at least.”

Doesn’t take long for Isabella to slap Heather awake. When she sees the two of you hovering over her, she’s obviously very frightened and turns to what most do in a hopeless situation.

“Oh please, Dorna give me the knowledge and power to overcome my disadvantageous position. I will make the large sacrifice in your honor if you only lend me your wisdom.” She says and begins praying which Isabella puts a stop to with another slap.
“Oh no, you aren’t mumbling some prayer and casting another spell. The best you can hope for in your situation is if you don’t piss me off and you get a quick death. Now tell me what you know about Ral and what’s going on out here.”
“Can’t we come to some sort of agreement?” Heather asks.

Isabella looks at you.

“Reminds me of you with all these attempts at bargaining.” Isabella remarks.
“Well, you gotta admit, it worked for me.” You answer.
“Yeah, well it’s not working for this bitch, now TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU FUCKING KNOW!”

Isabella’s face becomes that monstrous expression that manages to scare Heather even more than she already is. She starts crying and pleading and ultimately agreeing to tell her everything she knows even though it isn’t much.

Heather explains that none of them really knew what to find out here and it was Elder Flynn who first sensed the magic disturbance. He wasn’t sure at first about checking it out, but after much meditation (And sensing other disturbances) he decided that he needed to confront his old comrade.

Apparently the Elder and Ral were old friends when they were young, but obviously had a disagreement in ideology as far as magic. The Elder of course thought it was a Dorna’s most precious gift to the world and thanks must always be given to her for it. Ral on the other hand just believed that it was a force to be mastered like any other and didn’t even acknowledge Dorna.

She said most knew about Ral since he was a wizard of some power even if he was very reclusive most of the time, but Elder Flynn didn’t speak of him in any detail until recently. Said that his experiments had probably gone too far and he would have to be stopped before Dorna’s wrath was brought upon the world.

Even though the Elder said the disturbances had died down and they hadn’t seen anything unusual yet, he said they still needed to confront Ral since he was dangerous wild card. Heather didn’t speak out, but she got the impression that this meeting was just something the Elder seemed to want more than correcting magical disturbance.

“Oh, that was Flynn? Damn, didn’t even recognize him, though I thought there was something vaguely familiar about his scent. If I had recognized him, maybe I would have tried a different approach. Oh well.” Isabella remarks.
“Wait, you knew the Elder?” Heather asks.
“Yeah, he and Ral were competing for my attention when they were young! That’s why the friendship broke up. Ideological disagreement my fine undead ass. Flynn wasn’t hooked up in all this Dorna worship shit when I knew him. I mean he was more religious than Ral, but he wasn’t a fanatic.”
“What did Ral do that won you over?” you ask out of genuine curiosity.
“He made me laugh. In any case, I guess that doesn’t help us much, but it was worth a try. Alright, let’s get this done…”
“WAIT! Please! I’m no threat anymore! I didn’t even want to fight you guys! You! When we met, wasn’t I reasonable to you?” Heather exclaims, trying to appeal to you.
“When we first met, you fucking did some sort of charm on Lisa to make her docile.” you say.
“But…please! (sob) I don’t wanna die! I didn’t even want to come out here! (sob) Wait! I know! Make me into a vampire! I mean I could be a good one! I’m already a night owl and I could make a good apprentice! Please, I just don’t want to die…”

At this point Heather is groveling completely at Isabella’s feet. This is such a pathetic display, you’re sort of feeling a bit for the girl.

“Isabella, maybe you could make her into a vampire? I mean she probably could help you quite a bit on building a new home, what with being a sorceress and all.” You say.
“Hello, my name is Isabella, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m not turning this bitch into a vampire just because she’s begging for her life. I have standards. I only turn those that are mate potential into vampires.” Isabella sniffs.
“Do you HAVE to have sex with the person you turn into a vampire?”
“Yes, and as I think you know I’m not into women.”
“Just pretend you’re in college.”
“What?”
“I dunno, my dad said a lot of girls at his university used to do that and then got married to some guy anyway.”
“Yeah, no. Look, if you’re so keen on saving this human, then you could always turn her into a ghoul.”

Lisa looks up long enough from the corpse she’s eating to give an angry growl at that suggestion. Lisa might be willing to serve you unquestioningly, but she still wants to be the only ghoul in your life, not that you were considering it anyway.

“Too bad Heather, hope your afterlife with Dorna is a pleasant one.” You say and without another word Isabella kills Heather.

Isabella feeds and then you do likewise. The three of you then continue your journey to Ral’s home.

Along the way you start noticing discoloration of the trees and odd-looking plant life. Some of them even look carnivorous, but you guess they don’t like the taste of undead flesh so they don’t attack. (And Lisa must not be very appetizing either)

“This doesn’t look like it belongs here.” You say.
“Sure doesn’t. What the hell did Ral do?” Isabella says.
“Given all this change and how the Dornans said it dying down, maybe he’s not even alive anymore.”
“For his sake, he better not be.”

After passing a few more landscape oddities, you at last reach Ral’s home and it looks about the same as you last saw it. There aren’t any creatures or anything wandering about, though you’re not getting a sense of complete safety either.

“Well, it’s all yours. See if you can’t get in.” Isabella says.

You don’t say anything other than to tell Lisa to stay put and you’ll be back in a moment.

You approach Ral’s home and try the front door. It’s locked of course, so you pull out a lockpick and easily open it. You step forward…

And nothing happens. You apparently are allowed in the house. Now to see if Isabella’s other idea will work.

You stand in the doorway and motion Lisa and Isabella over. Lisa easily enters the house since she wasn’t barred by strange rules anyway. Isabella however, still can’t get in.

“Shit.” She remarks.
“I don’t understand, I thought you said you were always welcome in a place that was my home.” You say.
“Eh, more weird rules. This place, while you were welcomed in here, still officially isn’t your home, it’s Ral’s. I figured it was a long shot. I’m going to try to figure out something out here, in the meantime you need to find out what’s going on. I’d rather you not kill Ral and leave him for me, but if you have to, I’ll certainly understand.”

Isabella takes her leave and you and Lisa are left in a very dusty living area. Looks like this place went to pot after you weren’t around to clean it anymore.

“Well, let’s take this slow I guess. Lisa, you stay very close to me.” You say and begin exploring rooms methodically.

The eerie thing about all this, is you aren’t hearing any noise whatsoever. Usually you used to at least hear faint noises sometimes from his lab, but there is nothing. Speaking of his lab you eventually decide you might as well just search that place now.

You make your way there and immediately notice something wrong. The door is open. That door was always locked.

You cautiously peek inside Ral’s lab for the first time.

And it’s a complete wreck. There is equipment everywhere; you know Ral wouldn’t have left it like this if he could help it.

Except he can’t help it, because he’s currently on the floor with a broken neck. He looks like he’s been dead awhile. And then you see another familiar face. Tych.

You see him flying around between various large tomes and mixing something on one of the only clean lab workbenches.

This all seems a bit strange, but in any case Tych hasn’t noticed you yet.
> You sneak up and grab him
You figure with your speed you’ll easily be able to catch Tych before he’ll notice and then you can question him on what happened here.

And you probably would have if Lisa hadn’t been with you to snuffle about and bumping into some debris while wandering over towards Ral’s corpse.

Tych spins around and just narrowly flits out of your way. He’s incredibly surprised.

