Your remaining injuries from killing Adrienne are significant; much of the flesh and some muscle on your left side is gone, and your form is spattered with holy water burns which give you the look of a pox victim even when your more severe injuries are concealed. Fortunately, your vampiric strength and speed is returning relatively quickly as you feast on human blood. It seems likely that you will be able to move at full capability long before you have healed enough to look normal- or as normal as a vampire typically does.

Four servitors, summoned and bound to your will, are currently available to do whatever you ask of them- an assassin imp, fast, stealthy, and brutal; a scholar sprite, equally adept in the library or the wilderness; a mimir, a skull imbued with equally vast amounts of knowledge and self-absorption; and an air spirit, virtually undetectable eyes and hands.

Sarai, an older vampire who described herself as an assassin and mercenary, is allowing you to use some of her supplies and stay in her concealed crypt in the merchant's district for the first few days you are in the city.

Bryden, a much older vampire who has apparently attempted repeated rebellion against your lord, has secured himself a position as a noble in the city and provided you with information about a silver shipment you intercepted earlier tonight, killing everyone there and taking their shipment for yourself.

***

You are currently in Sarai's concealed crypt, deciding your next move now that you have successfully taken and concealed enough silver to create a lesser summoning circle and probably to fund whatever modest expenditures you choose to undertake in the immediate future, up to an including buying properties in the city.

What do you do?

Ask Sarai's help to put you into contact with someone with whom you can purchase a property in a decent part of town, then get back in the slums and feed on some lowlife scum.

try to find suitable locations for a new home?

>>7579841

Write him a letter explaining the situation in a roundabout way.

"Dear B, Thank you for your hospitality upon my arrival. The shipment of my possessions we discussed arrived safely and is now in storage. We appreciate your help in arranging the transport. We had disused your uncertainties with the post, you will be happy to know our most recent message arrived safely and in good time. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yrs..." yadda yadda

Seal and send the air spirit to deliver it, and await a response.

>>7580007
Since Bryden had tacitly offered to turn the bars of silver you acquired into cash for you when you last saw him, it seems only appropriate to send him a message about it- though you remind yourself to be a circumspect about the matter as he was. While you're writing him, it occurs to you to add a note about being able to send his messages to Rhiannon, should he want you to. You pull out some paper and ink.

<Dear B,
Thank you for your hospitality upon my arrival. The shipment of my possessions we discussed arrived safely and is now in storage. We appreciate your help in arranging the transport. I recall your uncertainties with the post, and you will be happy to know our most recent message home arrived safely and in good time. We look forward to hearing from you soon.>

You scrawl a quick signature and seal the letter with unmarked wax, then step outside and order your air spirit to deliver it to Bryden's mansion.

>>7579875 >>7579897
After a moment of reflection, you decide that before actually turning your stolen and concealed wealth into cash, you had best have something to spend it on. Since Sarai has made it clear that she has no intention of letting you sleep in her crypt indefinitely, the obvious decision is to legally acquire some sort of home. You would prefer to move into a decent part of town if possible, but that will require that you be able to present a decent appearance, as well as providing the funds. Either someone else will have to act on your behalf, or you'll need to look less wretched.

Since Sarai isn't around to help you find the former, you decide to act on the latter, and head out to the less reputable part of town, which you've made your hunting grounds of late. Even this late, there are still scattered people walking its streets. It is no trouble to catch the eye of a scruffy man, with low enough standards or a high enough level of drunkenness that he pays little mind to your scarred face, and get him to follow you into an alley with the intention of trying something forceful.

Even a living woman could probably fend him off, but in your mind it's his attempt that justifies your action. You lead him into the back of the alley with an innocent look of fear, then whip out your blade and open his throat. His face takes on a shocked look for a moment as he topples forward and you catch him, licking up every drop you can of the fountaining blood. A warm feeling of pleasure spreads through you, and it feels like but a moment before you hear a faint voice informing you that he's probably dead already, but you did ask to be told to stop. It hardly seems important, but after a moment you realize that you had indeed wanted to at least try and stop yourself while feeding, and pull back.

The man is gone; he's already lost too much blood. Your imp is standing in the alley looking at you. It makes you feel somewhat self-conscious, but with muttered thanks you decide to go back to drinking his blood anyway. You stopped, and that's what counts, right?

When the body isn't providing blood anymore, you throw the corpse on a sewer grate and clean the blood off your face. What to do next?

>>7580232

While we feed we could also practice our mental powers, before feeding try to stop them with your mind then ask them who you would have to talk to about purchasing property, see if you can compel them to answer.

Then obviously throat slitting and drinking.

>>7580232

While looking around for a few more meals, we should note the locations of different sewer entrances, or concealed/abandoned buildings.
We should also keep practicing our mental powers, preferably on people who will be too dead to remember it.

>>7580288

I tend to like the out-of-the-way lair, using our silver for summoning circle creation.
Although, if we were to find an upscale mansion, we could perhaps act the mysterious-woman-in-mask, acquiring contracts for *interesting* work.

Actually. That is probably better. Small mansion with room enough for a circle or two--
Use minions to fulfill contracts for money.

Yeah, we should continue to rid these parts of a few more criminal scumbags. Maybe we even manage to stop drinking a few more times, fortifying our willpower. Oh yeah, mindfucking our victi- erh, the criminal elements that need to be eliminated, for great justice, to see if we can learn better control over our powers might also be a good idea.

I don't think we'll have to wait long for our air spirit to return, and maybe Brydon can help out with acquiring a suitable domicile. For a fee. If we understood him correctly, our Lord only disapproves of getting all snuggly with our bloodkin, yet doesn't mind normal business contacts.

>>7580384
>>7580288

We might not even want to cosmetically heal our self all the way up for that transaction.

The daughter of a wealthy house, horribly scarred from the pox, sent away by her family since she's marriageable, and hiding away from the world by throwing themselves into study is a decent cover for someone with our needs and habits.

If we wear a veil or put those drops in our eyes we can probably get a decent enough cover story going.

>>7580287 >>7580288
You wander the streets of the slums, trying to figure out if any of the buildings are abandoned while you look for other people likely to try something on you. It is more difficult to tell than you would like; between the late hour and the generally run-down look of most buildings around here, your only real clue if they are inhabited is the faint sound of heartbeats through the walls. You do note that sewer grates are frequent, fortunately for your killing strategies, and that most of them have hinges and several horizontal bars bolted beneath them- they must double as access points.

It takes you a while to find another group willing to come after you; you notice at least one gang that pointedly ignores your act, and when one of a pair of drunks says something lewd about you to his friend, the mumbled reply mentions "that slasher chick". Startled and somewhat concerned, you walk up to them and ask forcefully, "What slasher chick?"

>>7580463

They'd probably excuse our pale-dead-look, too.
Perhaps assuming that a pox survivor should look somewhat sickly.

Compelled, an answer spills from the drunk's mouth, though he doesn't seem to realize that it's not just the alcohol talking. "Rumor going around... some crazy woman, cutting throats all over the place and leaving the blood to drain into the sewers. Doesn't even take coins off the bodies."

This could be a small problem, at least if the guard gets involved. Still, there's nothing else to do for the moment. You walk away from the drunks. It takes a while, but eventually a gang makes a move, and yet another alley is strewn with several corpses, their throats slit and blood drunk. With your imp reminding you to stop and using the blade instead of your fangs, you managed to pull back at least briefly two of three times; that's progress. Even if you are still slaughtering your way through the city's poor. You throw the bodies on a sewer grate and move on.

After a short while longer walking the streets your air spirit arrives, and you duck out of sight to read the note it bears.

<Glad to hear of your possessions' safe arrival. I would be glad to send some people to help you in arranging them most comfortably; perhaps you could meet them tomorrow, by the cove? Our mutual friend should be able to tell you the one I mean.
Best wishes, B.>

What do you do?

>>7580598
Well, that didn't take long.

>>7580615
Ok. Take possessions next kills. make it look like a robbery of some type

dear vampire chick ,

you are now aware that you are the only vampire you know, who drinks blood directly from the carotid artery. rhiannon and bryce drink theirs in goblets. even psycho andy cuts and licks.

notice a pattern here?

>>7580615

How good are we at *subtle* mind manipulation?
Perhaps we could try to implant the urge to rape or attack us, at the very least push ambivalent gangs toward it.

Let's try on our next few kills.

>>7580718

Perhaps they have a steady supply that they can afford the time to sip.
Or perhaps they have a special way to make the blood more potent.

It seems that it's simply a luxurious indulgence though.

Well, it seems to be time for a different hunting strategy. Before someone gets overly suspicious.

This is a seaport, right? Maybe we could have a look at the harbor, provided it's not overly guarded. If a few criminal sailors go missing, that won't be too much of a problem, right? And if too many of them turn up again, floating in the harbor, stabbed, we can change our hunting grounds again if needed.

>>7580615

Tuck the letter in our clothes. Do we have a pen and paper on us? If not we need to head back to the crypt to write a reply.

En route we should find a sturdy sack to carry the silver we need away with us when we meet these guys. We should also see if we can find a laundry or washerwoman to clean our noblewoman clothes in case we need to look respectable.

>>7580811
ooh find sharks of some knd! get rid of the bodies faster

>>7580615
Well, later on when we get back we ask about the cove in question.

we`re getting too well known, try going by the harbor. Sailors are entirely bereft of morals and most certainly all deserve to die.

this habit of leaving bodies on sewer grates is the reason why we need to cook up a gelatinous cube

>>7580641
>>7580615

Steal from these guys.

>>7580726


Sort of defeats the purpose of the feeding behavior in the first place which was to maintain an increasingly fragile and hypocritical self justification.

>>7580852
>>7580811
Don't worry 'cause we'll have a Gelatinous Cube soon, and it can eat our victims until we manage to feed without killing.

>>7580852
but sailors are the most suspicious though. Everything from cursed gold to singing sirens

>>7580900

We aren't going to try and use a summoned bloodbank? Maybe trade freedom (with restrictions) on the material plane in exchange for blood?

why are we letting our lungs and intestines exposed? bandage up that disgusting shit

>>7580904
sailors are also the most drunk when on shore leave

how long is our skirt? why aren't we wearing pants? how can you hide a sword if we're wearing anything shorter than knee length?

The strange thing is, I was always under the impression we threw the bodies INTO the sewer. You know, so they wouldn't be found so easily and arouse suspicion like they currently do. Meh.

We should probably stop our killing in the poor districts for the time being. We should return to the crypt and talk with the mimir about body disposal techniques. Or ways to increase our willpower and mind control techniques. And about all the useful stuff we might want to acquire together with the housing.

>>7581009

no. we need to heal. we can't do anything with this face!

if it's possible try to fix your face at least..we're still stronger than most humans

>>7580718 >>7580726
>>7580641 >>7580754
Pocketing the letter, you decide to continue searching for people to drain of blood. As you do, something occurs to you- you'd never seen Rhiannon drink blood directly from a human, and while you had hardly known Bryden, he had served it in goblets. Adrienne had seemed to generally draw hers with blades and whips, although on a handful of occasions you'd seen her simply bite. You have no idea what Sarai's typical feeding habits are. Is there a pattern of some sort here? Was Adrienne more crazy and sadistic because she drank blood from the vein sometimes, or was that just something she did? You know that it tastes best that way... the fresher the better.

