{Dianne takes a moment to consider this.}

Dianne: "I'm not sure. Maybe this will finally bring me peace and I won't have the nightmares anymore. I guess we'll find out."

'Maybe. Would be nice if it did. And I'm sure if anything can stop the nightmares permanently, it would be this.'

Upon finishing her fruit, Esme wandered aimlessly across the truck. Armin stretched out a hand to lightly stroke her wing in passing.

Dianne: "I sure hope so. My nightmares suck. Any chance I could trade my nightmares for yours?"

{She says jokingly.}

Armin chuckled. 'Well, you'd get a better variety, at least. I don't dream about the same thing all the time. It must get boring having the same nightmare every week,' he added, also jokingly.

Dianne: "Oh yeah. Seeing your daughter get ripped apart in front of you? Gets old quick."
{Glancing out the window, she squints.}

Dianne: "Huh. That was a hell of a storm we waited out...}

Armin climbed out of bed, careful not to step on Esme as she skittered past, attacking a fold of the blankets. 'Well, yeah. It was pretty bad. Why do you say that? Have all the trees fallen over or something?'

Dianne: "Eh, just the old ones from the looks of it. Hopefully there are no more storms from here."

Armin just grunted in acknowledgement and went to sit in the driver's seat, to watch the scenery fly past.

{Dianne falls silent as well, observing the landscape as they passed.}

(Should we skip to later in the day? I remember you mentioning you were going to do something after they got moving, but I don't know exactly when it was going to be.)

(Once they land, at sunset. We can skip to that.)

(Alrighty, who wants to go first?)

(I'll do it, but I gotta do something first...)

(Alrighty.)

....

{After another long, eventless day, the sun was setting. Dianne was slightly dozing in the passenger's seat, when Barnabas suddenly appeared and loudly exclaims:}

Barnabas: "Hey! Let's stop here! It's my old city! Way over there!"

Armin had been gazing into the distance, though seemed lost in thought, not actually looking at the scenery. At Barnabas's exclamation, he blinked and peered out the windshield.

'Really? It still exists?' he said with mild interest. 'Well, we shouldn't get close to it.'

Barnabas: "I think it's abandoned. Hold on, let me check..."

{Barnabas then abruptly dissappears.}

Dianne: "...Well....I suppose we could stop there for dinner..."

Armin squinted out the window, trying to get a good look at the town. 'Even if it's mostly abandoned, there might still be people hanging around,' he said. 'We should really be careful if we get close.'

Despite his cautious words, he couldn't help feeling a stir of excitement at the idea of investigating the place more closely. Empty towns and abandoned civilisations could be interesting. It also reminded him a little of Shacklestone, which was less of a pleasant feeling.

Dianne: "If there's even one living soul, we can't go. If it's a proper ruin, then, yeah, let's go have a look."

{She gets up and starts putting her armor back on.}

Dianne: "I don't want Esme to leave the truck. Ruins are too dangerous."

Armin, following suit, pulled on his coat and started lacing up his shoes. Esme peered up at them upon hearing her name, but stayed quiet.

'Well,' said Armin, 'I'd be surprised if nobody's squatting there. An abandoned city seems like a great place for criminals to hide out. But maybe nobody's even passed this way in a long time.'

Dianne: "It depends on how broken down it is. If most of the buildings are still intact, then there probably are."

{Barnabas then reappeared.}

Barnabas: "Nope! No people! It's all abandoned!"

Armin glanced at Barnabas as if unsure whether to believe him or not. Then he shrugged. 'OK, let's head on down, find a nice spot to land, and check it out. This'll be interesting.'

Dianne: "Alright. Titan, take us down."

{Titan then turns towards the city. As they get closer, the sheer size of the place becomes apparent. This was clearly a prosperous center of trade and commerce. The building were clearly old, made of stone and mortar, and some were falling apart.}

Armin leaned forwards in the driver's seat to get a good look over the city as they approached. 'Huh, I wonder how long this place has been deserted for,' he mused. 'I'm not a history expert, but those buildings obviously aren't very modern. I wonder how soon it was abandoned after Barnabas last saw it.'

Dianne: "Not sure. Looks like it's been abandoned for a good while though."

{Titan land in an old plaza. Four roads converged on this one circular slab of stone. In the middle was the feet of a destroyed statue. The rest of the statue was long gone.}

As soon as they touched down, Armin headed for the back doors. He then paused and pointed a finger warningly at Esme. 'Stay,' he told her, getting a curious squeak in response.

