Edward Benevento was enjoying the last few days of his holidays driving his twenty year old Ford Taurus through the icy New England countryside. The heater was working well for once something he was profoundly grateful for given the snowflakes floating in the air.
He parked in an lay by overlooking the lake and just enjoyed the magnificent scenery. The grey forbidding waters of the lake, the snow covered forested slopes of the hills and the gloomy grey sky.
Eddy grinned and called up his status, it never grew old seeing his life and abilities in numbers. It allowed him to really appreciate his development. “Vampire Hunter,” he murmured. “How cool is that, and level three already.” He leaned back and looked up at the digital clock. He sighed, lit a cigarette and produced his phone, he hit the speed dial and waited.
“Good morning, Dr Michaels office. How may I help?”
“Morning Laura. Edward Benevento here, I’m ringing to reschedule my appointment. I won’t be in town till after the weekend.”
There was a brief pause during which Eddy could hear Laura tapping on a keyboard. “Mr Benevento, this is the second appointment you’ve cancelled. There is a note on your file that you asked us to remind you that these appointments form part of the terms of your parole. Would next Tuesday at 10:30 be acceptable?”
Eddy scowled, “next Tuesday at half ten. I’ll be there. Bye.” Eddy ended the call and started his car, examined the snow covered trees one more time before driving off.
Not much later the snow was coming down heavily an Eddy could barely see anything but the swirling white flakes. He spotted a Motel as he was driving by and he braked, skidding slightly, backed up and turned into the sorry looking motel’s car park. He stopped next to reception, braced himself and almost ran into the motel. The place looked old and a bit tatty but it was clean. The teenager wearing a red baseball cap manning the reception desk was ugly as sin.
Eddy quickly obtained a room and was soon settled in watching TV. He awaited the news bulletin and grinned at the reports of the massacre in Harrisburg. He couldn’t believe they were still yapping on about that. Those werewolves and that vampire had needed taking down and he was the man who had done it.
Dinner was good, but god the staff all seemed cut from the same cloth, large bulging eyes, receding chins and wide mouths. One of the waiters seemed to have scales.
Next day it was still snowing so he decided to see what he could. A vampire hunter’s life was never easy and he had to check the place out. Considering the butt ugly locals he almost expected to find one here. They were obviously not bright and prime vampire fodder. Then there were all those savage dogs in the yard of the house across from the motel; maybe they were wolves!
Eddy crossed the road and walked to where he could see a side road. Walking this he passed a peculiar looking house on his right across from a small church with a ridiculously large graveyard containing several snow covered mausoleums. His eyes narrowed with suspicion Andy walked up to the church. The door was closed but not locked so he went in. Heavy carved wooden pews met his eyes. The walls were panelled with dark carved wood panels and the alter was similar.
Eddy explored the public areas before moving behind the alter. He pushed open the door to the presbytery and blinked in surprise at the azure robes hanging from the coat rack. Then Eddy’s hair stood on end, there on a small shelf sitting next to two copies of the bible and a small stack of prayer books was the Cultes des Goules by Francois-Honore Balfour, Comte d’Erlette.
Eddy picked up the decrepit looking leather bound book and slowly paged through it. It was written in some foreign language but the woodcut pictures and illustration of magical ritual circles told him that this was a filthy blasphemous book that didn’t belong in a church. Something was very wrong here and Eddy determined to get to the bottom of it.
Reluctantly Eddy returned the book to its place on the shelf and made his way back to the motel. In his room he booted up his laptop. He was surprised to find the motel had wifi and made use of it to research. His hair stood on end as he read about the Cthulhu Mythos. Yeah it was all described as fiction but he had held that blasphemous book in his hands. And everyone said vampires were fictional and he knew better.
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He signed out, had lunch and went out to his car. He removed the bulk of snow covering it and started it. One look at his fuel gauge caused him to fill up and go back into reception to pay. Chills ran up and down his back, Deep Ones, the staff were all Deep Ones!
He drove out of the motel’s lot and nosed into the uncleared cross road driving very slowly and carefully in the deep snow. He made a three point turn in front of the church and opened the secret compartment he had installed under the passenger seat and collected his prized AR-15.