That line of thought is making you hungry, and you decide to give the next drunk you come across a bit of a nudge. Staring at him as you approach, you whisper, "You really want the woman walking past... you would even be willing to get violent..." A moment later as you saunter by you feel a hand on your arm. You're unsure if he was more susceptible than most or what, but your efforts seem to have worked- you put on an innocent look and stumble backwards into the alley, effortlessly keeping your balance while appearing panicked. A few more steps, and he's far enough in; you drink him dry from a slashed throat and pull the coins from him pockets, then dump the body.

Was that pure murder on your part? You don't know. He might not have tried anything if you hadn't put the idea in his mind in the first place. Is it his fault that he was willing to assault you, or yours?

>>7580925
Well yes, but until we are at the point where we can summon such a being, we'll need a way to dispose of the bodies that we fail to keep alive.

>>7580811 >>7580852
Regardless, you still have wounds, and the rumor mill in the slums is faster-moving than you had anticipated. You make for the docks. It's only a slightly less seedy area of town, although you quickly recognize that the density of whores and taverns is higher and the generally destitute and gangs lower. It takes hardly a few minutes to attract a graphically phrased proposition in spite of your appearance, and you let the man follow you into an alleyway to slash his throat as before. The sweet stench of blood in your nostrils almost overwhelms the stink of whiskey coming off his body.

You pause for a moment in your feeding as part of your work on discipline, the blood trickling off your chin as you wonder- had this man simply thought that you were a streetwalker? Was he thinking to pay, or was he planning rape? Does it even matter to you, when you needed blood and he was so conveniently volunteering as a victim?

>>7580821
You throw the corpse in the ocean after pocketing its coins, and head back to the crypt. There is not terribly long before dawn. As you pass through the merchant's district, you notice several sacks of more bulk-oriented goods left relatively accessible through the night; you hop over the wall impeding your progress, dump a sack of grain onto the street, and make off with a new bag perfect for carrying your stolen goods before the guards notice you.

Back in the crypt, you see that Sarai has returned. Only a fraction of an hour is left before sunrise. What do you do?

>>7581052
Ask about cove.

>>7581035

It's likely that in order for him to follow the mental prod so thoroughly, he had a predisposition to do it.
An upstanding citizen may not have used force.

Although, our subtle mind-powers could be vastly more powerful than our overt ones. We'll need to run tests.

>>7581052

Ask about the cove. Send a response to Bryden, before sunup.

Find something to carry your share of the silver away in so you can carry it over the walls.

Ask about buying a house, finding clean clothes, see if you can get any hints off of Sarai.

Seriously consider feeding on animal blood for a while to let the rumors die down.

>>7581052


ask about the cove
and how she gets her food

>>7581131


animal blood is a poor substitute. it does not heal us, and it slowly drives us mad. as a sorceress we need to be in top mental condition.

if we had only drained those 12 guards :(

bandage guts, wear a face..

>>7581025
Our body's priority seems to be healing structural damage, not the cosmetic stuff like our face. It will take quite some time until we're all pretty again.

I think we're better off hiding our face behind something like a large hood or veil. Bandaging up our body isn't a bad idea, either.

I think we should go for security first, and continuing our current killing spree is counterproductive, because the general populace is already aware of us.

Bryden's associates probably won't mind our appearance. We can ask Sarai if in doubt.

I for one wouldn't want to pass up on the huge knowledge library that is our mimir, even if it is only loosely bound and prone to be unreliable. So far, it seemed helpful enough.

are we recognizably female from a distance? if we don't then we'll have problems luring rapists

cover face with your hair - it arouses less suspicion than a veil unless our hair has gone unnaturally colored as well

Take 5 minutes to feel remorse for the people we killed today. Maybe some of them did not derserve death as much as they got? Remind yourself to choose your food with more care next time.

>>7581250
yes yes. in fact maybe we should be batman? See if there are others in trouble. now we have to be careful though. we dont want to end up saving prostitutes and whroes

>>7581052

Ask Sarai about the goblet-drinking behavior.

>>7581308
HOW COULD WE FORGET?!

>>7580945
It is shockingly easy to move around with your injuries exposed, and you have yet to feel the need for any actual bandages in spite of vigorous physical activity since taking them. Some sort of unholy energy must hold them in place. Still, wrapping yourself tightly in cloth is not difficult, and you do so just in case.

>>7581003
Your skirt is somewhat past your knee, and your blade is about as short as swords get while still meriting the term. Further, its sheath is fashioned specifically to conform to the female hip and avoid detection; you're not certain where Adrienne got such a thing.

>>7581009
Initially you shoved bodies all the way into the sewer, but that takes significantly longer than dumping them on the top. After a close run-in with the guards, you decided not to bother and be content with the precaution of leaving them where their drained blood could be reasonably explained.

>>7581095 >>7581131 >>7581132
Since Sarai is here, you take the opportunity to ask her to explain Bryden's reference. After showing her the note, she nods. "He'll mean the smuggler's port a bit south of the city. The usual time is an hour before midnight." That makes sense; you're fairly certain that any guard noticing someone carrying large quantities of precious metal around the city would arrest them and seize it on principle, expecting a powerful patron to sort things out if they weren't supposed to have done so.

Other questions come to mind. "So... once I have money, Sarai, how can I buy a house? I need somewhere to live, after all. And clothes; I'm running through them pretty quickly. How do you eat?" A glance down at what you are wearing shows that the gradually accumulated bloodstains are beginning to edge towards "unnerving" rather than "unnoticeable".

>>7581297

That leaves the problem of what do we do with the people who we save?

She taps some fingers on a coffin lid, thinking. "I normally use an agent for that sort of transaction, though sometimes it's fun to act personally. I'm in with one of the bosses; it makes things easy. Always someone that's annoyed him who he needs to disappear; I keep 'em locked up until I need them or get hungry. But my version of 'home' is more of a storage and sleeping closet, as you know. I have a few of these." She waves a hand around; the crypt certainly isn't very homey. "I suppose that you could find an agent of some sort for yourself... though you still don't look very up to things. I can give you an address which would be open until late most evenings; expensive, but the woman there is willing to arrange almost anything on behalf of her clients."

Thanking Sarai and thinking on the matter, you scrawl a quick note to Bryden, informing him that you would be glad to meet his helpers at the suggested location, and send it off with your spirit.

>>7581250
Then, with the sun close to rising, you move to your coffin and think about what you've done today. Quite a few people are dead by your hand, and for what? Did all of them deserve to die? Did any of them? The line of thought is a haunting one, but you force yourself to consider it; the day that you don't think about these things, you tell yourself, is the day that you've really become a monster.

***

Evening again. What do you do now?

>>7581323
Looks like we'll have to work on our mind powers to cloud memories.

>>7581323
I dunno. let them spread word of a new vigilant? organized crime may send a bunch of lackeys out to deal with us which means more blood!

>>7581333

We didn't ask how she gets her food. Or the goblet-drinking. *frown*

>>7581333

Ask Sarai for directions to the Cove.

Find something to carry our share of the silver back to the crypt in.

Once we know where we're headed and are equipped set out. Tell the minions to stay out of sight but be ready to strike in case we walk into a trap.

>>7581353

At a certain level in this sort of system "Organized Crime" and "Local Nobility" often become indistinguishable.

when is our landlady going to kick us out?

go settle the matter of a home. no need to feed. once we have a home we can do a LOT of things.

>>7581333

We should probably scout the area with our stealthy servants before the meeting.

Ask Sarai how long her eye droplets last. Get new clothing. Wrap us up enough to not be taken for an unholy affront against the gods at a glance, check if our silver is still where we left it, then check out the cove and meet with Bryden's men. Lead them to the silver, and once we have the payment, make for Sarai's contact's address and inquire about vacant realty that may suit our needs (after using the eyedrops, so we might pass slightly more for human). Alternatively, inquire to Bryden about buying property.

>>7581438
This is your fourth night, and Sarai said you'd have a week. You are uncertain if you would be able to push her for additional time after that, as she seemed fairly inflexible.

>>7581391 >>7581413
You already asked Sarai about how she got her food, and she answered. Still, the question of why Rhiannon and Bryden were drinking out of cups remains, and you feel compelled to ask it. "So... why did Bryden serve blood in goblets when we were at his mansion? Rhiannon did the same thing."

Sarai gives you a look. "Presumably because he didn't want to drag a body in and throw it on the table. He takes his lord bit very seriously, you know. And Rhiannon's always been a little strange."

You're not sure that that follows, but you'll have to take it for now. "Right, thanks. Where exactly is this cove?"

"A few minutes' run south of town- not far. It's pretty easy to watch the smugglers come in; there's no hiding from vampire vision in the dark. If you're not sure, there are some marks carved into a tree stump right where you need to split west off the main road."

That sounds easy enough to find. "One last thing. How long do those eye drops last?"

"About half the night, but it varies- alchemy is inexact at times, or so my alchemist tells me. Don't use more than two, or you won't like it."

With a nod, you turn to your supplies. Your sack should suffice for carrying the silver; without the bars individually loose it will be much easier to carry them. It would probably be unwise to bring them back to the crypt, though, since you've agreed to hand off at least some of them at the smugglers' port in a few hours. You only need perhaps four of them for a summoning circle.

Still, you grab some cleaner-looking clothing and change into it, then set off. It doesn't take you long to scale the wall and get to the cave containing your silver. You arrive just in time to see your sprite ushering off a large cat, and wonder if he is working for your convenience or just wants to keep the cat alive.

All the bars are in place, so you move to the road and wander along it until you find the mark Sarai had mentioned. Moving west until you hit the coast, you find a cove with a narrow entrance, concealed from sight on either side by short cliffs- well suited for smuggling.

It will be several hours before your contacts are scheduled to arrive. Presumably, they will want you to have the goods on hand. Sarai said that the agent she recommended to you is open until late evening, but that term generally ends well before midnight; you'll have to go before your meeting or leave it for tomorrow.

What will you do?

I just thought of another idea here.

Have our summon paralyze some guy and draw blood from him into a flask, or cup, or whatever it may be. Have the summon stop draining the blood before a lethal amount is taken. Then we drink from the cup, right after it was taken from the human. And we fight for everything we've got to not jump on and chow down when we see the blood start to flow.

>>7581707
Leave it for tomorrow. Wait for B's friends.

>>7581707

Head for the cove. Meetings with those sorts of people generally go better when you have a fat stack of cash available to you.

Keep the imp out of sight, ready for trouble.

Has anyone considered not buying a lair? Why don't we just use the cave? We can enlarge it and conceal it using the sprite and a woodland elemental. We can save the silver then for other things. We can leap the wall easily enough to get into the city and we don't need to worry about accidental discovery.

Shit, with an elemental we could even close the earth during the day or whenever we are not there. With some time and wizardly learning, we could even learn to do it ourselves.

>>7581707

Leave it for tomorrow.
Spend this time scanning the cove for interesting things-- people, ships, crates, buildings.
Perhaps ask our air spirit to do the same.

When we meet the smugglers, we may with to ask if they know of any trade in seedy magical items and tomes.

>>7581792

We can do both.
Though I suggest we keep 5-6 silver bars, a few over the projected circle amount, just in case.

>>7581732
I agree. I think we should wait for negotiations about the housing until we have money to back us up. That means we must wait until tomorrow.
Might as well scribble a message to Bryden asking if he knew of a comfortable way to acquire property so that we have more options. Maybe we're really lucky and he has some warehouse, cellar or old mansion he doesn't need anymore?

We should get the silver bars, minus the ones we'll be using for our circle, and wait for our business partners at the cove. During the transaction, we should have a summon stand by in case things go south.

>>7581820

We only have 10 bars in the cave, besides which we can only carry 4 at a time.

