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

"Where are your shoes?"

You raise an eyebrow at his confusion, the shoeless feet in question resting crossed beneath the chair. "My name is Latria. And I have no need for shoes, Mr. Giles." Your voice is soft, slightly accented with a foreign lilt, and respectful as the man's eyes widen at the use of his name.

"How do you know my name?" Surprised again out of his befuddlement at your shoeless feet, his voice and expression are tensely guarded as he speaks. You casually point at his office door using the hand on your book. He looks over at the door. "Oh… yes, of course." He chuckles briefly before returning to looking at you.

Narrowing his eyes, a spark of recognition appears in them. "Ah! You were at the Bronze last night, weren't you Miss." His question is more rhetorical than anything else. Taking the flow of the conversation, you speak again. "Indeed I was there last night, Mr. Giles," closing and setting your book on the table you fold your hands in your lap, "I sensed the coming of the Harvest, and wished to stop it." The man seems interested at your words, nodding slightly as he sets his books down. "A noble goal assuredly, though… that all leads one to believe you aren't a student here, are you?"

"I am not. I have recently come to this town to hunt. Much like you and your Warrior do." The man's eyebrows rise as you speak. You raise your own eyebrow and tilt your head to the right, ornaments clicking, imitating thought on something. "Why did she call me 'Witchy Girl'?" Giles sighs at your words, a caring sort of exasperation flicking across his features. "Ah yes… Buffy's habit of 'nicknames'. Teenage silliness, don't mind it." He says, seeming slightly chagrined.

You nod, your mature bearing obviously making him not include you in that age category even though you may appear somewhat close to it. You smile very briefly. "I won't." You say brightly, which makes his chagrin fade into slight relief. He tenses again however when his brain seems to catch up with the situation. Pausing briefly he asks, "Why are you here though?..." He looks at his wrist and the timepiece on it and flinches a little.

"I come and go as I need to. The magic which emanates from this building," You say and Giles eyebrows shoot up at that, "...and the large student body had me wary of approaching in daylight." His gaze becomes very curious. "Magic from the school?" You nod, and say. "Yes, a repelling seal. From what I gather it is sealing a portion of the Font's power." His eyes brighten with interest, which you carefully note.

"The Font… Ah, you mean the Hellmouth, our own personal portal to the Hells." He says quietly. You nod at his words, then speak soothingly, "I mean no harm. But I am cautious of strange magics." He sits down, relaxing slightly as you speak. Turning from him slightly, you then gesture at all of the tomes laid out before you with a hand. "Your collection is very impressive, particularly Hell's Offspring, but I find myself set against strigoi these nights." You sigh, reinforcing the foreigner demon hunter image you are crafting by using a foreign word for vampire. "I have heard the monsters refer to a 'Master' many times while I kill them. I have my own suspicions about it but..." Making your tone questioning, you dig for more information.

Giles' face hardens at the mention of the old vampire. "Yes… the Master." He sighs, gesturing apologetically with his hands. "Unfortunately we have very little information about him ourselves. We know that him and his minions live somewhere beneath Sunnydale." Rising, the man goes to one of the shelves and pulls out a map. You stand yourself, watching him and listening as he continues speaking. "There is a crypt in the Sunnydale Cemetery which we know is linked to a network of tunnels under the town that leads to a meeting place of theirs." Setting the map onto the table, you see the tunnels in question and the meeting place as he gestures to it.

"We also know that Luke, the Master's right hand, was killed at the Bronze by Buffy last night." You hmm interest at that, focused on the map as he speaks. Tracing out several paths in the tunnels in your mind, you verify his conclusions, and note the location of the crypt he is talking about. Nodding, you speak, "Thank you Mr Giles." With the information you wanted in hand, at least in part, and your deception laid down, you prepare to leave. It is too suspicious to linger here much longer, the man is somewhat tightly wound.

Looking up at Giles from the map you briefly smile again, and then imitating Angel you look out toward the doors. "I have to leave. Good hunting Mr Giles, my apologies for intruding." Walking around the table you head for the exit. "Ah, good hunting yourself Miss Latria…" You hear his voice follow you out of the door. As the door closes behind you, your inhuman ears catch the end of his sentence, "... it's not a problem… strange girl…"

With that fluttering after you, you slip through the halls of the school. The other two Souls are still where they are when you return to the classroom you snuck in from, though the giggling has quieted. Leaving through the window you and your gathering of shadows flows across the lot. The "cars", a word you learned in your reading of the Britannica while cross referencing continent names, are still sitting dormant where they were lit by the sporadic "streetlights". Sliding into the trees and the shadows beyond them you begin to circle the school, watching the Souls within as you think on what you have learned.

