Aporeu chronicles Issue 53: Maestro Santana's wandering circus of magic
Stories from the adventurers
This week
This time the adventurers deal with some actual vampires. And they find a new gate address, I wonder if that address is on the list?Maestro Santana's wandering circus of magic by Elena
So, we all love going to the circus, right? Well, I’m certain I will pay the Rongo Brothers’ Circus a visit, since I’m very grateful we have such a reliable circus in town after this one adventure! We were asked to interfere by the captain of the guards in a town on the other side of the gate, in the village of Maden. He hired us on a personal quest, because his daughter and another girl have gone missing when they visited Santana’s Traveling Circus who were in town at that time. His superiors did not think it was important enough to investigate it further, which made my blood boil. What do these people do all day, if even the disappearance of your captain’s daughter is not worth investigating? Then they probably will not do anything about stolen vehicles or any unsavory types either. Anyway, even if there had not been a reward, I would want to investigate. As I mentioned before, sharing the care for a little one myself, it has awakened some kind of inner urge. Since the girls disappeared when going to the circus, and Captain Kirat clearly did not trust the people there, we went to the circus to see their act and ask some questions. Their act was a disappearing act. Santana was put into a chest, and a volunteer had to stand next to it. During the act the volunteer disappeared, and Santana got out of the chest. I was on edge right away, it was too obvious this was a great way to take people without anyone paying attention to them vanishing. So I went to the stage after the act, offering both assistants some money to placate them, and I started to ask some questions. They didn’t like to be questioned, and just as they tried to get us away, Svæin heard thumping out of the chest. The assistants said they would have freed the volunteer, really and truly, scout’s honor. Yeah right… It was very clear they were lying. When Svæin freed the guy, they decided to start a fight, which made their lies even more clear. Obviously Captain Kirat had been right, and there was something really wrong here. We killed one of the assistants (it could not be helped at the time), and tied up the other one and put him in the chest himself. I just realize we never set him free, I do hope the guards found him after the whole debacle. We went on a little search after that. At first we mostly found circus props, but we still had to search the house next to the circus barn. In there there were a couple of guards, and upstairs we found some more guards with a weird guy. They too were hostile on sight. The weird guy must have been some kind of vampire too, seen how he crumbled like the other vampires when Svæin killed him. Really, that guy is a bit of a rough one, and not that good at social and political things, but he is invaluable in situations like these. On the weird guy we found a letter and a world code, which I left with Lornan off course. The guild will take precautions and probably send people on another mission there, or not if it’s deemed too unsafe even for us. Downstairs we finally found the girls, or at least, the remains of one of them, gnawed at by a couple of feral dogs. Ulfgar, who had fought very well until then, was at the end of his powers and fell down. Since the dogs kept gnawing on him too, I do believe he could have died if it had not been for Alyr, who bravely stepped in and healed him enough to get him back up. We found Captain Kirat’s daughter alive and well too, and we quickly brought her back home. Captain Kirat did come back with us to round up the rest of the gang. It was not as much rest as we feared though. Santana did turn out to be a vampire, and he and a woman were feasting on a corpse when we came in again. We killed them. Their world is a safer space because of our Adventurer’s Guild.Maestro Santana's wandering circus of magic by Idonis
Today I met Svæin, Ulfgar and Alyr. And I am happy to see Elena again. We five are going to the city of Maiden today, beyond the gate because there are suspicious things happening. Specifically, these suspicious things are happening at a circus there. ‘Ana ‘uhibu alsiyrk (I like the circus).
We go through a ‘gate’. It is very exciting and it tingles a bit. I am much looking forward to the circus and the maidens.
The captain of Maiden tells us two girls went missing and that he suspects the Circus of playing a role in the matter. But.. Hnak huzn eamiq fi eaynayh wahu la yaqul alhaqiqat kamila.Wabalfel, wahidat min alftyat allaayiy yakhudhun hu saghiratuh. Aldumue jayidat , lakanh la yasmah lahum bialtadfiq. jayida. 'iinah qawiun , 'iinah qawiun balnsbt laha. Tabqaa qawiat ya sadiqi , wasawf najid laha.
(There is a deep sadness in his eyes and he isn’t telling the whole truth. And indeed, one of the girls taken is his own little one. Tears well up, but he doesn’t let them flow. Good. He is strong, he is strong for her. Stay strong my friend, we will find her.).
So we go to the circus. And. It.Is.MAGNIFICENT!
A man is appearing and disappearing and appearing again, beautiful. Truly spectacular, I love it so much.
But! We must be serious too. We are here for very important business.
After the show, the team talk to two people of the show and I go outside to talk to the visitors. One of these visitors, a beautiful lady, tells me she does indeed remember once seeing the daughter of the captain at one of the shows, and that she was a volunteer for the appearing, disappearing and appearing man trick. Hmm…
So, I go back inside.
And there! They are all fighting! So I say stop! But they do not stop. I go in my scary form and say stop! They do not stop. Allaena (Damnit). Oke.
They kill one of the two men and defeat the other man. We tie him up and ask the man: What is going on?
But he says nothing useful. So I give him a bump on the head with my hammer to make him sleep for a bit.
We look behind the curtains of the stage and there’s nothing there but some crazy pipes. Outside the circus is a house and we go to this house. There we see three more men, with weapons, and they are not happy to see us.
So we fight. They die. Well, all die except one, who runs away up some stairs.
During this fight though, Ulfgar hits me. Limadha a? La aerif. Sa'azl eayni ealayh. (Why? I do not know. I shall keep my eyes on him.
Ulfgar follows the one survivor and I let him, he is strong and he will win. I look around a bit, in all the rooms, and go to go into the basement. But as I am going into basement, I hear more people fighting upstairs, more than only Ulfgar and the survivor, so I run up to help. Upstairs there are many more men, and one of them is an undead abomination. Rijs! (Filth!). I see Ulfgar swinging at Alyr or two times, not good. But all the bad peoples, they die.
Then we go downstairs into the basement where two alkilab (dogs) attack Ulfgar, almost killing him. Ulfgar gives them sandwiches and the alkilab (dogs) eat them. Alkilab (Dogs) are happy. We find the Captain's daughter locked up in on of the rooms in the basement room. In the other room in the basement, there are more people waiting.
But we do not go into that room. First, we bring the Captain’s daughter back to the father. We take a bit of rest, and I talk to Ulfgar. I ask about why he hit me. Why he almost hit Alyr two times. He tells me it is the fault of a potion. A potion which makes it difficult for him to sometimes see who is his friend, but a potion which makes him strong too.
I understand him wanting to be strong. It is a good thing. But attacking your friends, that is not.
Then we go back into the basement, into the room were the last bad people are. We enter and it is Sultana! The fabulous appearing-disappearing-appearing man! Allaena (Damnit) He is there with a beautiful lady. And now I sense they are both masasi dima' (vampires) and they must die, Allaena.. (Damnit..). We kill them.
Everything is good again now. The Captains little one is back. Safe, alive.
But.. also, a lot not good. Lot of dead. Innocent peoples.
We found a letter on Svatlana. A letter with coordinates. Maybe we will find more vampires there I think. Maybe. And then they will die.
P.s. Also! The guards of the city of Maiden must be punished! No one helped the poor Captain. They must be jalad (flogged). I must not forget to say this to the Captain. Or maybe Lornan.
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