souls have been lost and the panic grows

[phototraces]

[That... that was hell, actually. Wendy didn't like that at all. After the trial she... has to head to the kitchen and hopefully not find clay shit everywhere. She needs to do something to keep things under control. To keep things going.

She's not a great cook but she knows the basics. Meat. Bread. Cheese. Something warm for the belly to drink. She's nervous when she works but she's relentless. There's no asking for help from her as she makes a spread for everyone. Then... she's moving all of it not to the eatery but the bonfire.

Making makeshift tables around it and placing trays of food and drink. Even setting up a chair for Alex a good distance away from the fire but close enough that he can be part of things if he wants to.

Wendy, with her careful writing, writes up some notes and hands them out to everyone if she can find them or if not under their door.

Food at the bonfire and the area around it. Attendance not mandatory but it's probably better for all of us if we stick together. Bring more food and drink if you want.

Wendy

...She can't control other people but she can try to suggest.]

Comments

[pariunt]

Hmm!

[He makes a show of pondering this for a moment.]

No less than sixteen, surely. Hopefully more. An absurd amount of chickens. Forty or fifty, perhaps.

[necromants]

[He's absolutely giggling in response.]

We'd have to worry about running out of food if we had that many running around!

[pariunt]

[His own laugh makes it clear that Astarion is having a great time.]

You'd have to survive off of whatever strange food the gods deign to give us!

[Well. At least Astarion will be okay so long as he keeps getting blood.]

[necromants]

There certainly are some interesting ones we get from our offerings...

[But speaking of!]

I've been meaning to ask! You're well provided for, aren't you? For your... dietary needs?

[He may look a little too fascinated by the idea but don't worry about it,,,]

[pariunt]

[Oh, no. He knows that look. That is a hard no, thank you very much.]

Quite well! It's restocked as often as your foodstuffs.

[necromants]

That's quite convenient... Where is she getting this blood from...?

[Athena, casually draining some humans(?) dry in the background...??? Well, anyway.]

Good, good, though would you mind all that terribly if I asked you about it? Vampires are mere legends in Aelios; I've never had the pleasure of meeting one before!

[pariunt]

She said something about it being from another one of the gods.

[He doesn't really care where it comes from, truthfully.]

Not all of it is humanoid, but most of it is.

[But as for vampires being legend...]

It's strange, how different things are between all of our worlds.

[necromants]

[The blood of the gods... what does that taste like? For a vampire, not a person. He is not thinking about drinking blood, I swear.]

Indeed! Are vampire quite common where you're from?

[pariunt]

[Whoops, he meant it was another god's supply of blood. Misunderstandings!

At the question, he shrugs.]

I wouldn't know. The only true vampire I've had the misfortune of meeting was Cazador.

I'm a vampire spawn; a slave of a "true" vampire.

[necromants]

Was he the one who turned you into a vampire? I assume you aren't still enslaved to him?

[pariunt]

He was.

And he's dead. I killed him myself.

[necromants]

Congratulations on your freedom, then. Did you join up with your allies afterwards?

congrats, zvei, you've unlocked #trauma

[pariunt]

We took him on together.

I wouldn't have been able to get out of his bloody Ritual of Profane Ascension without them.

[He clenches his fist.]

He is dead, and I'm the one still alive.

[zvei voice] thanks but no thanks?

[necromants]

[Hmm, this sounds like it's actually A Problem, but...]

What sort of ritual was this...? Aren't you glad that he's gone?

[pariunt]

He would have become the Vampire Ascended. Capable of walking in the sunslight. And all it would have costed him was seven thousand souls.

[Astarion stares at his hands.]

Something so horrific couldn't have been allowed to happen.

[necromants]

I can imagine how dreadful that would have been. So you and your friends freed those people?

[That seems to tie into Astarion's trivia section on his profile, anyway.]

[pariunt]

We did.

To kill them would have been monstrous.

[necromants]

There are always those who will use - and kill - others for their own ends, unfortunately.

[pariunt]

You needn't tell me. Cazador would have killed all of them, and me, in pursuit of his Ascension.

If this godlike power is truly something within my grasp... the spawn will never again fear something happening to them.

[necromants]

You'd protect them all? A noble goal. Do you think yourself worthy of godhood?

[It's not a pointed question at all, just a curious one.]

[pariunt]

No. Not exactly.

[He laughs.]

But I was offered it. And we'd already risked life and limb to go to the party we were at the begin with. And I thought to myself, what if there was an easier way?

[necromants]

"An easier way".

[Zvei exhales; it's not quite a laugh, but it's approaching it.]

Yes, I thought something similar.

[pariunt]

After what's happened, it's a foolish thought to have.

I should have turned Athena down.