Holding his rifle vertically against his leg in an attempt to hide it he made his way back to the church. He was shocked to see a man standing in front of the alter with his back to him. The man turned displaying a clerical collar. Eddy swallowed nervously, the damn fake priest was a Deep One like everyone else he had seen in this place.
“Good afternoon sir, may I help...”
Eddy swung up his trusty rifle and fired several shots cratering the wall behind the alter and breaking the end window before hitting the priest. The priest dropped and without sparing him a look Eddy raced into the presbytery and grabbing the book. He ran back to the church only to see two forward slumping bipedal figures of a vaguely canine cast. They gibbered and Eddy sobbed and charged firing as he went. Why couldn’t he hit them? Finally they fell gushing blood and he charged past only to find another of the thing on the path. He triggered his AR-15 again and then all he got were clicks.
Near panic Eddy dropped his rifle and pulled out his Glock. Firing wildly he finally managed to hit the Ghoul and he jumped over the supline figure and finally reached his car. He jumped in and floored the accelerator. Sobbing he grabbed his keys and managed to get his car running on the second attempt and he headed towards the main road and was lucky there was no traffic when he entered in a near uncontrolled skid.
“I’ll be back,” he vowed.
A little later he checked his status. “Yes! I gained a level!”
* * *
Father Ryan O’Donnel was sitting comfortably outside his newly built church peacefully smoking his pipe. He watched in satisfaction as the citizens of Carmarhage on Ervenio went on with their lives. The locals had only recently thrown the grasping soldiers and governors of the Empire of Light out and they had been incredibly receptive to his message.
‘The Russians finally did something useful. Mind you I wish Cora would relocate. Damn the woman with her Hecate. The Greeks would not have recognised her version, thanks be to God.’
Cora Higgins snorted at the sight of the chubby red haired Irishman lounging in front of his ostentatious church smoking that disgusting pipe. She was on her way to the grove in the central park that had been the temple and gardens of Garatina. Being dead Garatina had no further interest in the site. Carmarhage was an incredibly fruitful location for her Goddess and she had many faithful adherents. It helped that Hecate did not insist on being seen as the only Goddess out there.
* * *
Swift Biter the Sahuagin lawyer floated in the office of Slashing Blue Jaws the foreign minister of the Oreolean Empire on Aquadel. He nodded, “I understand ma’am. I will see to it. The changes you have requested are minor and understandable considering that this contract will be with the Empire rather than the Adventurer’s Guild. As for the treaty, that might prove more difficult, I must admit I don’t know much about Midgard’s politics.”
“You have an outline of what we want and you have been briefed on what we can’t cede. Do your best and get back to us,” burbled Blue.
Swift Biter bowed his head gently in respect to the nine meter long sharklike government official averting his eyes from the six inch long brainless male parasite servicing his mate.
* * *
Two days later Swift Biter was in Deep Diver’s office and the two Sahuagin shared a meal of live sardines.
“These are tasty, what are they and where do they come from?”
“Sardines, they come from Midgard. I’ve looked over the proposed contract and I don’t think Antonio will object to it. As for the other matter, Antonio’s dungeon is in Portuguese waters and he is recognised as Portuguese and you will need to contact the Portuguese authorities, and also I expect the EU. An alliance that is slowly trying to become a unitary state.” Explained Deep Diver.
Some hours later Antonio read the contract with Moonbeam and Felicia. He looked at Deep Diver, “This looks acceptable, and you see nothing to object to in this? Has Dr Reis seen it?”
“Yes Mr Muñoz, Dr Reis said that it seemed very favourable but he naturally is not a dungeon so we both feel we can only recommend it. We will understand if there is anything you feel the need to object given your special circumstances.”
Antonio read the contract again, asked for a clarification of a couple of points. Then he signed it. Antonio grinned at Deep Diver, “this is going to put a burr up the asses of those idiots on Oceanis. Isn’t it?”
Deep Diver grinned back, “yes indeed. Now how does my colleague go about contacting the government?”
“I’d suggest contacting Dr Reis. I suspect he’d be the best person to handle something like this. It will take some time. Does your friend want a room? I have some underwater ones too now.”