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No, this isn't a complaint about camping HNMs or a bad Exp party, it's an actual scary story. Ever since they changed it so you could visit other people's Mog Houses, my LS had an informal tradition of gathering up around halloween, hanging out in someone's room and someone would make up a scary story. We didn't get to gather up this year but I had this idea in my head for quite some time so I just went ahead and turned it into a full on story and posted it on our LS board. Those who read it said they liked it and thought it was scary, but I dunno if they're just being nice or not. So I figure I spread it out to people who don't really care about my feelings and can tell me what they honestly think of it. It's my first actual scary story so I don't know how good it actually is or not (kinda hard to be scared by your own ideas and all). Comments and criticism are more then welcomed.
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This story begins not too long ago, in the ruins of Aydeewa Subterrane. Having been recently opened to all by the Empire, droves of mercenaries and travelers flocked to these dark caves in search of fame, fortune, treasure and adventure. So it was no surprise when three young Adventurers from the western land of Bastok decided to try their luck.
"Hurry up!" The energetic Hume girl shouted to her compatriots.
"Perhaps you should slow down" her Elvaan companion responded "afterall, we're the ones with the lantern, right?"
"Right" a hume boy, the youngest of the group responded quietly, struggling to keep his footing on the crooked, slick path of the tunnel while holding the lantern up high. "w-what are we doing here again?"
"We're exploring" the Elvaan Scholar explained "discovering the undiscovered, retrieving the forgotten and making our world a better place through increased knowledge."
"And lookin for treasure!" the girl interrupted "according to legend, there was a great Vampyr King who was buried down here somewhere. His tomb and all his treasures were hidden from the world by his followers so no one could disturb his resting place."
"And according to facts, Vampyr don't actually exist and this legend you speak of is nothing but a tall tale told to you by a drunk on the ferry ride to Aht Urhgan." The Elvaan quipped back, holding an open book in one hand, flipping through the pages while examining the dimly lit surroundings.
"Well the only way we'll ever find out is if you two hurry up" the young girl shouted, stamping her foot for emphasis, already much further ahead of her friends in near complete darkness and waiting. Patience obviously wasn't one of her strong suits.
"As I said before, I'll only go as fast as him since he has the lantern."
"Then give me the lantern so we can actually find something!" the girl shouted from the shadows.
"But if you had the lantern I wouldn't be able to read my notes" the dark haired Elvaan responded calmly.
"And what do we need notes for, not even the map will help us in this maze. They only way to find anything good is to march boldly onward!"
"These caves are filled with dangerous creatures, my notes can assist us in avoiding these beasts."
"There's nothing in here that I'm afraid of, so if anything's dumb enough to mess with us I'll pummel em!" the boisterous young lady proclaimed, metal Knuckles raised high and proud.
"What about that spider right there?" the boy said pointing to his friend after finally catching up. The feisty Monk crooked her neck slight, coming face to fang with a bright red and blue, inch large spider, dangling from a single silken thread.
She shrieked. She flailed. She fell to the ground in a near panic while her two friends watched and laughed.
"Family Araneidae, a common Orb Spider" the Elvaan noted, reading from his notes while stifling a chuckle. "A curious but timid spider that can be found all through-out these tunnels, and is completely harmless."
"I'll show you harmless" the girl snapped back, giving both boys sharp, painful jabs to their arms. "Now lets go!"
The trio marched on, through the winding tunnels and twisting caverns, avoiding the oft traveled areas to avoid both other Adventurers and the monsters who called this realm home. Getting deeper and deeper into the dark, dank caves until suddenly, the lantern bearer had a realization.
"...we're lost"
"We are not" the girl yelled back "we just got a little turned around...someplace"
"We've past that rock three times now" the Elvaan notes, adjusting his glasses and letting out a soft sigh. "Even with the map I've been trying to make, this place is just a maze."
"So what do we do" the boy whimpers out with a hint of panic.
His two friends crowded around their map, bickering back and forth over which path lead to the the exit, the boy could do nothing more then hold the lamp aloft and worry to himself. Always the nervous type he looked around but saw nothing but the same grimy green walls that engulfed them on all sides, they all looked the same and he hadn't even an inkling as to how to get out of here. He stood there, watching the flame dance while his friends argued pointlessly, the dim light the only thing keeping the darkness at bay, when suddenly the flame flickered wildly. The first time caught his attention, but it's second abrupt jump brought about the realization.
