[center][h1][b][u][color=Maroon]Fe’ris[/color][/u][/b][/h1][/center] [hr] Fennelle crouched in her cave, shivering with cold, wet, and hunger. Stalactites dripped water onto her, water that had never seen the light of day. Her hair was matted, her plum skin stained crimson with blood. She hadn’t meant for it to happen. She hadn’t meant to kill Clowve. But he had just been so [i]obnoxious[/i], rubbing in her face how he was going to inherit the perfume business, from their ailing father, no less! Despite her being the one to tend to his every dying need. It was despicable. He needed to be knocked down a peg. So when he took her up the cliff and gestured to the Outback, saying he’d be the one to tame it and harvest all its fragrances for himself.... well, Clowve may have been full of hot air, but not full enough to keep him from becoming a purple splat on the desert floor. The business was hers, and that was that. Or, well, it should’ve been “that,” but a night later she was hunched over in agony, too pained by the cold fire racing through her limbs and stabbing at her senses to even fetch water for her father. And when the transformation was over, when her eyes could discern the colors of the caves in the dark, and hear the rustling of cinnalyptus trees two miles downwind, Dear Old Dad became Dear Old Dead, her first of many victims. At first, she had been ravenous, determined to snuff out the whole town, everyone who adhered so sickeningly close to that moronic emphasis on the Great Peace. Loud noises were great! The sounds of screams and gushing throats were downright musical. She could yell and bang the drums all she wanted, snap javelins and rip apart animal skins, and nobody could stop her! But now, within but a few months, they were all gone, every last one of them. The ones who could flee had fled. The ones who couldn’t had been picked off, night by night, by the monster haunting them. And it wasn’t like she wanted to kill them! But Fennelle was so hungry, and they smelled so good, and no matter how hard she tried to stay away, she just couldn’t help herself... The former night elf wept as hard as she could, the echoes of her sobs bouncing around the damp limestone walls. They’d come for her, surely, if she didn’t starve first. There’d be hundreds of furious night elves, armed with spears and swords and other implements of destruction she couldn’t hope to stand up to with simple teeth and claws, and that would be the end of it. Something appeared behind her, in the dark. Before, her eyes would’ve been straining to see anything at all in the pitch black. Now... they still saw nothing, as there was no light whatsoever. But she felt something, displacing the air currents and radiating cold. The sound of swishing fur tickled her delicate ears, and she choked the sobbing down from shrieking wails to a manageable level. “H-hello?” [color=Maroon]”Poor child. What ails you so?”[/color] Fennelle squinted again, and this time, she could see violet orbs, glowing brighter than the pink moon to her own sensitive eyes. Despite how bright it seemed, it was faint, so very faint, and she could make out reflective, ribbed stone walls through the back of the translucent figure. When she looked upon the figure’s face, she gasped. The cursed night elf had long thought herself the scariest creature in the cave system, but this guy definitely had her outclassed. His entire body was redder than her mouth and hands, and his skin shivered with indescribable symbols of silver. Wiry, wispy brown hair encircled his head like a fluffy halo, yet his mouth was clustered with teeth like white needles. A dark cloak was draped across his back and shoulders, fluttering in the faint breeze of the caverns. He clasped his hands over his white buttoned shirt, which were more like crow feet than hands, all black and scaly. His features were impish, sharp, like a night elf that had come out horribly wrong. She didn’t quite know what to make of him, but years of growing up in the Great Peace had hammered in the importance of being polite. “I am crying,” snuffled Fennelle, “because my ambitions turned me into a monster. I did some really bad stuff, and now I’m paying for it.” She wiped her wet face, smearing more blood across it, and hoped that the being wouldn’t mind her awful appearance. Fennelle’s mouth gaped open as the being stretched out on the ground, lying in a puddle of silt and mud as his long body curved with the cave walls. He folded his arms behind his head and closed his eyes, plunging them back into absolute darkness. [color=Maroon]”Well then,”[/color] spoke the god with a thousand teeth, [color=Maroon]“you shouldn’t mind me resting here for a moment. Monsters and monsters make excellent company.”[/color] Indignant now, Fennelle sat cross-legged in her own puddle of mud, ears turned toward the mysterious man. “You’re not a monster! Not like I am!” [color=Maroon]”What makes you so sure?”[/color] “You didn’t kill your father and brother,” croaked Fennelle. “You didn’t kill all your friends and family and acquaintances.” She paused. “Or at least, I don’t think you killed anyone. I wouldn’t know.” [color=Maroon]”But you did.”[/color] “Yes.” [color=Maroon] “Poor, poor thing.”