Fool's Adventures: A Demon's Souls/Buffy the Vampire Slayer Quest

Your weapon is ready. You have found the focus. All you need is the Sinner and the time of the convergence. The Bronze will provide a place to hunt them. You are ready now.

The trip back to the Bronze after securing your home is quick, your demonic stamina sustaining you as you speed along. The trip, however, is not entirely uneventful. You catch a familiar disturbance in the magic, tinged with the scent of feminine flowers on the wind. The creature you sensed once before, shortly after your arrival, now with a definite scent. It is near the Bronze. Another familiar scent also wafts toward you as you move, fresh grave rot and blood.

There are two.

One is much stronger than the other. You will attempt to avoid that one and hunt the weaker one which is only strong enough to leave its scent. Another thing to determine, what dictates the strength of the Man-Things.

The sounds and fresh scent of the Bronze reach you before you see it, the distant congregation of Souls now becoming dense as the night progresses. Reaching the corner you used before, you take a moment to observe the structure. The line to get in is much longer, and there is no sign of either of the Man-Things. Even the disturbance has quieted. But…

Your head tilts left. There are two familiar Souls in the Bronze. One strong, the other full of potential. Very close to each other. Unexpected. Where are the Man-Things then? Scenting the air and scanning around, you find no indication of them outside.

They are inside then, mingling amongst the mortal humans. Near those strange Souls. Circling around you head to the back, to wait. When one of the Man-Things emerges you will follow it and disable it, or if they both emerge you will isolate one and lure it away. You will avoid the strange Souled humans if you can. Such beings usually have strange abilities, like the Slayer of Demons or Queen Latria, and with the ambient magic around it is uncertain what they could do. What threat they could pose to you.

Glancing about you identify a suitable roof to watch from. Much like when you scaled the wall of your home, your fingers easily puncture the facade of the building you climb up. Settling in on the roof you focus intently on the Bronze, trying to track down the Man-Things and keep a wary eye on the strange Souls.

The masses of Souls part and differentiate under your focused gaze to a degree, splitting between what is likely an upper and lower floor. But you cannot locate the hollow spots marking the Man-Things, beyond a general warping of the energy in the lower floor of the building.

You will wait. You are used to waiting.

Sometime later, not more than an hour you watch the potential filled Soul separate from the masses. She is heading deeper into the building for some reason. A flicker of energy appears briefly near her. Tensing subtly you watch her carefully, the essence of a Man-Thing becoming clearer moving beside her as they move away from the other Souls.

A quick check into the mass reveals the strong Soul on the upper floor. She is agitated, her Soul writhing before it moves down into the mass. Switching back to the mage Soul you see a Man-Thing emerge, dressed in elegant clothing that smells of graves and blood to you, grasping the hand of the girl. The other Man-Thing is nowhere to be found.

The strong Soul is moving rapidly through the Bronze. She is searching for her… companion.

You are disturbed at these developments. They are not ideal.

You weigh the situation quickly as you look at the pair heading down the alley away from the Bronze. This is the weaker of the two Man-Things, perhaps a little stronger than the first one you slew. His companion is not following him. The girl is obviously completely unaware of the thing next to her, too caught in the flowering of young attraction. She carries herself like a peasant or scholar, she is no fighter. She is also untrained magically and her Soul's potential unharnessed, you can see it. She is weak.

You scale down the side of the building, following after them, decision made.

Your bare feet are soft on the stone as you follow them from a distance, tracking them via the girl's Soul more than other senses. Though you do catch a few snippets of conversation on the wind.

"... I know a good… cream bar on…" The girl, excited and nervous.

"Really…" The Man-Thing, slightly bored. And hungry.

"...your clothes?" The girl again, a few minutes later.

"...home." The thing, more bored.

Their pace picks up a little as the thing speeds up, impatient. Looking around you realize the Man-Thing is leading her toward the cemetery where you arrived. Not entirely unexpected, its scent was all over the place and it is a suitable location for isolation. Something plucks at the edges of your senses.