"A draft!" he exclaimed, twisting about, heading to the wall "There's a draft in here, that must mean there's a way out near by"
His two friends looked at him puzzled, suddenly engulfed in shadows as he brought the light low to the ground trying to pinpoint the origin of the sudden and strange breeze.
"It must be around here somewhere" he said feeling at the rock face, brushing away the thick coat of cobweb that lined the caverns, not paying attention to his footing as he searched when suddenly the ground below him just gave way. He tumbled and rolled through a dark winding tunnel, bouncing about as gravity pulled him down and knocked him all over before suddenly hitting the ground hard. He was dizzy, disoriented, but otherwise unharmed somehow. He sat there for a moment, rubbing his head trying to regain his surroundings, the small room dimly lit by the odd, natural green glowing rocks that littered the caves. He felt a strange tickle creep across his hand as he rubbed a slight bump on his head, pulling his hand away to examine it revealed a bizarre and strange looking insect with countless legs and the most wicked looking maw perched aimlessly on his naked skin.
He shrieked and flung his hand away, back peddling across the strangely loose ground to get away from the thing, but what he saw next was far more terrifying then the strange little bug. The ground he sat upon was no rock or soil, but bones. A massive pile of the dead, picked clean of any life or flesh by the scavengers that scuttled about, the spiders and the crawlers that called this tomb home. Panic gripped him again, and in his frantic attempt to flee with no where to go, he did little more then tumble about across the rattling bones. Rolling off the mound of the dead, he once again felt his head connect hard with a thick solid object with a loud thud.
Right before his eyes, standing up on it's end as if it was just dropped there from above, was a massive wooden casket. His panicked crash forced the slowly rotting door to crack from it's hinges, enough to open the top ever so slightly. He was petrified, unable to scream or even breathe, yet for some reason his hand was able to move. Maybe his curiosity was overpowering his terror, maybe his body was looking for some way to convince his mind it wasn't true. But the only thing he could think of at that moment was that he found it. He found the legendary tomb of the ancient Vampyr King.
He gripped the edge of the caskets top and slowly pushed it aside, opening it inch by inch until it just suddenly fell to the side. And there he stood, gazing blankly at the mangled rotting face of the casket's host. A wrinkled and crooked dead body, it's hair and flesh decayed and desecrated...yet it was still there. Unlike all those other corpses that were picked clean by the minute creatures who dwell here, this body look as if it has never been so much as bitten.
Breathless and frozen, unable to think or move, he just stood there staring at the twisted lifeless face of the strange dead body. Then the dead body decided to stare back.
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The boy awoke with a start, his mind screaming, his body burning, covered in dripping sweat as he felt as if the entire room was moving. Unsure of what happened or even where he was, he tried looking about...only to realize the room actually was moving.
"He's up, he's awake!" a familiar voice exclaimed. It was the Monk girl, his life long friend whom he had accompanied to Aydeewa. "You've been out for almost two days, you musta bumped your head pretty hard when you took that fall."
"where are we" he mustered, still not entirely sure what was happening.
"We're on a Ferry back to the mainland" his Elvaan friend replied "after we got lost in those caves, and you fell down that hole, we were found by group of high level Adventurers. It turns out that hole you found was actually a short cut back to the main path. Once the Imperial doctors patched you up, we decided to head back home.
"...main path" the boy queried to himself. "But...that couldn't be...I remember the room I fell in." His voice cracked, his memory was hazy, the details of those last few moments in that cave were difficult to recall. But he was absolutely sure that he never ended up on any well known path. "There were bones...bones everywhere. And that casket, it had something in it...something that was dead...but it wasn't..." his voice trailed off as he saw the bizarre looks on his companion's faces.
"...there was nothing like that where you fell" the girl said softly "you landed right by one of the main walkways, the exit was a literal stones throw away from where you fell."
"You darn near landed on a Taru Taru" the Elvaan added.
"but...but I saw it...it looked right at me"
"Maybe you should rest some more" the young lady said gently, helping her younger friend to lay back into the cot "you had a rough few days, if you keep pushing yourself too much you'll never get better."
"ok..." the boy said meekly, resting his bandaged head into the soft white pillow, trying to forget the images that seemed burned into his mind.
"We'll be docking sometime tomorrow, so just relax tonight and save your energy for the trip back home" the Monk said sweetly with a soft smile. She was being nice to him...almost too nice.
