Blood Mist

A well-lit cobblestone hallway, with rooms to the left and right.

I chose the right first, and found a small room detailed with mystical symbols and writing, as well as a small table.

Beyond some basic supplies, the room contained little of interest. My tinderbox collection was hearty and my lantern full. I was prepared for whatever lay ahead of me and motivated to see it through.

The room on the left was a different matter. It contained a similar layout, but one key difference - there was a corpse on the table. Wrapped in cloth with strange designs carved into its flesh, it was obvious this victim was recent. Suddenly, I became aware of how recent.

The world shifted around me as some of Daniel's memories came flooding back. The man on the table was alive and the carving were now bright green. By his side lay a red, jagged dagger. Try as I could, I could not force Daniel to leave the room. These were his memories - what happened happened. With no other choice I picked up the blade and plunged it into the nameless victim; I became a murderer as Daniel remembered that he was one.

Daniel screamed out to the Guardian of the Orb, The Shadow. He had done all this, killed this man, for it. To appease it. The blood of another kept The Shadow at bay for a time, but even as he had taken this life Daniel knew the blood offerings were failing. Each time he killed it lasted less and less time so he was forced to murder more and more. The prison only held so many criminals.

Worst of all, as I was about to learn, was that the warding ritual didn't just consist of death. Simply extinguishing a human life didn't produce enough of the vitae needed to keep the Orb's Guardian at bay. Something else was required, something that pushed Daniel far beyond the realm of a killer.

Disturbed by what I'd witnessed I left the room as soon as possible, only to find I wasn't alone.

The empty hallway was replaced by two hanging corpses - probably Daniel's latest victims. They weren't alive, they just hung there. Their scars bore the remnants of the vitae extracted from them. I proceeded with haste to the next staircase that would lead me down to The Choir proper and turned around just long enough to notice the hanging men had disappeared.

Once in The Choir I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating - or in Hell.

The picture doesn't do any justice - It's pixilated from having the brightness turned up. The Choir was a huge room, ceiling at least 20 meters high. It was held in place by thin pillars spread across the entire area, with several waterways spread across connected by decrepit bridges. But it was the fog that got me, the fog that made this place nightmare-ish. It was sickeningly red, a blanket of crimson spread across the expanse like the darkness within The Prison, or Storage. It was thick enough that seeing more than two meters ahead was difficult, but you could still make out shapes in the distance. Quiet cries reverberated off the walls all around me - everywhere was shrouded in fog and noise. Yet as I began to explore one noise stood out -

A Brute. He wasn't close - perhaps across the next waterway. In these conditions it was unlikely he could see me until I was very close. Regardless, I had to be careful. I always had to be careful.

It wasn't long until I came across a room free of the mist. In there I learned the truth behind the warding ritual and vitae. Vitae is a mystic energy produced by all living things, something not understood by most. Of course, Alexander is not like most. Normally you only get a small amount of vitae from killing some even as large as a human, but the Baron found a way to increase this amount and he shared it with his new companion in order to buy them more time. In order to extract more vitae the subject needed to be scared, hurt and wounded.

The subject needed to be tortured.

In front of me was an Iron Maiden, one of many devices Baron Alexander had created in order to extract vitae. The inside of the device was still stained with fresh blood, possibly from the man I'd been forced to relive murdering earlier. The process seemed clear now -

• Criminals were incarcerated in The Prison.
• Alexander eventually called for them and The Gatherers brought them to the entrance of The Choir to be held.
• Once he was ready, Alexander would send for The Gatherers to bring him one of the prisoners.
• He would then torture him - but not kill him - to increase the vitae gained.
• The noises of the victim's suffering would be carried through steel pipes to the chambers where the other prisoners waited.
• The man/woman would be wrapped in sheets to disguise the horrible scars and wounds the torture had caused.
• Alexander would ritualistically murder them to appease The Shadow.

Of course eventually Daniel was introduced to this. Though he initially put up rejections, Alexander convinced him they were criminals who deserved death. Soon enough, Daniel was obsessed enough with saving his own life that he was willing to do whatever it took.

In the corner of the room I found what I was searching for - a piece of one of the Orbs. As stated, one of the orbs had broken during a former ritual. It seems the pieces had gathered in the torture rooms, naturally attracted to the scent of vitae. I now knew I had to visit each one and relieve the memories of the monster Daniel had once been.

The next one was a short distance away. Again I heard my metallic friend, further away this time. He was patrolling but without rhyme or reason. If things went well we wouldn't have to exchange pleasantries.

The next room was the same - a torture device and a piece of an Orb. This time, it was the rack.

Undaunted by his past I moved onwards. My immediate route to the final room of The Choir was blocked, so I had to find another way around. As I turned I heard the familiar rusty creaking of the metallic monstrosity that almost had me in the sewers. I hid behind a pillar and watched as it came within touching distance. If it turned its head only slightly, my journey would have ended there. Instead it quickly turned around and made towards the torture chamber I'd just been in. With haste I left the area before he became any the wiser.

Around the blockage I found the entrance to the next chamber and something interesting too - some poison fungi and one of their roots. Using some basic tools I cracked it open and received a sample. This was another part of the potion Agrippa had requested. Though it was optional I decided to help the poor soul. If anyone deserved vengeance against The Baron, it was him. Besides, I was running low on allies these days.

Inside I found yet another device and another piece of the orb.

A brass bull - the subject is placed inside the bull and a fire is started underneath. The man or woman is then cooked alive from within. The difference here was that Alexander and Daniel wouldn't let him/her die. Instead they'd put out the fire and pull the man out of the the bull, his seared flesh ripping apart from the brass in chunks, and drag his horribly charred body to the ritual chamber.

As I finished my work in The Choir it became clear to me why Daniel had chosen to drink the amnesia potion. He'd been transformed by his desire to survive, seduced by Alexander's promises and turned into a monster himself. Yet even at this point, so late in the hour, I had yet to fully comprehend the magnitude of the horror Daniel had visited upon his own soul.