“SHIT! YOU?” he exclaims and then this is followed by him putting his hands together and unleashing a beam (much larger than you’d think for his size) of magical energy straight into your face, melting it completely.

You flail about blind for a moment and you can hear Lisa snarl and shriek when she sees that you’re being attacked, but those noises seem to be silenced fairly quickly.

You’re in no condition to help Lisa because you can’t even help yourself at this point.

“I don’t know how you broke the geas, but I’m not taking any chances!” you hear Tych say.

You’ve never known Tych to be able to cast spells like this. Something about this is weird, but it hardly matters and you’ll never know the true mystery since Tych finishes you off by melting a hole through your chest and destroying your heart.


You really don’t want to start all over again with finding or building another home. You’re comfortable here and don’t want to move. So if this one last thing means you get to stay here, then so be it.

“Very well, I’ll help, but what if I can’t get in anyway?” you ask.
“Well, we might have to come back to reassess a new plan. I’m almost sure that you will be able to get in though.” Isabella says.
“I sure hope so, because as much as I want to keep my home and perhaps even not mind the revenge bit, I’m not sure if I’m prepared to be in a perpetual stalemate where I’m sharing this place with you. I’d rather just pick up and leave I think.”
“Understandable, and that’s certainly your choice if it comes to that, but let’s keep positive thoughts. So, are you ready to go?”
“What, now?”
“Well sure. The night is still young and I figured you wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.”
“I suppose you’re right, but I think I’m going to need at least a little time to explain this Lisa.”
“What for? Just say you’re leaving and will be back in a day or two. It isn’t like she’s going to leave you and I’m sure she’ll be satisfied if you tell her she can eat those two girls I saw chained up. Ghouls are easily distracted and appeased, I’m sure you well know.”
“Yeah and I’m sure that YOU well know that I treat Lisa as an equal, not like some pet!”
“Of course you do. Very well, talk to your child then, I will see you in the (ugh) sewers.”

Isabella takes her leave and you’re about to head back to the meat room, when you notice blood puddles and small trails in the hallway. You follow them to a small dead end to another tunnel you’ve been recently working on and that’s where you find Lisa huddled in a corner chewing on a bone and making a weird (yet relatively quiet) noise. Almost like she’s crying, but not quite.

She looks up at you mournfully.

“Lisa, I’m not mad if you were listening to us.” you say.
“You’re leaving with her aren’t you?” Lisa asks.
“I have to if we want to keep our home. Don’t you want us to keep the home we’ve made here?”
“I…I don’t want you to go. I need you…can’t…can’t I come with you?”
“Lisa, it’s going to be really dangerous. I mean I’m sure you remember my stories about Ral. We’re going to be going up against him and I don’t want to worry about you getting hurt.”
“But I could help! I want to help! Please let me help!” Lisa says grabbing your arm with fanatical dedication in her eyes.

It’s against your better judgment, but if you leave her here she could just get into trouble anyway. Perhaps even more without you close by and her probably getting depressed about the situation.

If you take her with you, at least you can keep an eye on her and she’ll be happy. It’s one more factor to worry about, but if you’re really serious about trying to treat her like an equal, keeping her contained like pet (or child as Isabella said) isn’t the way to go about it. Besides Lisa isn’t defenseless.

“Very well, but you REALLY need to obey all my commands during this task. Seriously, you can’t go wandering off in search of food or any else of the sort. You need to follow all my orders to the letter. Understand?”
“I do! I do my love! Oh thank you! I’ll be a big help! You’ll see!”

Lisa showers you with a lot of affection and as usual she goes for the crotch immediately. You half think about stopping her since this is going to take awhile and you’re supposed to be on your way to Ral’s, but you feel like Lisa deserves a reward for dealing with all this (And hell, so do you) so…

Later, you meet Isabella who is still standing in the sewers close to your secret wall.

“About fucking time. Don’t tell me, I already know what you were doing…aaaand I see we now have a loadstone with us. Fantastic!” Isabella remarks when she sees Lisa behind you. Lisa looks down a bit when Isabella calls her out.
“Look, she can be of help. It’s going to take us a couple days to get to Ral’s so it might be useful to have someone that can at least scout around during the day while we sleep in the ground.”
“More like give ourselves away. Fine, I suppose she would be useful fodder if worse comes to worse. Let’s go, we’ve already wasted…”

You place one hand on Isabella’s shoulder and spin her around when she turns her back on you.

“Let’s get one thing fucking straight. Lisa is NOT fodder. She’s not a minion, she’s not my fuck toy, she’s not a child, she’s not a fucking pet! Lisa is my fucking mate. She came because she wants to help me and I want her to help me. This, what we’re doing right now? Is to help you. However, if you keep insulting Lisa and being a general bitch to her, you can go do this on your own and both of us will find some place else to live. I’m putting up with a lot of things and I’m not trying to step out of line against my so called betters, but I’m not going to put up with how you talk to and about her! AGH SHIT!”

Isabella quickly grabs your wrist twists it and throws you to the hard floor face first. Lisa, rushes to attack, but is easily slapped aside into the nearby wall as Isabella applies pressure to your arm and shoves her knee into your back.

“First of all, don’t you EVER fucking touch me again uninvited! You lost that privilege a long time ago. This is your ONLY warning about it. Second…fine. I apologize. I was not behaving in a way befitting of my class. I won’t insult your lady again. Glad to see that it really was true love.”

Isabella gets off you and you wince a bit in lingering pain as you stand up. You then go over to Lisa and ask if she’s okay, to which she replies that she is. You then both follow Isabella who has walked ahead of you.

Things are silent for more or less during the journey out of Holgard. It’s sort of a weird silence and soon after you’re making your way through the forest, you make conversation.

“So, while I can imagine what happened, what did you do with the family you found in that root cellar?” you ask
“Oh them? Well I had to rebuild my strength after being stuck underground for weeks, so after they told me what happened, drained all of them.” Isabella remarks.
“Yep, figured as much.”
“Honestly, I might have kept three of them alive under normal circumstances, but it wasn’t the normal circumstances and I do have a weakness for children’s blood.”
“Did…did the children taste sweet?” Lisa suddenly asks.

Isabella smiles a bit.

“Yes, the children did taste sweet. Their blood usually does though unless they’re horrible greenskins. Rather go hungry than drink their blood, no matter what age most of the time.” Isabella remarks.
“Some greenskins aren’t bad, but they’re always very tough. They are an acquired taste and even the dead sometimes taste better than the average hobgoblin.” Lisa remarks.
“I’m sure you have a very versatile palate Lisa, not many can boast such a talent.”

Isabella’s remark could be taken as a backhanded compliment at best or a sarcastic insult at worst, but Lisa seems to take what she said as a benign praise, so you let it go.

Eventually dawn starts to arrive and you and Isabella take shelter in the ground. Lisa herself never seems to require as much sleep, so she’ll be still be wandering around for some of the day (Though still probably trying to stay in the shade which shouldn’t be a problem due to being in a forest).

You aren’t sure if you should have her do a little scouting while you’re asleep or have her protect your resting area though.
> You scout ahead
One of the reasons you brought her along was so she could help and you already had the idea of letting her scout ahead so you might as well let her do it.

“Lisa, while we’re asleep, I want you to scout ahead. Don’t go too far, but don’t attack anything, no matter how tasty it may look to you. Unless it’s a random animal I guess. In any case I want you to come back when you’re done and just wait here until we wake up.” You command.
“Yes, my love.” Lisa responds.
“Okay, I’ll see you this evening.” You say and kiss Lisa before digging yourself a shallow hole to sleep in. (Lisa helps pat down the dirt to make sure you’re completely covered)

Later…

You are forcibly pulled from your sleep and into the sunlight!