"She was never this nice before" he thought to himself. Was it because he had been injured? No, that couldn't be it, he's been hurt far worse then this before. Many times at her own hands. There was something odd, something different about her. His friend stood up and turned away to leave and that's when he noticed it. A large red mark just barely peaking out of the corner of her Gi...right on her neck.
"No" he thought "Vampyr's aren't real" he reasoned. Realizing the tales of these ancient undead often told of accounts where young maidens were turned into slaves of the demon through a bite to the neck. "She can't be..." he convinced himself as a bout of dizziness slowly took hold of him before passing out again.
He awoke to loud bells and shouting, coming from the deck above. Panicked and muffled calls, the loud thudding of heavy boots across the wood echoed throughout the hold in which he lay. He slowly rose to his feet, stumbling his way towards the stairs as crew and passenger ran past to gather in a huddle around a single man with a lantern in the dark ocean night.
In the middle of the crowd, lying mangled and twisted was a body, a corpse. Dried and shriveled, though still clothed in what was obviously the uniform of a ferry crewman. A strange and twisted look of terror frozen onto the dead man's face as whatever did this two him caused him extreme amounts of pain. The captain of the vessel looked over the body in great detail, the only thing to really stand out was two large, deep puncture wounds on the sides of his neck.
The discovery sent a shock down the boy's spine. Only one thing could have killed a man like this. Only one creature would be able to suck the life out of someone by bites on their neck. The legend of Vamypr was true, and it was on this boat. The worst part was that he knew it could have only been one person. The odd way she treated him, the marks on her neck, the woman he's know for all his life, grew up with and adventured all over the world together with, she was now a Vampyr...and it was all his fault.
The boy's mind was racing, his heart throbbing so hard it could have leaped from his chest. He had to expose her before she killed again, before they got to the mainland and she was free to roam about. Maybe he could stop her, save her, if the other people knew what happened. Before he could do anything though the Captain of the ferry had all the remaining passengers rounded up, for the security of the rest of the people on board, locking everyone in the hold with armed guards. The small crowd was restless, and understandably so. First a bizarre murder on deck now they're crammed into a tiny room at the point of a sword until they arrive at port, it was not a normal experience.
But this was the perfect opportunity for him. His best chance to prove whether or not his life long friend was actually the Vampyr or not. She wouldn't fight back with this many people around, even if she was, so maybe he would get a chance to save her. He slowly made his way up behind her, the woman's attention caught up in a casual conversation with their Elvaan friend as he tried hard to summon up the courage needed to find out the truth.
"If I can see her bite marks" he thought to himself barely able to breath "..if I can see them, I'll know for sure". He took one last deep breath, thrust his hand onto the collar of her Gi and yanked down hard. Revealing her entire neck and lower back, exposing a single large red sore on her neck, thin blue veins running from the center of the mark, he was finally able to see the truth. She screamed and spun about, her fist instinctively slamming into the jaw of the person behind her as she tried hard to cover herself up from her now wide open shirt.
"Just what the hell are you doing!" she screamed as the crowd began to stare.
"But..I..you!" the boy sputtered, holding his jaw after being knocked to the ground. He was confused, baffled as to what exactly just happened. There was only one mark, and that punch was certainly one he was familiar with. "t-that mark on your neck, the guy we found...he was attacked, you were attacked by the Vampyr!"
"That mark on my neck is from one of them 'harmless spiders' you idiot, the damn thing bit me!" the woman screamed, kicking the boy for good measure.
"Plus, as I said before, there's no such thing as Vampyr" the Elvaan stated coldly, walking away from the group and the attention that they've gathered.
But the boy knew that wasn't the truth. There was something in that cave that day and that something is on this boat now! If the Vampyr wasn't her, then there was only one other person it could be, only one other person was there that day.
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The rest of the boat ride was uneasy for all aboard, but also uneventful. When queried about the strange happens upon docking, the Captain claimed it was a surprise attack by pirates and their undead creations. But there was no attack, everyone knew that was a lie. Yet no one stepped forward to denounce the story. The boy was too afraid to say anything himself, confronting someone about this would only turn the crowd against him. And his friends were already on their way out of the port. He was sure one of them wasn't the Vampyr, but his suspicions slowly grew in regards to his Elvaan acquaintance. He had to keep watch over him, had to find out some sort of proof one way or the other.
