🩸 [Open Adventure] In a Dark, Dark Room (and Other Scary Stories)

[Barthelme]

Black clouds drifted across the darkening sky. Among them a great crimson could be seen. A blood moon, as the old folks said.

Its eerie light illuminated the road down below. A weathered old road, winding through some very inhospitable terrain. To the east was a dark forest, dense with great, gnarled trees whose branches clawed at the dark sky like the limbs of deformed giants. To the west, the woods gradually gave way to a great marsh where ghost-lights flickered like lanterns in the far darkness. Here and there eyes glittered, too, in both swamp and wood, trained with unsettling intensity on any traveler.

It was not a good darkening to be on the road. Then again, it was never a good darkening to walk that lonely road. The old folks said that, too.

Up ahead, however, were lights amid the darkness, welcoming and warm. Past an old cemetery, its crumbling graves slowly being overtaken by the forest, was a great building which had withstood the ravages of time with only moderately better grace. Here was an inn. Apparently nameless... the sign on the post outside having crumbled into rot, with only the characters "I_N" still marginally visible. Nonetheless, the establishment was very definitely open, and had all the amenities that a discerning traveler could desire.

Here was the front desk where the Innkeeper sat: a very corpulent man with a very wide smile, displaying teeth that were just a little too sharp to be properly human. The Innkeeper greeted any guests with unctuous hospitality, offering rooms for weary travelers for a very reasonable price. In return for a few coppers, he'd offer a guttering candle and a weathered brass key. The rooms were just up the rickety stairs, there... mind your step in the dark. Up past creaking boards underfoot and the cobwebs up ahead. The halls had seen better brightenings, it was true, with signs of rot and rust on every surface. The rooms themselves, though, were spacious and clean. The Innkeeper swore it.

Here was the common room, filled with light (of a sort) and laughter (of a sort). The patrons were a rather rough-looking crowd, all dark hoods and furtive glances at any newcomers, but perhaps that wasn't so unusual in a distant country inn. In any case, they huddled over their mugs and flagons and kept to themselves. And behind the bar was the Innkeeper's Wife, a very plump woman in a very tight black dress, her face all made up in white powder and rouge. She was holding merry court among the locals, and greeted new arrivals with a cheery wink. Also present was the Innkeeper's Daughter, waifish and slim and deathly pale. She wove about the crowd serving drinks, dressed all in black like her mother and with makeup to match, her expression dour and unenthused.

Outside were the stables, all cramped and dark, and... oddly... populated by horses that were uniformly gaunt and black. The Innkeeper's Son was at work there, inordinately tall and mutely staring at any potential customers from beneath his mop of wild black hair. Still, he was all too ready to take custody of any travelers' horses, or to offer a quick tour of the graveyard or the desolate wilderness nearby. This place was full of secrets, he said, and he knew every one of them.

Also present was the Innkeeper's Mother, sitting on a rocking chair by the front porch. She was wearing thick spectacles and a pale pink dress embroidered with flowers. She smiled pleasantly at anyone who came near, and offered a single wrapped

candy Have your PC take a candy if you want a milder Halloween experience with no NSFW content.

from a bowl she held on her lap.

The inn offered other comforts, too. Wine cellar. Bathhouse. A pond out back, for fishing.

The Innkeeper and his Family were open for business.

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

Lei'gen had long since stopped keeping track of how far he had gone. He had been walking since the brightening had first dimly lit the overcast sky and now his feet ached and his mood had soured. He looked up at the darkening sky and cursed, he did not wish to be still on the road much longer, his keen ears had picked up the rustle of things that lurked at the edges of the road many times already, and neither the forest or the swamp looked like they would make for a pleasant campsite.

He paused to read the sign that stood rotting by the side of the road. The barely legible lettering did not fill him with confidence, but he brightened a little once he realised that the sign had once read 'Inn'. Looking ahead he saw a faint column of smoke rising into the blackening sky, and the muted glow of a distant building that, he hoped, might offer a safe place to rest for the night.