You weren’t pulled out by hands either, it was some magical force that dragged you out. You’re still mostly covered in dirt and partially asleep but the sun is burning your face and eyes.

“ARRGHAGH SHIT!” you shout and start trying to scramble for cover, but only get a ball of flame in your face.

Several mages stand around you, but making very sure to stay out of your way. You try to lunge for one of them, but are magically shoved to the ground

“Destroy that lesser one before the greater one wakes up. I want to speak to her personally and she’s going to have an even less pleasant reaction when she’s up.” The oldest one says.

You have no idea what is going on besides the fact that you’re being attacked and are fairly helpless against your assailants. The sunlight is burning you and sapping your strength, you’re near blind and you’re struggling against a magical force that’s trying to keep you pinned to the ground.

Despite your decreased vision, you make out the shape of Lisa standing among the robed mages. It can be surmised that these mages did something to her to cause her to lead them all back here. You try to re-enforce your will upon her so she helps you again, but with all the pain you’re in, it’s very hard to concentrate.

You feel a sharp spike go into your chest. It’s some sort of magic blade that you see glowing a bright purple when you look down at your chest, then it disappears and two more appear to finish you off through decapitation.


Chapter 3C2: Price of Freedom

Year 30

“No, no, no, you can’t play that card.” You say.
“Oh. Um…okay then this one.” Lisa says.

You play your own card that easily beats the rest of Lisa’s hand.

“I hate this stupid game.” She exclaims and throws her cards down on the table causing you to smile a bit.
“Well you’re getting better at it.”
“I just don’t see the point in us playing games when we could be feeding together or better yet, fucking instead.”
“Now Lisa, you know there’s more to existence than just the base needs.”
“Pfft, not much more, come on lover, I’ll let you do whatever you want to me.”
“You let me do whatever I want all the time. Maybe later. However, if you don’t want to play games though, you can always got feast on those whores we got in the meat room.”
“Ohhh! You mean we’re not saving them anymore?”
“Well we’re saving two of them for the rest of the week. You can go eat the third one though. Pick whichever one you want. I’ll join you a little later.”

Lisa makes that disturbing squeal and kisses the side of your face before running off to go eat. You still aren’t sure if you actually “love” Lisa, but you definitely don’t mind her affection again, now that you’ve gotten her to regularly perfume herself and chew on mint herbs once in awhile.

In fact, you do believe you’ve trained Lisa fairly well all things considered. Even her personality has changed slightly so that she isn’t a complete toadying suck up. Makes you wonder if Isabella was just bullshitting you about it being so difficult.

You pack up your deck of cards and check on some of your tunnels. You thought you saw the support beam warping. You might need to replace it. You don’t think you’ll ever get this place just right.

As you’re inspecting your work, your other senses perk up. You can sense someone coming and its not some idiots trying to get into the topside crypt (It was funny how those Joachimites fell for that blade trap a few years ago). This is someone approaching from the sewer entrance, which means this is a hell of a lot more serious because you keep it well hidden.

And this someone, you don’t think is mortal…

You approach your “front door” to the sewers cautiously and fully prepared for a fight when you hear a muffled yet familiar voice from the other side.

“I can tell you’re approaching. Yes, you! Your essence to me will always be strong even when you make your home in the middle of some filthy human shithole.” Isabella remarks.
“Isabella?” you answer.
“Yes, I’m sure you can tell it was me, unless these sewers have completely destroyed your senses. Why the hell did you make your home in such a place?”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time, besides, nobody bothers me down here.”
“Well that I can certainly believe. Look, you going to let me in now so we can talk because standing out here in the muck isn’t my idea of a pleasant evening.”
“With all respect Isabella, why the hell are you here? Last time we talked, you weren’t exactly pleased with me.”
“Long story. And I’d argue that we parted ways on fairly amicable terms. You didn’t really expect me to share you with that lesser being did you? I told you that.”
“You also told me, that you’d kill the both of us.”
“Oh, that was just my way of getting you both the hell out, and look it worked. In fact I’m currently extending my courtesy, by simply NOT smashing in this wall and barging in.”
“You can’t do that. This is my home and I haven’t invited you in!”

You hear Isabella chuckling from the other side.

“Oh my sweet young vampire. You still have so much to learn. I’m your maker, I will always be connected to you even if I don’t have direct influence anymore. And that means your home will ALWAYS be my home too. So let me in or I’m wrecking this not so secret wall of yours, and I’m sure you don’t want that.”

You hate these “new rules” that pop up about your current existence.

“Alright, alright, fine.” you say and slide open the wall

And there you see Isabella looking the same way as when you left her crypt. Including being naked.

“Glad to see you’re still intelligent enough to know when to listen to your betters. Always liked that about you.” She says and steps inside.

Isabella sniffs a bit.

“Hmm, the odor is much better in here. Ah, I smell fresh blood nearby and another familiar scent…though somehow different…wait…is that your ghoul? She still around?”
“For your information, yes Lisa is here and if this is some attempt of trying to get me back, forget it, because we’re still together.”

Isabella smirks.

“Hm, guess good minions are hard to come by. No point in throwing one out right? Tell me, were the sewers her idea? In any case, I hate to break your male ego, but I’m not here in some silly attempt to get you back. I’m here because I need your help.” Isabella says.
“Wait, you need MY help?” you say.
“Yes, but don’t think that this an opportunity to hold something over my head. I’m a very resourceful woman and you are just one of my resources I need to help accomplish my task.”
“Hm, glad to be held in such high esteem.”
“As well you should especially because this also involves another old acquaintance of yours. Ral.”

All the figures from the past are coming out tonight…

“What does Ral have to do with this?” you ask.
“He fucking destroyed my home and Dert, that’s what he has to do with this! Honestly I’m surprised you haven’t heard about it since I imagine this haven of scum has a lot of gossip going on.”
“Honestly, as the years have worn on, I’ve been becoming more of a recluse so I don’t keep up or even pay attention to most of the shit I hear the mortals talk about unless it really sounds like it’s going to affect me directly. If it wasn’t for the whole needing to feed situation and requiring the occasional supplies to fix up my home, I’d just stay down here with Lisa and never leave. Still, to my knowledge Dert was never very important and I doubt if anyone in Holgard even gave a shit about the place if they even knew it existed at all.”
“Nevertheless, it’s gone, along with my home and Ral has to pay for that.”
“I think you’re going to have to start from the beginning and let’s talk some place where I can sit and at least take all this in.”

You take Isabella through some of your home and head towards one of your “living areas.” Isabella remarks that she is impressed by what you have done given the limitations you had to work with.

“I see you tried your best to emulate the layout of my own crypt and catacombs even if they aren’t nearly as tidy.” Isabella says.
“Glad you approve. I need to stop here first.” You say.

As you’re passing the meat room, you see Lisa completely engorging herself on one of the whores that she’s completely ripped apart. She’s covered in gore and entrails and loving every minute of it. You imagine this would be a horrific sight to the other two chained up, if they weren’t under a trance.

Lisa bloody face looks up from her feeding and grins at you, but then her grin becomes a look of worry when she sees Isabella behind you.

