text: Year 26
  
  It's amazing how things can be going fairly well for you, and you'll still find shit to be dissatisfied about.
  
  What might be worse is the new nature of you "confinement." It's another gilded cage. (Or fancy crypt in this case.) While not much is ever demanded of you, Isabella definitely is treating you less than equal as you have to clean the crypt
  
  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 kept clean and isn't the slaughterhouse that one would expect it to be.
  She still cleans of course, but you're doing most of it now. It's really boring especially since you had to do this to a lesser degree at Ral's and at least there, you were able to let it go for a week at times. Not to mention it's fucking impossible to "clean" a vast underground crypt in the first place.
  
  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 that, which is sort of plus, since that's one of two major things that break up the monotony.
  
  You initially would lure a citizen of Dert back to the crypt, but in time you started wandering a bit more and realized with all the bandits making hideouts in forest, you might as well give yourself a bit more of a challenge.
  
  Sometimes you will boldly face a group of them. The poor dumb bastards never realize they don't have a chance and you proceed to tear them apart, satisfying your own hunger and leaving only one or two alive to bring back to Isabella.
  
  The second major thing would be your routine intimacy with Isabella. It's a little odd, mainly because you've got mixed feelings on the emotional side of things. Isabella is very comfortable with the physical aspect, but in a lot of ways she's still pretty distant. Makes a bit hard for you to return serious affection when you aren't sure if you're just there as a dick for her to use when she's in the mood.
  
  While you don't really have any real complaints about that aspect that might make this bit of "captivity" worse since it's really difficult to complain when you're getting quality sex thrown in your direction on a regular basis.
  
  But since you're not totally whipped, you're going to complain anyway. Not to mention you just need more to occupy your time. There has to be more than just feeding and fucking, especially since you're supposed to be immortal now.
  
  Though you'd be lying if you weren't worried, she IS vastly more powerful than you after all and can easily subvert your free will if she so desired. (She never has though)
  
  You wait for one of the rare moments that she isn't in her private garden to speak with her since even after a year she still doesn't allow you in there.
  
  "Oh, hello. Have you been waiting out here for me the whole time?" Isabella asks.
  "Sort of. Oh I brought back dinner. A couple of children from Dert this time. I know it's risky since it causes more hysteria in the locals when kids go missing, but I was very careful and I figured you deserved something special." You answer.
  "Mmm, you're always so doting. Well, with your news and the fact I finally got my deathshade growing properly, I'm in a good mood tonight, so we can do that thing you always want to do to me after I eat."
  "Uh, yeah that's something to look forward to, but I was actually here to speak to you about something that's been on my mind lately."
  "Oh, okay then."
  "Now I'm already prepared for you to say no, but I want to make my argument clear..."
  "Okay, so what is it?"
  "Don't get mad..."
  "If you don't hurry up and get to your point, I guarantee I'm going to start getting mad. Just fucking say it already!"
  "Okay! I want more freedom."
  "I see..."
  "Now hold on, I don't mean I want to leave you! I just...agh...I need more out of life, or unlife as it were."
  "More? You have all you need. A home, a nearby food source, a beautiful companion by your side. I mean I'm not sure I understand."
  "And that's all great. Really it is. Probably better than I ever could have stumbled upon. It's like...well okay here's a good example. You have that garden. That garden that you love to spend all, occupying your free time when you have it. I mean you don't even let me in there, so I'm assuming it's something pretty special to you. I guess I'm saying I need my own garden. Not literally of course."
  "Hmmm, I understand what you're saying...I suppose I have just taken your happiness for granted."
  "Don't get me wrong, I am happy, I just need something more to do and no offense, but cleaning this crypt isn't it."
  "Hah, well I figured. I'd hoped that you would have developed a bit of an obsession for it like I somewhat did, but I imagine your servitude to Ral might have dampened that. Okay, so you're basically saying you want a hobby, fine. But I wasn't exactly stopping you from getting one. So what did you have in mind exactly?"
  
