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

Settling into your chair, you remove the Volmuen ex Inferna Daemon from its place. Running your hands over the metal cover, you taste the energies emanating from the book. They taste of blood and fire and the gap between one world and the next.

Opening the book you see writing in a language of curling and sharp pointed symbols. With a tiny exertion of effort, the symbols' meanings are revealed to you. Nothing as paltry as another language will stop a demon of knowledge from reading what it wishes.

You begin to read.


The book then goes on to describe how the Pretender was slain from stealth and betrayed by its lessers. Its pieces are then said to have been taken, and thrown into a great Pit beyond the world. The Pit's geography is described as a massive cleft in stone which gets hotter and hotter the deeper in you go, with air poisonous from rot and no light to speak of. Reading further the book describes how the Pretender's corpse is watched by an unnamed order of demons inside that Pit, so that it may not rise again. A possible means to enter it is also described.

By mixing the bones of your enemies and the blood of traitors under the light of the moon while calling upon Tol'Ur using an incantation provided by the book, a portal could be opened. Bridging the gap between Earth and the Pit. Within the Pit are said to be items of power and that the hearts of the demons within can be used as totems to call upon the flaming power of Tol'Ur.

That's the first few chapters of the book. The next few detail how demons from this realm travel from Pit to the Earth to steal maidens and burn villages to the ground while proclaiming the eventual return of Tol'Ur. This is of less use to you beyond descriptions of the demons which show them to have cloven hooves, four arms, a nest of burning horns on their heads and an affinity for flames.

Chapters twelve through fourteen describe details on the nature of cosmology, as seen from the Pit. Earth is the primary dimension of interest with many descriptions of what may be taken from it. However, the book does go into some brief descriptions of other Hell dimensions.

Among them are Anharra, a land of jungle and swamp and proud warrior demons ruled over by god-king Kerberon. Another is the realm of Acathla, a great hungering demon slain by a noble knight, a place described as so terrible even stones flee from it and how it can be opened by sacrifices of love or the will of the demon. Many others are briefly mentioned, most notable among them a world of Giant Shrimp, and their fondness for alcoholic beverages.

The book then goes on to discuss what it calls Hell Gates, an obvious reference to the Hellmouth as well as a being called the Slayer.


The specific forms of the great sacrifice are not detailed. However, upon consideration you conclude that the Harvest would function as a weaker version of what is described. Recalling what you sensed while you created the sympathetic channel, it is likely that the Master made a mistake in the process of attempting to open the Hellmouth for his own ends, and formed a weaker plug which can be dislodged with lesser effort.

Opening the Hellmouth is of little use to you at the moment, as it would make your current task of recovering invariably more difficult as demons not of the Fog rampaged across the land. What is useful to you is that the Hellmouth provides a sort of "thinning" of boundaries in the world, which means you could perhaps return to your home plane and continue your task. You remember the way the magics swirled around you as you fell to this plane, so you can potentially use that as a trace to find the path back home when you are capable.

The book also contains references to a few other demons and their traits and potential uses to a caster of the dark arts. You will have to cross reference much of what you have learned within its pages, the way it is written makes you somewhat doubt its veracity on certain subjects based on what you have read in The Darkest Age and the Rise of Humanity.

You contemplate the mysterious identity of the actual author of the book while reading towards the latter half, which is less relevant to your current task. Your current theory is either a traveling human dark arts user, or a dimension hopping collector demon of sorts. As you muse and turn the pages, you feel your minion begin to stir.

You turn slightly and look over the arm of the chair at your minion sprawled ungracefully on the floor. "Uggggghhhhh…" She groans, flopping onto her side. She raises her head slowly and turns to look at you. You see a modicum of sanity in her gaze before her head flops down and she mutters. "Ah...wait."

She lurches back up and looks at you more clearly. You tilt your head to the right. Her Soul is intact again, locked into the shape of the cup which you formed it into. She slowly and weakly gets to her hands and knees, looking around. You rise, for she is beneath you after all.

"You… helped me." She's looking at her hands with wonder. Running her hands over her face, she smiles, a hint of her insanity returning. She laughs, and stares up at you. "You… I can see. The truth and the lies." She cackles at that. You reach down and grasp her head with one hand, inhuman strength clear. You then ask a question.

"Will you serve me?"

She stares up at you, a mix of wonder, insanity and cunning whirling in the depths as you stare back. She nods.

"Yes!" You place another hand on her head, lowering your face to stare into hers. She is too weak to do more than watch you. You tilt your head to the left, Fog light emanating from your robes as you ask another question.