He then opened the doors and jumped out onto the plaza, gazing around and quietly absorbing the sights.

{The city was quiet, save for the sound of the wind blowing through the empty streets. The buildings around them were crumbling, clearly having been left in disrepair for many years. Dianne hops out as well, closing the door before Esme could get out.}

Dianne: "...Ok, well...where can we set up a fire?"

In response, Armin began to explore the immediate area. After a moment, he came across a circular depression in the ground. It was about five feet across and had a low wall built around the edge, crumbled in some places. The inside of the circle and the walls were all stone. 'What about this? Looks like it might have once been a water fountain or something,' he shrugged, 'but you could use it for a fire.' He looked around. 'Where are we going to get food, anyway? I guess I could fly outside the city and get a fish...'

{Dianne looks over the depression.}

Dianne: "Yeah, actually, this would work well. and yes, you going to the shore is really our only option."

Armin nodded. 'I'll go and look for fish, then. The rest of you can find some wood and get a fire going.'

With a last sweeping look over the plaza, he shifted and took off, heading down to the shoreline. In the truck, Esme could be seen standing up with her paws against the windshield, watching everyone outside, her ears pressed back in annoyance that she wasn't being allowed out.

{Dianne chuckles at Esme, finding her expression humorous.}

Dianne: "Barnabas, go get some firewood."

{As Armin approached the waterside, he saw the remnants of a massive port. There were stone building, meant to be storefronts, foundations and crumbled walls of warehouses, and on the top of a cliff looked to be a temple of some sort.}

Armin surveyed the landscape as he flew. //More crumbling old buildings,// he mused. //That one looks kind of like a temple. I wonder if it was for that deity thing Barnabas keeps mentioning.//

He swept low over the buildings, making his way to the seafront. He managed to secure a fish faster than expected, so on the way back, he shifted to human form so he could get a better look at the buildings while walking. //This whole place seems completely deserted. What happened to put the city in this state? Did everyone just... leave?//

{While the buildings are clearly run down, there are signs of a makeshift shelter ahead, indicating that there may have been people there recently. As Armin walks, he hears a chitinous scuttling from down the street behind him.}

Armin paused, turning slowly on the spot. He transferred the fish to his right hand and pulled his sword halfway out its sheath. //What the heII was that? Sounded like... scuttling...//

{When Armin looks, he sees nothing. Just the darkening street and the dusk sky.}

Frowning, Armin continued on his way back to the plaza, keeping one hand on his sword hilt. 'Maybe it was just massive cockroaches or something,' he muttered under his breath. 'These buildings look like they'd be full of bugs.'

As he walked, he passed the makeshift shelter, but didn't spare it more than a brief glance.

{As he passed it, he may detect the scent of blood. Old blood, to be sure, but fresh enough to indicate fairly recent occupation.}

Armin almost left the shelter behind without stopping, but when the wind carried the scent of blood to him, he hesitated. Curiosity warring with common sense, he slowly walked over to peer inside the shelter. He didn't know what he was expecting to see, and was pretty sure that he was making a mistake by looking. //There better not be mutilated bodies in this thing.//

{Perhaps to his surprise, there were no bodies. Just some makeshift bedding, unused, dust covered cans and supplies, a battery powered radio, and an old blood stain on the floor, clearly the source of the scent.}

Armin swept his gaze over the contents of the shelter. //...Doesn't seem to be anything interesting. There might be food supplies, but there's no way I'd eat anything taken from a place like this.//

Not particularly wanting to go inside the den or touch anything in it, he promptly left and continued on his way back. There was something odd about this place; he could tell the blood in the den hadn't been too old. Maybe someone /had/ been squatting here, but what happened to them?

{As Armin walked back to the camp, he was unaware of the eight pale orbs watching him walk away. As Armin approaches the camp, he can see that the fire is already up. Dianne waves to him in greeting.}

Armin approached the fire, which seemed to be burning quite well in the old fountain. 'Got the fish,' he said, sitting down beside the fire, procuring a knife and beginning to prepare it.

'It's weird out there,' he added, nodding back towards the ruins of the port. 'I found a sort of... shelter... that looks like it was inhabited not too long ago. There was old blood in there, but no other remains of people.'