  Well so far this is going better than you thought, though Isabella's question brings up the fact that perhaps you haven't thought this entirely through.
  
  "I'm...I'm not exactly sure...I was sort of expecting you to be against it. Okay, well anyway I've been killing bandits in the forests. Lots of them actually." You say.
  "I figured you must have found some other food source since you didn't often eat here. So you have a bit of the bloodlust do you? That can happen with new vampires. As long as you don't massacre Dert, I don't care what you do." Isabella responds.
  "I'm thinking I'd like to go to Holgard once in awhile."
  "You haven't before? Again, I assumed when you weren't feeding much here, you might be nipping off to Holgard to eat."
  "I sort of wasn't sure if you wanted me to go that far."
  "Sheesh, do I really come off of that controlling? Holgard isn't that far. It's not like you're a lowly human anymore that is going to take forever and a day to walk there. With your speed, you could go there and be back before dawn. Hell, if you really needed to, it wouldn't bother me if you stayed there for a few nights. Get it all out of your system. If culling a few extra humans to satisfy your bloodlust is what you need to do, well Holgard couldn't be a better place to do it. It's a crime-ridden city where murder occurs daily. You'd fit right in and never arouse suspicion."
  "True, but it's not just the killing, it's I used to be a rogue before all this happened...and I've been thinking on those days I do miss them."
  "So...what then? You want to go to Holgard to be a common thief?"
  "Well when you say it like that, it doesn't sound as impressive. It's more like I just wonder if my desire for it is still there or am I just missing something from a simpler time I guess."
  "Weren't you doing it during your time with Ral? I know he didn't keep you on that short of a leash."
  "Yes, but I was so miserable that I don't think I ever really enjoyed it most of the time. About the only time I did, was when I was training...um...another..."
  
  Isabella's eyebrow raises as you stop yourself from mentioning Lisa. You quickly change up the conversation a bit.
  
  "My point is, I haven't really gotten to enjoy doing it since I left Teckleville. Actually even before that, since I started enjoying it less after my sister left. However, I feel like I should give it one more go to see if it really was something I liked doing, or maybe I just liked doing it with someone who was also interested in it."
  "You actually may find such petty thievery much too easy now. After all you have powers that you didn't have before."
  "Perhaps, but I also can't just break into any old house either not being invited and all."
  "True, but that can be easily gotten around if you can charm the owner into letting you in. There are also public buildings of course like shops. In any case, if this is something you want to pursue, I'm not going to deny you your eccentricities. We all have our interests. I believe this may be left over longings for your old human life, which is natural for new vampires as well. I also think you'll get bored eventually, but I leave you to work through it. Anyway, was that it?"
  "Um, yeah basically."
  "Good, now I'm going to feed on these children you got me, and then we can do that other things. Fairly certain you aren't going to go anywhere tonight."
  
  Well she's right about that.
  
  The next night you make your way to Holgard and it's true, thanks to your supernatural speed you get there fairly quickly, you don't even catch the attention of the guards outside the gate.
  
  You haven't been here in so long; you never thought you'd actually miss it. Hasn't really changed at all though there is one thing you're noticing and that's the fact the streets are practically empty. Its not even that late, usually there's still more activity than this. You see the watch patrolling around, but they're in groups much larger than you remember. They also tend to eye you very suspiciously.
  
  Granted you're here for trouble, but you decide that it probably isn't the best idea if you start off by murdering several Holgard Watchmen so you start avoiding said groups.
  
  It occurs to you that something here has changed drastically. Last time you heard any news of this place was Heather and she told you there was a war brewing between the religious factions. Maybe things have gotten worse?
  
  In any case you decide to eat first and head to the lower class districts where there are less patrols and probably easier to get a quick meal.
  
  You roam the streets, but it looks like even the lower elements have tried to set up some sort of safety plan during this uncertain time. Bums and the like are lingering together. Whores are as well and even performing their trade in groups. The worst part is instead of the Watch, there are Ebony Claw Syndicate members patrolling around and they're probably even more diligent since some of the ECS are also Fel followers.
  
