Week 131 – Sauvigni, Highwayman

Strange job, hunting vampires. Not the worst I've had by a long stretch, but strange.

Funny looking things, too, all bug-looking, but they go for your neck like vampires and they drink your blood. Damned unpleasant, but they die like anything else.

We can't seem to find the ones her Ladyship the Heiress wants, but we'll get them eventually. Scores of us scouring the hills and tunnels every week, we're bound to turn up something eventually.

And in the meantime, there's the Tavern waiting for all this hard-earned gold.

Sauvigni

Week 132 – Fitzrolf, Musketeer

The Diary of Emmanuelle Fitzrolf

I am home.

I have hunted the most savage beasts across distant lands, traveled with the crusade to chase lions and the great serpents of the desert, fought the fierce brigands of the East and the dread roc of the West, and here I experienced a hunt that thrilled me to my core in a way nothing ever has.

I can't even describe it, my heart is still throbbing. There was a mad purple void, a step and then a falling sensation and there we were, facing down a huge, monstrous prey like nothing in this world or any other! It was beautiful, and those terrible lashing arms slicing into us, and the feeling of walking on the knife's edge… Glorious! Joyous! Life and wine and the Fountain of Youth!

I think I'm addicted to this place.

Fitzrolf

Week 133 – Bardiche, Hellion

This is the strangest place I've ever fought in, and I've been carrying my spear to war for two decades.

The Lady pays better than any I've ever served under, which I suppose makes sense. It's a sight harder to find folks willing to fight demons and blood-suckers than simple men.

I've seen the eyes of the ones that have that red disease. They've all got this sunken look. Like they're staring very, very hard at something just under your skin.

I don't care. Fighting and writing are the only things I know how to do, and I might as well risk my neck for my bread and board here as elsewhere.

Bardiche

Week 134 – Bardiche, Hellion

There's a brutal, berserk giddiness in the Blood, once it's touched you. It's a little like being drunk or rutting, and a little like nothing else I've ever felt.

I can only write this because I've come down from the worst, or best, of it. It hits you like a hammer and your entire body shakes and then calms. There's a stillness and sense of absolute focus, but there are strings vibrating inside you and sometimes they jerk you in a direction you didn't expect.

I've caught myself staring at the veins underneath their skin. I have to watch that.

Bardiche

Week 135 – Bosc, Plague Doctor

I've come to a conclusion. The only way I am going to be able to properly study this wretched plague is if I capture one of those bloodsucking fiends alive.

The question is how to do it. I'm going to need to prepare carefully for this. I'd ask Couer for help, but he's in a dangerous mood lately and I can't trust him. That new girl, the huntress, isn't blooded enough.

Brèvedent, now. She might be of service. I think she has just the right bit of recklessness to be willing to help with such a project.

Bosc, Dr. Md., physician.