It wasn't but a few hours until they arrived home at the gates of Bastok. Magical travel had become commonplace to them, and swift transit was always available. But the entire time the boy would not let his friend stray from his sight. Out in the fields it was a simple task, but in the city he found it to be far more difficult. The trio went their separate ways shortly after reaching town, meaning the boy would have to actively spy on his friend as they were no longer traveling together. But as the day went on, his task grew more and more dangerous and started drawing far too much attention. This was not something he could do alone. His is only chance would be to find help, and the only one he could actually trust was still severely angry with him. But he had no choice, he had to tell her.
"There's no such thing as Vampyrs!" the woman roared loudly, accentuating her beliefs with a fist to the boy's face.
"But I saw it!" he whimpered "and that body on the boat, only a Vampyr could have done that!"
"No, Pirates did that" she snapped back.
"But there were no Pirates, there was no attack!" The pleading in his voice, the begging in his eyes, he had to make her believe him.
"How would you know" she responded coldly, folding her arms in a huff "you slept through the whole damn thing. Ever since you fell in that damn hole and hit your head, you've been acting crazy and thinking that there's something out to get you! But there's not. There is no Vampyr and there never was. I heard that story from some drunken ass on a long boring boat ride, it was the ramblings of a crazy old man and now it's the ramblings of a crazy young man."
That's when it hit him, harder then any punch could. Maybe she was right. Maybe that wasn't the work of a Vampyr. He wasn't awake when it happened, he was out for a good few hours. Pirates and ghosts often assault ferries traveling through the open seas, and they've been know to steal the very life from their victims. Maybe all of this worrying, all of this apprehension, maybe it was just something in his head. That tomb, those corpses...the casket, maybe they were all a concussion induced nightmare and his paranoia just a lingering effect from his weakened state.
"Look" the girl said softly, sighing a bit after noticing his distant gaze as he tries desperately to wrap his brain around the reality of the situation, "you took a pretty hard knock to the skull, it must've just rattled things about. Go home, get some rest. Stop thinking about all this crazy stuff before you end up pissing off another one of your friends." She put her hand on his shoulder, walking with him in silence, leading him to the entrance to the Mog House district. The boy stopped short before the arch-ways looking up to his friend with a most bewildered face.
"Y-you're probably right" he muttered, rubbing his head. "It's just, everything was so vivid...I could have sworn I saw it."
"Just get some rest and try not to dwell on it." Her words were bold as she gave her friend a powerful, reassuring pat on his back trying to ease his worries. "Now get out of here and hit the hay, I'm gonna go find some Gobs to release some of my frustration on."
It was that same smile, that same confident, strong aura that he knew all too well. He meekly agreed to her advice, bid farewell to his life long friend and slowly made his way to his Mog House. Once inside he made a bee-line for his simple Bronze Bed, falling into it's ever inviting comfort and just laid there, alone in his thoughts. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get any sleep and he couldn't just forget. As night fell his body grew more and more restless. Though his mind had been pushed to the point of exhaustion, he had not done anything truly physical in the past few days. He would never get any sleep like this he realized and decided the only thing he could do now was get up and move.
Exiting his Mog House and entering the darkened city, it seemed eerily peaceful. All the shops and vendors had closed up, the miners retiring for the evening. Even the Adventurers seemed to be fewer in numbers at such an hour. He left the city limits and headed towards the ocean-side cliffs that surrounded Bastok's south gates. The cool sea breeze and soothing roar of the waters below helped calm his mind and relax his body, sinking into the spell of the ocean's mysterious ways to finally get himself a semblance of peace.
But an aimless gaze off into the distance put an end to that serenity and brought all those terrible feelings crashing back to him. In the dimly lit night he caught a glimpse of someone, an Elvaan, walking alone, hoisted over his shoulder a large, long, white-wrapped object. He leaped to his feet and began darting from rock to rock in an attempt to catch up the mysterious person and discern their identity without being seen himself. The boy followed the stranger to the mouth of a hidden cave, far from the gates of the city. Before entering, the man gave a suspicious glance about, revealing something that almost made the hume scream out then and there. In the deep, black, darkness of the night, the boy watched as his long time friend stole away into a hidden cave carrying a man sized object into it's depths.