  You soon realize that you're probably going to have to just enter a tavern and just lure someone away and get them in private or just risk the attention and wipe out a small group as quick as possible. Actually you're keener on the second idea since you're getting a bit impatient with how inconvenient this has been.
  
  Just as you're turning a corner a man in a green robe literally runs into you. It's enough to cause you to stagger since you weren't paying attention, as you were lost in thought.
  
  The man himself is on the ground. He looks scared, but strangely not because of you. He keeps looking around.
  
  "By Yag, you're a pale one. Wait... you a vampire?" the man asks.
  "Well there's no point in me lying since you're going to be my food soon." You respond.
  "Yeah? Well we that follow Yag all know that eventually we can't beat the odds forever. In fact tonight the odds were REALLY against me. Didn't see it ending like this though, certainly wasn't in the temple betting pool, hah! However I'd suggest you do it quickly before the Dornans get here. They see you and they'll use you for spell components, that is if the Joachimites don't get here first and just burn your undead ass."
  
  The Yagite priest continues to look around, waiting for what you're going to do, but it was always obvious.
  
  "Well guess I better follow your advice and make this quick then." You say and pick up the man and bite his neck. He makes little resistance other than gasping out some last prayer to Yag.
  
  You haven't been eating long when you're interrupted. The Yag priest wasn't kidding when he said someone would be here soon.
  
  "Yagite scum, you'll pay for...wha...?" a female voice says.
  
  You look in the direction of the voice and snarl at being disturbed. You see a woman dressed in purple and blue robes and a couple of other members of her temple behind her.
  
  "Vampire!" one of them shouts and begins to cast something and you leap into action.
  
  "No, wait!" the female member says and backs away, but you and her subordinates aren't listening. You head towards the acolyte that was attempting to cast a spell.
  
  After you easily put your fist through his chest, you feel flames at your back, which the other acolyte has cast at you. The flames hurt, but it isn't nearly enough to save him, you're just too quick and you rip out his throat. You savior the quick taste of blood before turning towards your last foe.
  
  "Stop! Stop! It's me!" the woman continues to shout as she puts a shield up and that's when your bloodlust subsides long enough to finally recognize who she is.
  
  It's Heather.
  
  You certainly didn't expect to run into her on your first night here. In the back of your head, you sort of had a concern that maybe if you ever did, it would stir up complicated feelings about her.
  
  However, at this moment the only thing you're feeling is the desire to slash her open and drink her dry...
  
  > Continue
  She's nothing to you now. Not a lover, not a friend. Perhaps if you had something more with her, maybe it would be different, but you didn't. A mutually beneficial arrangement, an admission of feelings and a one-time incident of intimacy, doesn't save her. She's blood.
  
  However, you're no fool. Heather isn't without power, so you stop your attack and collapse to the ground on your knees. You put your head low and rub your hands over face.
  
  "Heather...Oh...what have I become?! I...I'm a monster...by the gods, I'm so sorry! I would never...I would never hurt you Heather!" you wail.
  "Wha...what happened?" Heather ask, but still staying far enough away with a shield up
  "I tried to live with the curse of the cold, but I just couldn't. It had left me utterly alone and had driven away the only thing that was ever good in my life. You. The longer I was in my cold exile, the more I dwelled on what could have been with you. I came close to suicide, believing that moment with you would be the last good thing that would ever happen to me. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had gone through with it."
  
  You slowly stand up and continue to look ashamed by your actions.
  
  "But my will to live I suppose was a bit too strong. Indeed some of that was due to you. I thought maybe, just MAYBE if I could fix myself, that I could rekindle what we might have had. Even if you had moved on, it still would have been worth it, I thought. So I followed a rumor, and then a trail, and then eventually found the undead creature that was bored enough to help me. Risky, but I figured if he was going to kill me, what would I really lose? Fortunately he turned out to be rather sympathetic in his own way." you say.
  "But WHY did you do this?! I mean you had to have known the results!" Heather asks.
  "As I said...for you...I foolishly believed that somehow I could be different. That it could survive on animal blood or the blood of creatures, it worked...for awhile."
  