>>7581820
There only were 12 to begin with. Sarai took 2, we'll need 4 for a circle, and that leaves us with 6 to sell. Money is easier to carry than silver bars, too.

>>7581820
Yes, but why? So far, we're unlikely to need anything else the house could represent, and we could use the additional silver to purchase magic books and regeants. The woodland sprite could create furniture by shaping the wood from the trees. The earth elemental can change the layout of the cave (if we summon one). If we're not going to ram a bolt into the mimir and rip of it's jaw so it can only speak when we will it, we can set it into the cave wall and take it out if we really, really need to move it. This way we have a discovery proof lair, near a huge population base.

>>7581936

Not really discovery proof. We don't know how to animate elementals.
Also, guess who loves mysterious caves? Adventurers.
Leaping over the wall every night would get annoying, too.

A small mansion in the city to use as a base would be excellent.
We can entertain guests, set up contracts, etc.--act the reclusive noble part.

Hmm, can our sprite make phosphorescent fungus? if so, I suggest we have him smear some of it on our hands and face in intricate patterns before we meet the smugglers. While in the meeting, have the air spirit ruffle our cloak. We might be able to squeeze some more money out of them if they think we'll turn them into frogs or something.

>>7581998
this sounds like a plan

>>7581732 >>7581739 >>7581806
You decide to wait. Since something tells you that it would be a bad idea to let the smugglers show up and not have what they've come for with you, you move to the cave and retrieve five of the silver bars, keeping one extra against the possibility that you'd misjudged the amount of silver needed for your planned summoning circle. Then you take your imp and air spirit down towards the cove and spend some time inspecting the area. Though you find evidence that a number of transactions have taken place here, some large enough to require carts and horses, there are no items present- it must be purely a handoff site.

After concluding that, you seat yourself and enjoy the cool salt breeze on your face. The wash of the surf is surprisingly peaceful, and it seems like but a moment before you notice a ship slowly pulling into the cove. It takes long minutes for it to anchor and launch a small boat, which pulls up to shore and discharges a woman and two men.

They look around in the dark, not seeming to see you seated against the cliff wall, so you walk up to them. "Looking for me?"

The smaller of the men gives a start and spins towards you. "Gods, you gave me a start. You have the goods?"

You recall how this works. It's all merchanting, in the end, even with illegal goods. "That depends. You have the money?"

The big man grunts, and waves to his belt. "One-fifty gold each, if they're good, as we told the boss."

That seems reasonable, even if it's a depressingly low amount given what you know of prices for arcane tomes and goods. You're a long way from making that greater circle, at this rate. "Just a moment." You turn and grab the sack of silver bars, then haul them over to the men.

The smaller one smirks at you, apparently having developed some level of night vision. "You trying to cheat us that foolishly? There's no way a girl your size could lift-"

Fortunately, he is interrupted by the larger man, who smacks him on the back of the head and looks at the woman. "Check it." She strides forward and mutters something under her breath while touching the silver bars, and each in turn gives a faint gray flicker. "They're good. Five."

The big man turns to the small one and snaps, "Make yourself useful and get those in the boat!" He leaps to obey, but utterly fails to lift the sack in an almost comical fashion. Eventually, he lifts up a single bar and hauls it towards the craft, and the other man looks at you while holding forth five small bags which clink with coinage. "I believe our business is done, then, miss?"

What do you do?

>>7582068

Ask about the girl's metal-scanning magic. What kind of power it is, and where she learned it.
Also ask if they are aware of any trade in magical tomes.
Imply that you would be willing to perform services for them in exchange for the tomes.

>>7582068

Take the bags. Ask "You're not trying to cheat me, or your employer are you?" with full vampire hoodo as you do so.

Depending on the answer you may have to convince him to hand over more. If it's all good thank him in the most innocent voice you can manage and walk slowly away.

>>7582118
Don't ask. Telepathy it to her. Show her a little power, might pique her interest. If possible, do so while >>7582121.

>>7581989
Other reason why we don't want to settle down in the city itself: the vampire lord is probably going to come reclaim us within a year or two. Unless we can somehow kill him by then, we're going to be leaving any position we may have in this city behind.

That reminds me, we're going to want to do some research on that motherfucker. Let's see if we can figure out who he is. And who he was.

>>7582118
This. Try to establish a working relationship, they clearly have access to some forms of magic that we do not know.

>>7582068
I suppose we make our way back to the hideout to stash the gold. Then feed for the night.

>>7582150

Oooh, excellent! Perhaps we can convince her to be one of our living agents. In return for more magical knowledge.

>>7581989
We can summon an elemental - eventually - to seal the entrance during the day and when we're not there, so it just looks like a mountain side. The Mimir could tell us; or at least supply us with an illusion.

Kill them. Take everything. The world is better off without smugglers, isn't it? Errh, disregard that, we don't want to piss off Mr. B.

Check all the bags to see if they contain the right amount of actual gold. If they do, retreat into the night. If not, remind the smugglers you don't appreciate being taken for a fool... (be sure to off the chick first if that goes awry, as she seems to be some kind of mage...)

Then retreat to the crypt and write a letter to Bryden, asking him if maybe he has some property in the range of, oh, up to like 500 gold for sale, or if he could act as an agent in acquiring one? If he refuses, we can always check out Sarai's pusher lady tomorrow.

>>7582243
Another reason not to buy property is because otherwise, we won't be able to buy much in terms of magical arcana. They're obviously expensive by what we know; we could at least wait until we know the prices for a few standard books of summoning, concealment and combat magic. Plus the other anon mentioned that the Lord is going to reclaim us eventually; having a minor library will be easier to take with us than a house.

>>7582266

We don't have nearly enough money now to indulge the arcane.
We need property to establish facade of nobility in order to make *more* money.
The mysterious noblewoman with a talent for sorcery could make lots on interesting contracts.

>>7581719
I second having our servants collect blood for us.

>>7581936
>>7581989

Gentlemen, gentlemen, Sarai has multiple bases, certainly having two bases would be beneficial to us as well.

Ask them if they deal in magical tomes and components, and if not then would they know any who would? Nothing specific, but make sure that you will want no questions asked and might have some very odd items requested.

>>7582266
Houses don't up and vanish. We can always have a proctor look in on it if we leave, we'll likely have the money and contacts by then for perpetual care. It would be nice to have somewhere in the city for easy access to various places of interest, if nothing else.

>>7582386
We buy a house with the money we earn from running our gelatinous cube garbage disposal and recycling service.

>>7582118 >>7582150
>>7582170 >>7582186
Intrigued by the spell the woman had used, you focus your thoughts at her while reaching out to take the sacks from the man. "Where did you learn that?" You hope that your thoughts got through correctly; your telepathy has lacked precision and clarity in the past.

Regardless, she certainly got something; she jerks her head towards you and says, "I... studied under the artificers in Egenn, briefly. Where did you learn that?" She looks startled, but interested.

You pause briefly. You didn't actually learn that, so much as have the ability naturally due to your vampire nature, but you suppose that isn't terribly important. Since the man is looking puzzled, you decide to speak instead of continuing telepathically. "I studied under a scholar in Walshenia." That's probably suitably vague. "Would you happen to know where I could acquire any magical texts? Since arriving in this city my access has been limited."

The big man starts to say something in a reserved tone, but the woman speaks over him. "We don't normally deal in things of that nature, but I imagine that we could make an exception, if you're willing to teach me that trick."

Unless you care to turn her, you'll be completely unable to teach her that, but this seems like an opportunity that you shouldn't let pass. What should you do?

>>7582424

"I can teach you many things in addition. That trick, however, requires... sacrifices."

If she inquires as to what else, have our air spirit demonstrate some moving of things.

>>7582424
Decline. We probably can't even turn her. We've fed on many people, and none of them have risen. We... we couldn't even bring back the pixie...

What does everybody think the risk of coming clean we're the undead? I mean, we probably piqued their suspicion hauling all that metal unassisted.

Maybe she would like to know other magic, we can be magic exchange buddies.

>>7582480

We probably could turn her. We've never tried on anyone else.
And that pixie was... a pixie. It was also murdered quite hard before we tried.

>>7582487

Well, they already work with Bryden, so they may already be accustomed to some strangeness.

>>7582424
"That trick...costs more than I suspect you want to pay. I do have another trick that has a more reasonable price, though."

Have one of our summoned minions come out, and offer to trade summoning lore and so forth for their materials.

>>7582424

"The trick requires a natural ability to focus and project your thoughts. It may not be possible to teach." Pause. "My other training was in summoning." Call the air sprite down. "Once I am suitably equipped I can provide you with a magical scouts or assistant. A flying lookout for example."

>>7582525
This.

>>7582424
Tell her that we currently won't be requesting any tomes will bear that in mind and some sort of arragement could doubtless be worked out... when you have need of the tomes, that is. Ask for a method to contact them, then telepathically ask her to meet you at some discrete place you remember in order to work out other possible deals since she seems to be the mage of the group. We need to make contacts, and a smuggler magess is a good start.

>>7582545
I like this one.

>>7582487
>>7582469
>>7582525

We can hint, but we shouldn't state things openly to people we don't know or trust. For all we know one of these assholes is going to get drunk and start telling stories in a dive bar that get connected to the 'slasher chick'.

Turning is probably a bad idea at this point, since we'd be forced to cut them loose by the masters rules, and that would increase the risk to ourselves and to everyone else (if they'd even tolerate it.)

>>7582545
This is good. It doesn't teach them any of our magic, we just summon for them (who knows how rare or valuable the stuff we learned at the castle is?) and gives them something valuable in exchange for much needed magical texts.

>>7582487
To the smuglers? Huge. I'm sure there's some reward in killing monsters like us. But to the mage? She's interested in aquiring more power. She might be willing to look the other way at our diet, in exchage for out tutorship.

Also imply that we might have strength-boosting magic that we could offer... but only for extremely valuable magical cargos. We need something to explain how we lifted the stuff.

>>7582469 >>7582525 >>7582545
You decide to be evasive. You're not about to admit to being a vampire, even if these smugglers have a better chance of rolling with that than most people. "That trick, as you put it, cost me... more than you would likely be willing to pay. I do have others, however. My favored training was as a summoner." You will the air spirit to you and hand it one of the bags you're holding. "I can provide you with such beings as scouts and assistants in exchange for your help, or offer some lore on their binding should you prefer that."

The woman frowns, obviously disappointed that you've withdrawn the implicit offer of telepathy from the table, but the man is looking at the bag held by the air spirit slowly swirling about you. "You're not just floating that with magic? There's something holding it?"

You nod. "An air spirit, specifically; an invisible agent of my will." To reinforce your point, you order, "Speak, spirit."

It gives a whispered reply in its breezy voice. "At your command..." The man looks quite impressed, although the woman less so. She is probably more familiar with the details of this sort of magic and knows something of its limitations.

Still, she says, "I'll look into it. Meet us at the Spiked Flagon, on the docks, three days from now at midnight and I'll tell you if we've turned anything up. No promises."

That is enough for the man, it seems, and he nods. The smaller man has finished loading the boat during your conversation, and the three of them turn and launch it, leaving you standing in the cove seven hundred and fifty gold richer and with a possible lead on sources of magical knowledge.

Half the night is still before you. What will you do?

>>7582729
Stash gold back at temp. lair, go for food. Try to be the batman; that is, junt those that are robbing/raping others.

>>7582729
Go back to the lair and ask our mimir exactly how valuable our magical knowledge is in the grand scheme of things. If we are going to be bartering with magic we need to know exactly what cards we are holding.

