Monster Party Book 1: I hunt therefore I am!
Epilogue: back to the meaning of life!
"I am the lord of Markovia, I am the land, I am the lord of MarkovIIIIIIIIIAAAAA!" The mantra trailed off into a scream of pain as Akanga buried the scalpel deeply into the misshapen creature's... Markov's failed attempts to shapeshift away his wounds had at this point left him so misshapen by this point discerning individual body parts was a bit tricky.
"Do not worry False God, was it not you yourself who told me that no cut is more painful than the first?" Akanga ruminated before seizing another scalpel and slamming through Markov forehead hard enough to shatter the blade in the process.
Strapped to the Table of Life Frantisek Markov could not die... but oh how he could suffer.
"What a shame, it would seem that such 'wisdom' was naught but another of your lies." Akanga reflected, a thin veneer of fake sympathy overlaying an ocean of schadenfreude.
Before continuing with his 'experiments' the new ruler of Markovia turned his attention to the other occupant of the room.
"You disprove?" He inquired given Alexander's painfully neutral expression.
"The Mists crave suffering, but not always of the virtuous. You will hear no argument from me that Markov hasn't earned his fate." Alexander promised.
"A wise choice. This island has seen enough bloodshed for one day. All the same, it is also to small for a pair of Alphas of our stature to share it. We were united against the False God, but sooner or later we will come to strife, it is only a matter of time." Akanga predicted a touch morosely.
"Believe me, there's nothing we'd like to do more than leave. Now that Markov is in no condition to summon up storms that's finally a possibility." Alexander admitted.
"Good, for as long as I have been Akanga, for as long as I have been broken, this island has been my home. If I were to leave it, I would be a freak, an outcast, a monster, but here in Markovia I am the Lion King.
You have the good fortune to be able to blend in among those who have not suffered the False God's ministrations. Make use of it and depart from this island within a paw's worth of days." Akanga instructed.
Alexander looked like he might be about to argue for a moment then decided against it.
"Just be careful with that thing, sooner or later a bunch of dead monks are going to show up wanting it back, mindless undead are not the most dangerous foes, but their tenacity is nearly unrivaled. Also, do try to make sure that Markov doesn't get free, I'd hate to think that the next unlucky group of people who get washed ashore on this island might have to go through this all over again." Alexander pointed out.
Akanga seized another scalpel in his furred hand,
"The False God shall not escape his punishment any time soon, you have my word on it." He vowed.
Alexander looked away before the blade came down, the sound alone was worth a thousand mental images.
XXX XXX XXX
"He was always... he was always so kind to me..." Delphi sobbed as she sat on her bed and clutched a small doll that Frantisek Markov had made for her when she'd been sick with some unknown illness in her arms.
"Evil isn't a strong thing of the heart or a smart thing of the mind, it's a weak thing of the stomach." A voice announced from the doorway. She turned and saw James Firecat standing there.
"What do you mean?" She asked, her lip quivering slightly.
Even though the battle was over, even though she had not needed to take any part in it, it still felt like somehow the conflict had left her wounded and maimed all the same.
James slowly strode into the room, looking for a place to rest. Seeing that Delphi already occupied her bed and it had no chairs (she did her studying in the library) he instead opted to rest upon the chest containing her dresses.
"My father always told me that hunger makes monsters of more men than malice. No one, not Mirri, not Markov, not even Cal wakes up one morning and just decides 'you know what, I think I'm going to see just how evil I can possibly be today! I bet I can kick half a dozen puppies before lunch, and then pinch coppers out of a blind beggars cup till dinner!'
The problem is that people hunger, and not always for something as simple as food. The don't try to fight the hunger, they don't try to find simple and harmless ways to sate it, they give into the hunger. Then, just as a fat man will start to need to eat more than a skinny one, the more you give into your hunger the greater it grows.
I can't say for certain what it was Markov hungered for.
Maybe it was something as simple as an endless row of 'patients' for him to practice his 'craft' upon. Maybe... maybe... very deep down... in the end... he just hungered to truly be human again. To be an ordinary person, with a family, with friends, neighbors, and a simple respectable job.