  You look at Heather mournfully; Heather still looks a bit cautious, but is looking a bit more sympathetic towards you (Well more sympathetic towards you than she is with her followers laying on the street dead)
  
  "I tried...I tried so hard...I even sacrificed Spikey...I soon realized that I would never be fit to be in your presence." you say and choke up a little before continuing.
  
  "But the call of the thirst was just too strong and I found myself heading back towards civilization...I figured at least maybe here in this cesspit of crime, that maybe killing murderers and the like wouldn't make me as bad...but with each life I take, I find that I'm just getting more detached...I've started thinking about even targeting those that aren't deserving of it... I almost sought you out for help, but I was too ashamed... I'm so lost... Heather....please help me..."
  "I...I don't know if I can. I mean this isn't even like the condition you had. I mean I don't know of anything that can reverse being undead!"
  "Please Heather...you helped me once before. I see you and know there's hope again. Please help me..."
  "I..."
  
  You continue to stare at Heather who now has dropped her magic barrier and begun to move a little closer to you. Your voice and your eyes have managed to get her to lower her guard. It's not complete, but at this point you're close enough that it doesn't matter.
  
  You lunge and before Heather can do anything else, you've easily restrained her and about to bite. She looks at you with wide-eyed terror.
  
  "No, please don't..." she utters.
  
  And for a brief moment, you actually consider it.
  
  "Shhhh, it'll only hurt a little and then oblivion." You whisper and then bite down on her jugular like a ravenous animal.
  
  Her blood tastes different than most humans, but in a good way. Might be due to her magical nature. In any case you drink deeply and hold her tight as if you were making love to her, and in a way you are.
  
  Heather struggles at first, but she soon begins to weaken and then ultimately give in until her life force is gone.
  
  After you're finished, you look at her dead face and close her eyes.
  
  "You finally helped me Heather. May your goddess Dorna embrace you."
  
  With bodies all around, it's sort of amazing that nobody else has stumbled upon you. (Of course maybe someone did and wisely turned around before you noticed.) Not wishing to spend anymore time here, you take your leave and head back home without bothering to engage in whatever roguish endeavors you originally were intending.
  
  As you make your way back home, you feel somewhat weird about your actions. You feel like you should feel remorse, and sometimes you think you're beginning to have a twinge of it, but then it's gone.
  
  You didn't have to kill Heather. You weren't that hungry. You could have stopped yourself. So why did you do it? What was the real reason?
  
  Self-preservation.
  
  If you hadn't killed her, you would have surely done something stupid like develop an attachment to her again and that would have led to your death and most likely hers anyway. Either Isabella would have killed you or Heather's fanatical friends would have.
  
  You don't need to complicate your life like that. Better that she serve as food than as a distraction.
  
  Looks like you're fine with sticking to the basics after all.
  
  When you arrive back home, Isabella soon comes to greet you. It would seem Isabella decided to wait up for you for a change, you weren't expecting her to, but the fact that she did, just confirms that you made the right decision.
  
  "Well that was quick. I at least expected you to stay out until dawn. Did you have fun stealing items and whatever else?" Isabella remarks.
  "I didn't bother. I mostly ate." You answer.
  "Oh? Well hope you got a good one then."
  "I did. I ate my ex-girlfriend."
  
  Isabella's eyebrows rise in intrigue.
  
  "Really? Isabella asks, but not in a jealous way, just curious.
  "Well, I suppose she wasn't really a girlfriend...we just knew each other and we were intimate once." You answer.
  "I see. And were you so excited that you were intimate again? Perhaps she found your dark charms alluring and in the heat of passion, you couldn't help yourself?"
  "I manipulated her into dropping her guard after I slaughtered her friends, then I drank her dry...and I didn't feel anything about it. This woman who once tried to help me, I felt nothing after killing her other than it was necessary. And the only excitement I felt was when I was feeding and holding her warm body close as it slowly turned as cold as mine."
  