A sudden burst of magical disturbance almost makes you hiss and reveal yourself. Turning slightly you scan behind you, focusing for a moment. Your hair ornaments clack quietly as you sense another flicker of disturbed magic. The other Man-Thing is approaching. You are now definitely running on a deadline.

You begin to close as they enter the graveyard, catching the tail end of a conversation.

"I know a shortcut," the Man-Thing says as it pulls on the girl's hand.

Spreading your awareness you carefully watch your quarry for any sign they are aware of you as you get closer. A mausoleum in the distance which smells like old blood, seems to be the thing's target. Sneaking through the trees you close to within thirty feet as they reach the mausoleum.

"This is scary, this doesn't seem quicker…" The girl is finally starting to realize something is wrong.

"Come on Willow, it is!" The false cheer in the thing's voice clearly doesn't reassure the girl.

"Hey, have you ever been in one of these before?" It asked. The thing had pulled ahead of her, but now it approached her, obscuring her from your view, reaching up to caress her face. What you can see of the girl around the back of the thing shudders at the touch.

Then it makes its move. In an explosion of movement and a feminine scream, "Willow" is tossed into the mausoleum. You move closer as the thing stalks into the doorframe, readying a Soul Arrow. You will shoot him while--

He whirls and growls like a rabid dog, his face contorting.

He sensed you… and you can feel the other Man-Thing approaching rapidly.


Whoops, look at those butterflies! Thomas here is a little more on the ball than his buddy the Mook, but he is a bit quick on the draw. Plus his other buddy is coming.

What do you do?

[] Deceive him by screaming in fright, babbling nonsense about going home. Then strike him when he approaches, taunting him away from this place and the approaching Man-Thing.
[] Shoot him in the face full force. Disable him and then deal with the Man-Thing which is approaching.
[] Deceive him by stoking his lust, complimenting his appearance and appearing attracted. Then disable him and deal with the other one which is coming.

The Idol is pretty sure she will be dropping the seeming at some point during any of these plans as she needs to do that to fight properly, though the deception by screaming route is the most likely to have that happen somewhere out of view.

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Sorry this is shorter, you got to a decent place to stop, and I want you guys to have input on how you approach combat tactically after deciding to go hunting.

As a reminder I am going to be taking a break from update writing tomorrow and will instead be here for questions, comments and general discussion. Come armed and prepared! Next update will come out on Sunday and will be the last part of "Episode 1".

Then will come Episode 2 "Your Convergence".

Also @Breadnaugt kudos for the Tourism Board. It is excellent!

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaa no no no! NO! Don't hurt me, d-don't take me! I j-j-just w-w-wanted to g-g-go hooooome!" You backpedal, arms warding it away futilely, shrieking like a maiden you once gave to the redemption. Her imitated fear not marring your own thoughts as you showed false weakness to the predator. The Man-Thing snarls, enticed by the fear. Hunching forward it charges you, lunging with hands already striking.

"No! Get away!" Zhew. You scream as your "wildly" shot Soul Arrow hits the creature in the shoulder.

"You fucking witch!" You are already turning and running before the utterly enraged roar from the creature rips through the night.

As you run through the cemetery, still emitting imitated whimpers, you can feel it coming for you, a small hole in the world chasing you. On the edges of your senses you can feel the feminine smelling disturbance approaching, followed by a weak and flickering Soul. From the other edge you can sense the strong Soul coming, moving quickly for a human, a much fainter but steady Soul following her. The Soul of "Willow" seems disturbed and is moving to the door.

"I'll rip your blood out and give your heart to the Master you bitch! Com'ere!" Noting the information down you sprint faster, to the growling frustration of the thing behind you.

Spotting another mausoleum with a slightly open door you angle toward it. Reaching it you fling the door open with one hand and leap in. Landing flat on the first of two coffins in the building you turn to see the thing right there. Its hand gets around your foot before you shoot it in the shoulder again, causing it to flinch and scream, releasing your foot.

When it recovers you are regally standing on the coffin above this vermin, your seeming flung away.

"You have been chosen." Your bell-like voice emanates with inhumanity and power as you fling another Soul Arrow at the thing which it just barely dodges.

