Dark Lord 2

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“... and then he has the gall to tell me that he’s kicking me out because of it.” You complain as you evening bath is carried out, Mother and her small brigade of Maids fussing over every inch of you as they bathe your body. One of them, you never remembered her name though her features were refined enough to be a beauty who would shine in the outside world, scrubbed delicately at your small feet, caressing away the delicate pad. “What do he think I am? ‘You’ll rule the world Now get out of my house!’… Dark Lords beyond, I can’t believe that man.”

“Alice, your Father is a great and terrible man. Just like his son.” Mother spoke in her usual monotone. Sometimes you suspected that she hated you, despite her every step of service. Still she served perfectly, even now being the one to lead the scrubbing of every inch of your body. “When her took me from my kingdom of Vale Wind, it was all that I… the queen herself, could do. In the night he came, giving ultimatums which would either see my kingdom in ruins, or step obediently to his whims. And even then it was not enough to save my people from both his thirsts and the retaliation of the Trinity church.”

Ouch... you winced slightly as her grip tightened around your wrist, she always did that sort of thing when retelling this particularly tired old tale, leaving your to sigh.

“Yes, yes mother, then he had you bred like a common courtesan. I know the story too well. You tell it like it will change anything about the world. But you should be proud, you were the vessal for the newest Dark Lord to be.” You couldn’t help but sneer a little as you said that. What the hell was Father thinking? Keeping such information away from you.

Mother was silent on that particular point. As had proven usual since the revelation had been made.

Still you weren’t exactly bereft of resources.

You sighed lightly. “Alright. I suppose this is quite enough feeling sorry for myself. Preparations need to be made.”

“Last minute work as always I suppose?” Mother chimed in, her monotone still managing to carry the edge of snark.

“I do not… I’m always immaculate with returning work to my tutors.” You lied. Mother merely rolled her eyes as she transitioned from washing to having her maiden’s dry you off. “Well… I guess I’ll just have to figure this out. Mother! To the Reading room!”


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At the end of the day your duty and function were clear as day... find someplace else where you could take your creature comforts once you were expelled from this place where you’d lived all your life. You’d been outside before a brief few times... you couldn’t say that you found any particular charm to it. Infact you’d say that you downright despised the dirt, the smells, the open spaces, the trees, the branches… the everything inbetween which made moving around in your favourite dresses not only a chore, but could actually ruin them, between you and nature itself, there was little to no love lost.

Either way, you sat down and perused your Father’s maps, he liked to keep them fairly up to date with his somewhat extensive network of thralls, keeping abreast of the latest courtly news and all round generally ensuring he had a leg up in case of issues with the Church catching on to the truth of his identity.

As such though he had books and books of well lined out notation on the various villages and manners around, as well denotations of which would make for a good new home in case of needing an emergency exist. He’d always drilled that one into your head, there was little pride to be had in foolishly standing your ground against a superior force… and he knew well enough that sooner or later such a force would come hunting him. As they did all those who eventually broke their mold, so to speak.

It was a long and tedious process, even with the ability to scan them with your Appraisal ability, searching not only though the numerous map books for ones which were current and had up to date information. But also to combing through each and every book to extrapolate your best choices would prove itself to be a challenge.

Still by the end of the night you’d managed to pull ahead in your own personal race against the clock, narrowing down your potential departure to three different places which you could set up in relative safety, and the proper requisite comfort. Three places upon which you could slake your fangs and bring to heel, perhaps even making them the focal point of your campaigns to come.

...well that last thought just slipped itself in there... you had been thinking in terms of safety and comfort... but staging potential was a good indicator also.

Phyles was a fiefdom on the Orjat Plains, mostly unimportant and outside of the usual trading routes, it was relatively small and landlocked to boot, boasting only access to a small lake and good crops. They weren’t exactly remote, but they didn’t interact much with other provinces. Their lands were also surrounded with wild monsters, though no organized tribes or clans. And the few vampires who stayed within its walls were lesser vermin.

Doot was an even smaller place, but none the less much more alive and vibrant, easy to hide ones quirks within due to the towns insistence on keeping the church out of state affairs. A bit of a lesser trade hub between the wilder parts of the Hundred Kingdoms, out on the border of the frontier lands. A warband of Orcs makes it their constant target, led by Orcist Elder the Silver-Back Brauum. Apparently he and your father had clashed over the town years ago, though your father’d ultimately decided that dealing both with Brauum and keeping a low profile there would be too much work… but then if you were going to take this place you wouldn’t be keeping a Low profile.

Orcas was the only fiefdom among them which wasn’t landlocked. A bit larger than Phyles, and with much more of a church presence than both of the others, Orcas is a particularly well defended township and trading hub. But its main attraction laid not only in the bounty which it presented but in the number of warring monster tribes around it’s area. Orc Raiders, a Zombie tomb, a Lamia nest... all manner of monsters gathered about the place, competing against each other and trying their best to crack the city’s defenses. For the Orcas was built on the ruins of a true ‘Dungeon’... and any monster to get in control of such would have an infinitely spawning