THE MISTS OF RAVENLOFT:
THE BUNKER (1916 – FRENCH TRENCH LINES)
FRANCE: OLD TRENCH LINE AND RUINS OF FAMILY MANSION – AN AS YET UNNAMED LOCATION ALONG THE OLD FRONT LINES OF WORLD WAR 1
PROLOGUE:
DESCENT INTO MADNESS
Reno Vergunne in the French trenches of 1916 during World War 1.
He awoke to the sound and vibration of the earth shaking all around his body. Explosions went off and shells fell all around him as he scrambled for cover in the trench he found himself in. Ghostly soldiers stormed forward up and over the trenches into machine gun and cannon fire of no-mans-land. He checked himself for any wounds or injuries and found his head bleeding from where a piece of rubble had hit him.
Reno he thought to himself. Yes that was his name. He was a French/American and found himself in the trenches during World War 1.
He looked around for shelter and read the sign saying 1st Battalion Riflemans Headquarters Bunker.
Dead bodies lay all around the trenches. Blood, guts and entrails decorated the defenses. No one remained alive other than him and only the ghosts showed any sign of movement.
He ran for the bunker door and flung it open as an explosion sent him flying through the opened door. Rubble fell all over his body and covered him from head to toe. His vision blurred until he could see hundreds of whatever he happened to be looking at.
Hands and shovels dug deep into the rubble. He fell in and out of consciousness as he felt himself lifted and carried. Voices cried out for orderlies, chemists, nurses, doctors and surgeons. He felt the mood around him was one of desperation and determination not to lose another soul this day.
The pain in his head was intense, crippling in its ferocity. He screamed and felt hands holding him down. He was falling into the shadowy abyss of unlife. He felt his life essences drain away quickly as the futility of his situation greeted his deep intense thoughts of mortality and deaths grip closed around him.
The hands left him as he drew his last breath. He shouted in his mind for salvation. A last message to his god for redemption and forgiveness for his sins. A white hand fell on his shoulder and drew him into the light in the distance. He felt relieved. A massive burden lifted from his body as the hand of forgiveness guided him into the light.
It shone brightly and illuminated all around. A celestial tunnel of light. A welcoming gateway at the entrance to Heaven.
And then it was gone.
Prologue:
The Asylum
2025 December:
A rural location in France
Reno screamed in anger and frustration. He felt robbed of his salvation. He swore profusely. It wasn't fair.
He opened his eyes and felt himself restrained. His arms and legs unmoving. Unable to loosen the straps that held his feeble body down.
"Let me out of this fucking bed you mother fucker. I'll fucking kill you, Doc."
"Calm yourself, Reno."
Reno watched as the nurse with auburn hair cut short stood over him. He cursed and swore as the needle she was carrying pierced the skin of his upper right arm.
"It's just a sedative, Reno. No need for these theatrics. It will calm you. You have just come out of one of you psychotic episodes."
"Do that again bitch without my permission and I'll break lose and fucking eat you."
"Don't be ridiculous, Reno. Nurse Judy is just doing her job. Although it does worry me that you would
return to you cannibal ways should you ever break free."
"You talked us through your dream most thoroughly. It would seem you believed you were present on the front line trenches of world war 1 France in 1916. The detail was astounding. Almost like you were actually there."
"I was there you fucking, Idiot. It wasn't a dream. It was real."
"You were here the whole time. Strapped to the bed and firmly secured. We have the whole session recorded from multiple sources. You never left the room, Reno."
"I know I was there. Just like all the other times when you put me under. I'm fucking living the experience. You can't keep me locked up like this."
"I assure you. The dream was nothing more than your mind playing tricks on you."
"Let me go. I promise not to eat anyone this time."
"You know you are here for the rest of your life, Reno. You know what you did."
"I fucking ate them all. The demon told me to. You know that."
"I thought we had discussed this, Reno. There is no demon. You are a very sick man. You will remain in this facility for the rest of your natural life. You killed and ate sixty nine people before you were caught. You have put more police officers and medical personnel through psychiatric evaluation than the entire hospital full of patients."
"But it wasn't my fault."
"Don't play stupid, Reno. You're sick but quite intelligent when you need to be."
"I'll get free and fucking murder everyone here. You see if I don't."