"Truly?"

It is the next step in the ceremony you are weaving around this woman. She nods rapidly and then speaks eagerly.

"Yes!"

You rise to your full height, nearly head and shoulders above her when standing. She totters on her feet, but manages to find them. Turning, you pull her after you with the grip on her head. She is focused completely on you as you remove the blooding knife from its resting place on the shelf. Taking it, you hand it to her.

You stare at her, leaning down again. You speak. "Blood your left hand." She complies quickly, a puddle of red flowing into her hand. You stare at her harshly as you speak again.

"Do you swear to serve me, Queen of the Tower, Redeemer, Idol of Fools and Bearer of the Doll's Demon Soul on the blood you have spilt this day. To never raise thy hand against me or my works and to aid me in my tasks forever? To worship me as your Queen and Lady in return for the gifts I have given?"

The woman speaks.

"Yes, I swear it." You nod, and push on her head. "Kneel and offer your hand to me." She drops nearly bonelessly to the ground, weak and trembling. She raises her hand, the blood dripping to the floor. You grab it with a lower hand and push your Soul into her blood and the cut.

Your joined hands glow with a nimbus of Soul light as her body seizes. Staring at you, her eyes glow with Soul light as a road of magic forms between you. This road will allow you to sustain a Revival ritual when you regain more of your strength. For now it lets you have constant knowledge of her Soul.

The light fades and she relaxes. She coughs and then opens her eyes again. She is stronger now, as she kneels without trembling. The cut on her hand is no longer there as well, replaced with soft skin. You nod in satisfaction.

"Rise." You command her. She leaps to the task, rising fluidly and quickly. Bowing her head, she waits for your command. You stand before her and consider. Your mind turns to your most important enemies.

"Tell me what you know of vampires, the Slayer, and witches."

She nods eagerly and raises her head to look at the wall to your right as she recites.

"Vampires are supposed to be myths. Scary, creepy monsters from tv, and movies who drink people's blood and go poof in the sun. But, I know better. I saw a woman attack one of the people where you found me. She sucked his blood and he wasn't right in the head after that."

She takes a breath and continues.

"I have never heard of the Slayer, my Lady."

She seems dejected at that failure on her part but she perks up quickly after.

"I can find out for you." She looks at you briefly, for permission. You raise a hand, signalling her to wait on that, and then gesture for her to continue with her information. She nods and returns to staring at the wall.

"Witches I know a little more about. My grandmother on my pop's side practiced. It depends on the witch, but there are generally considered to be two types of magic." Here she begins to gesture around as she describes what she knows. "There is white magic, healing and curing ills, not taking too much when you have enough. And then there is the dark. Summoning demons, dark pacts, and taking too much all at once. My grandmother was a white witch of sorts according to stories."

Finished, she bows her head, waiting. You nod and say. "Good, limited, but good." You ignore the smile that flickers over her face as you consider your next question. You look at the mortal funds you had looted, and consider how they might be useful to you and your minion.

"Over there is funds. Count them. We will be using them later." The woman turns to look, following your pointed finger, and then hurries over. Turning away from the woman as she begins to mutter over the money, you retrieve the Volumen and store it back on its shelf along with the knife.

You then settle into the chair and watch your minion rifle through the money on the shelf. Hmmm… she will be useful, in time, you decide after considering her behavior, knowledge and abilities. At the very least she will help you in your guise of humanity, and if the information you have found on vampires is true she will also create a threshold for your home.

You could leave her as a guard for tonight, locking her out of the sanctum when you leave. Or you could have her go out and purchase what she requires for herself while you do something else.

Feeling out with your senses, you can feel the Hellmouth beginning to become active as the sun approaches the horizon. Not more than an hour, then, till sunset, you think. That leaves you with several options of what to do.

You can track Angel from his home. You could go out and hunt vampires to extract information from them as to the Master. You could examine that meeting place you found and try to get information from anything or anyone you find there. You could track down the witches and deal with them.


What do you do? Please pick one of these.

[] Track Angel from his home and find out what he is like. How much of a threat is he?
[] Hunt down vampires in the night and get information about the Master.
[] Go to the meeting place pointed out by Giles and have a look around and kill any vampires you find.
[] Go to the witches home, undo their spells and kill them.

What do you have Annie do? And please pick one of these.

[] Guard the Lair for tonight.
[] Go out and get what she needs for three days.

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Yeeeeeeeeeeees you have new minion now! Annie is madly loyal to you and also has a rather interesting past.

Enjoy your purchase!

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