It was true, he was right. The Vampyr is real, and it's in that cave. It must have some sort of hold over his friend and is using him to gather victims to feed upon. Terrified, heartbroken, the boy headed towards the cave once the coast was clear. If he could get in there, maybe he could stop it, maybe he could save them. He followed the winding dark path until it finally reached an opening, inside a soft fire flickered, illuminating a small room. But what he saw was far more terrifying then a simple Vampyr.
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This story begins not too long ago, in the ruins of Aydeewa Subterrane. Having been recently opened to all by the Empire, droves of mercenaries and travelers flocked to these dark caves in search of fame, fortune, treasure and adventure. So it was no surprise when three young Adventurers from the western land of Bastok decided to try their luck.
"Hurry up!" The energetic Hume girl shouted to her compatriots.
"Perhaps you should slow down" her Elvaan companion responded "afterall, we're the ones with the lantern, right?"
"Right" a hume boy, the youngest of the group responded quietly, struggling to keep his footing on the crooked, slick path of the tunnel while holding the lantern up high. "w-what are we doing here again?"
"We're exploring" the Elvaan Scholar explained "discovering the undiscovered, retrieving the forgotten and making our world a better place through increased knowledge."
"And lookin for treasure!" the girl interrupted "according to legend, there was a great Vampyr King who was buried down here somewhere. His tomb and all his treasures were hidden from the world by his followers so no one could disturb his resting place."
"And according to facts, Vampyr don't actually exist and this legend you speak of is nothing but a tall tale told to you by a drunk on the ferry ride to Aht Urhgan." The Elvaan quipped back, holding an open book in one hand, flipping through the pages while examining the dimly lit surroundings.
"Well the only way we'll ever find out is if you two hurry up" the young girl shouted, stamping her foot for emphasis, already much further ahead of her friends in near complete darkness and waiting. Patience obviously wasn't one of her strong suits.
"As I said before, I'll only go as fast as him since he has the lantern."
"Then give me the lantern so we can actually find something!" the girl shouted from the shadows.
"But if you had the lantern I wouldn't be able to read my notes" the dark haired Elvaan responded calmly.
"And what do we need notes for, not even the map will help us in this maze. They only way to find anything good is to march boldly onward!"
"These caves are filled with dangerous creatures, my notes can assist us in avoiding these beasts."
"There's nothing in here that I'm afraid of, so if anything's dumb enough to mess with us I'll pummel em!" the boisterous young lady proclaimed, metal Knuckles raised high and proud.
"What about that spider right there?" the boy said pointing to his friend after finally catching up. The feisty Monk crooked her neck slight, coming face to fang with a bright red and blue, inch large spider, dangling from a single silken thread.
She shrieked. She flailed. She fell to the ground in a near panic while her two friends watched and laughed.
"Family Araneidae, a common Orb Spider" the Elvaan noted, reading from his notes while stifling a chuckle. "A curious but timid spider that can be found all through-out these tunnels, and is completely harmless."
"I'll show you harmless" the girl snapped back, giving both boys sharp, painful jabs to their arms. "Now lets go!"
The trio marched on, through the winding tunnels and twisting caverns, avoiding the oft traveled areas to avoid both other Adventurers and the monsters who called this realm home. Getting deeper and deeper into the dark, dank caves until suddenly, the lantern bearer had a realization.
"...we're lost"
"We are not" the girl yelled back "we just got a little turned around...someplace"
"We've past that rock three times now" the Elvaan notes, adjusting his glasses and letting out a soft sigh. "Even with the map I've been trying to make, this place is just a maze."
"So what do we do" the boy whimpers out with a hint of panic.
His two friends crowded around their map, bickering back and forth over which path lead to the the exit, the boy could do nothing more then hold the lamp aloft and worry to himself. Always the nervous type he looked around but saw nothing but the same grimy green walls that engulfed them on all sides, they all looked the same and he hadn't even an inkling as to how to get out of here. He stood there, watching the flame dance while his friends argued pointlessly, the dim light the only thing keeping the darkness at bay, when suddenly the flame flickered wildly. The first time caught his attention, but it's second abrupt jump brought about the realization.
"A draft!" he exclaimed, twisting about, heading to the wall "There's a draft in here, that must mean there's a way out near by"
His two friends looked at him puzzled, suddenly engulfed in shadows as he brought the light low to the ground trying to pinpoint the origin of the sudden and strange breeze.