{Dianne sits, giving a thoughtful look.}

Dianne: "Huh. In places like this, there tend to be hooligans and traffickers of various contraband goods. But, Barnabas said there was no one, so that was probably the result of infighting."

Armin shrugged lightly as he worked on gutting the fish. He didn't mention the scuttling noises he'd heard as well, dismissing them as being nothing. 'I guess. There wasn't much else interesting around there. Just more crumbling buildings and a thing that looked like a temple.'

{At that, Barnabas appears excitedly.}

Barnabas: "Oh, you saw my temple? It's nice, right?"

Armin glanced over at Barnabas before turning away to put the fish on a spit. /'Your/ temple? I'm pretty sure it didn't belong to you,' he said dryly.

Barnabas: "No, but I was in charge of it. I kept it nice, but ushered in new acolytes, and all kinds of priestly duties."

Dianne: "How about that Kynigos festival where the children beat up an effigy of the first vampire lord?"

'Beating up an effigy? What kind of a festival is that?' said Armin, raising his eyebrows. 'What's the point? And why specifically children?'

Barnabas: "Eheheheh....let's just say...vampires weren't too popular here...and it was just a fun yearly thing for the kids. We'd make an effigy of the first vampire lord and stuff it with candies and sweets, and all the kids would beat it up and get the treats."

Dianne: "It was meant to represent the devouring of a terrible enemy, in old werewolf culture."

Armin took a moment to mentally picture this scene. '...Eh, makes sense. As a werewolf tradition. It sounds kind of funny, actually. Especially if I imagine the effigy as Sargon instead of some ancient vampire lord.' He glanced around the plaza. 'Was this whole city inhabited by werewolves?'

Barnabas: "Actually, the majority of this district was inhabited by pure blooded werewolves. This community didn't do a lot of turning, so we made more werewolves the..ehem...old fashioned way. We had lots of pups running around all hours of the day. The northern district was more diverse though."

'That many werewolves? Geez, this whole place must have stunk of dog hair,' Armin commented, trying to suppress a grin. He turned the fish on the spit so it would cook evenly. 'I guess vampires weren't allowed to set foot in the city?'

Barnabas: "No, they were. In fact, my romantic rival, Solnhofhiem was a vampire. He ran a business that would harvest the fat and oil of the sea leviathans. Nasty man, he was."

'Sea leviathans?' Armin repeated. He turned to look over his shoulder towards the shoreline, as if somehow expecting to see something on the water. 'Those are a thing?'

Barnabas: "Yes, large, carnivorous fish. Lots of teeth, body about a galleon long, sometimes more."

{Barnabas sighs before standing.}

Barnabas: "Here..."

{Barnabas undoes his chain, letting it fall with a clang. He then takes off his spectral cowl. It is revealed that he is a strange amalgamation of body parts. His torso was that of a werewolf, but with matted fur and massive tissue loss. It was revealed that he had two right arms, one attatched correctly, and one with the hand grasping his left shoulder. His muzzle had flesh, but the rest of his cranium was exposed, from the zygomatic bones to the occipital bone. His legs were chitinous, like they belonged to some insect.}

Barnabas: "This is what the leviathans will do to you."

Armin leaned back slightly, staring at Barnabas with a mixture of alarm, disgust, and curiosity.

'So... Are you telling me that you decided to wrestle a leviathan one day, and that's the reason you look like Frankenstein made you out of spare animal parts?' he said. 'And how does getting attacked by a leviathan result in /that?/ Don't they just, I don't know, eat you?'

{Barnabas just sighs at that.}

Barnabas: "No, Armin, unlike you, I have self preservation instincts, mr. stealing horses and let's ride a bull. I was kidnapped by Solnholfheim's goons, wrapped in chains, and thrown the those beasts."

'Oh, the vampire guy,' Armin muttered. //With the weird name.// 'So... you died, then?'

Barnabas: "Yes, but...That wasn't the end of it. After I died, Thanatos, Aoratos, Kynigos, and Symponia appeared to me, in the pitch black of the ocean. They took pity on me and offered me a chance at revenge. You see, after Solnhofheim had me killed, he stole my bride to be, Aphrodite, and forced her to be engaged to him. I had two choices, either become a ghoul and get revenge, or pass on to the endless planes of Kynigos, but leave my love to her fate. I chose to sacrifice my peace to save her..."

(Posting new room)