"Oh fuck you." It leaps onto the coffin and you gracefully leap away, almost dancing as you fire two arrows in quick succession into its legs. Landing on the other coffin, you see them connect just below the knees as the Man-Thing fails to dodge, blowing out fist sized chunks now that you are using the full power versions.

Screaming, the thing topples to the ground in front of the coffin. Taking a half moment to scan around with your senses you feel the disturbance and the strong Soul extremely close together. Fighting most likely. The three other Souls are fleeing.

Returning to your prey you see it trying to get up on its arms. Two more arrows remedy that attempt, singeing it near the elbows. Collapsing, it growls and glares at your four armed form.

"Bitch…" You are slightly amused at that. Descending from the coffin with soundless steps you approach the extremely weakened creature. You stand over the thing, contemplating how to restrain it, ignoring the hateful mumbles it aims your way. You spot a cut chain on the door which will do. Taking it, you wrap the thing's weakly flopping legs.

"Aaaaagh you bitch-demon that hurrrrrrrts!" The chain is still wrapped around it, regardless of that weak cry, the knot made in a groan of slightly stressed metal. The Man-Thing tries to flail and remove its bindings, but you simply grab its flopping arms and wrap them behind the creature with another separate section of the chain. Out of chain you look for something to gag it with.

Flipping it over you rip out a chunk of its shirt and a hunk of its fancy coat's hem, shoving the loose bits in and then tying the thick strip around it. Keeping a mental eye on the fight between the strong Soul and the disturbance as you do, you tense when you sense an even stronger and more evil disturbance move up from underground behind the Soul. Scanning around the other Souls are still fleeing. You turn away as the weaker disturbance moves away, after the fleeing ones.

You turn to stare down at your captured prey, its eyes wide and fearful as it watches you. Reaching down you caress its face.

"Rejoice." You whisper. It whimpers from behind the gag.

Grabbing it by the neck you drag it out, into the night.

Throwing your burden down into your garden you wait for it to regain some semblance of its wits. You were not particularly gentle when transporting it to your lair, though the trip itself was mostly uneventful except for the one instance you had to go into a sewer to evade a more populated part of town.

Approaching it you watch it silently for a moment, considering the next part of your plan. During the move you had come up with the idea to interrogate this creature about its "Master" and nature. Reaching down, you rip the gag out and then sit on the edge of one of the nearby plant beds, hands clasped in your lap.

Groaning, the creature turns to you, its face human shaped again and rather bruised. It opens its mouth.

"You are dead she-demon. Darla will rip out your throat. She was with me and she will follow you." The thing glares at you, its eyes wavering in poorly hidden pain and fear. You look at the creature, considering what will make it give the most information.

"Your race is pitiful. Sodden pathetic vermin in the shadows." You kick it as it tries to interrupt, drawing on mannerisms you've seen before and your own instincts for deception. Roaring at the pain it breathes heavily as you remove your foot.

"We...ahhuff huff… we are vampires. We rule the night, you monster." Tilting your head to the right you hum quietly. Your face is entirely impassive as you stare down at him, unblinking. The name means little to you, not related to any of the blood drinking varieties of Fog Demon you know of. Mild amusement bubbles in you.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! You rule nothing. Your Master rules nothing. It is a coward." The "vampire's" eyes bulge in frothing rage at your laughter and insults. Roaring, it tries to attack you. You just watch it flail futilely.

"The Master is the oldest of us! HE IS STRONG! He will be free! The Harvest will free him! You! Will! DIE!" It screams at you as it continues to struggle to hurt you. You fold your upper hands under your chin and lean your head on it, an affectation of a mocking smile on your face. Your mind is, however, tearing apart the references and information dropped in that last sentence.

"Darla will come, and she will reduce this hole to ash." You nod along, humming gently in the back of your throat. Soothingly, mockingly.

"I felt her die you know, reduced to the dust." Your lie is delivered completely straight faced as you lean down to caress its face with both upper hands. You suddenly clench your hands and let the Fog spill out around you, let the thing feel your hunger as you brandish a Soul Arrow at its head with another hand.