"We have had to quadruple the security detail just for you, Reno. No one feels safe with you around. You will remain medicated until such time as you are able to maintain a reasonably normal demeanor."
"I can break these straps, Doc."
"You are undoubtedly a unique specimen, Reno. At 7 feet six inches and weighing seven hundred and fifty pounds there simply isn't another patient like you anywhere. But you must understand. You pose a very significant threat to all in your presence. You've been shot twenty three times and seem to shrug off your wounds like something otherworldly.
It takes a dose ten times the standard dosage to even put you under for an hour. You are indeed remarkable. Of that there is no doubt. Experts in their field from all over the world wish to study you intensely. How is it that a six foot man weighing two hundred pounds and already fully grown at forty five years of age can suddenly transform into the monstrous visage you appear as today in merely two years of killing and unbelievable rage.
It isn't possible in this world. And yet here you are. A terrifying enigma too dangerous to be let lose and a lifelong patient in this top secret maximum security medical facility. This place was built for exactly such indefinable killers as yourself. You will die here and some will say not too soon. You are universally hated, vilified and despised not to mention the fear you induce in all those present."
"You speak highly of me, Doc. I'll eat you first and slowly while you watch."
"You're threats are wasted on me, Reno. I do not fear you."
"You will. Before the end."
"This book you were found holding when they captured you. What is it? Where did you get it? And why is it made of human flesh?"
"The book is a gateway to my world and beyond, Doc. You should take a look if you're curious. A mere whimsical tale by all reckoning penned by none other than Strahd Von Zarovich. Ruler of the Lands of Barovia in a magnificent and hellish world simply known as Ravenloft. or so I surmise from my study. A land where blood is spilled for an eternity of ever lasting undeath. I will find my way there, Doc. It's just a matter of time."
"You know they want to send you to the chair, Reno. There is unbelievable political pressure on the government to pass a law simply to execute you. I have been tasked with evaluating your mental progress. I can tell you now that your words do not fill me with hope for redemption. You should simply not exist, Reno. And most people think that while ever you live you pose a threat to everything and everyone. I would like to help you but I see no point if these threats continue. It is difficult to find people willing to work on your case. All fear you. Most simply wish you gone for all our sake."
"Read the damned book, Doc. It's an eye opener for certain. This world isn't what you think it is. It's simply a chamber of portals into the terrifying planes beyond our own. A gateway into the lost. Into the forgotten. And into the unknown. A portal to an infinite number of worlds and places that have remained beyond our reach.
It requires only a sacrifice of blood to open. But to see the horrors and wonders within you must sacrifice others until its demands are sated. The Blood Tome is an introduction into the World of Darkness and the endless secrets that will follow once you open it. But it will open a door into this world and out into the planes that I have yet to discover."
"Ah, will you look at that I've cut myself on the edge of the page. Nurse could you bring a bandage. It seems to be bleeding profusely. Far more than a mere paper cut should have caused."
The book drained the spilled blood. Absorbing and drinking down this paragon of virtuous deeds. This was a well intentioned purveyor of bloody perversions. A man of true belief. A man of determined and steadfast morals. A pawn to be used and molded into shape by the will of Strahd as he instantly felt his immortality beckoning the foolish human to simply turn the first page. To glance inside and peruse the myriad of perversions on offer to those curious few.
Doctor Ivan Ibramovich. Doctor and Psychiatrist to the serial killer and cannibal Reno Rhains felt an urge like no other to open the book. With all his mental fortitude he tried to resist and failed like those before him.
His hands fumbled with the clasp that shuttered the book. An extremely heavy tome as though it carried all the forbidden and forgotten knowledge of ages past across an untold number of worlds, planes and existences from a time lost to ages past but remembered and revered by the eternal undead and their necromantic gods and elder gods.
The blood poured from his hand and oozed from every orifice. The book drank greedily as the once proud man studied the pages as they turned seemingly by themselves. Caught on numerous filming cameras the bloody vignette exploded into a carnage of bloody murder. Ivan felt his talons and fangs ripping into the nurse and draining her blood. Reno was enraged and enraptured equally at the blood letting and let out blood curdling shrieks and screams that had no earthly place in coming from a human.
His muscles tensed. His talons like twelve inch adamantium stilettos tore at the feeble straps. Within seconds he was free and all hell had come to earth.