Lei'gen quickened his pace to flee the encroaching darkness, each passing moment revealed yet another set of twinkling predatory eyes in the corners of his vision, and he was eager to put stone between him and them. As he approached the inn, he stopped for a moment to examine the Inn, it was run down, and time had not been kind to the building, but the old walls looked sturdy enough to offer shelter for the night. He walked up the creaking steps and nodded a perfunctory greeting to the old woman, the opened the battered door into the Inn.

As he entered the common room something prickled inside him and the hairs on the back of the neck stood on end. It was the sort of feeling that sat deep in the hindbrain, a tugging at his thoughts that something was not right, a primordial sensation from when the mortal races cowered in caves at the darkening and huddled in terror, waiting for the suns to rise again. He wrestling with his thoughts for a moment to push the feeling aside, the Inn felt off, but, he argued with himself, better and uncomfortable night looking over your shoulder or a night finding out what sort of things the twinkling eyes amongst the bracken belonged to.

He walked up to the bar, glancing all around to get a sense of his surroundings and the occupants of the inn, there will be no friends found here tonight, he thought to himself and snorted lightly in amusement, for Lei'gen was not one for making friends. He found, despite himself, that he lingered a little too long on the young woman that was busy serving, and he snapped his focus back to the bar, fearing his gazing had been noticed. Her complexion and build reminded him of his kin, and something about the way she went between the tables serving the patrons felt almost ethereal to him, he felt both a hotness rise in him and a bead of cold sweat trickle down his back. He drew back the hood of his cloak as far as he dared and placed both his hands on the bar.

"A room..."

"And a drink..."

 

[Barthelme]

As the Esh’lahier waded between the crowded tables the inn's odd clientele surrounded him on all sides, staring at him from beneath hoods and cowls with eyes that were just a little too reminiscent of those that had glittered in the darkness of the woods outside. Whispers rose all about the room, sibilant and intense, as the people remarked on his presence here. The candles that sputtered feebly atop the tables around him set their warped and wavering shadows dancing across the walls on every side, transforming the scene into one of monstrous creatures engaged in some fiendish revelry.

The inn's patrons were smiling at him. So to speak. Broad smiles that didn't quite reach those glimmering eyes, with a bit too much in the way of teeth, and a bit too little in the way of warmth. Stilll... also beneath the hoods of his fellow patrons, Leigen saw pallid skin, sunken eyes, sunken cheeks... in brief, nothing terribly different from what he saw in his own mirror every day. And there was the Innkeeper's Wife before him now, smiling broader and more sincerely and more secretively than any of them, her broad face dimpling extravagantly as her lips curled and her eyes bored into his. Lei'gen's simple order, it seemed, met her approval.

"Over here now, my love," she called merrily, snapping her plump fingers at the serving girl. "A glass of the house red for our newest guest."

The House Red: earthy and almost metallic-smelling, and a deep red in color, of course. The young woman Lei'gen had been admiring just so happened to have a goblet of it already balanced on her simple steel tray. Coincidence? Likely not. It seemed that the Esh’lahier was being served the crowd's drink of choice, or maybe the only sort of drink that the inn served at all. The crowd at the tables about him lifted their arms almost in unison, hoisting a mishmash of glasses, mugs, and vessels of all types, uniformly filled with the same red drink. Even the serving girl seemed to have been enjoying a bit of it on the job. That smear of red about her lips was something other than lipstick.

That girl. The Innkeeper's Daughter. She, perhaps, taken a shine to Lei'gen. Enough so at least that her attention had been fixed on him from the moment he pulled back his hood. She lingered near after she placed the goblet on the bar before the Esh’lahier. Even trailed the fingers of one hand across his shoulder and down the back of his arm, just out of sight of her mother. From the corner of his eye, Lei'gen could see her red lips parting slightly.

The Innkeeper's Wife appeared to notice nothing. She just stood, and smiled, and waited for Lei'gen to drink.