“Wha…what…what’s she doing here?! I thought it was just you and me from now on! You said so!” Lisa says.
“It is, and it always will be, my grave flower. Isabella just came to visit about something and I have to talk to her about it.”
“…you’re mad at me, aren’t you? Please don’t be mad at me! I can do better! I’ll…I’ll chew more of those mint herbs you want me to! You’re bored…you want a threeway don’t you? I can go down on Isabella while you ram it into me hard. You can hurt me really good, and split me open. I don’t care. Please just let me be around to still worship you. You’re my love and my entire life!”

Isabella stifles a snort of laughter, causing you to briefly glare at her, before you approach Lisa. You kneel down in the large blood puddle and caress her face (which is sticky with blood). It’s times like this when Lisa’s slavish ghoul personality comes out in full force.

“Lisa, Lisa…don’t get upset. You’re the only woman for me and you always will be. It’s why I’ve always stayed with you. You understand that right?”
“But…she’s back now…”
“Isabella is just visiting. We’re not getting together. We’re just going to talk and that’s all I swear. You’re my lovely grave flower and nobody can replace you.” You say and kiss Lisa who hugs you tightly. She attempts to do more than that, but you have to remind her that later would be a better time.

Lisa accepts your reassurances, but still has a look of concern on her face. Lisa soon goes back to eating the whore’s liver, probably in an attempt to comfort herself. You stand up and motion Isabella to follow you. You fully expect to hear taunting comments, but surprisingly you hear none.

When you get to your destination, Isabella tells you what exactly is going on with Ral.

Isabella tells you that a few months ago, during one of her resting periods, her home was completely collapsed from the inside out by an earth elemental. She said it took her weeks to dig herself out and by the time she did she found that the entire graveyard was now a large sinkhole. She doesn’t know what happened to the elemental since the attack just suddenly stopped like it just disappeared.

Lacking any other immediate choices, she decided to head to Dert and charm someone there and use their dwelling for a while until she could figure out her next step.

However, when she got to Dert, she found that nearly all the people had been turned to stone. Not just the people though, but most of the plant and animal life in the surrounding area as well. The few people that hadn’t been turned to stone were nothing but bits of flesh still hanging off bones. She proceeded cautiously since she was aware that only a few things could cause something like this, either powerful magic or certain creatures.

As it turned out, it was both. She eventually found a family of four that had been hiding in a root cellar for quite some time. They were all very frightened and assumed she was another monster to come to kill them. (Probably due to the whole unnatural paleness and naked thing)

After subduing the father, Isabella demanded to know what had transpired in the village. He explained that a few days ago, a female creature with a snake body appeared in the middle of the village along with four medium-sized reptile like creatures, which seemed to be her pets.

There was a brief moment of confusion from both sides at first, but then the woman spoke something in a hissing type language and all hell broke loose. Most of the village was either turned to stone or ripped apart and consumed by the reptilian beasts.

The family hid in some sort of community root cellar when they couldn’t get to their home proper, they told Isabella that they could hear the screams of people that apparently tried to hide as well, but the creatures stayed in the village to make sure they had wiped out everyone. In fact, the family was very surprised that Isabella didn’t see them since they were certain they were still lurking about.

Isabella at this point tells you that she imagines that the creatures were most definitely a medusa and basilisks. She also says neither of them make their homes anywhere near this area either and it would be rare enough for one to show up, let alone a group like that. And given that they just suddenly appeared (and then apparently disappeared at some point, since there were no signs that they left the area to go elsewhere, yet they also were no longer around) the way they did, there had to be powerful magic at work.

She goes on to tell you that both creatures do not normally make their homes in this area and it would be rare enough for one of them to turn up and wipe out an entire village, let alone a group of them. This combined with the earth elemental incident, and the cause of all this could only be Ral. She doesn’t know why he would do something like this and she doesn’t much care, all she cares about is the fact that Ral fucked up her home and convenient feeding grounds and for that he has to pay.

“He’s been on borrowed time as it is.” Isabella says.
“Are you sure it was him? I mean Ral was an asshole, but he never seemed to deliberately be the type to cause destruction for the shits and giggles. I mean is there proof?” you ask.
“I don’t need fucking proof, I got instinct! And as I said, I don’t care if it was just some spell that went wrong, he’s gotta fucking pay for what he did. And YOU are going to help me.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that? I mean earth elementals, creatures that turn shit to stone, and wizard shit on top of all of it? I dealt with Ral before and it didn’t go well, not sure if I’m too keen on facing him again.”
“You’re also not a weak human anymore! You’re a fucking vampire with all the advantages that go along with it! I’m going to be doing most of the heavy lifting anyway. I just need you to get in his home and if possible try to get me in there as well.”
“How? His home isn’t my home. I wouldn’t be able to get in it anymore than you would.”
“Yes you would, you were his servant were you not? Think back. Ral invited you in to his home long before you became a vampire.”

As strange as it may seem, you do remember his exact words to you during that time. “My home is your home.” Weird that you never really thought about before, but then your mind was preoccupied with other things you suppose.

“Well, maybe I guess…but I just don’t see how any of this is my problem! YOU said you released me and I thought…perhaps foolishly that you were at least a woman with a sense of honor. I mean I stayed out of your way and made a life for myself elsewhere, I don’t see why I should have to help you.”
“You’re saying you don’t even want to do this even out of a sense of revenge on Ral?”
“Maybe at one time I would have if I’d known I could enter his home so easily. But now? It’s all in the past and I’ve made a life not just for myself here, but for Lisa as well. I just don’t see why I should go potentially fucking that up when things are good. I mean…obviously you’re a hundred times more powerful than me and I can’t stop you from forcing me to help you under threat of death, but…I dunno…whatever…I just thought things were finally going well for me.”

You slump in your chair and despair a bit about your situation. Isabella studies you a moment and then addresses you.

“You’re right. You’re right about everything. I did release you and you aren’t really any under obligation to help. You’re also right in that I could just threaten to kill you and your little fuck toy if you don’t help me, though I’d probably go for extended torture since I don’t think you’d fear immediate death as much.” Isabella remarks.
“So where are we then?” you ask.
“So, I’m going to give you a reasonable compromise, because I still have a soft spot for you. If you help me kill Ral, I can promise that I will never darken your path again. At least not on purpose. However, if you don’t want to help me in that way, I’m going to give you another option and that is you must leave this place.”
“What?”
“If you’re not going to help me kill Ral, I need to plan another method of attack without you, and for that, I’m going to need my own home to do that from. I don’t want to waste time finding or building my own right now, so yours…such as it is, will have to do. Give me this place and I will never darken your doorstep again.”
“That’s mostly because I won’t have a doorstep any longer.”
“Well be that as it may, the option is there. You can be truly free and go find somewhere else to live. I don’t doubt you couldn’t set yourself up just as well somewhere else, but I also don’t doubt that somewhere within you, that you wouldn’t mind getting revenge on Ral.”
> You leave Holgard
You’re not getting wrapped up in Isabella’s shit with Ral. You thought you were done with both of them and you intend on keeping it that way, even if that means you need to find some new place to live.

“It’s all yours.” You say and stand up.
“What seriously? You’re not helping? You don’t want revenge?” Isabella asks in a genuinely surprised manner.
“Not particularly. I mean sure I don’t have any love for Ral, but unless the man is coming to magically enslave me again, I just really don’t feel the need to go looking for trouble. I moved on and made a new life for myself and I’m happy with it. I dunno Isabella, maybe you should do the same.”