"It must be around here somewhere" he said feeling at the rock face, brushing away the thick coat of cobweb that lined the caverns, not paying attention to his footing as he searched when suddenly the ground below him just gave way. He tumbled and rolled through a dark winding tunnel, bouncing about as gravity pulled him down and knocked him all over before suddenly hitting the ground hard. He was dizzy, disoriented, but otherwise unharmed somehow. He sat there for a moment, rubbing his head trying to regain his surroundings, the small room dimly lit by the odd, natural green glowing rocks that littered the caves. He felt a strange tickle creep across his hand as he rubbed a slight bump on his head, pulling his hand away to examine it revealed a bizarre and strange looking insect with countless legs and the most wicked looking maw perched aimlessly on his naked skin.
He shrieked and flung his hand away, back peddling across the strangely loose ground to get away from the thing, but what he saw next was far more terrifying then the strange little bug. The ground he sat upon was no rock or soil, but bones. A massive pile of the dead, picked clean of any life or flesh by the scavengers that scuttled about, the spiders and the crawlers that called this tomb home. Panic gripped him again, and in his frantic attempt to flee with no where to go, he did little more then tumble about across the rattling bones. Rolling off the mound of the dead, he once again felt his head connect hard with a thick solid object with a loud thud.
Right before his eyes, standing up on it's end as if it was just dropped there from above, was a massive wooden casket. His panicked crash forced the slowly rotting door to crack from it's hinges, enough to open the top ever so slightly. He was petrified, unable to scream or even breathe, yet for some reason his hand was able to move. Maybe his curiosity was overpowering his terror, maybe his body was looking for some way to convince his mind it wasn't true. But the only thing he could think of at that moment was that he found it. He found the legendary tomb of the ancient Vampyr King.
He gripped the edge of the caskets top and slowly pushed it aside, opening it inch by inch until it just suddenly fell to the side. And there he stood, gazing blankly at the mangled rotting face of the casket's host. A wrinkled and crooked dead body, it's hair and flesh decayed and desecrated...yet it was still there. Unlike all those other corpses that were picked clean by the minute creatures who dwell here, this body look as if it has never been so much as bitten.
Breathless and frozen, unable to think or move, he just stood there staring at the twisted lifeless face of the strange dead body. Then the dead body decided to stare back.
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The boy awoke with a start, his mind screaming, his body burning, covered in dripping sweat as he felt as if the entire room was moving. Unsure of what happened or even where he was, he tried looking about...only to realize the room actually was moving.
"He's up, he's awake!" a familiar voice exclaimed. It was the Monk girl, his life long friend whom he had accompanied to Aydeewa. "You've been out for almost two days, you musta bumped your head pretty hard when you took that fall."
"where are we" he mustered, still not entirely sure what was happening.
"We're on a Ferry back to the mainland" his Elvaan friend replied "after we got lost in those caves, and you fell down that hole, we were found by group of high level Adventurers. It turns out that hole you found was actually a short cut back to the main path. Once the Imperial doctors patched you up, we decided to head back home.
"...main path" the boy queried to himself. "But...that couldn't be...I remember the room I fell in." His voice cracked, his memory was hazy, the details of those last few moments in that cave were difficult to recall. But he was absolutely sure that he never ended up on any well known path. "There were bones...bones everywhere. And that casket, it had something in it...something that was dead...but it wasn't..." his voice trailed off as he saw the bizarre looks on his companion's faces.
"...there was nothing like that where you fell" the girl said softly "you landed right by one of the main walkways, the exit was a literal stones throw away from where you fell."
"You darn near landed on a Taru Taru" the Elvaan added.
"but...but I saw it...it looked right at me"
"Maybe you should rest some more" the young lady said gently, helping her younger friend to lay back into the cot "you had a rough few days, if you keep pushing yourself too much you'll never get better."
"ok..." the boy said meekly, resting his bandaged head into the soft white pillow, trying to forget the images that seemed burned into his mind.
"We'll be docking sometime tomorrow, so just relax tonight and save your energy for the trip back home" the Monk said sweetly with a soft smile. She was being nice to him...almost too nice.
"She was never this nice before" he thought to himself. Was it because he had been injured? No, that couldn't be it, he's been hurt far worse then this before. Many times at her own hands. There was something odd, something different about her. His friend stood up and turned away to leave and that's when he noticed it. A large red mark just barely peaking out of the corner of her Gi...right on her neck.