 

[Lei'gen Zylralei]

Lei'gen's eyes roamed the room, flickering from one patron to the next as he studied their faces. Though they reminded him of his kin, something in the pit of his stomach churned and warned him that something was wrong. Not just that it was rare for so many Esh’lahier to be gathered in one place since the fall, but there was something fundamentally off about the patrons of the inn, an uncanny feeling that they both were, but at the same time weren't. Lei'gen's lot in life had giving him the knack for reading the atmosphere of a room, the taproom of an inn moreso, but if felt like no amount of reasoning would pin down why the room disturbed him so.

The smiles...

It was the smiles...

Lei'gens thoughts turned to the forest, he was a deer in a clearing, forming around him was a circle of predators in the twilight shadows between the trees. The smiles of the patrons turned to the savage grins of animals as they closed the circle, and yet here he stood paralysed, every sinew bowstring-taut, willing him to leap and kick and flee into the darkening forest. Every fibre told him to run, but he found himself paralysed, as though the smiles had severed the link between the body and the brain and so he stood transfixed as the orchestra of wolves gathered around him.

He snapped out of his thoughts as the goblet was placed before him. He took the goblet gently, his eyes lingered again too long on the Innkeeper's daughter, He raised the goblet to his face to test the aroma of the wine, he was no expert on the subject, but there was something familiar about the smell. Just play along, he thought to himself, They just want you to drink, so drain your cup and excuse yourself, then at brightening you can be back on the road before the stove has been lit for breakfast.

His eyes returned to her. The deer in the pit of his stomach urged him to flee, but when his eyes met hers, he felt compelled, as if by some unnatural magnetism, to remain. Try as he might he could not stop himself, and every time he caught his gaze lingering a little too long he forced himself to look away, though he knew that she had probably noticed. His skin grew taught and prickled with goosebumps at the unexpected sensation of her touch, something electric and icy-cold that spread in a wave from his arm and tingled through every nerve ending in his body before fading away. Just drink your drink and go to bed he reminded himself.

He raised the goblet to his lips and took a large gulp. His eyes shot wide with disgust as the house red entered his mouth, coating his tongue and dripping in thick rivulets down his throat, but he did his best to hide it. He new why it smelled so familiar now, the viscosity, the coppery tang. His body revulsed as the liquid hit his stomach and he fought the urge to gag and vomit, wary of the wolfish smiles that surrounded him, knowing deep-down that perhaps his chances of seeing the suns rise depended on keeping it down. Despite the sensible urges of his body he drained his glass. His head swam and his stomach heaved but he tried to feign refreshment. He placed the empty goblet on the bar and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"If you will excuse me", he said to the Innkeeper's wife, though he found his gaze once again coming to rest on her daughter. The deer still stood frozen in the pit of his stomach, urging to buck and to run and to keep running, but Lei'gen no longer listened, and he no longer cared if his stare was noticed, as if he no longer governed his very soul. He forced himself to avert his eyes and lowered his vision to the tavern floor. "It has been a long and weary road and I would like to retire for the evening".

 

[Catriona Albia]

Catriona couldn't quite recall what circumstances had caused her to be traveling this dark and lonely path on a night such as this. Although the druidess was by nature quite at ease in the wilds; in the open fields and deepest forests, there was something particularly eerie about this particular night along this particular path.

It wasn't the blood red moon that unnerved her. It outshone the brilliance of her own auburn hair that tumbled in waves over her shoulder and down her back beneath the hood of her cloak, and was a thing of wonder, beauty and magic. It was the eyes, real or imagined, that watched from the trees on one side and from the marshes on the other. The ones that belonged to creatures she couldn't make out in spite of the heightened senses, those of hearing and seeing, that were her birthright. More heightened than your average human, but not quite as much as the average elf.