Most importantly to your current task, you have confirmed the weaknesses of your foes. The sun, stakes or decapitation, holy water, a need for blood and a likely fear of holy icons. You are not threatened by any of these things, nor do you require any of them. Hmmm… a cross would be useful, I wonder where I might find one, you think to yourself as you pause in the shadows of an alley, scenting the air for vampires.

Such an item would serve a useful anchor for personal protection spells, which you can cast using rituals. Such things would take quite some time of course, but would greatly aid your endeavours, though you would be limited to the inferior forms of them at the moment with your current weakness. Not scenting any of the blood drinkers whose weaker members are developing an annoying habit of sneaking up on you, you continue on your way, returning to your contemplations and what they mean for you.

The next feature of your enemies, the method of their breeding, means several things. The first is that you will likely have trouble actually stopping their numbers from being replenished, though you can slow it by killing them. Hunting them in the night and the day, if you can find their lairs, is now feasible for you. Your magic is strong enough to stand up to several of them at once, and you can use their weaknesses to tilt the engagements in your favor. It also presents a way to ingratiate yourself with the Warrior and her friends, a necessary step in preventing her from hunting you.

The second piece is more theoretical. With their demonic nature you may be able to sense the vampire taint on corpses which will rise. If you can then you may be able to destroy them before they rise and meaningfully affect their spread, slowly cleansing them from your domain. Another in the list of things which you need to test.

Your thoughts flicker back to the library and the kind scholar you fooled. All those tomes may also lead to ways to recover my power, aside from informing me of potential enemies. Hmmm... Yes… deceiving them for now is the most sound choice. You hum your hymn under your breath as you start moving away from the school, watching Giles leave in his "car", as you taste the ambient magic in the air.

The magic of the "Hellmouth" in the air, for there is not much else it can be. Your reading on the subject of demons and the Primordium Age was enlightening in this topic. Destroying the source of this taint or consuming it in its entirety is likely impossible for you, even at your full strength. Protecting yourself from any creatures which come seaking it and using them to further your tasks is thus another priority as you recover. You will need to research the demon dimensions which the tomes reference further. They may be a way for you to return to your original world and your original task.

Seeking out the source of the repelling magic, the seal, below the building is something you can do in the future as well. Right now you do not want to test the Hellmouth until you have verified your theory of creating a sympathetic channel using a Soul. Damaging yourself while examining a massive font of magical power would not be ideal.

For now though you have several other things you can do to progress your plans. You could seek out the Magic Box, as you have considered before. It will likely be unoccupied at this time of night and you will have some time to examine the defenses undisturbed, as well as break in to steal what you deem valuable.

As you descend into the deeper alleys of the town, senses watchful, you catch a hint of Angel's Soul again. Watching him move slowly away from you, you consider possibly following him, to learn more about his nature and habits. You are confident in your ability to hide from him in your seeming and shadows. A being such as him will be useful to your goals, and may lead you to more vampires to destroy and thus weaken the Master.

The little sparks and flickers of the likely magical items you are sensing also present a possibility. One is close, and the air smells of grave dirt in that direction. You cannot tell if it is the most powerful of the items. You are not sensitive enough to truly determine that. Unfortunate, but it will remedy itself in time.

Another, riskier possibility, is stealing into the crypt Giles described to you and seeking out that meeting place. You doubt it is the Master's lair, but you may find a minion to question. It is somewhat disturbing that you cannot sense the Master or whatever is keeping him trapped in his lair. Perhaps it is being hidden by something else, intentionally.

Demonic mind whirling with possibilities, you drift into the night, onto your next task.

What do you do?

[] Go to the Magic Box and examine its defenses, then break through them and take what you wish.
[] Follow Angel and see what he does in this night. You need more information as to what a being like him is doing here.
[] Seek out the likely magical items you can sense. One of them is close, likely in a graveyard.
[] Go to the crypt Giles pointed out and search for the meeting place or a vampire to question.

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Smaller update today, turns out the Idol wasn't feeling too talkative tonight. Vote lock is going to be Sunday May 27th 6:00pm UTC.

Tomorrow I'll be around while I take a break from writing updates.