We shouldn't need too many more people now, we must've consumed nearly 30 people by now plus all of those summoned creatures

Just a thought, but we need to ask the mimir about any magical properties vampire blood might posess. We should also ask Sarai what effects it has on mortals we haven't drained. We may be able to use our body as a bartering chip with the mage at our meeting.

autosagin'

We always seem to be of three minds when it comes to this.
A third of us want to hide in the corner and sob our eyes out.
A second third wants us to embrace our dark powers become generic mistress of the night #4,582
And the final third wants to use our powers for great justice and become some sort of cross between Batman and the Kamen Rider.

>>7582874
I'm shooting for a combination of 1 and 3. ONCE WE ARE KAMEN RIDER, OUR BOYFRIEND WILL LOVE US AGAIN!

>>7582902
THIS MAN SPEAKS WISDOM

>>7582757
>>7582796

Pretty much this, but take your time disposing of the bodies. We want to avoid rumours.

We might also want to send a note to Bryden summarizing the transaction (this may not be period or setting appropriate even though cheques were used in antiquity as well as the middle ages) "We have recently had our money come in, five cheques from a bank of sterling reputation, in the amount of 150 gold each. We are currently looking to purchase property... yadda yadda "

>>7582874

My eyes are still on the prize. MARRIAGE.

>>7582902
AND THEN WE CAN TEAM UP. AND FIGHT FOR JUSTICE!

>>7582874

Two and Three!
First edition Batman, 1939.

>>7582925
ONCE WE'RE KAMEN RIDER, WE CAN OBTAIN THIS 'MARRIAGE'!

Can we buy some new clothing, perhaps something that doesn't stain or wear out so easily?

Can we buy a leather cloak and cowel?
Maybe a belt of many pouches for our various magical toys?

>>7582874

meaning there's only THREE anon playing this quest

>>7582980
What magical toys?

Seconding going back to base and checking things out.
I hope we didn't get scammed by these smugglers.

>>7582986
Oh shush you.

>>7582994
Well, as an aspiring sorceress with a pechant for summoning, I'm assuming that, in the long term, we're going to collect the low fantasy equivalents of batmans utility belt.

>>7582925

we're already married. we're a vampire bride :(

>>7583030

Are vampires Mormons or something?

Anyway... sauce for the goose is sauce for the adventurer turned dominated vampire love slave gander.

>>7583030

Annulment.

By force.

>>7583030
We're not literally his bride. There was no marriage ceremony or even a reciting of vows. It's a title.

>>7583065
Honey,
(Pulls out wooden stake and holy water)
I think we need to talk.

>>7582729
Go swimming!

>>7583126
SECONDING FOR SPONATENITY

>>7583121


we've got our guts hanging out no thanks to holy water!

>>7583126
Actually not a bad idea, simply because we could really use a bath at this point.

>>7583163
Showers were here, baths are smalltime.

>>7583163


hi fishies, come eat my unnatural innards

>>7583194
Some sort of unnatural force is keeping our innards intact.
Also, we promise not to swim out too far, just enough to get a nice soak, pretty please?

>>7583194
Suddenly, vampire fish. EVERYWHERE!.

>>7583219
KAMEN RIDER FISH! HEED MY CALL AND COME TO MY AID! FOR JUSTICE!

No swimming! Batman feeding!
Then tomorrow we can purchase a glorious abode.

Take our gold back to the crypt...

AFTER WE GO SWIMMING.

>>7582757 >>7582796 >>7582856
With your business in the wilderness done, you return to the city, climbing easily over the wall and navigating quickly to Sarai's concealed crypt. Once there, you throw your newly acquired coins into the coffin you've been using and pull out your mimir for some questions.

"How much is my magical knowledge worth? In terms of trade to another mage, I mean; I only know a few spells, but they have proven incredibly useful."

It remains silent, so you smack it against the coffin lid and focus your words through the binding spell. "Speak, mimir!"

"Fine, wretched monster! Your magical knowledge is a worthless pittance, hardly a shard of a fragment! My intellect dwarfs yours, and even making allowances for the moronic slowness of your thoughts I cannot help but stand in awe at your vast ignorance. You would be better used as a common thug than a mage, and your claim to the title of sorceress is laughable!"

You stare at it a moment. "Speak truly, or I will spend a frightening amount of my precious time attempting to make your life miserable. Bolting your jaw closed might be a good start."

It grinds its teeth for a long moment. "I have no idea how much your magical knowledge would be worth to another mage. It would depend on the person. Summoning in general is powerful, but the need for a circle restricts its use somewhat- only mages with money and sizable spaces where no one else will bother them for hours at a time can use it. So much depends upon the practitioner's will that it can hardly carry a price tag. Not like your missile spell- trivial and worthless, that; it's hardly more effective than a crossbow."

>>7582874
I think we should dump our boyfriend. Look at all the stuff that has happened, and he hasn't been here for us for the longest time.

At least reflect upon how despite the fact that we are slowly turning into a monster he still isn't around, just like always. He never cared anyway. Probably banging some hot princess by now.

I think we can stand to be evil and still have a good streak. We can set up a nice stable life as some noble lady without being a blood-bathing bitch. Help preserve order in the realms, give to orphans and shit. But make no mistake, evil is what we are these days. Black magic and blood sacrifice is our bread and butter, and our perfect life will be built on the corpses of those we consume. People cross us or are merely inconvenient? They die.

I'm okay with this, and it seems others are too. We can be nice while not being stupid and pining for something that we know is gone.

That answer is somewhat better, so you move on. "Fine. What about my vampire blood? What is that good for?"

It chatters its teeth. "Vampire blood? Who would want that? The only thing it's good for is making more vampires, and that only works for a vampire. Well, there are a few obscure potion or alchemic formulae that call for cursed blood or the lifeblood of a damned person, and it would qualify."

That's enough. You don't really want reminders of your status in the eyes of the gods. You toss the mimir back into your coffin and shut the lid.


>>7582965 >>7582980
You wonder briefly at the possibility of buying new clothing, but the thought that you'd have to go to a tailor or seamstress to manage that puts you off. Perhaps once you have healed; until then you shall make do with the ever-growing list of lent garments from Sarai.

>>7582921
You write out a quick note to Bryden, informing him of the successful transaction and the price you received in suitably vague language. You mention that you might be interested in purchasing a place to rest, as you put it, hoping that he'll provide an alternative to Sarai's expensive-sounding agent.

>>7583290
Be nicer to the mimir. He's the closest thing we've got to a confidant and ally. Apologize and ask him if there is anything he wants.

After that, it's back to hunting on the docks. You promise yourself that you'll only kill someone threatening other people- no more luring them in specifically to kill them, at least not for now. You'd like to prove to yourself that you can go at least one day without unjustified murder.

As the hours pass, though, you don't actually see any assaults or rapes going on. The worst you see is a pair of urchins pilfering the pockets of a sailor passed out on the street and stinking of booze, and you're not really feeling like killing children for petty theft. Frustrated, you finish the night by diving into the water. The feeling is peculiar and painful; the flow of the wake seems to grate roughly against your skin, and when you drag yourself out you realize that you've reddened as if harshly sunburned- running water, another vampire weakness. The surf against the docks seems to qualify. Another joy taken from you.

You head back to Sarai's with mixed feelings- you didn't kill anyone, so you feel good about that, but you didn't kill anyone, so you're not healing any further and you even took a bit more damage. Your muscles and bones seem largely healed, and your skin could be smooth and beautiful again with only a few more kills.

You rest with such thoughts on your mind.

***

A new night, and now you have money to burn. What do you do?

We should give him hands. Imagine the opportunities that would open for him.

>>7583347
Did Bryden reply yet? If not, roam the docks and slums some more for rapists and murderers for food.

>>7583347
Goddamit, I forgot about running water.
Shit, does that mean we can't enter a building unless we've been invited as well?
Also what businesses are open and operating at night?

>>7583347

See if we have a response from Bryden.
If not, off to meet Sarai's friend to get her prices.

I also recommend that we not *wait* for crimes to be committed.
If we see an unsavory person, we goad him into attacking.
There are probably drug dealers and the like who could use some murdering. (We can take their proceeds, as well.)

>>7583347

If it's early we should put drops in our eyes to hide our tell and go see Sarai's agent with one or two of our money pouches. That way we'll still have half the night to feed if need be, and hopefully we'll have a decent lead on a house.

We should also check with our spirit if Bryden made any response.

>>7583290
Hmm, that's somewhat disapointing. We do have the summoning circle plans, and we know those are worth a fuckton. Even if we aren't that powerful ourselves, we can certainly play it. After all, how else could we have something so rare being built in the house we're buying tomorrow?
We can still use the mage, but we will have to be careful about what we say.

>>7583387
Don't forget to get our Imp to tell us to stop before we kill them. Coming from behind and knocking them out should deal with the matter of them seeing and remembering us.

>>7583395
No goading.
From what we've seen, this city is a cesspool, a den of inquity and sin.
It shouldn't be that hard to find an attempted murder or mugging.

>>7583352
That is dangerous I think, he is not exactly the friendliest guy and we haven't been treating him well so far. Just asking him if there is anything he wants would be best for now.

Also go hunting. See if you can read minds or emotions or anything. Avoid the slums, we don't want to stir up any more trouble there for now. Go to the place Sarai mentioned and see what it's like.

>>7583431
But think of it! His hands could touch everything but themselves! Wait... woah....

>>7583431
Be sure to test mind powers out on our prey. We'll need to know what our limits are before meeting the mage.

UM, oceans don't count as running water. :(

>>7583420
Psh. We should definitely goad the endless gangsters into action. We're not a pure goody-lightheart, even Batman hunted down inactive gangsters. We're also hungry.

>>7583399
It will take a lot more than just the drops to hide us. If we happen upon a rape or murder what are we going to do about it? Kill the attackers? BUT THEN SOMEONE SEES US.

Better to just trawl for muggers and rapists like always. Also keep an eye out for the gangbangers. They are all scum anyway, see if we can start a gang war by arranging a scene that looks like they killed each other. That means not cutting them all in the neck, but rather arranging it to look like they sliced each other up and get what blood you can from the wounds.

If a gang war happens then a lone woman cutting throats will be forgotten.

>>7583431
>>7583470

These! Perhaps we can read the emotions/thoughts of others to determine good targets.
Even listening for rapid heart rates and FEAR could work.

>>7583388
From what you remember of vampire lore, they can't enter a home unless invited- not necessarily the same as a building. Businesses, inns, barracks, and the like are free for you to access, but houses are not. Even some places that have taken on the metaphysical property of being someone's home through use and emotion, like a ship cabin inhabited by a family, might be barred to you.

>>7583387 >>7583395 >>7583399
Moving outside, you feel the air spirit- it was waiting with a message from Bryden, as you suspected.

<I am glad to hear that things are going smoothly and fairly for you. If you are interested in properties, I can arrange for you to meet with a broker who will provide you with best prices; be certain to look your best should you meet with him.
Best wishes, -B>

You stop and think for a moment. What should you do?

Hunt alot. We need to look good, two major meetings are coming up.
Also, reply to the letter. Tell Bryden we're interested.

>>7583516

Look our best means eating.
Perhaps we could get Sarai to do our makeup for the occasion.
Meantime, perhaps make friends with Sarai's contact.
The Madam may even have some unsavory people she would like killed.

In anycase, we catch a meal on the way.
Telepathically scanning for those persons with overly violent tendencies, committing a crime or not.