Except that he let his hunger drive him for so long that he was too much stomach with too little brain or heart. He couldn't remember what it meant to be human, couldn't bring himself to feel like those he didn't like or weren't useful to him were still people who mattered.
At the end of the day though like I said, evil isn't strong or smart, it can be beaten, will always be beaten if only people are truly willing to try. Markov might have wanted to be human, but he didn't want to make the effort that would come with it.
Still, I think, whatever remained of Frantisek Markov's true heart... it beat for you." He told her solemnly.
Delphi looked down at the doll again then over at James again.
"Is that really all there is to life? People, and the hungers that drive them? Are things really that simple, that... bestial?" She demanded wishing she could have found a different way to end the sentence.
James just shrugged.
"Nobody, nobody sane does things for no reason. Like I said, people hunger for things other than food. I hunger to make this world a better place than it already is. To strike down every diseased rat I can find before it manages to spread it's infection to the innocent.
I know I'll never succeed, the sewers are too big, the rats too numerous, but that doesn't matter, what matters is that I make a difference to every single person I managed to save. Evil is a thing born of hunger, but hunger itself is just that, hunger, without virtue or vice.
That... that's what my mother told me was the greatest gift she managed to give me. Not the fact that I can look like this and yet shrug of blows that would cripple a normal humans for life, not that the moon doesn't force me to transform, not that I can change my shape upon command... it's that I get to keep my memories, I get to stay me, I have a chance... just a chance mind you, to control my hunger rather than be controlled by it.
Just having a simple single chance to do the right thing, and refusing to squander it can make all the difference in the world." James paused and slowly unbuttoned his jacket revealing a pair of round freshly scabbed over wounds upon his neck.
"Do you wanna know how I got these scars?" He asked almost tenderly. Delphi nodded, spell bound, wondering what could possibly have managed to inflict such a lasting mark upon James without slaying him outright.
"Every night as the sun goes down, I'll crawl into Mirri's coffin and she'll drink blood from my neck.
I'm a lycanthrope, so I can afford to loose that blood and not have it even slow me down. So you see Delphi, every night I give Mirri the same chance that my mother gave me, a chance to listen to her heart instead of her stomach.
Mirri has such a beautiful heart... it's a crime the way her stomach tries to drown it out. I have been given the chance, and with my daily sacrifice I give her my blood so that it might flow to her heart and lend it strength to beat its loudest.
I'm speaking metaphorically of course, Mirri's dead, well undead, but either way you know her heart doesn't actually beat anymore, that tends to be the kind of thing that only living people's hearts do..." James began to ramble.
He didn't get any further because Delphi dropped her doll and practically flew across the room in order to wrap her arms around him and plant a firm kiss on his cheek and hug him deeply, relieved to realize that in truth he really was a prince masquerading as a beast and not the other way around.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven..." She suddenly heard a female voice counting off.
She let go of James by "three" and looked up into the smiling face of Mirri Catwarrior.
"Good choice." She noted with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
Delphi had a distinct impression that Mirri was very much listening to her stomach at the moment, that or she and James had very different impressions of what the vampire's heart was like. Either way, it didn't really matter.
"Life, isn't about how you satisfy your hunger, it's about how you help other people satisfy theirs." Delphi declared decisively.
As James nodded he reached into the folds of his jacket.
"Got it right in one Delphi. What you need to keep in mind is that all it takes is one good day to elevate any normal person into a hero for life. That's how far you are from where I am Delphi. Just one good day.
By the way... I was going to give this to you after we got back from the monastery, but then things sort of got out of hand. Consider it a exchange from one library to another..." James produced a well thumbed tome and pressed it into Delphi's hands.
"The Land of the Mists..." She muttered.
Delphi recognized the title, it was the same book she had been reading right before James and the others arrived.
She flipped through the pages, past Dementlieu, past Richemulot, past Borca...
"Dorvinia..." She whispered the word slowly as she realized that James' version of the book wasn't missing half of its pages.
"It's a little outdated, that's why mom let me have it, Dorvinia itself doesn't really exist anymore, but it's the exception not the rule. Anyway, I noticed your copy came to a stop..." James began to explain.