Of all the unseen; those on the wing, those that walked on four legs or slithered along on their silky smooth bellies; thoughts of those didn't spook Catriona at all. More than that, it thoughts of the smooth skinned two legged ones that had no sort of good or honorable business out on this road in the night. And even less good business, lurking in the shadows watching lone travelers go by.

So an inn, even one such as this, was a welcome sight. Particularly because in spite of what, for her, was ordinarily a very good sense of place and direction, Catriona hadn't the slightest idea where she was at the moment, therefore, where home was from here. Surely if she stopped for the night, a better sense of familiarity would return with the dawn.

By the looks of it, not exactly one of the land's finest establishments, but the smiling old woman on the front porch seemed welcoming enough, dressed in a cheery colored dress that seemed to shake its proverbial fist in defiance up against a much darker and gloomier night. Catriona smiled softly in return. "Good evening," she said, and glanced down at the bowl full of sweets that rested in the old woman's lap. Perhaps some concerned parent or grandparent, long ago, had warned her not to accept candy from strangers. But nonetheless, the half elf couldn't resist and politely took just one of the sweets wrapped in wax paper. If she was lucky, it was a bit of saltwater taffy.

It was inside the inn where the paying customers, and even the staff, at a glance caused her to think twice for a second or two. As if some of those might be just the sort of potential watchers she'd been concerned about, out on the road. It appeared that very few of those inside, shared their sense of fashion with the brightly dressed old woman outside. Apart from the bright colors applied to female faces in, perhaps, a few too many layers. Perhaps it was just an overactive imagination, prompted to the fore by an all too recent stroll alongside a shadowy and ill kept graveyard. But she couldn't quite decide, now, whether it was the demeanor of those inside that unnerved her, or the old woman outside.

Better here though behind sturdy walls and, hopefully, securely locked doors, than back out in the night before she was able to regain her bearings. Having concluded as much, she dropped her hood to her shoulders and slipped the wrapped sweet into her pocket, and approached the bar. "I'd like a room for the night, please. And if it's not too much trouble, some bread, a little cheese and something warm to drink?"

 

[Barthelme]

Lei'gen:

Spoiler

Truly, these were smiles of the very sharpest sort. Like so many crescents of gleaming white teeth slashed haphazardly into the gloom of the common room. As Lei'gen lifted his glass of the House Red, the grins around him only broadened.

And so he drank. The taste of the House Red, and the texture, were indeed just as he expected. The guests drank too. More than that, they seemed to accept him. Their laughter said as much, and the light in their eyes, and the way the Innkeeper's Daughter leaned closer... and low enough even to give him a glimpse of her cleavage now as the elf's gaze wandered her way once again. There was a hunger in her eyes. Always had been... but now it lay naked.

"Of course," the Innkeeper's Wife fairly cooed. "Of course, my dear, sweet boy. Take him to his room, my love. He must be very anxious to rest."

"This way." The breath of the Innkeeper's Daughter tickled the Esh’lahier's ear as she all but whispered into it.

Her hand lay on his shoulder, now. Her touch was gentle, but cold.

Lei'gen must indeed have been weary, for he found that his head swam as he rose from his seat. The trek upstairs took on a hazy, dreamlike sort of feel. The creak of aged stairs beneath his feet. The sight of the Innkeeper's Daughter before him,, dimly visible, like a ghost haunting that dark stairwell. The sway of her hips beneath that black dress. And then they were at the door of the room that was to be his for the darkening. There was a strong hint of promise in the hungry eyes of the Innkeeper's Daughter as she pressed a key into his hand. Then she was slipping away again, back down those ramshackle stairs.

Lei'gen must have opened that door. He must have crawled into the inviting bed he found within that room. Above all, he must have slept. Because in the very heart of the darkening he awakened... and not alone. Perhaps it was a creak of the floorboards which disturbed him, or the light of the red moon falling across his eyes. Either way, when those eyes opened, Lei'gen would find himself still abed, but surrounded by a ring of familiar, smiling faces. The inn's clientele, just looming over him from all directions... except at either shoulder, because those positions were occupied by the Innkeeper and his Wife. They held him down gently but firmly, with hands that felt more like claws... even through the blankets and sheets.