>>7583516
What advantage would he gain from providing us with the broker, I wonder? He already said housing would need to be gotten ourselves, so this means that we are either indebted to him or he is getting something from us using the broker. We should ask Sarai the names of the agents just in case, and make it clear to her that we might not be using them... just seeing what is around.

>>7583516
Well, looks like we'll have to feed. A lot. We need to look our best, which means doing away with the cosmetic injuries which heal last. Once we're back at 100%, we can ask Sarai to help us with makeup so that we look presentable.

>>7583516

We can see Sarai's agent about clothes and what not cant we? Clothes, a blank book for us to write spells and things down in maybe?

And we can at least check out her prices so we have a point of reference.

Write Bryden back and ask to arrange a meeting tomorrow night, hopefully we'll have a suitably concealing outfit by then.

I may be a bad person but has no one thought of buying thirty or so slaves from the smugglers?

>>7583516
Apologize to the Mimir and ask if there is anything we can do for him, then go visit the mistress that Sarai was talking about to assess the whole thing. After that is done start a gang war. If we can't start a gang war then at least feast until we have to go back "home."

>>7583641
Waste of money, most likely.

>>7583550 >>7583589
Look your best... Bryden must mean that you'll need to heal completely before the meeting. Your injuries have been gradually vanishing, but they're still quite prominent; it will take you some time to hunt enough people that they're gone entirely.

But you need to move fast on this housing issue. You write Bryden a note, thanking him and asking him to arrange a meeting tomorrow night. If you spend all of tonight hunting, hopefully... and perhaps you'll be able to ask Sarai to help you with her face paints, if not everything goes well. As you give the message to your air spirit, you can't help but wonder what Bryden is getting out of this.

>>7583574
Before departing to go suck the life from people, you ask a question of Sarai. "I'm still working on getting a place to live, and it seems like having an agent might be really useful... who was the one you recommended?"

She provides an address, which is not terribly far away on the more prosperous end of the tradesman's district, and a name, Diana. Hopefully that will be enough to get you a meeting if you show up some evening. You feel an impulse to go meet her now, but if Sarai's words about the eye drops are true, you would be essentially blind for the bulk of the night. With a promise to meet someone tomorrow looking good, you can't afford the lost time.

Instead, you make for the slums. On the way, you try to mentally pull thoughts, emotions, or anything from those you pass, but without any success- your vampiric mental powers seem purely outgoing, able to put thoughts and commands into others' minds but not take things and put them in yours.

Once in the slums, you gather yourself. You'll need to kill a lot of people tonight, at least twenty or so, if you are to abide by Bryden's recommendation and your own suggestion by showing up looking like a relatively healthy human at your meeting tomorrow night. You know that you won't be able to find that many people using your usual patterns.

What do you do?

>>7583868
Well, let's go and kill us some drunkards.

>>7583868
Find a tavern.

Have our imp drug the booze with something paralytic, that doesn't work on us.

Buy everyone inside a round.

Once they're all unconscious, have the imp start harvesting non-lethal amounts of blood from everyone there, which you then drink.

Head to another tavern once you're done.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

>>7583947
This could also work. Scratch my "kill random drunk people" idea; that can be plan B.

>>7583868

Killing 20 people in a night seems like it's going to draw too much attention. Plus... odds are we're not going to be able to do it without massive slaughter of innocents.

>>7583947

This is probably too much work for the Imp to harvest.

We could probably do it ourself.
Use a large carafe and drain non-lethal amounts of blood into it, then guzzle.

>>7583947
Obviously, taking our money back is included in this process.

>>7584022
Well duh. We're trying to be nice, not saints.

>>7584018
We can try, at least.

I've just noticed that we have real problems not immediately latching on and drinking them dry, and want to avoid murder and exsanguinated corpses if possible.

But if we can manage to make the cuts, drain as much blood as possible without fatal consequences, and then drink, we should help the imp with the harvesting.

We can also get our air spirit in on it, of course.

>>7584045
Yes, but I've noticed that UM tends not to do obvious things like that unless we say we're actually going to do them.

>>7584018

We definitely could drain them ourselves. Put a narcotic in the main beer supply.

>>7583947
We're dead. Nothing works on us.
Although we would then have an entire inn of slighly exanguinated people waking up with pained necks. Won't take a genius to put two and two together.
I say we lure people down the alley with gold. Have the air spirit "roll" a coin down the alley, eat anyone that follows it. Greed's bad, right? We can leave a coin in the pocket of everyone we kill. At least our prey's loved ones can live better. I'm sure a gold coin will feed them for awhile.

>>7583947

"I want to by everyone a round!"

"Sure, strange, blood spattered, horribly scared, pale dead eyed woman from the night!"

"It must all be taken from one specific barrel"

"We find nothing strange about this at all!"

If it can work, hell, roll the dice on it. I'm just saying it's a long shot.

>>7584069
Except that then we would probably end up killing them all. Fuck, we'll need to have some big buckets to hold the blood.

>>7584074
Look, the imp can drug the barrels as the barkeep brings them out.

Also, we stand them a round of one particular beer, limiting the number of barrels that the bartender could pick.

>>7584071
We aren't cutting into the necks, we're going for arms and shit instead. Arterial flow is kind of counterproductive to "do not kill".

>>7584083

We can try not to kill them.

IDEA! If we do accidentally kill them all, we can summon something nasty to cover our tracks.
Not without it's risks, but an unbound summon might divert suspicion if everyone dies.
We can make it look like one of the inn patrons summoned it, too. Leave some magical-looking scars on him/her.
As if he or she was a blood mage.

>>7584074
In that case, do you have a plan that doesn't involve wholesale murder?

>>7584137
The issue would be summoning something nasty enough to take the blame but that won't immediately kill us for the presumption of summoning it.

>>7584121

We don't even *need* to buy everyone a round.
We can just have the air spirit float by poisoning everyone's cup.

All it has to do is carry a few crystals of poison to each cup.

>>7584150

We summon a ghoul, or something that likes eating corpses.
Then we give it the corpses. It'll probably thank us.

>>7584154
Definitely. Have the air spirit do the poisoning.

>>7584121

His tail is always visible, and he can still be heard.

The way I see it we have three choices:

See Sarai's girl and find something expensive.

Delay the meeting with Bryden's contact and sleep rough in the cave until we have fed enough to survive.

BLOOD FOR THE... uh us, to be presentable for Bryden's contact.

We could try sleeping rough. At some point if we want to maintain our delusions of morality we have to accept risk to ourselves rather than murdering.

>>7584154
That too. Then we go in once they're unconscious and siphon them of some of their blood, drink, and leave. This way no one even sees use.

>>7584154
If they don't all go down at about the same time, the ones who aren't unconscious yet are going to get suspicious.

Or even worse, run screaming from the tavern, yelling for help as people collapse in front of them for no apparent reason.

We buy a round, propose a toast, everybody takes a swig at the same time, they all collapse at about the same time.

>>7584186

survive should be "look presentable" there.

>>7584197

That's less suspicious, obviously.
Creepy dead-woman asking everyone to drink at once.

No, we use a *narcotic*-- not a fast acting poison.
Something that makes them all VERY inebriated at sleepy over time.

Follow some gang members back and slaughter the entire gang wholesale, then drink them up. Gang members are bad people, right?

>>7584226
Voting for narcotic use. Something like paraldehyde-- it will just make them extra-drunk and sleepy.

Where do we get these drugs, guys? The imp and spirit did this stuff alone with all the free time they have during the day, and will likely take a while to gather the ingredients for something so specific. We simply don't have the drugs for this plan.

>>7583947 >>7583985
You call your imp. An idea has come to you. "Do you and the sprite have some sort of poison that will paralyze or knock out people, if placed in their drink?"

It flutters its wings and nods. "Sure. Sprite's been mixing up all kind of crazy things, and I've been keeping his eye on the important stuff. It's all about the poisons."

"How much of it do you have? Enough for, say, drugging a round for everyone several taverns?"

The imp stares at you. "Uh... we'd probably need to make some more for that. Enough for one, maybe."

"Then get what you have, and tell the sprite to make more. I'll need it within the next few hours."

It nods, then takes off and flies away quickly. It seems to be taking this job fairly seriously; that's something.

It doesn't take very long before the imp returns, winking into visibility hauling a large leather pouch. You find yourself wondering where it got the pouch, but resolve to worry about that sort of thing when it's not being incredibly helpful. It waves. "Got the stuff. A little sprinkle, should knock over most people in minutes."

You nod. "Good. It should be obvious enough when to use it."

With that, you turn and go looking for a tavern. In this end of the town, they're mostly the seedy types, but you don't mind that; those are less likely to call the guards, anyway. You duck into one, attracting a few stares for your scars but not as many as you'd have thought.

You drift over to the bar and seat yourself; the bartender slides over. He's an aging, ugly man, but his smile is remarkably friendly. "What're you for, miss? Look like you could use something hard."

You can't help but chuckle. You only wish that you could get drunk, but it seems appropriate. "Sure, give me a round of whatever you think I should get. And what the hell, get everyone else one, too." You toss several gold coins onto the table; that should more than cover the fifteen or so people in here.

>>7584275

We had the sprite mark out and cultivate narcotics and drugs a *long* time ago. He probably still has them.
The Imp is also well versed in poison acquisition.

The bartender looks at you with a worried expression, but takes your money. "Can do, miss. It'll be just a moment." He turns to the other people present. "A round on the house, courtesy of the lady here." You get a few looks- more in gratitude than the lust that you'd have expected; you must really not look worth chasing in the tavern's light.

Regardless, you watch the bartender pour out the drinks, one after another, and spy a faint powder falling into each as they sit on the counter awaiting the serving girl. Your imp is quite skilled- or is that the air spirit? You don't see a tail.

The bartender looks ready to hear about your problems, and several patrons seem inclined to move towards you, but you wave them off with a muttered comment that you'd like to get a bit more drunk before sharing your story.

A few minutes later, the first head hits the table, and after that people start passing out quickly. The serving girl starts to look unnerved after the first three or four, and the bartender begins to look panicked after six or seven. You hear him tell the girl in a low voice to get the guards, that something is very wrong.

She never makes it out, collapsing with a gasp. It must be the imp with his dagger; as the barman sprints to her side he falls as well, and the sole patron still standing doesn't last much longer.

You walk to the door, close and bolt it, then douse the lamps one by one. It's time to feed.

What do you do?

>>7584275
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU
Well then, what's the plan? Less discriminating lure or wholesale murder of gang members?

>>7584275
>we can't do this plan
We don't have another one.

Seriously.

It's either we somehow manage to pull this one off, or we have to resign ourselves to finding a shit-ton of people to murder tonight, most of whom are likely to be innocent.

Unless somebody else has a better idea.

>>7584317

Well we've got to figure out how to dispose of three bodies.

Maybe we should just drain everyone and burn the tavern down?

>>7584317

Locate empty barrel, drain blood into it from each person.
Non-lethal amount.
Ask the Imp if the drug causes memory loss.

We should probably drain the three dead people dry, find somewhere to hide their bodies and loot the till. Have the sprites set about collecting blood and any valuables from the patrons.

We want this to look like a mass mickey finn robery. Which it really is, we're just stealing more than money.

>>7584344

They may not be dead. Perhaps the Imp poisoned them with the narcotic.

Also. We take everyone's money.

>>7584317
Have the air spirit and imp help us make shallow cuts and gather the blood from them.

DO NOT KILL ANYONE. Keep that thought foremost in our mind.