Isabella’s face is noticeably annoyed by your remark, but she doesn’t threaten you or anything, just more of an expression of exasperation and disappointment.

“Very well, but I didn’t think that you were the type to run and hide when opportunity presented itself. Some just aren’t meant for greater things I guess. After you leave, you needn’t concern yourself with me interfering with your little boring life in the future.”

You nearly want to argue with Isabella and bring up several things, but you decide that if you really do want to get out of this situation with minimal conflict, your best bet is to just let it go.

Without another word, you stand up and leave Isabella to brood. Despite her sneering words at you, you can’t help but notice her glancing at you leave with a bit of melancholy in her eyes. Maybe she was hoping to rekindle something that wasn’t there in the first place. Who knows? She never really did open up to you even in all those years you were forced to be together, maybe if she had, things would have been different like she thought they would be.

You’re about to head back to the meat room, when you notice blood puddles and small trails in the hallway. You follow them to a small dead end to another tunnel you’ve been recently working on and that’s where you find Lisa huddled in a corner chewing on a bone and making a weird (yet relatively quiet) noise. Almost like she’s crying, but not quite.

She looks up at you mournfully.

“Lisa, I’m not mad if you were listening to us.” you say.
“You’re leaving with her aren’t you?” Lisa asks.
“No. Not at all. In fact me and you are leaving together.”
“We are? Where are we going?”
“Not sure honestly, but we’re not going to be living here anymore.”
“Why? Are we being kicked out?”
“In a manner of speaking yes. But I’d rather us have to start all over again and be free, than have to be a servant again. So, we’ll be hitting the road so to speak. You have anywhere in mind that you’d like to go?”
“Um…I dunno…I’ve never been anywhere other than here and Dert.”
“True I suppose. But I didn’t know if you’d heard of any place you might like to go…though I suppose you don’t bother making conversation with too many people.”

Lisa looks introspective for a moment and then speaks again.

“The Delantium Kingdom?” she asks.
“Really? Didn’t know you had any interest to go there.” You say.
“One time, I stumbled upon a fancy dressed man in the sewers who was from the Delantium Kingdom.”
“He told you that?”
“Oh yes, he claimed that he was a very important man there and if I killed him, people would come looking for him and seek revenge. Of course I didn’t worry about that.”
“Of course. I don’t suppose you know what such an important man was doing in the sewers do you?”
“No, I dunno what he was doing in the sewers, maybe he was lost, but in any event he tasted better than anyone from Holgard.”

You smile a bit at Lisa’s reasons for suggesting the Delantium Kingdom. A very simple pleasure of food and the possibility of it tasting better there. It’s as good of a reason as any you suppose, since you don’t have many ideas at the moment.

“Okay, then if you want to go to the Delantium Kingdom then that’s where we’ll go to start over. It’s going to be a long way, so maybe we should take a ship rather than travelling over land.” You say.
“Ohh, I’ve never been on a ship before!” Lisa exclaims.
“Neither have I, so it’ll be a new experience for the pair of us. I of course also imagine we’ll have to stowaway on a ship heading there, but that shouldn’t be too hard. Even hiding aboard the vessel shouldn’t pose too much of a challenge.”
“I might get hungry though.”
“I’m sure I will too, but I’m confident that they’ll be able to afford losing a few crew members without arousing too much suspicion. If it starts getting risky, you can always feed on me a little more and I’ll worry about getting sustenance so that I can keep both of our strength up.”

Lisa displays a big smile at that idea. Anything that allows her to suck on you more than usual is always a good thing in her eyes. With a hug and a kiss, Lisa is once again happy since she knows that Isabella isn’t threatening her position anymore. (Not that she was in the first place)

You don’t bother taking much with you, save for a few of your old thief tools and that’s mainly for sentimental value, as you don’t really do much of that sort of thing anymore. But things change, just like they are right now and just like how they probably will in the future.

You and Lisa sneak aboard a trading vessel carrying a lot of cargo. Makes hiding in the bowels of the ship a lot easier with all the crates and boxes around. Occasionally one of you leaves the confines of one of the crates to feed, but mostly the pair of you just lie next to each other and enjoying each other’s company as you wait to reach your destination.

Your days as a common rogue might be over, but you remain positive that your best days as a vampire have yet to be realized and hopefully those are coming soon.


Maybe your feelings have faded. Hell, maybe you didn’t even ever truly love her to begin with, but you still feel responsible enough for her situation that you’re not giving up on Lisa.

“I’m doing it. I can make this work.” You say.
“Very well.” Isabella remarks with a bit of a sigh.
“I have to say, I’m still sort of surprised that you’re so permissive in all this.”
“Contrary to what YOU may think of me. I do have a sense of kindness…or maybe I’m just fond of you enough that I don’t just kill the pair of you to be done with this failed attempt of courtship.”
“Courtship…” you scoff.
“Yes, that what this was, at least to me. What would you have me do? Wait around for you to give me flowers or some other meaningless gesture? Go out to…I dunno the local festival? I’m a fucking vampire. I take what I want and at the time I wanted you. But I can see now that method wasn’t the way to go about it. Personally, I don’t even think you have any feelings of love for this girl, just a sense of guilt. However, if THIS is what is going to make you happy, then fine. I’ll show you how. Either you’re going to come to become so disgusted with what Lisa has become that you’ll finally do away with her yourself and we can try again. Or you’ll stay with her and maintain your delusions. Either way the pair of you will be free because I’m not going to have you both living here if that’s the case.”
“That’s…pretty generous of you, but…” you start to say and then stop yourself.
“But what?”
“Um, nothing…”
“Pfft, I already know what you were going to ask before you realized it would be stupid to do so, though again it isn’t going to bother me.”
“And what did you think I was going to ask?”
“That what if you just fake it for your freedom and how will I know? To the former, go ahead. If you’re REALLY willing to put yourself through all this, just to be released from me, then you deserve your freedom. At least it will give me a bit of pride that I will have released a very patient one of my kind into the world. Lot of young vampires fuck up due to being impulsive. But then, I suppose you’ve already had a lot of experience at being patient haven’t you? In any case, we should get started.”

Isabella tells you that the process is fairly simple, however due to you being on the younger side, she isn’t sure how long it will take, if at all. The best you can do is just keep feeding her blood on a regular basis until she starts to show signs of change.

“Now of course she’s already a bit on the paler side due being stuck down here with no sun all the time. So the thing you’re probably going to notice immediately is her starting to show signs of free will. She’ll probably start by addressing you without needing to be addressed first. She’ll of course also start being very affectionate, wanting to please you in every way.” Isabella explains.
“But it’s different from the trance correct?”
“Oh yes. Much different. In fact, she’ll be immune to that to some degree. Her loyalty towards you will be unquestionable due to sharing of blood, but she’s still going to do things on her own and it might not matter how much you tell her not to. As I said, ghouls tend to have disgusting habits and urges. In fact if you’ve ever heard the tales of how vampires are a bunch of decadent sex fiends, well THAT’S the reason. Ghouls that somehow manage to get elevated to vampirehood, never fully shed those more vile traits. Always best to go from mortal straight to vampire with no transition in between, like I did with you.” Isabella says and strokes your face.

Isabella observes you bite yourself and then feed your blood to Lisa. It actually isn’t as easy as all that. Despite being in a trance, Lisa still doesn’t react well to the whole blood drinking thing, especially that of a vampire’s. She starts gagging and coughing even though she’s also trying to follow your command of doing it.