"No" he thought "Vampyr's aren't real" he reasoned. Realizing the tales of these ancient undead often told of accounts where young maidens were turned into slaves of the demon through a bite to the neck. "She can't be..." he convinced himself as a bout of dizziness slowly took hold of him before passing out again.
He awoke to loud bells and shouting, coming from the deck above. Panicked and muffled calls, the loud thudding of heavy boots across the wood echoed throughout the hold in which he lay. He slowly rose to his feet, stumbling his way towards the stairs as crew and passenger ran past to gather in a huddle around a single man with a lantern in the dark ocean night.
In the middle of the crowd, lying mangled and twisted was a body, a corpse. Dried and shriveled, though still clothed in what was obviously the uniform of a ferry crewman. A strange and twisted look of terror frozen onto the dead man's face as whatever did this two him caused him extreme amounts of pain. The captain of the vessel looked over the body in great detail, the only thing to really stand out was two large, deep puncture wounds on the sides of his neck.
The discovery sent a shock down the boy's spine. Only one thing could have killed a man like this. Only one creature would be able to suck the life out of someone by bites on their neck. The legend of Vamypr was true, and it was on this boat. The worst part was that he knew it could have only been one person. The odd way she treated him, the marks on her neck, the woman he's know for all his life, grew up with and adventured all over the world together with, she was now a Vampyr...and it was all his fault.
The boy's mind was racing, his heart throbbing so hard it could have leaped from his chest. He had to expose her before she killed again, before they got to the mainland and she was free to roam about. Maybe he could stop her, save her, if the other people knew what happened. Before he could do anything though the Captain of the ferry had all the remaining passengers rounded up, for the security of the rest of the people on board, locking everyone in the hold with armed guards. The small crowd was restless, and understandably so. First a bizarre murder on deck now they're crammed into a tiny room at the point of a sword until they arrive at port, it was not a normal experience.
But this was the perfect opportunity for him. His best chance to prove whether or not his life long friend was actually the Vampyr or not. She wouldn't fight back with this many people around, even if she was, so maybe he would get a chance to save her. He slowly made his way up behind her, the woman's attention caught up in a casual conversation with their Elvaan friend as he tried hard to summon up the courage needed to find out the truth.
"If I can see her bite marks" he thought to himself barely able to breath "..if I can see them, I'll know for sure". He took one last deep breath, thrust his hand onto the collar of her Gi and yanked down hard. Revealing her entire neck and lower back, exposing a single large red sore on her neck, thin blue veins running from the center of the mark, he was finally able to see the truth. She screamed and spun about, her fist instinctively slamming into the jaw of the person behind her as she tried hard to cover herself up from her now wide open shirt.
"Just what the hell are you doing!" she screamed as the crowd began to stare.
"But..I..you!" the boy sputtered, holding his jaw after being knocked to the ground. He was confused, baffled as to what exactly just happened. There was only one mark, and that punch was certainly one he was familiar with. "t-that mark on your neck, the guy we found...he was attacked, you were attacked by the Vampyr!"
"That mark on my neck is from one of them 'harmless spiders' you idiot, the damn thing bit me!" the woman screamed, kicking the boy for good measure.
"Plus, as I said before, there's no such thing as Vampyr" the Elvaan stated coldly, walking away from the group and the attention that they've gathered.
But the boy knew that wasn't the truth. There was something in that cave that day and that something is on this boat now! If the Vampyr wasn't her, then there was only one other person it could be, only one other person was there that day.
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The rest of the boat ride was uneasy for all aboard, but also uneventful. When queried about the strange happens upon docking, the Captain claimed it was a surprise attack by pirates and their undead creations. But there was no attack, everyone knew that was a lie. Yet no one stepped forward to denounce the story. The boy was too afraid to say anything himself, confronting someone about this would only turn the crowd against him. And his friends were already on their way out of the port. He was sure one of them wasn't the Vampyr, but his suspicions slowly grew in regards to his Elvaan acquaintance. He had to keep watch over him, had to find out some sort of proof one way or the other.
It wasn't but a few hours until they arrived home at the gates of Bastok. Magical travel had become commonplace to them, and swift transit was always available. But the entire time the boy would not let his friend stray from his sight. Out in the fields it was a simple task, but in the city he found it to be far more difficult. The trio went their separate ways shortly after reaching town, meaning the boy would have to actively spy on his friend as they were no longer traveling together. But as the day went on, his task grew more and more dangerous and started drawing far too much attention. This was not something he could do alone. His is only chance would be to find help, and the only one he could actually trust was still severely angry with him. But he had no choice, he had to tell her.