Use some of the alcohol to disinfect the cuts once we're done, and then bandage them up with strips of cloth torn from patron's shirts and such.

>>7584344
Frame a patron. Leave one alive, and cover him in blood. Put a knife in his hand. Anonymously alert a guard. Bodies are taken care of.

>>7584317
Right, we drain their blood from various parts of their bodies. Don't go for the wrist or what have you every time. Get some buckets or something to hold the blood and drain a decent amount from each person. Don't ask me exactly how much because I'm not a doctor so I don't know. Best to err on the side of caution I suppose. Just make sure not to kill them. Bandage their wounds afterwords, so that they don't immediately know what happened and to curb our bloodlust a bit.

>>7584392
How many times do I have to repeat the "THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS PLAN WAS TO AVOID WHOLESALE MURDER" thing before you get it?

>>7584392

They're not really going to believe that.

>>7584378
Exactly. Why do you all assume they're dead? I think our Imp has the sense to know that if we're trying to not kill people that going around and killing people who we don't want dead is a BAD IDEA.

We could use extra blood to make a sigil in the back room, to misdirect to blood magic, though that would call down the heat. We should survive. No matter what we need to live. On the other hand everyone is gonna remember some poxy bitch not goddamn Winry.

>>7584406
Haters gonna hate, unfortunately.

>>7584436
Right. Half dead looking chick? Blood loss? I mean, we can keep some survivors, but it's gonna make things rough for vampires in this town, and the master won't like that. Wholesale murder's the way to go, whether we like it or not.

Or, we could just take their cash, make it look like a robbery. If they feel weak after waking, they might put it down to poison rather than blood loss. And if the money's missing they're more likley to blame it on a thief than a vampire. Good thing our appearance will be changing as we heal!

This is going to be a bit more than a LITTLE weird guys. This is the big time. Half-remembered glimpses of a woman dragging corpses onto grates got us heavy rumors within two or three days, what will knocking out an entire bar full of people who remember that you bought them drinks beforehand do? And then they find carefully bandaged cuts on them?

No, make the cuts look like some sort of ritual marking. Not an actual magical one, but some sort of cult thing. Then use some blood to write a message on the bar about drunkards, the end is near, ect.

The imp doesn't care about human life, the tavern owner and barmaid are probably dead. Drain them with standard cuts to the neck and dump them in the wine barrels to conceal the fact there is little blood.

Take as much from the people as you can without killing them.

>>7584470

That depends. The drug may cause memory loss.

Actually! Guess what *does* cause memory loss.
We force feed them all alcohol to make it look like they just got a bad batch of beer with too much alcohol in it.
That *can* happen. Like people drinking everclear and not realizing how much is in it.

>>7584518
I am sure giving alcohol to drugged people will not kill them at all.

>>7584518
Forcing them to drink massive amounts after losing most of their blood? If you want to kill them best to do it in a way that we drink all their blood, not via toxic shock.

>>7584378 >>7584344 >>7584367
>>7584383 >>7584392
You stare at the bartender for a moment, thinking that you'd never intended to kill anyone, but then realize that he's still breathing. "Imp? What's on your dagger?"

It alights on the countertop next to you. "Fast-acting paralytic neurotoxin. Beautiful stuff, stills but doesn't kill. Long-term damage to the mind, sometimes."

You shove the thought of that nasty thought out of your mind and nod to it, then move to find a barrel or something; you settle on a large tankard. It seems appropriate, given what you're doing here. With it in hand, you move from one patron to the next, slashing open their wrists and holding their arm over the tankard until they looked pale and their breathing slowed a little- they would survive that, right? It seems like a pitifully small amount of blood. You rifle through their pockets and take any valuables, just to help your cover; it might not work as a confusion tactic with all the slit wrists, but at least it's something. As you finished with each person, you tear bits of cloth from their clothing and bind their wounds tightly to stop the bleeding.

All is going well, though your accumulation of blood is depressingly slow, until you come to the serving girl. As you turn her over to access her wrist more easily, you realize that her eyes are moving. Your head snaps towards the imp. "Are they awake!?"

It hops over to you. "Uh, yeah, Mistress. Like I said, paralyzed."

Shit. Three people have been unable to move, watching you go around the room and carefully drain blood. Not to mention commanding your imp. What will you do?

>>7584539
>>7584542

Did I say massive amounts?
Just enough to make it look like they all got a bad batch.

We probably don't even need to; guards will assume that the batch was bad anyway.
They're not going to think an air spirit sprinkled poison in everyone's drink.

>>7584506
Yeah. Except that "carefully bandaged cuts" doesn't scream vampire, given that as a race we don't seem to much care about the survival of our food.

SOMETHING weird happened, sure. But they won't know exactly what, and the fact that we bandaged and disinfected the wounds is going to throw off their entire train of thought as to what might have done this.

Along with the robbery, I guess.

And for the love of god, check to see whether the bartender and serving girl are dead or just drugged before doing anything permanent to them!

>>7584506

Agreed. We need to make this look like something else. Do we remember the names of any demons?

Make this look like some half baked summoning attempt by a lunatic.

>>7584551
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

>>7584551
Well. How long are they paralyzed for? Check our map and see if there is any way to haul them out of there and over the wall to securely stash them in your cave. If there is then grab some rope on the way and do so afterwards. We will start our own bloodbank, and the vanishing of the tavernkeeper and his help will throw some much-needed confusion into this.

Then do the cult thing with the wounds.

>>7584551

What we did with the hooker. What we have to do with any poor bastard who sees us.

Put the corpses in some kind of crude bloody summoning circle maybe? The occult ritual by a madman theory?

At any rate, this has to be enough blood, because after this horrorshow, the cities not going to be a happy hunting ground any longer.

>>7584551

Psh. She should have known what a paralytic was. Silly girl.
Anyway, if it doesn't destroy their memory, they may need to die.

If we get rid of the bodies properly, the guards may even assume that the bartender himself poisoned them.
One last robber before vanishing into the night.

>>7584601

Yep. Eat them, make them disappear.

>>7584551
Well, we're in shit.

>>7584551
...I really fucking hate you right now, UM.

Well, let's tell them each something simple.

"One gold coin a night for the next week if you say there was something odd about this batch of beer. Very unpleasant things each night for the next week if you say anything else.

And a first payment in advance."

Gently close her eyes, put one gold coin over each eye.

Repeat this with the other two who were still awake.

Kill them. We might not like it but it has to be done. Drain them dry then dump them into full wine barrels to conceal that they are exsanguinated.

>>7584639
Waste of money. Kill them. Let them take the blame for the unsavory business with the others.

>>7584643

Yep. Mangle faces beyond recognition, place into full wine barrels, push wine barrels into sewer.

>>7584639

Yeah... I don't think that's going to work. Even if it does, we're getting sloppy. Remember, people aren't what we're necessarily worried about. It's waking up to a stake through the heart from one of Bryden's men for being careless.

>>7584551
Please don't tell me we were actually that stupid. Please? Fuck, a good blow to the head would have seen them to dreamland (not too hard or we'll kill them).

God fucking damnit, I hate this kind of thing. I suppose we should try to talk to them. Tell them that it would be in their own best interests to tell no one what happened.

inb4 "we can't trust them they'll give us away"

Well maybe they will. But fuck if we're going to compromise our decision to not kill anyone now. Besides, who would believe them? Force feed them some of the knock-out stuff so that they don't see anymore if they agree, which should further compromise their integrity if they decide to tell anyone.

>>7584685

You're actually in long after the consensus that we can't trust them.
Why? Because we can't trust them. At all.
They'll blackmail us, report us, set the city on vamp alert, and give away the existence of our Imp.

They die.

>>7584680
Right, and if no one talk about this and they keep their mouths shut then everything will be peachy.

>>7584702
How the fuck do you know?

>>7584588
>>7584599
>>7584601
>>7584616
>>7584643

No. We have to try this without murder. And take it as a lesson not to make this sort of basic fuck-up with the "paralytic means they can still see you lol" thing again.

We haven't done anything indisputably vampiric yet, just extremely creepy. We pay them for their silence, and accept that that bit of gold is our Stupidity Tax for not making sure that they couldn't see or hear what was going on.

>>7584685
Yes, but pay more up front. This has to be rather profitable for all involved if they're to keep their mouths shut.

>>7584714
We know that we can't trust them because they are human and we are not. Sorry bud, but these are riffraff who would probably sell out other people who aren't undead abominations for doing things much LESS evil than this to them.

>>7584714
Because we are going to kill them?
Honestly, as much as it pains me, we should drain everybody here dry, take all the money burn the place down and NEVER fucking try this kind of shit again.

>>7584718
>>7584714

You're joking.
They've seen us commanding unseen devils and draining blood.
No amount of gold is going to shut them up, especially if the Guard interrogates them.

>>7584599 >>7584601 >>7584616
>>7584643 >>7584650
Options flit through your head but you come back to one again and again. They can't live, after seeing this. They don't know everything, but they know too much- enough that you wouldn't be safe staying in the city anymore. You'll have to deal with them.

Cursing softly, you grab the paralyzed body of the girl and pull her behind the bar, then lock your fangs onto her neck. Her sweet blood cures your pain; all your problems seem like they hardly matter, at least for a while. When your imp murmurs something about being ordered to remind you to stop, you break your jaw's grip only long enough to tell him that you're letting your frustrations go for a moment, and that he should shut up. She is dry all too soon. Fortunately, there are two others, paralyzed and awake. They can't even cry or beg; how convenient. The blood is enough that you can hardly smell their fear.

When they are done, you turn to the rest of the room, and notice the tankard. You down it in a long chugging motion. The blood was cooling; what a waste, and all combined it's less than a single one of the people you just drained. You look over the whole room. What the hell are you doing? Six people, and they were one measly tankard? The idea was to do this without killing, but that whole concept is blown now. You could just drain them all, burn the place, and saunter off with all the evidence conveniently dealt with. Otherwise, you'll be leaving a mystery on the city's hands, you'll have to dispose of the bodies, and you still won't have the damn blood that you did this for in the first place! After the first three, what matter the next ten? You'll just kill more people tomorrow anyway.

What do you do?

People: we are trying to avoid slipping wholesale into Evil here.

Guess what? Murdering people to cover our tracks, right after trying to avoid killing people? Is pretty damn Evil.

We fucked up, and now we're going to pay for it, either in money or some other way. But if we want to hold on to even a shred of Good, we are going to stick to our plan. EVEN IF IT KILLS US.

>>7584714
>>7584718

Most of the patrons in their bar were knocked out. They are going to wake up, with cuts, their possessions having been rifled through, and a burning need for answers.

Besides which, what if one of these people is actually a decent person? Or even just has more than 2 firing neurons?

Seriously, a good person will not just let a vampire roll around town, and they'll put us together with the slasher chick rumors double quick.

>>7584718
We have to avoid vampire scares. The rumor mill will go into overdrive. People aren't stupid. When they put two and two together they will connect the dead people drained of blood to this.

We can be sorry for the necessity, but necessity it is. We can't let them have a chance to betray us, because they will.

>>7584747
Gorge ourselves, then weep for our prey. It's all we can do now.

>>7584731
They are human and we are not? What kind of bullshit are you spouting? As far as they know we're some crazy lady with pox scars. And as for selling us out? Are you not reading the description of the place? Not attracting many stares, people not leering at us. They might be trash but they're not necessarily that cut throat. You're just generalizing them all in the same way that some of the people earlier were generalizing that all vampires are 100% evil all the time no exceptions. It's small minded and ridiculous to believe it, and we loose nothing by at least trying.