  Isabella takes your words in and slowly begins to move towards you while caressing her own body.
  
  "That...is soooo sexy....I had no idea that you were capable of such a thing. Killing random peasants and bandits is one thing, but this...well that's something different. I want you inside me, right now." Isabella remarks.
  
  You sort of wonder if Isabella has always been this horny or maybe this is just her making up for lost time due to a long period of isolation. Either way you're not complaining.
  
  The next night you prepare to go out to Holgard again. This time you're fully prepared to just hunt though.
  
  The city is about to have yet another major ongoing problem, or maybe a solution depending on one's outlook on things.
  
  > Time passes...
  Year 30
  
  "Well of course there are vampire hunters running around in Holgard now. I told you that you probably needed to start showing a bit of restraint now that the religious factions aren't killing each other anymore." Isabella remarks.
  "You said that Holgard was a perfect spot for me to hunt due to all the crime and violence!" you reply.
  "Yeah, but still within reason. I mean from some of the tales you've told me in the past, it sounds like you just leave a killing field in your wake half the time. As I said, you probably were only getting away with it due to the religious faction war, but now that that's over with, they're on to you. Look, you had your fun, but it's probably time to rein it in a bit anyway. You had like what five years? Honestly, I probably gave you your freedom a bit too quickly."
  "So what, are you cracking the whip on me now?"
  "No, but I will say that I'm fond of you enough that I would LIKE you to still be around for a long time to come. You might think a few vampire hunters are no problem, but I imagine they aren't the only ones hunting you. I mean you were taking advantage of the religious faction war, I have to believe that some of them groups aren't vampire friendly either. Wasn't your ex a Dornan? Pretty sure those wizard priests might have discovered a vampire operating in the city by now and I'm not even counting the fanatical Joachimites you told me about."
  "So what are you saying exactly?"
  "I'm saying that maybe you should give Holgard a break for awhile if you can't restrain yourself. Go find another hunting ground that isn't going to attract attention. I'm sure there are little isolated towns and villages further east of here. I'm sure there are probably bandits preying upon them as well, so you've got a wide selections to choose from."
  
  You somewhat frown at that suggestion.
  
  "If I'm going to skulk about a village luring peasants to their doom, I might as well be grocery shopping for you in Dert." You say.
  "Well I dunno, go wipe out an entire hamlet then, I don't care. Just don't be a dumb ass and leave any witnesses. Because I'm going to tell you this as well, it's one thing if you're going to insist on playing with your immortality, but it's quite another if you start fucking with mine. If your actions end up causing a group of adventurers to come barging down here in the middle of the day, waking up my beauty sleep, you are going to wish you'd been staked and beheaded after I get done with you. Understand?" Isabella says with a calm threatening tone that is enough to unnerve even you.
  "Yes...dear." You meekly utter.
  
  Isabella gives you a stern look and then leaves you to your own devices.
  
  Isabella may not have any direct power over you, but she's still powerful enough to crush you if she wanted to. You don't actually think she'd kill you, but you don't doubt that she wouldn't make your unlife miserable for a very long time.
  
  If you weren't so grateful for everything she's done for you, you might be inclined to leave and not return. However in the grand scheme of things you're fairly happy with her so there isn't much incentive to do so.
  
  She's usually right anyway. Might be time to settle down a bit. Mass slaughter is starting to lose its appeal anyway. Well not ALL its appeal, but maybe you should change it up, especially if you want to go back to Holgard one day.
  
  For the first few weeks, you don't go to Holgard and instead wander further to the east a bit. Honestly, you've never traveled in that direction for any extended length of time save for when you released Spikey back into the wild. That was slightly harder than you thought it would be, but at least it was better than Isabella killing him.
  