Even reluctantly forcing her head to you doesn’t work and she ends up vomiting.

“Lisa doesn’t have much of a gag reflex eh?” Isabella jokes, which you try to ignore and just refocus your efforts.
“How long do I have to do this?” you ask.
“Well until she at least manages to keep some of it down at least. As I said, it isn’t going to happen instantly either. You’re probably going to have to do this every day for months. Possibly even more than once a day since you’re still a young vampire. All I can suggest is you better make sure you keep YOUR strength up, but you better not go using up all the humans chained up in the larder. Also you’re still obligated to your duties to me. Anyway, I’ll leave you to it.”

You continue to force Lisa to suck on you and eventually she keeps some of it down. You start to feel a little weird yourself so you tell her to stop and you go replenish yourself with someone in the larder, despite Isabella’s warnings. You’ll just have to go nab humans for her more frequently.

If she thinks all this is going to deter you, it isn’t. Now that Isabella has hinted at freedom, your motivation for doing all this is doubled.

You spend months slaving away more than you had under Ral or even Isabella before all this mainly because you have to increase capturing the amount of blood “donors” not just for Isabella, but for yourself. It’s really tempting to just grab someone from Dert, but Isabella has always had a rule against taking too many people from there lest the ignorant peasants start getting riled up, or worse, just pick up and leave.

So it’s mostly a lot of ambushing bandits, travellers and (ugh) hobgoblins in the forests. There’s always Holgard too, but the journey even with your speed is still always a pain in the ass dragging someone from there since you have to keep feeding Lisa your blood at a regular interval. (Not to mention there’s currently religious conflict going on there between the factions)

Needless to say, all of this makes you a lot more irritable and tired all the time (Basically, you feel like a human by vampire standards)

Months pass just like Isabella said they would, but you don’t give up and eventually you start to see the signs of Lisa changing.

It starts by her talking to you and addressing you by name. She’s very confused at first, but as you start to explain it all to her, she doesn’t even seem to care. In fact, she seems very happy that you’ve gone to so much effort to save her life.

“Oh my beloved! I KNEW you always loved me deeply! Let me show my appreciation to you!” Lisa exclaims and proceeds to jump on you.

It’s a little strange, but given all you’ve gone through to turn her, and she seems to be so willing, you don’t turn her down.

Isabella still doesn’t seem fussed by this turn of events. She does seem to decrease her own demands for sex though. Cleaning is still a priority unfortunately, but considering Lisa now has all this energy she starts helping you do it.

It’s during one of these cleanings that you start to see what Isabella was warning about.

“Lisa, I bring in real food, you don’t need to eat the bugs crawling around this place!” you exclaim.
“I’m sorry honey, but I dunno…they just looked so…inviting. And they’re nice and crunchy too. I like the way they sometimes wiggle in my mouth…mmmm…tehehehehe…” Lisa says trailing off into a disturbing giggle.
“Look, just don’t eat them, and don’t eat anything else that isn’t proper food either.”
“But…but what about your delicious yummy blood?”
“That’s still fine.”
“Good! Because I want some right now!”
“You just had some a few hours ago!”
“But I need it! I need to suck on you!”

It’s just the beginning.

Year 26

“Well, you proved yourself. You wanted it bad enough and I’m true to my word. You and your ghoul bitch are free. Now get the hell outta my crypt, it’s still night right now, so if you hurry you can find other shelter before dawn.” Isabella suddenly remarks to you during one of your few moments to yourself.

You’re so tired, all you can muster up is a “huh?”

“You heard me, you’re free, get out.” Isabella remarks.
“Now?” you ask.
“Yes! I said get out! I’m sick of you doing a half assed job of keeping this place clean and your bitch eating my food. Never mind the fact that I don’t exactly get off on hearing you lot have sex. Though I’m guessing that was your idea that she scream as loud as she could.”
“I thought you weren’t jealous and didn’t give a shit.”
“I don’t actually. But I’m certainly not going to share you in any capacity with something that’s currently up in the graveyard as we speak, digging up coffins and eating rotten carcasses.”
“What?! She got out again? Why didn’t you stop her?!”
“Not my concern and neither are you anymore. You were fun for a while and I don’t regret our time. Just confirmed my original thoughts of why I stay single to begin with. Anyway, take care and a part of me hopes that deep down that you do truly love this girl, but then I’ve always been a bit of a romantic.”

Isabella tells you that you’ve got a short period of time to leave not just her crypt, but also the area. She mentions that if she catches you or Lisa still in the area she’ll kill the pair of you since she doesn’t want you lingering around to possibly fuck up her relative peace by preying upon Dert.

You gather up what belongings you still value and take your leave. Sure enough when you exit the crypt, you hear Lisa snuffling about in the graveyard. You soon find that she’s already dug up a grave and half eaten body parts lie all around her. She looks up from the rotten leg bone she’s chewing on and wastes no time in running to greet you, though it’s more like an animal loping at you.

Lisa attempts to kiss you, but the stench of her breath is horrible and that’s saying something considering how resilient you’ve gotten to such things. You turn your head away and tell her to calm herself.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m suppose to stay in the crypt, but I just got so hungry and nipped out for a quick snack since I know you don’t like me touching the chained up humans in that one room. Anyway, is it time to give me some more of your yummy blood? I could use a drink after that meal! Say, do you want some of this leg?”

You look at Lisa and she’s absolutely nothing like the girl you were so fond of years ago. She doesn’t even look the same. While she’s not aging anymore, she’s definitely changing in appearance in other ways. Her clothes and body are constantly dirty; her hair is a matted nest crawling with insects. Her teeth have bits of decayed flesh in them and who knows what else. She smells like the same corpses she eats. Her personality is that of a spineless lackey that isn’t even completely obedient.

And the kicker to all this is you willingly had sex with this thing repeatedly just to gain your freedom. You can’t imagine the number of times you dreaded keeping up the sham.

Of course it’s done now. You don’t really need to go through it any longer.
> You leave Lisa behind
Isabella was right. Ghouls are disgusting creatures and however long you live in this new vampire life, you are never making another one again, unless you were trying to completely humiliate someone.

Lisa, really didn’t deserve this fate and you’ve long since saw that it would have been a kindness to just kill her. However, in her current form she allowed you to regain your freedom so you’ll always remember her for that, along with when she was human.

You think about killing her now, and it’s not really because you wouldn’t do so, if only to release her from this hellish state of life, but you’ve still got one last idea to stick it to Isabella for putting you in this situation to begin with.

“Lisa, you remember your old home Dert and how to get there correct?” you ask.
“Oh yes! I remember it well! It’s full of humans! Fleshy…delicious human…” Lisa starts to say trailing off as she thinks of exactly that.
“Yes, it is. Well because you’ve been a good girl, you can go there and eat all you want!”
“I…I can!?”
“Yes! You can empty the entire village if you want!”
“Oh….oh THANK YOU!”
“Yes, well I am the nice one.”

Lisa attempts to kiss you again, but once again you block her from doing so.

“First thing I’m going to do is eat my father! That old bastard never wanted us to be together! THEN I’m going to eat that bitch Lindsay! I remember that dumb whore stupidly bragged about getting pregnant when she gave you a blowjob! But I don’t blame you of course, you know that right?” Lisa says.
“Oh I know. I know. Actually I’d sort of forgotten about that, but then I’ve been a bit preoccupied with other things. Anyway, have fun.” You reply.
“Wait, aren’t you coming with me?”
“Oh no. I have some important business to take care of for Isabella in Holgard. Might be awhile so don’t wait up for me.”
“Oh…well okay. I was hoping that we were gonna do this together…I don’t like how you take orders from that Isabella bitch. I’m sorry. I know I’m not supposed to talk bad about her, but I don’t like her. I can’t wait for us to be free of her so it can be just you and me together forever!”