>>7584747
Okay, burning the place down will solve a whole lot of problems (bodies) and we learned a lesson. The only way to get a lot of blood really quickly is to suck them dry. Fuck. Maybe once we've healed up we can afford to be picky and humanitarian, no pun intended.

>>7584763
>>7584747

I have to say. I'm convinced. Given the paltry amount of blood we got from non-lethal draining...

Everyone should probably die. Less than one person?
I had hoped the drug-drain would be a viable option, but it seems that it may not work out.

>>7584747
We walk out, and the next time we try this we don't fuck up by something as simple as not closing the eyes of the people who got paralyzed.

Or we have our imp add the narcotic to the drug cocktail on his knife.

But we WILL find a way to feed without having to murder. Or we may as well walk out in the sun right now, and save our boyfriend the trouble of killing us.

If Rhiannon can manage it, then we can DAMN well manage to do the same.

>>7584747
>>7584754

We've already slipped into wholesale evil. That happened when we first killed an innocent bystander for knowing about us.

I think we may have just figured out exactly how long ago we crossed that line though.

At this point? Salvage what we can, drink, burn, steal everything valuable and get ourselves a place where we can summon, and don't drink from people anymore.

Resolve to live of animal blood until we can summon, and let the 'slasher chick' rumours die down.

Oh, and try not to go insane as we run from the burning building with the crushing realization of how monstrous we've become. That's important too.

>>7584807
>>7584803

Voting kill, too. Douse them in liquor to make it burn faster.Hopefully all the evidence will be gone. If we want to try non-lethal feeding, we'll need to do something more clever.

>>7584754
Hey, someone else who realizes that being good is more difficult than being evil and requires some risk and sacrifice! I thought I was the only one. Too late for it unfortunately. Since the deed is done we might as well drain the others and burn the place.

>>7584747
UM, exactly how much blood are we going to have to drain from night to night once we're healed up?

I mean, please just tell us right now: is it even possible for us to not get railroaded straight into "all murder all the time"?

>>7584747
While I was advocating killing the witnesses, the sleeping drunks are a different matter. No, we absolutely will not do that. Sometimes survival means we have to do horrible things, but we aren't a truly deranged murdering monster yet, or so we tell ourselves.

Cut the dead up into chunks (cleverly hacking through the bite marks so that they don't exist anymore) and spread them around in the casks, then set the casks up in the middle of the tavern and arrange the sleeping people in a pattern around it with tankards of flesh-wine in hand. Draw some symbols and gibberish around the tavern and casks and patrons. Make it look like a deranged psycho did this, then go see the lady who could provide us with "services" or go kill and drink a gang.

Want a fun thought? We already murdered a bunch of innocent guards for money and have slain any number of innocents. the problem is if we let them live, we die. If you were looking for the Rubicon it was a couple of threads ago... Spoiler: we crossed it.

>>7584830

LISTEN HERE.
There is no such thing as "evil."
We're going to try to cause the least amount of collateral damage, but we *are* a vampire.
We eat people.
Perhaps in time we will be able to live a comfortable life of Batman-vampire, but for now, we live in hiding.
No loose strings.

>>7584844
>>7584848

Hey, I wanted to go live in a hole and wait until we could get enough "clean" kills to be presentable.

You buy the ticket, you take the ride.

>>7584808
I say once healed, we turn strictly non-lethal. Find someone alone at night, knock them out (with either spell, poison, or vampire powers) drain a little blood, and slip a coin or two into their pocket. Spend some time Batmaning around the poor districts. The lower class will see us as a sort of tooth fairy/gaurdian angel. People will start hanging around alleys in the hope that we choose them and they get some money for their family's bread. Everything will be sunshine and lolipops.
But for now, everyone in the bar must die.

>>7584865
Yeah, but trying to go back the other way isn't going to be possible if we utterly jettison our first attempt to drag ourselves away from the abyss.

>>7584875

Living in a hole is not viable. Someone would come for us, one day. Torture and fuckslave would probably be in store for us if we're not powerful.

And there's no such thing as "clean" kill, only kills that we believe might benefit society at large.

>>7584884

Definately. When we are more secure, we can go around being Batman.
Now we need to worry about being powerful enough to avoid any number of horrible fates.

Everyone in the bar dies.

>>7584808 >>7584779 >>7584754
A tiny voice in the back of your head screams at you. You cannot do this. This is wholesale evil, beyond the pale, worse than the helpless torture victims, worse than the children, this is mass murder! You will not be able to turn back from it.

>>7584833 >>7584830 >>7584807
>>7584803 >>7584776
But the voice of practicality is louder, and the scent of blood on the air is calling. You move from one patron to the next, sucking every drop of liquid ecstasy from their veins, letting yourself float on the purity of its joy.

When all that is left is bodies, you shove the coins from behind the bar into one of the patrons' pouches and strap it on, pull a pair of rings and a good-looking amulet from some of the corpses, and douse everything in the strongest alcohol you can find. Then you light it, and walk out before the consuming flames find you, too.

You walk back to Sarai's in a daze. When you realize that your skin is once again pure and whole, faded and worthless beauty successfully purchased with the blood of friendly innocents, you start laughing and crying- the two are one and the same. You smash your hand against the wall again and again, feeling the bones crack and heal as the blood still within your unholy form goes to work.

Eventually, the sun comes, and you go to sleep knowing that you are a monster.

((This concludes tonight's Vampire Bride Quest.))

>>7584892
We can't leave the abyss if we die.

>>7584875
I hear ya man. I wanted us to just talk to our boyfriend and ask him to settle down.

>>7584867
This man speaks words of wisdom. Please take heed and listen.

>>7584884
Thnaks OP! 'Twas glorious.
>>7584950
Batmaning need to be a word.

So this is what being a vampire is all about. It's like being an addict. We were drinking blood because we needed it, and it wasn't so bad. Now we REALLY need it...and we're trying not to fall all the way into the pit...

Except that it's so much easier to keep falling down. We'll stop killing for our blood, really, we just need to heal up. We're not bad... once we've had our fix we can slow down, get control... we're not evil...

Oh God why did we kill that poor woman! She was just standing there, she hadn't done anything to deserve that... the drunk man we tricked... all those people, I can still taste them...

I think I'm going to be sick...

We have to stop this. We need to get control of ourselves. We just need a few more feedings, and we'll be able to control ourselves... just a few more...

Well, bad luck for the patrons of this establishment. By now we should realize that we can't possibly let all these people go, because even though they are poor and unimportant, the sheer number of them will be enough to get the guards interested. I say we drink them all, burn down the place (in a fashion that will not burn down the whole neigborhood), and vow to never be this shortsighted again lest we cause more unneccessary death. When we're fully healed and have a lair to call our home, we should be able to figure out a way to feed while not leaving so many bodies in our wake.

>>7584950

Thanks again!

Please let us know the schedule, I'm really enjoying this.

>>7585005
Yah pretty much dood.

>>7584950
To be fair, I'm not so sure it's worse than the helpless torture victims.

>>7584950
At this point we need to find a way to either never kill anyone again, or we need to start working on our tan.

>>7585005

There was a China Mieville novel called "The Scar" where one character has an absolutely devastating fuck you speech to a vampire along those lines, basically saying, "I'm not scared of an addict, no matter how menacing they puff themselves up to be."

>>7584950
*sigh* And so it is. Good quest today OP. Any idea on when the next one will be? 2-3 days?

>>7585023
This is a wholly unreachable goal. At the very least somewhere in our long life there will be a vampire hunter or deranged madman who just won't stop, and we'll have to put him down. More practically, we will need to kill again to get what we need to survive with more than just the barest essentials.

We are ruthless and vicious when it comes to surviving and doing what must be done... but we hopefully still have a spark of good within us that will help us be more than just some undead predator. We have done and will do bad things, but in the end we will eventually put them right once more.

Just look at Rhiannon. She has no doubt done worse things than us, but she cares for those humans in her castle and makes sure they are safe. We can do the same. Eventually.

I am currently uncertain when I'll run the next one- tomorrow, Friday, or possibly early next week. Starting between 1200 and 1500, reliably, but no idea as to the day. Sorry.

I don't know that I can run it tomorrow, even though it would probably fit best with my schedule. Writing this is surprisingly stressful.

>>7584950

Oh dear. I hope this doesn't turn into an "I'm so evil, I have to go die," quest.
We tried non-lethal, it didn't work.

Minimizing collateral damage and co-existing with the humans is one of our goals.
But contrasted with the extreme probability that a vampire twice as murderous as us will torture us and eat all the people we left alive...

*It's best for us to sacrifice a few people now to save alot more later.*

>>7585101

Ah well. I hope I'm around for it in any event. Thanks again.

>>7585099
>>7585103

These. Sacrifices are made now so that later we can be strong enough to avoid unnecessary death.
This is what ever past human has done so that we today can live in relative peace and comfort.

>>7585101
Well, I'll try to be there for the next thread, whenever it is. Don't burn yourself out for us; you're more useful to us alive.

In this setting blood is tasty and awesome but not actually addictive, so vampires aren't addicts. Food is tasty but not addictive, do you call humans food addicts? The difference is, of course, we have been killing sapients. We can remedy that later when we aren't just barely scraping by.

>>7585155
Actually OP has hinted several times and in fact outright said once or twice that it is indeed addicting. Which I find to be fairly stupid because, as you said, it's food to them, and humans aren't addicted to food. Granted we die without it but we can keep from eating an entire bag of Oreos if we want to.

>>7585201
Koalas are addicted to their food supply.
Wait, that could mean vampires are koalas...

>>7585201
Maybe OP should clarify, but I was under the assumption it's addictive when you are sucking them dry or your body demands it when hurt like human bodies demand food or sleep when hungry or tired. Not "Oh god I have to go get my next fix!" when you are fully stocked already.

>>7585155
>>7585201

It's not food. It's food that makes you feel super incredibly wonderful, makes your mind go blank as soon as you taste it and magically makes your pain go away.

Shit son, you think we'd need smack if a bag of Oreos could do that?

As long as I'm here, I'll answer random setting questions, if you guys have any.

>>7584848
It is possible for you to not go "all murder all the time". It is specifically meant to be significantly harder not to slide towards evil; if it were easy, everyone would do it and vampires wouldn't be considered horrible monsters.

>>7585201
Blood is strong shit, but >>7585233 and >>7585238 have the right of it.

>>7585238
>Implying that Oreos do not do that already.

>>7585281

So psychologically very addictive, but not necessarily physically addictive?

One question, is the vampire weakness to water in this session from being immersed in moving water or do we get hurt traveling over moving water as well (as in walking over a bridge or going on a boat)?

ok, boyfriend quest time.

>>7585099
Pursuant to my observations in the linked post, are there vampire hunters? Obviously not in this city that hasn't had a vampire scare in ages, I just mean in general. There is holy water after all.

Also are there any indications priest can be all "SHAZAM!" at us, and what are the main religions? Monotheistic? Poly? One church or many?

>>7585281
Just wish more people would realize that we have to take some risks and work for it to be 'good', as far as that generalization goes. Good is hard. It means staying the course even if you fuck up and not completely giving up on your plan just because you find one obstacle in your way.

> are there vampire hunters?

guess what was your boyfriend's mission before he left? GUESS!

>>7585375
I meant dedicated vampire hunters, not just heroes and stuff who also take on dragons and things like that.