  You sort of wonder if you'll run into him, but you don't, who knows where he is now. (You hope he's happily eating people wherever he is though)
  
  You do know is if you go far enough you'll reach the borders of the Delantium Kingdom. Of course that's still quite the ways even with your speed and you aren't that adventurous.
  
  What you do find are a few small isolated villages. Bigger than Dert and nearly the size of the your old home of Teckleville. Same sort of people too, funny how no matter where you go, places like this are the same everywhere.
  
  You skulk around these minor villages, luring an unsuspecting peasant or two for food, but it's dull since it's basically like when you do it back in Dert.
  
  You encounter nomads, brigands, and raider types of various races. Again, those are more fun since you can let loose a bit more, but a lot of these tend to be on the non-human side and at this point you've acquired more of a taste for human blood as opposed to greenskin or some of the other savage races you've come across.
  
  Upon your return on these daily travels, Isabella almost never asks you what you were up to. She doesn't seem to care as long as you aren't bringing trouble to her crypt. Sometimes you mention what you've been up to and she listens, and sometimes asking basic questions back, nothing more though.
  
  A few months pass, and you're about ready to go back to Holgard just to see if things have died down there a bit, but you decide to stick it out a little while longer and continue doing what you're doing.
  
  You head to Maldito, which is one of the more remote villages, even compared to most on your list. When you get within sight of it however, you're surprised.
  
  The entire village is in flames. You can hear screaming and yelling still coming from the place and the stench of blood and death is thick. You're getting hungry just thinking about it.
  
  You cautiously move towards the village and find where the majority of the voices are coming from. A mixed group of rough looking orcs, gnolls, and even a few hobgoblins are currently lording it over the remaining peasants they haven't killed.
  
  Currently a couple of the women are being raped and they're torturing the shit out of several of the men. Despite the large amount of savage races, a human seems to be the leader. Figures.
  
  He is addressing the peasants who are focused on him despite all the horror around them.
  
  "Know that you lot brought this on yourselves! All you had to do is provide food, basic goods and some time with your daughters, sisters and wives on a regular basis and this shithole of a town would be spared Green Eye's wrath. Instead you've been hiring mercenaries to cut down our men for weeks! NOW you have to pay!" the human bandit says.
  "NO! I swear it! We've done no such thing! We would nev..."
  "SILENCE!" the human bandit snaps interrupting the older peasant trying to beg for mercy.
  
  The human leader soon picks the old man up off the ground and stabs him in the throat before tossing him back on the floor.
  
  "I don't actually give a shit if it WAS you or not! One of the villages in this area did, and when they get the message of what we're doing to your village, they'll fall in line, or they're going to suffer the same fate! Rape everyone in every fucking orifice, kill them all and shove their dismembered corpses on big fucking spiked sticks."
  
  Grim stuff.
  
  The odd thing is you actually feel slightly sorry for these pitiful peasants since you probably inadvertently caused this. You were slaughtering so many bandits over last couple of months, you didn't think that they were actually united any way. You also didn't think that these bandit types would jump to the conclusions that the villagers were behind it. Though you suppose it makes sense that they would.
  
  After years of just ruthlessly drinking the living and seeing them as nothing more than blood bags, it seems odd that you would feel protective of them for some reason.
  
  Maybe, this is how Isabella feels about Dert in some ways. The people in that village are all food to her, but they're hers and she doesn't want anyone else fucking with them. You guess you've developed a similar attachment. Who knew?
  
  Yeah, you're not going to let bottom-feeding scum throw away perfectly good food...
  
  You enter the village, you don't even try to hide. You break the neck of three hobgoblins and put your fist through an orc before anyone even mounts an attack.
  
  "Shit! Get your dick outta that bitch, can't you see we're being attacked?!" the human bandit shouts.
  
  The gnolls clumsily attempt to chop you with their long axes, but its all too easy to avoid their blows and shatter their spines, you quickly shut their dog like howls up by stomping their heads into mush.
  
  The remaining bandits fair no better against you.
  
  "He's too fucking fast! He's not human! He's not..." are the last words of a half orc before you finish him off, along with his buddies.
  