If only you had the patience, Lisa’s obsessive dream might have come true, but you just don’t. You’re tired of having to serve or help other people in any capacity. You just really need to be by yourself for a while. A LONG while.

Still, no point in not giving the girl one last thrill.

You quickly open up your wrist and motion Lisa to drink, which she does so gladly. You give her a little more than usual since you figure she’s going to need the extra strength to take on an entire village. Even assuming she survives that, she still will be no match for Isabella who will no doubt eventually learn of this, but at least you’ve given Lisa a nice going away present.

Afterwards you pat Lisa on the head and tell her to scamper off before all the humans in Dert get away. With this last command you watch Lisa lope into the darkness towards Dert. Isabella’s going to be pissed. You half wonder if she’ll hunt you down for doing this, but for some reason you don’t really care if she does. You just sort of wish you could figure out a way to get a little revenge on that asshole Ral too, but that might be for a different day you guess.

You briefly think about making your way to Holgard since it is the closest settlement of where you can feed easily, but you figure you probably should just leave the region entirely. Not to mention being a “normal” thief just doesn’t hold the same thrill it once did and it’s not even necessary anymore.

You’ve never been a wanderer by nature, but maybe you’ll start to become one now. Who knows, maybe you’ll even bump into your sister in your travels. You like to think that she’d find your transformation very interesting, or at least the story of how it happened. You hope she’s doing okay, or at least doing better than you are.

After thinking on it, you decide to head towards the direction of the Delantium Kingdom. You know it’s going to be quite a journey even with your speed. You hope you’ll find shelter along the way. You always hate having to just dig yourself a hole in the ground.

But there will undoubtedly be little communities like Dert or your old home of Teckleville along the way for you to rest and feed at. There always are.

As you begin to walk, you aren’t sure what you’re going to do with the rest of your undead life, but your days as a common rogue are over.


Year 25

How the hell do you keep a vast underground crypt clean?

Answer: You don’t.

One thing you never knew about vampires is how they can become obsessed with the smallest details. Probably has to do with the enhanced senses. Isabella apparently is a neat freak and due to this quirk she spent most of her time rearranging, cleaning, and generally tidying up her home. An impossible task of course, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

Even the room where she keeps the blood “donors” is clean. Doesn’t look like the slaughterhouse that one would expect it to be.

Unfortunately due to being at her beck and call that means you get to help her or at least do most of it now. As one would expect, it takes up most of your time. You think between her and Ral, you’ve done more housework than thievery.

About the only thing you don’t have to take care of is her underground garden, which is her own personal project that she spends a lot of time on. In fact, with you around now she doesn’t even have to leave it to get food much anymore. She just has you do it.

She also has you doing her. You can’t be sure if it’s true affection she has for you or just her basic needs that she wants satisfied. It feels like the latter most of the time, but there are moments where it seems to be more. It’s just a weird situation altogether and while you’d hate to admit it, its one of the better things about being in servitude to Isabella rather than Ral.

Meanwhile you’ve got a project of your own in the form of Lisa. You spend whatever free time you have with her. Making sure she’s provided with nourishment and drink. Usually you just steal food from the farms in Dert along with drawing water from their well, but occasionally you get something different from Holgard and try to mix things up. (You never thought your thievery would ever be used primarily for food!)

Lisa’s reactions to everything are very “neutral.” That’s of course mainly due to the perpetual trance she’s in. She is always polite and docile, and never really doing too much on her own, not that she would have much to do anyway considering she’s mostly relegated to her single room. (That you’ve also taken time to furnish)

Isabella says that in time, you’ll be able to get her to behave more like a “normal” person, but the fact is, she’ll always be acting according to how you want her to act. Much like a puppet. It’s all pretty frustrating.

There’s also a part of you that is starting to wonder about what you’re doing. Are you doing this because you love Lisa? Are you doing this out of some sense of guilt? Or are you doing this just to pass the time?

At this point you don’t know anymore. It can’t be out of a sense of “humanity” because other than Lisa, you’ve adjusted fairly well to the whole snatching up people and drinking their blood until they die thing.

You wonder if maybe you should turn Lisa into a ghoul, since apparently she’d have a lot more free will, while still remaining dedicated to you.

You stare at Lisa who sits quietly in her chair staring in such a way that it almost makes you think that somewhere within her head, there’s a part of her that’s still the free willed Lisa and she’s screaming to get out. Would transforming her really be any worse than she is now? It wouldn’t be perfect, but at least she’d be able to do more things on her own without you needing to tend to her constantly.

“I figured you’d be in here.” Isabella remarks upon entering the room.
“I finished cleaning for today…or did you need something else?” you answer.
“Not right now and surprisingly my garden doesn’t need tending to at this moment. I’m just checking up on you I suppose. Did I interrupt a potential moment of bliss between you and your pet?”
“What?”
“Oh come on, you don’t need to deny anything. It’s not like I care. I’m hardly jealous of that.”
“…no! No! I don’t do that with her!”
“What seriously? I figured you were just really quiet about it. Or maybe on the occasions you took her deeper into the catacombs, you were fucking her in one of the more secluded spots there. Guess that explains why you keep her clothed.”
“I sometimes take her for walks because I believe she needs a change of scenery every once in awhile. And I’m not having sex with her, because I’m not a rapist. She’s under a trance.”
“So are all the folks we keep here to take blood from, except we’re ultimately killing them. You don’t seem to have a problem with that.”
“It’s…it’s just different.”
“I suppose it is…but not really. I have to admit, I didn’t think you’d last this long with her, but I guess your feelings were stronger for her than I thought…or maybe you’re just doing this to prove some point to yourself. Either way, I can already tell that you’re starting to realize the futility of your plan.”
“I want to make her into a ghoul.”

Isabella looks at you and just shakes her head.

“I knew it would come to this. Look, if you really do have any lingering feelings for Lisa, you’ll just kill her now and be done with it.” Isabella remarks.
“What’s wrong with making her a ghoul? You mentioned before that it would stop her from aging any more and she’d still be under my influence. Are you just afraid that if I take this step, it will just bring her closer to me and further from you?”
“Oh you, and your assumptions. Trust me, if I really felt remotely intimidated by either of you in any way, you’d both be dead. However, if you really want my thoughts on this, you turn her into a ghoul and I guarantee it will only make you appreciate me all the more.”
“Well what exactly is so bad about turning her into a ghoul? You’ve never gone into detail.”
“First of all, you’re probably still not powerful enough to do it even with my magnificent blood in your body, though I suppose you could try anyway. Second of all, I’ve made a ghoul before and while it’s true they make good servants who are completely dedicated to you, there’s enough drawbacks that I don’t understand why any vampire would bother…unless they’re really desperate for ego stroking I suppose.”
“Okay, so what then…she’ll fawn all over me?”
“Yes, and while that might sound enticing at first, I promise that you’ll get sick of it. At least YOU would at any rate. You’ve never struck me as the time that needs constant reassurance of how amazing you are.”
“I dunno, it might still be nice to hear once in awhile.”
“Well, if you want to hear how amazing you are, I guess we can go back to my room. I promise, I’ll make it sound authentic.”