>>7585369
Maybe when we have more options open to us we can start flirting with a bit more danger. Right now we are walking the razor's edge and one slip not only cuts our feet but launches us into the pit of oblivion.

every other vampire seems to be able to control their bloodlust, why can't we?

>>7585401
Bah, if there had been a scare we could have run. We might as well have tried to reason with them. That's what I'm talking about. Take risks. Don't abandon a plan at the first sign of trouble.

But what's done is done.

well at least we're back to being winry now. it's nice to be pretty :)

>>7585429
We can. This wasn't bloodlust, this was us consciously deciding to do it. They go out and kill too. Normally we won't need to kill multiple people every night. Probably only one person every other night. Maybe even less. Otherwise even 3-4 vampires would drain even a major city in a matter of months.

>>7585437
No. We couldn't have. Both the vampires in the city with us are older and more powerful and told us NOT TO CAUSE ONE OTHERWISE WE FUCKING DIE. And that's not even taking into account the Master and his opinions on the matter.

>>7585342
Bridges and boats are fine. It's only actually touching running water that will mess with you.

>>7585355
Yes, there are vampire hunters. They are mostly in regions where there are a lot of vampires- the profession doesn't really get much demand elsewhere. If you start seeing holy symbols tattooed on people's necks, you're in vampire country and there's probably a hunter somewhere nearby.

The religion is a vague sort of once-removed Greekish polytheism, which generally has a bunch of gods who share opinions on some matters (ex., undead are an abomination) but largely view existence as existing for their entertainment and convincing humanity to run as they wish to be a massive, if serious, game. Yes, priests could zap you pretty badly.

>>7585429
Adrienne could not control her bloodlust well at all; she normally used blades because if she used her fangs her toys would all die very quickly.

Rhiannon can control her bloodlust extremely well because she's an ex-priestess with the sort of strong will that one normally only finds in fanatics and psychotics.

Brydan and Sarai may yet be plot points, but neither of them has anywhere near as good a lock on things as Rhiannon.

>>7585463
True. At least there's that.

>>7585437

Reason with the paralyzed peasants that we're a vampire demon-summoner but we're really trying to be "good."
Heh.

The idea is to go relatively undetected.
See: Witch Hunts.
When we're safe and powerful, we can afford to be nice to people who hate us and want us dead.

>>7585429
Every other vampire we have met thus far has been at least a decade older. That's a lot of time to parctice on mastering bloodlust.

>>7585472
Meh, he seemed happy enough when we killed Adrienne. He wants us to raise some hell? Let's raise some hell.

>>7585513
He was happy that we provided him with amusement. He might not be amused when we suddenly have vampire hunts tearing up a previously safe captial city with a king in it.

>>7585201


i have been saying we are MONSTER all along. deal with it.

>>7585544
Well you can't always get what you want. He want's us to break? Then break. But when a bomb goes off it doesn't discriminate who it hurts.

>>7585463


Therefore I expect the next VBQ thread to use Winry as the starting picture!

>>7585602
Agreed. Maybe the drawfag'd version of her with fangs.

why do so many people insist on having her look like Winry?

>>7585473

How long do we have on all our summons?

>>7585640
Read the first thread, back when it was still Girlfriend Quest.

>>7585640
Because, when this started off as "Girlfriend Quest", Winry was the op picture, and the post contained the words "you look something like this"... go figure.

Hey, when we're all fleshy again now, does that mean we can masturbate again? I seem to recall an episode with some legume earlier in this quest chain, and... wait, that was before this turned into "no-fanservice quest", right? Nevermind.

>>7585682


UM is ok with the fanservice as long as HE isn't the one writing it. There IS an alternate universe edition with lots of vampire BDSM...

>>7585618
Where did that come from, anyway? And why doesn't it include a gaping injury in her left side? She looks almost happy. That hardly seems appropriate.

>>7585645
A while. Last I did the math, you had something like eighteen days; that was a while back but you should still have more than a week left. You'll probably have a summoning circle up and be able to rebind them by the end of that time.

>>7585682
My version of fanservice is traumatizing the heroine. Clearly you all fetishize that, or you wouldn't be reading, right?

>>7585713
Still haven't read this. Vaguely concerned that it might influence my image of the main character as too emotionally shattered to have a sex drive, should I do so.

>>7585682
Unfortunately that is to be the case. No sexy times here since OP says he isn't very good at writing that kind of stuff. Which kinda sucks; I still want to know what would have happened if we had fed our bf that sammich...

>>7585513

in vampire terms, we are pathetically n00b. the elders will pwn us , chew us up and spit us out.

wait till we grow ever stronger..

then REVENGE

You know following this quest (UM, you're awesome btw) I was hoping that even though we were a vampire we'd be able to do some good. And even if we did kill people because we had to feed to survive, I was hoping that we would still be able to go back somehow. Because then we'd be different from all those other vampire brides.

I guess it's too late though. We've killed so many people already that weren't evil. How depressing. If only we could find some way to consistently get blood without killing anyone innocent.

I wonder if studying more about blood magic would help us in that area...?

>>7585737
It was made from before the Holy Water incident. And we're back to normal now so it's all kosher.

>>7585740


nothing. it was still GF quest and we're not vampire at that point.


the first gm was god-awful, but he did provide the service!

>>7585737
>My version of fanservice is traumatizing the heroine. Clearly you all fetishize that, or you wouldn't be reading, right?

Actually I die a bit inside every time we have to kill people and slip further down. And after that last story post...

I'm torn between my love for this quest and my hatred of you for letting this happen. I know it's not your fault, but god damn it I wish the rules for being a vampire weren't so fucking difficult. If only we could survive on animal blood alone I'd be a happy camper.

>>7585797

then there'd be no quest after we killed andy. we'll just sit there to be rescued.

this way, when he finally hacks and slashes his way to us, there'll be a choice to make. OUR choice.

>>7585797
It's the difficult and damning decisions that make this a compelling story to follow.

how damned are we anyway ?
where is that useless boyfriend?!

well, we have already killed children...

>>7585856


why haven't we walked into the sun already for fuck's sake?

>>7585869
On a couple occasions, I've sort of wished we did. We're racking up quite a kill # and it just makes me depressed because the door to escape being a monster seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

>>7585823
>>7585836
Then he could have thrown other difficulties at us. Heck, now that I think of it, I would have been happy simply by not been forced to move here. We had finally gotten things settled down and were beginning to make some progress and then someone had to go and hit the reset button on all that.

> My version of fanservice is traumatizing the heroine. Clearly you all fetishize that, or you wouldn't be reading, right?


Most of us (except that we are monsters RAWR) guy, kind of feel sorry for her. Damn the first GM for making her cute like Winry, but unlike everyone else's quest threads, she just wanted love ;_;

>>7585907
Same. At this point I'm sort of hoping we can manage to start a scare to root out all the other vampires in the city and then burn ourselves. Maybe we'll get lucky and be able to start it all over. First thing we do: talk to our boyfriend and just tell him how we feel. Problem solved.

>>7585908
I think we actually have it better in the city -- we have more people to feed from, and have more opportunities... although I do miss our library with all those magical tomes...

>>7585938


IF that useless bastard ever gets here.

>>7585797 >>7585823 >>7585836 >>7585920
I love you guys. It's reading your reaction posts that make this quest worth writing. And I was joking about the trauma fetish.

>>7585846
In the literal sense, you were damned from the instant you were bitten. In the more subjective sense, you'll have to judge yourself.

Your boyfriend is off following a cold trail and not realizing just how much he's trying to chew by taking on this vampire lord. He will not find you until the dramatically appropriate moment as determined by me.

>>7585939
Have you noticed how much more okay we've been with killing since we got to the city/ Not us in game, but us as anonymous. As soon as push came to shove we took the easy route. Sure we tried to only kill 'bad' people, but now we're just throwing it all away. At least back at the castle we had time and books and the summoning circle. Now everything's gone to pot.

>>7585938
I think that confrontation with the boyfriend is inevitable. I just hope we've progressed to being a very powerful sorceress by this time, so that if he decides to try and kill us for our crimes we can fight back.

>>7585970


that's because Andy, bitch as she was, kept us fed, most nights.

>>7585973
>>7585954
No, I mean start a scare, burn, then restart the whole game and when our bf come to visit we tell him that we want him to settle down with us. Problem solved.

>>7585970
However I think staying at the castle, we would've ended up summoning one too many cherubs and would've been at the bad end of a reckoning from a solar

>>7586005
Fair enough, but I had hoped that by that point we would have been able to study some of that blood magic so that we could feed on enough blood to survive but not enough to kill. Ah well, as I said, what's done is done.

>>7586000

once we burn, it's game over.

unless you want UM to start GirlFriend Quest 2?

>>7586035
That was (and still am) indeed what I was hoping, yes.

>>7586025
I see, yeah. I am hoping that we can somehow study more blood magic and survive without preying on innocents. Each time we go to town with a hatchet I want to shoot myself

>>7586066
*still is

>>7586071
Yep. Well, at least that guy from before who just wanted us to be a monster should be happy.

>>7586066


you just want to have sex with the crazy viking and schlick with legumes.

>>7586097
Not in the least. From the very beginning (though I was sadly not present at the time of Girlfriend Quest; rather I arrived at the first Vampire Bride Quest thread) I was saying to myself that they should have just talked about their problems and solved them that way. I still wouldn't mind seeing UM do his own version of GF Quest, even without the porn. He is quite the consumate writer.

>>7586085
I refuse to let her go so far she can't go back. I'm always going to push for her to do good -- I just hope more of us want to. Soon.

>>7586131
Well, there's at least two of us: You and me.

>>7586147
RALLY SQUAD! KILL THOSE KHORNE WORSHIPPERS

>>7586127

going into the basement was a bad, bad , bad, idea. should have gone to the kitchenlike a good woman

>>7586174
Um, we're the ones who DON'T want to go around killing stuff unless we have to. We're the opposite of what you're talking about.

>>7586147
And m- wait...


Goodnight /tg/.

>>7586193


FANGS! PURGE THE MUTANT!

>>7586193
Wait. I just looked. Meagers, why are you the one saying that we should die? I'm confused.

>>7586241
I FUCKING KNEW IT! I FUCKING KNEW IT!

>>7586252
no I'm talking about the anons who are all for rampaging BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and such

>>7586269


cause it would make the final battle even more awesoem

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT!"

"But honey..."

"WHY COULDN'T YOU STAY HOME LIKE EVERY OTHER BOYFRIEND? YOU NEVER PAY ATTENTION! I HATE YOU!!!"

>>7586269
Oh. Then, why reply to my post? Ah, whatever. But yeah, all those people who wanted us to just kill toddlers right from the start really pissed me off. I don't want us to turn 'evil', but if we have to at least this way is more realistic then just suddenly having a complete personality transplant.

>>7586288
And then make-up sex? UM can just do a fade-to-black if he doesn't want to go into detail...

>>7586293

no, it makes you a hypocrite. like the walrus and the clams. eats the whole lot of 'em and then sheds a single tear. nigga pls. If I'm going to be evil, I'm going to be competent at it!

>>7586293
Yeah. Well, hopefully UM is going to be on tomorrow, so we can have another chance at preventing her from slipping further down that slippery slope.

now the challenge is to run a parallel "boyfriend quest" .. without the VBQ fags calling out on it and ruining the fun. Perhaps hold it at different times

>>7586309
Right, but going from innocent country girl to cold blooded killer instantly is just stupid. Whether you like it or not her character has a backstory/history and you can't just blindly change that. The way we've been doing it is a much more realistic slippery slope.

>>7583290
I'd like to know what these potions do.