"Right before it got to the same general region as Markovia. Convenient." Mirri finished.
Delphi's fingers flipped past a few more pages, and sure enough she saw the name "Markovia" and then promptly slammed the book shut.
"I'll read it, just not today." She promised, though she was unsure if she was talking to James or to herself.
"I wish there was something that I could give you in return..." She reflected.
"Charming as all this is, Akanga wants us off his island as fast as soon possible. I found Wolf Claw in Markov's private room but we still need to cut down several trees, have Florence use vines to bind them together and shape them into some kind of boat for us, assuming she's still got enough power left for something like that today." Alexander reflected having joined Mirri in the doorway to Delphi's room.
"If you need a boat, you could take my... Markov's." She offered.
"Markov's what now?" Alexander repeated, clearly feeling rather wrong-footed.
Delphi blushed slightly..
"Well like I told you back during our first meal together I like to swim. But Markov told me that he didn't, so when I'd go out swimming, he'd row out after me in his boat..." She began.
"More likely he flat out couldn't swim." Delphi's door frame was doubtlessly starting to get very cramped given that Devi Skye had joined her two companions in the doorway.
"Markov might have been able to make himself look vaguely human, but there's one thing humans, well demi-humans have going for them that most primates don't. We're less dense than water, a gorilla on the other hand, even one with a human head would have to fight to keep his head above water with every passing second." Devi pointed out.
Delphi just sighed, animal anatomy was one of the last things she wanted to think or talk about at the moment.
"I'll show you where the boat is, and hopefully you can use it to get back to the mainland..." Delphi offered figuring it was the least she could do.
"So long as you're offering things..." In order to fit in Cal Wright was apparently down on his knees his head alone visible as it stuck through the door at waist height.
"Funny thing happened when I went through Markov's private storeroom. Turns out that ruling Markovia was actually pretty profitable back when it was part of the Core. Well that or he just kept all the cash that any of his 'patients' had on hand when he captured them and it added up over time..." The alchemist announced with delight.
Delphi could hear the sound of a bag full of coins jingling out of sight and heads were turned in the dirty blond's direction.
"What? I already asked Akanga, he's cool with it. These things are just so many shiny rocks to him, most of them too soft for even use as weapons or armor. Meanwhile back in the Core, I'd say it's enough to buy, oh let me be pessimistic and guess it's only worth a duke's ransom." Cal chuckled with delight.
"Look, all you either get out of my doorway or come into my room. Actually just get out of my room, I'm going to need to change clothes and put on some new shoes before I show you were the boat is." The four adventures hanging about the door quickly vanished.
James took slightly longer, as stood up, stretched, and ended up stopping about halfway out.
"Say, an idea just struck me. So long as you and Akanga are giving away stuff that Markov no longer needs, I think there were still two of those huge rats left..." He pointed out eagerly.
"Take them, that's how I help you satisfy your hunger." Delphi responded with a grin.
XXX XXX XXX
"Oh joy another long boat ride and this one is even smaller. Well have fun paddling!" Mirri reflected as she shamelessly reached into Devi's bag of holding, pulled out her coffin, threw its lid open, collapsed inside and shammed it shut quite firmly.
Sure enough Markov's boat was smaller than the Sunset Empires. It wasn't much more than a large canoe in truth. On the other hand, it was large enough for six good friends (or five good friends and one coffin).
"If you ever feel like coming back..." Delphi began.
"We won't." Cal cut her off prompting James of all people to deliver a swift elbow to his side.
"If we ever come back we'll make sure to pay you a visit. I hope Akanga rule proves more peaceful than Markov's." The werecat replied a great deal more tactfully.
There were no more words left to be said at that point, the adventures got into the boat, Alexander took first shift at the paddles while the others did what they could to amuse themselves from counting newly gained coins to writing letters.
XXX XXX XXX
Dear Dame Renier
My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week, never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual or funny, or scary, but you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. The same way that someone who may seem helpful or nice at first might end up trying to vivisect your friends! So if you judge a book only on its cover, you may end up getting taxidermied and turned into glue to bind books with!