"There's no such thing as Vampyrs!" the woman roared loudly, accentuating her beliefs with a fist to the boy's face.
"But I saw it!" he whimpered "and that body on the boat, only a Vampyr could have done that!"
"No, Pirates did that" she snapped back.
"But there were no Pirates, there was no attack!" The pleading in his voice, the begging in his eyes, he had to make her believe him.
"How would you know" she responded coldly, folding her arms in a huff "you slept through the whole damn thing. Ever since you fell in that damn hole and hit your head, you've been acting crazy and thinking that there's something out to get you! But there's not. There is no Vampyr and there never was. I heard that story from some drunken ass on a long boring boat ride, it was the ramblings of a crazy old man and now it's the ramblings of a crazy young man."
That's when it hit him, harder then any punch could. Maybe she was right. Maybe that wasn't the work of a Vampyr. He wasn't awake when it happened, he was out for a good few hours. Pirates and ghosts often assault ferries traveling through the open seas, and they've been know to steal the very life from their victims. Maybe all of this worrying, all of this apprehension, maybe it was just something in his head. That tomb, those corpses...the casket, maybe they were all a concussion induced nightmare and his paranoia just a lingering effect from his weakened state.
"Look" the girl said softly, sighing a bit after noticing his distant gaze as he tries desperately to wrap his brain around the reality of the situation, "you took a pretty hard knock to the skull, it must've just rattled things about. Go home, get some rest. Stop thinking about all this crazy stuff before you end up pissing off another one of your friends." She put her hand on his shoulder, walking with him in silence, leading him to the entrance to the Mog House district. The boy stopped short before the arch-ways looking up to his friend with a most bewildered face.
"Y-you're probably right" he muttered, rubbing his head. "It's just, everything was so vivid...I could have sworn I saw it."
"Just get some rest and try not to dwell on it." Her words were bold as she gave her friend a powerful, reassuring pat on his back trying to ease his worries. "Now get out of here and hit the hay, I'm gonna go find some Gobs to release some of my frustration on."
It was that same smile, that same confident, strong aura that he knew all too well. He meekly agreed to her advice, bid farewell to his life long friend and slowly made his way to his Mog House. Once inside he made a bee-line for his simple Bronze Bed, falling into it's ever inviting comfort and just laid there, alone in his thoughts. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get any sleep and he couldn't just forget. As night fell his body grew more and more restless. Though his mind had been pushed to the point of exhaustion, he had not done anything truly physical in the past few days. He would never get any sleep like this he realized and decided the only thing he could do now was get up and move.
Exiting his Mog House and entering the darkened city, it seemed eerily peaceful. All the shops and vendors had closed up, the miners retiring for the evening. Even the Adventurers seemed to be fewer in numbers at such an hour. He left the city limits and headed towards the ocean-side cliffs that surrounded Bastok's south gates. The cool sea breeze and soothing roar of the waters below helped calm his mind and relax his body, sinking into the spell of the ocean's mysterious ways to finally get himself a semblance of peace.
But an aimless gaze off into the distance put an end to that serenity and brought all those terrible feelings crashing back to him. In the dimly lit night he caught a glimpse of someone, an Elvaan, walking alone, hoisted over his shoulder a large, long, white-wrapped object. He leaped to his feet and began darting from rock to rock in an attempt to catch up the mysterious person and discern their identity without being seen himself. The boy followed the stranger to the mouth of a hidden cave, far from the gates of the city. Before entering, the man gave a suspicious glance about, revealing something that almost made the hume scream out then and there. In the deep, black, darkness of the night, the boy watched as his long time friend stole away into a hidden cave carrying a man sized object into it's depths.
It was true, he was right. The Vampyr is real, and it's in that cave. It must have some sort of hold over his friend and is using him to gather victims to feed upon. Terrified, heartbroken, the boy headed towards the cave once the coast was clear. If he could get in there, maybe he could stop it, maybe he could save them. He followed the winding dark path until it finally reached an opening, inside a soft fire flickered, illuminating a small room. But what he saw was far more terrifying then a simple Vampyr.
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