You don’t want to, but you actually actual laugh at Isabella’s remark causing her to smile.

“Okay, see that right there is a good example of why you shouldn’t even bother with this plan. You know you like it here with me.” Isabella remarks.
“Maybe I’m trying the best out of my bad situation. We’re not exactly equals in this relationship you know.” You say.
“Oh and you and Lisa would be? You and I are a much closer if we’re going to go that route. You’re so far above her right now it’s comparing a rot grub to a human. Speaking of rot grubs, that’s the third thing you might want to know about when creating a ghoul.”
“What?”
“For whatever reason and nobody I know has ever figured this out. Ghouls develop disgusting habit and quirks.”
“Drinking blood doesn’t already qualify?”
“I’m sure to some it would, but how about eating bugs, dead bodies or even shit? You really want Lisa to kiss you with that mouth after she’s been chowing down on a rotting corpse?”
“Well can’t I tell her not to do that?”
“You can try, but short of keeping her confined, that’s just doomed to failure. As obedient as they are, some urges are just too powerful. And that’s just the eating habits. I haven’t even gotten to the weird social habits because if allowed to go out and interact with the rest of the world, ghouls tend to lack the subtlety that vampires do…well most vampires anyway. You turn her into a ghoul and you better keep a CLOSE eye on her. Otherwise she’s going to go wandering into Dert and probably expose herself to all the little peasant children. I’m sure that won’t attract attention at all.”

Isabella’s made a real good case against the whole ghoulification process. Though you’re still wondering if she isn’t just exaggerating so you won’t try it. You spend time hovering over Lisa anyway; you think you could manage to keep her from doing anything weird.

Part of you wants to do it just to prove Isabella wrong, but then is that a good excuse for doing it at all? Your original intent is so you could stop Lisa from getting any older and giving her a bit of free will.
> You don't do it
Other than the obvious, Isabella hasn’t really lied to you. She might be manipulative, but if she’s even telling some of the truth about what Lisa will become as a ghoul, it probably isn’t worth it.

Would the Lisa you once knew really want to become something like that? Would she even want to become a vampire for that matter?

The thing is, you don’t even really know. As the years have gone by, you realize that you didn’t know her excessively well. You had some good times with her and she was a distraction from being under Ral’s thumb, but did you really love her?

No. You were just hanging on to a memory of the past and in her current trance state, that memory continues to fade as you watch her get older and continue to behave like some emotionless golem.

The real Lisa wanted to live an adventure. This isn’t an adventure and this isn’t life.

Isabella’s right, you do have more in common with her. Arguably, you even know her better despite the fact that Isabella still hasn’t really told you much about her own past (which must be extensive).

This realization still causes you to feel sadness. You really thought that if you just hung on to Lisa, that maybe your situation would work itself out, but it isn’t. This is your life or unlife as it were.

You put your face in your hands and try not to weep, but you fail. Isabella attempts to comfort you by putting an arm around you, but you eventually pull away.

“Oh dear…I can see this didn’t go the way I planned at all. (Sigh) Very well…I see what needs to be done. You need to go. I release you.” Isabella says.
“What?” you answer.
“You heard me. I release you. You’re not happy here and you never will be. You’re also always going to be resentful towards me on some level. Guess I should have known, but spending decades being detached from humanity sort of makes one become less aware of certain social niceties.”
“What about Lisa?”
“Oh yes, her. Well I’m sure you do realize that she still can’t leave here. Can’t do anything about that. However, I’m correct in assuming that you no longer feel the same way about her anymore?”
“Yes…but…”
“I’ll make it quick. Just go.”
“Thank you.”

You give one last look at Lisa and briefly think about giving her a goodbye hug or even a kiss, but it would be a meaningless gesture to someone who is in no state of mind to appreciate it anyway. And even if she were, she most likely wouldn’t want anything to do with you.

You take your leave of Isabella’s home and don’t look back. (Fortunately it’s night time right now)

As sad as you are about what happened with Lisa, you now feel a great weight lifted off of you. Namely the ball and chain of slavery. First Ral and then Isabella. For the first time since you left your home, you’re actually free. Truly free. It’s a little surreal.

Since you’re lacking in any other ideas at the moment and need some time to think, you head to the closest place that you can think of where you can find reasonable dwellings and can feed easily, Holgard.

When you arrive, you head to the graveyard. Many times in your past visits to Holgard, you’ve found temporary places to stay any time you got stuck here before the sunrise. While it probably would be just as easy to stay at an inn, you suppose your years with Isabella have caused you to appreciate the solitude of a crypt.

You find yourself an older one that doesn’t look like it gets too much visitation and after a few adjustments, you make a space for yourself.

What will you do with yourself now? What DO vampires do to pass the time? It can’t all just be drinking blood obviously. Isabella had her garden (and cleaning until you showed up) Your concerns aren’t so much in the present you suppose, but the future since you’ve got a long one ahead of you.

Your previous profession of thievery seems all rather pointless now. You don’t need money to live anymore and you don’t even get that much of a thrill out of it like you once did, of course most of your roguish skills were being used to steal for Lisa, so it hasn’t been for your original reasons for a long time anyway.

All of this also has had you wondering how your family is doing, and if they’re all okay. You imagine your parents really wouldn’t want anything to do with you now, so there’s no point in visiting them even you weren’t facing mob justice there (And as a vampire, you can’t imagine the folks in Teckleville would be any friendlier towards you, though you suppose you’d be able to handle them easier now).

You like to think your sister would still speak with you though. She’d probably find it all very fascinating, which you suppose it is in some ways.

For a while you think you can go back to your “old life.” Pick up where you left off, or rather what you originally wanted to do in the first place after you left Teckleville.

This works, but only temporarily.

Part of you would stay in Holgard and just go about a simple existence of feeding on unlucky souls and possibly burglarizing a store just to pass the time. It isn’t like you’re exactly unhappy doing that, but after a few months you realize it isn’t so much the monotony of your life that’s bothering you, but rather the area.

First, Holgard is currently undergoing a “holy war” of sorts between its various religious factions. While it’s making things chaotic enough for you go unnoticed, you can’t help but get a little concerned when the Church of Joachim starts talking about forming groups to hunt down evil supernatural elements that are corrupting the city as part of their crusade to prove they are what’s best for Holgard.

Second (and somewhat more importantly) Holgard used to be a sort of “escape” from Ral and later Isabella. You used to be able to put it out of your mind that you were under someone else’s command for a little while.

Now? Holgard just feels like you haven’t “moved on” from your shackles. Or at least not moved on enough. While you’ve never been a wanderer like your sister and maybe it’s a combination of your previous experiences, along with being a vampire, but you feel the urge to travel. You don’t know where, but you have to get out of this city. Maybe even find something else to do.

Holgard always has trade ships leaving its harbor going to various locations. You sneak aboard one in the middle of night and hide yourself in one of them. You think this one is going to the Delantium Kingdom, but it might be going to some place you’ve never heard of, you don’t really care as long as you’re away from this area.

Never been aboard a ship before, so this will be a new experience too. You imagine you’ll get hungry on the journey, but as far as you know there’s enough crew on the ship that you’ll be able to get by. Just have to be stealthy about it, but then that isn’t really a problem anymore.

You still don’t know exactly what you’re going to do with the rest of your undead life, but your days as a common rogue are over.