"Tell me of the Harvest, vermin!" You say and push the arrow forward. The vampire screams and babbles nonsense at you as the contained Soul Arrow nears its face. The thing is bleeding profusely from your nails before it starts making sense.

"O-on the n-n-night of the crescent, the Master will g-g-give of his blood to a loyal servant! That servant will serve him as his Vessel! It will feed him by consuming mortal blood!" You dispel the Soul Art and caress the thing's face again at its panicked answer. What an interesting little ritual. You will need to record the details.

"Good, goooood." The vampire is nearly beside itself with fear and anger now, its eyes flickering around, seeking escape. You lean even closer and kneel beside it, your mantle partially covering the creature, making it flinch. Tilting your head to the other side you ask a question.

"Who is the Master's right hand? Their energy will make a good meal for me." The thing stares at you in silent horror. You grab its throat and stand, lifting it as if offering it to the gargoyles of the Tower.

"Who?" You ask again calmly, the Fog flickering and fliting all around you both.

"Luke! He is Luke! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" The vampire can feel the Fog whispering at the edges, prodding its intense fear to near madness.

You drop the thing, letting it fall with a scream and clang as it tries to wriggle away from the Fog all around it. You walk around it, hemming it into a circle as you think.

"W-w-what do you want!" The thing is flinching and shrieking as you get close, trying to turn so it can always see you. You look down at it.

"You have been chosen." The vampire flinches more at your voice, an almost full body twitch.

"Chosen for what!?" It blabbers at you, rapidly approaching an insensate state at the fear it is feeling which has entirely swallowed its anger.

You do not answer the creature.

Reaching down you gag it again, ignoring its protests. You settle yourself back on the plant bed, letting the Fog whirl around you both, tasting everything around you and feeling it begin to seep into the area around you. The light coming in through the skylights indicates that it will be night for a few more hours before the sun rises.

The convergence is approaching, you can feel a tension in the air. It makes some sense to you that other practices of magic might also draw on the mystical power to be found in them, and it confirms to you that the energy of this town reacts to the cycles of the celestial spheres. As you expected to some degree. Most energy and magic does.

With this vampire now before you, you have all that you need to do the Ritual of the Beastly Sinner. Now is the time to wait. Rising, you ignore the muffled sounds springing from the captive vampire as you head to your workroom.

Inspecting the circle remnants on the floor you continue to let your Fog hang around you like a shroud. The circle has imprinted itself into the floor, tainting the area with Soul Magic. Beginning to mold this level into your perfect space. Standing in the midst of the circle you consider your next move.

The sun will rise in a few hours, but there is still time for you to hunt a Soul to test your theory on consuming the ambient magic. You will have to watch for more vampires, the disappearance of one of their own will likely agitate their "Master". Tilting your head to the right you wonder if it made them like you were made.

Springing into your mind from that thought, another option is to find a library of some form. Any repository of knowledge where you can seek out answers and elaboration on what this place knows of vampires. Their weaknesses and means of spreading in particular. They are far too plague like in their essence to breed like animals would. Perhaps you could also find out tidbits about what the magic around you is. The behavior of the mortals you have seen makes you disinclined to believe that the wider populace knows much. That building of knowledge and learning you found would work.

Both of these options mean you would have to leave your captive where it is. There is some risk to that, but only some. It cannot move well and even if it is able to chew through the gag and begin to scream the walls are thick enough and the mansion isolated enough that it should go unheard.

Your final option is to spend some time warding what you can of your lair, perhaps a sanctum here in the third floor. It would take you most of the day and allow you to have a safe haven to retreat to if required. Or if the Master decides to track you and his missing minion through some means and send others to attack you in your lair. That should be difficult with the trip in the sewer you took, but it is a possibility nonetheless.


What will you do while you wait for the convergence to come?

[] Go out. Stalk and hunt a Soul to test your theory of consuming the magic in this town.
[] Go out and seek a place of knowledge, starting with the school. Sneak in and find what you can on vampires.
[] Stay within your lair and ward the third floor workroom as a sanctum for defense.

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Annnnd that's episode 1! Vote lock is as usual at 6:00 pm UTC May 21st. Episode 2 will premiere tomorrow a few hours after that.