  Soon it's only the human bandit leader left and to his credit; he hasn't run off (like some of the hobgoblins tried to do)
  
  "Let me guess...vampire?"
  
  You nod silently.
  
  "Shit...I had a feeling it wasn't just mercenaries after seeing the carnage on a couple of those sites. So are..."
  
  You're done entertaining this lesser form, you rush forward and rip out his throat mid sentence. You drink his blood and throw his corpse next to the body of the old man he had just killed not a few moments before.
  
  Meanwhile the peasants that the bandits rounded up haven't even run. They've all just huddled together watching you, probably with just as much fear as they had before you arrived.
  
  You look upon them and they have never looked more like the herd of sheep they truly are. They are prey and always will be in their current form.
  
  You have a mind to finish them all off, until one brave one approaches on his hands and knees.
  
  "You...you have saved us!" he shouts.
  "Saved you? You shortsighted sheep, I only saved you because these assholes were killing off my livestock and I hate to waste food. I've been feeding on you lot for months now. Didn't you even notice how some of you had gone missing?" you say.
  "We...we assumed perhaps the bandits had taken some of us in the middle of the night. But please, spare us your unholy wrath and we will worship you, my dark lord!"
  
  Well this has turned interesting...
  
  "Worship you say? What exactly are you proposing?" you ask.
  "Yes, we...we can't defend ourselves against Green Eye's bandits and now that you've killed this group, he's just going to send more to finish us off. You could defend us and in exchange we could provide...what you need...." The man says.
  "I need blood you do know that right?"
  "Yes, but if it means just a few of us dying as opposed to all of us dying then it will be worth it. Please, I beg you. Whatever you wish, we will provide."
  
  This could be just the thing to break up the monotony. It's also perfect due to the remoteness of it all. You'd have people willing to give themselves to you, and the bandits you can just massacre as usual.
  
  Of course doing something like this might be slightly more involved than you'd prefer. You can also imagine that it probably wouldn't be as cut and dry as you're going to want it to be.
  
  Lot of factors still at play and you question if you want the headache.
  
  > accept the challenge
  What the hell it isn't like you've got anything better to do. You've been enjoying it more out here than Holgard anyway.
  
  Still you know this isn't going to be all fun and blood, so you need to start establishing rules.
  
  "Rise." You tell the man groveling before you.
  
  He does so slowly before you.
  
  "I will accept your obedience, but you must know what this means. This means tribute in blood when I call for it. This means anyone of you here could be called to sustain me in exchange for my protection!"
  "We understand..."
  "No, I don't think you truly do mortal. However, you soon will. And if you find my terms at any point unacceptable, there will be no negotiation; I will finish the job that the bandits failed to do and wipe out this entire village. Now, let us talk about your bandit problem."
  
  The man who is the village's speaker says his name is Vic and explains the situation with the bandits.
  
  He says Green Eye, is the unseen bandit leader that is believed to have made his hideout in an old abandoned dwarf mine in the hills nearby. As far as anyone knows, nobody in this village (or any other in the area) has ever seen Green Eye, except the bandits who mention him (or her) from time to time. Still never a physical description either except for the green eye that seems to unnerve them.
  
  Vic says he understands that you will not be able to look over them constantly, but something must be done about the bandits soon since they will surely come looking to see what happened to their fellows and if that happens to be during the day...
  
  You tell Vic to not concern himself with it any longer because you're taking care of it tonight one way or another. He just needs to remember his promise to you. This village is yours and as such, he needs to get the rest of the people back to rebuilding it as soon as possible.
  
  After Vic gives you some basic directions on where the mine is located, you take your leave.
  
  Honestly, it's not that difficult to find now that you know which way to go since you're catching the scent of foul savage races the closer you get. Eventually you get to the entrance, which doesn't even have anyone guarding it though judging by the smell and mess, this is definitely inhabited.
  
  The mine is actually well lit, so you're guessing there must be more human types in here at