"Oh, my dear, sweet boy... we all 'retired' here, you know," the Innkeeper's Wife told him, her too-broad smile almost benevolent.

"And there's always room for one more in our dear little family." That was the Innkeeper speaking, through a grin full of teeth sharp as knives.

Then the crowd at the foot of the bed slowly parted, and there was the Innkeeper's Daughter, come to keep her silent promise from when she'd left him at the door. Unlike all the others, she stood before him totally nude, the light of the moon tinting her pale flesh a surreal shade of red. A stirring sight, under other circumstances. Though the effect, perhaps, was diminished by the crowd of ghastly grinning figures all about them. Hands first, then one leg, and then another, the Innkeeper's Daughter climbed up onto the foot of the bed. She crawled forward, her eyes intent upon him... altogether more like a beast stalking its prey than an amorous young woman, though there were some elements of both. And then she was atop Lei'gen, staring directly into his eyes.

The Innkeeper's Daughter gave a satisfied sigh as she tossed the Esh’lahier's cover back. And there, in front of her Mother and Father and the entire gathered crowd, she did what Lei'gen must have known she would all along....

Which was to say, she flashed her own sharp smile, and buried her fangs in his throat.

Pain. Then cold. Lei'gen caught a final glimpse of her as she reared back, a chunk of his flesh caught between her teeth.

He saw arterial red splashed across her pallid flesh... and then, he saw nothing.

THE END

---

Lei'gen would awaken from the nightmare back in the real world. He bore no wound of any sort. But lying beside him was a lady's handkerchief, half stained red, and marked with the imprint of a woman's lips in what was very definitely not lipstick.

You have gained:

1 MP

A Vampire's Kiss The token is described above. It may be used as a Journeyman-level reagent for Alchemy or spell-casting.

 

[Barthelme]

Catriona:

The old woman's faintly trembling hand briefly clasped the half-elf's in her own as Catriona took the offered candy.

"I wish you," she said, "a pleasant stay."

Her voice was soft and quavering, but kind. And the candy did indeed prove to be saltwater taffy, of the very best kind.

The Innkeeper's Wife grinned too broadly as she watched the Druidess approach. It looked... unnatural. Like the expression belonged to something that didn't quite fit in the seemingly human woman's skin. But then her expression switched to a round "O" of surprise as her eyes caught sight of the candy, a moment before Catriona tucked it away. When the woman's smile returned, it had taken on a whole other character, sweet and sincere.

"I see, my pet, that you've met my Mother-In-Law. I daresay she took a bit of a liking to you, too."

Her tone was fond and indulgent. And along with the demeanor of the Innkeeper's Wife, the atmosphere of the inn as a whole seemed to have undergone a seismic shift. Just a moment ago, far too many cold stares had been boring into Catriona's back. Now, though, the inn's patrons appeared to have lost interest in her. A glance behind would find them drinking, playing games with dice, and generally being entirely nonthreatening (albeit still looking decidedly odd).

"Oh of course, my pet. I'm quite sure we have whatever suits your fancy. Hot cider? Hot chocolate? Coffee, or tea? We have it all, my pet, indeed we do. Also I have a loaf of fresh bread baking just now in the oven. And cheese! Ah, me. I'd wager I have any sort you might desire."

Indeed, whatever the specifics of Catriona's order, the Innkeeper's Wife was willing and eager to provide for a pittance. But most of all she swore by the cheese. Such delicious cheese she had! Catriona really ought to try it, before she retired to her room for the darkening.

Also? The Innkeeper's Cat made an appearance, hopping up onto the bar from behind the counter. Just a perfectly normal black cat with yellow eyes, who looked at Catriona for a moment with brief feline interest, before squeezing his eyes shut with pleasure as the Innkeeper's Wife gently stroked his head.