[/color] In the absolute darkness, the strange man’s voice took on an apologetic tone. [color=Maroon] “You had no idea what you were in for. Your ambitions led you astray.”[/color] “Yes, they did. And now I’m stuck down here. And I’m going to die. And I deserve it.” She heard the sound of the man sitting up, splashing muck across the both of them as he did so. Droplets of water continued to fall from above, collecting in her hair and eyebrows, trickling down her face and arms. [color=Maroon] “Do you know where we are?”[/color] “No.” [color=Maroon]“Do you know who I am?”[/color] “Also no.” The man chuckled. [color=Maroon]”I am the god Fe’ris, and I am going to make you a deal.”[/color] A deal! “A deal?” She shot to her feet. “What can I do for you? I’ll do anything! I’ll even go out in the sun if I have to, just get me out of here! And make me less hungry! Please?” As if in response, her stomach growled ferociously, but it only served to make him laugh harder.” [color=Maroon]”You are fiery, I will grant you that. But no, you do not have to go out in the sun. In fact, I suggest you never go out in the sun again; you would soon regret it. No, my deal is much more simple than you might think. But again, I shall ask if you know where we are.”[/color] Fennelle sniffed the air, letting it roam across her tongue as she tried to get her bearings. “Somewhere in Kubrazjar, obviously. We’re far underground, but there’s still air flowing. So I would guess we’re near the junction of the Great Green Mesa, and the Outback. And the water means... there’s a spring nearby! Which means people for me to eat!” Her eyebrows dropped. “But I don’t want to eat people...” [color=Maroon] “You shan’t, not to the degree which you have been. Forevermore shall you feed upon the living, but they need not perish before your bite. Your hunger shall not cease, as penance for your misdeeds, but it shall be curbed to be more... sustainably compelling. Now notice the water around us. Is there anything unusual to it?”[/color] Fennelle stuck her tongue in it and immediately scrunched up her face. “It’s salty. What happened? It wasn’t like this before.” He opened his eyes and looked emphatically at her. [color=Maroon] “Your face. Your hands. They are cleansed. They have triggered the Font, for we are beneath its headwaters. I was summoned thusly.”[/color] She sniffed the water again, dipping her tongue into it. Yep, still salty. “The Shifting Font? What does that mean? What does it do?” [color=Maroon] “It will make your life easier. Mortals are compelled to draw near and exchange that which they do not need for what they do. An easy source of prey, provided you do not over harvest. And the nature of your affliction will allow you to create many useful tools. Such is the nature of transmutation.”[/color] For the first time in a good while, Fennelle smiled. “Thank you, Fe’ris! What must I do to uphold my end of the deal?” [color=Maroon] “You must bring success upon yourself. I shall help you no further. And you shall spread word of me, Fe’ris, who granted my blessing to the fiends of blood, the Vampires. You will found the Cult of Ichor, and disperse my teachings, as the heart dispersed to the veins and arteries. That is what I ask of you, Fennelle. Now go, and perhaps we may meet again.”[/color] The god vanished, and Fennelle stood, her head scraping the roof of the low cave. Vampire. Cult of Ichor. Transmutation. Her head spun, not with grief, but possibility. He had given her a chance, to escape the fury of the night elves and serve a greater purpose. She would not fail him. [hider=Summary] Ya boi Fennelle the Kubrazjar Night Elf, did an ouchie, and now her whole village is fucked and dead since she went all vampire and ate them all. She cries in a cave for a while before Fe’ris shows up and is all “gurl why you cryin” and she’s all “I’m a McFuckin murderer and I feel bad about it, and I’m probably gonna starve to death since I gotta drain a whole body every day, got damn.” Fe’ris says he’s gonna make her survive off of less blood, and tells her she’s near a magic blood fountain that literally compels people to come visit it, so it’s basically free food if she’s not a dummy. She asks what she needs to do in return for these abilities, and he says she has to found a cult! Hopefully it doesn’t go all Kool-Aid on the people of Galbar, that’d be lame. [/hider] [hider=MP Summary] Fe’ris: 5MP/4DP Vampirism Adjustments: 1DP/2MP Bloody Sustenance- Vampires must feed three times a week, draining the amount of a normal blood transfusion for that species with each feeding. They can also survive off of animal blood, but doing so for prolonged periods of time will remove their increased strength, speed, and stamina. Sleepy Saliva- Those afflicted with Vampirism have saliva that will temporarily put their victims to sleep and wipe their short term memory. The effects of the saliva do not stack, so biting someone for 10 minutes does not mean they will be asleep for 10 minutes. Depending on size, the average victim will sleep for about 4 minutes, and will take 2 minutes after that to become completely conscious and aware again. •Still will die from direct skin exposure to sunlight •Still have improved senses, strength, speed, and stamina •Still become cursed when you directly murder someone to inherit something from them End 3MP/3DP [/hider]