PS: That's why I'm glad that I can always trust you, because of how much you've done to help my family since before I was even born!
PPS: Keekees not being able to talk is not the book cover, it's the chapter index.
PPPS: Also I learned that Markovia is now located off the coast of Larmordia. Not sure how useful you'll find that since we're landlocked and what not but I'm sure our allies in Mordent and Dementlieu might want to know about it! Of course it's all jungily now and still, well... Markovia, even if it is under new management so I'm not sure if they really have anything worth trading for and it's not like we need more space, but I figured the location of misplaced landmasses is the kind of thing you might find useful all the same.
Your Faithful Servant:
Longhair.
End Book.
FN: And that's a wrap for this book, narratively speaking at least. I'm going to do one more thing with it, a director's cut of sorts were I talk about this adventure itself, my thought process in adapting it, suggestions if you were actually going to run it, so on and so forth.
I will make no excuses for Akanga's actions, he actually is probably going to be headed for Darklordship if he keeps up doing to Markov as Markov did to him (torture sadistic is a 10% powers check if you're doing it to an evil character its an act of ultimate darkness against anyone else. On the other hand, it's strange to think that in theory Darklordship of Markovia might (should?) pass to him. There are at least two good examples (Claude Renier to Jacqueline Renier and Bakholis To Gabrielle Aderre) where if someone kills a Darklord they end up becoming the new Darklord of the realm. On the other hand, Markov isn't dead/can't die (both the Table of Life and if removed form it at -10 and below hit points or below where normal people would die his just becomes a chaos spawn like mass of protoplasm slowly changing from shape to shape and recovering to zero hit points if left alone for 24 hours) so in theory he shouldn't be able to loose darklordship of Markovia. On the other hand has ever it been officially said that Malocchio officially took darklordship from his mother in the process of taking political control of Invidia? I'm not sure/would like to know. Either way, if Akanga doesn't leave Markov's scalpels to rust then Markovia's future may end up being little brighter than its past.
As for that letter at the end, it is exactly what you think it is, and yes I am going to close out every single book with one of them. What? It's a perfectly reasonable framing device! Also, don't strain your brain thinking about who "Longhair" is, considering who is described doing what, who Longhair is writing to, it really should be pretty obvious.
As for what comes next, well given the episodic nature of the Monster Party stories, and the fact that in Ravenloft THERE IS NO CONTINUITY THERE IS ONLY THE MISTS I'm not going to be that uptight about what order I write /post these stories in.
So after each story I'll try to give you three choices for what will come next. Normally there would be one for each couple but since James and Mirri just got a book to themselves they won't be in the running this time, so that somebody else can have the spot light.
1: Wolves will eat your skin, if you let them in!
In the eternal chill of Vorostokov survival is the ultimate challenge. Only the greatest hunters can gather enough food to feed their families through one night of eternal winter after another. But even the human hunters must beware the four legged predators who slink through the woods. Something evil stirs in this frosty domain, can Alexander Diamondclaw and Florence Bastien finally bring spring back to a land that has not seen it for a generation?
2: Forgive me my mistakes, I'm only human.
In the shadowy forests of Tepest, the inquisition has begun their latest trial. A woman who was disfigured from birth is accused of bewitching a man, a crime for which if found guilty there can only be one punishment, burning at the stake. Alexander Diamondclaw and Florence Bastien will need to plunge into the woods if they wish to get to the bottom of this mystery, but what if the accuser needs their protection just as much as the accused?
3: On a sidewalk, blue Sunday morning' lies a body just oozing' life.
A killer walks the streets of Paridon, a killer who returns every thirteen years to slay six victims at the stroke of midnight over the course of six consecutive nights. The process has run like infernal Clockwork for 12 repetitions, and why should this killer not have his way for a 13th time? Because Cal Wright armed with his trusty firearm Phoenix and lovely sidekick Devi are here to raise an objection to such mindless slaughter (and maybe even get paid in the process!) But with no clues other than the bodies lacking blood an entire city full of potential suspects can he gather enough evidence to pinpoint the killer before it's too late?
Post your comments/votes here!