Akai Juugatsu, Hidden Horror Born In Blood (a-kai juu-gaht-suu)

Summary

Despite all of Veltrona's wonders, terrifying dangers are never far away. A truth that even the vile vampires, who so often tormented others, knew to be an inescapable fact. They, who hunted and feasted like great predators, would become prey to a sinister creature. They named her Akai Juugatsu, in frightful honor of the bloody autumn in which her legend became known.   Several centuries ago, in the 1900s, a powerful vampire dynasty ruled the tempestous northeastern coastlines of Fauverngarz. With countless living nobles and royals brought to heel, the tyrannical Lemnera Family lauded their bloody power. Few nations dared to contest them, and no rebellion ever succeeded. As the Lemnera's voracious gaze turned westward, their inevitable conquest seemed unstoppable.   Yet, their dreaded ambitions came to a screaming halt.   Powerful Lemnera vampires suddenly vanished, along with all of their undead subordinates. Confusion and disarray swept throughout the family as stronghold by stronghold went dark. Something crossed their territory with unbelievable speed, leaving only silence in its wake. Vampire huntresses, having long warred with the Lemnera, followed in stupefied wonder.   They soon found the living slaves of the Lemnera, now freed from their mistresses' cruelties, delirious with fear and awe. They spoke of a shambling, shifting creature of blood and flesh that had ambled through the Lemnera strongholds. It devoured every vampire with horrific glee, and simply ignored the living. Once no vampires remained, it left as suddenly as it had arrived.   Terrified rambles named it a peculiar Forsaken, or whispered about a new, dreadful form of vampire; some even vainly hoped it was a vengeful spirit or old goddess. Whatever it might've truly been, it ravaged the Lemnera across their lands day and night. The weeks crawled by and quiet rebellions unfolded as the living peoples reclaimed their freedom. Yet, they all wondered if the vampires would return, or if their 'savior' would turn upon them next.   For the vampire huntresses of the Ashold Monastery, an unexpected visitor would happen upon their gates. Lady Julianne ter Lemnera, matriarch of the Lemnera family, begged for sanctuary at their doorstep. Though the huntresses' mortal enemy, their curiosity at what could make a millennia-old vampire become so desperate gripped them. Reluctantly giving Julianne refuge in their prison, the huntresses fortrified their monastery and waited.   Many tense, nerve-wracking weeks later, shrill howls shrieked from the prison at midnight.   The huntresses, scrambling awake, rushed down into the monastery's depths. Though their magic wards and prison gates remained secure, something had gotten inside with Julianne and her vampire kin. When they entered, torn bodies strewn across the floor, walls, and ceiling awaited. They were visibly eaten, bones and organs alike missing while their flesh yet writhed. Tendrils of sticky, red growth emerged from the remains like a gelantious fungus.   The further the huntresses ventured, the more of such horrors they found. Some vampires were surprisingly still 'alive', mewling incoherently as they slowly melted. The growth smothered and stretched over everything, grasping with spindly, worm-like fingers. When they arrived at where Julianne's cell once was, they found a young vampire servant.   Or, at least, something wearing him as one would clothes two sizes too small.   He remained conscious, if for a time; his face contorted in abject terror. Julianne, too, had suffered the same fate, her body and his dissolving together into the lumbering, gelantious creature. The huntresses froze when its attention swung around, a featureless face staring down upon them. As one would later write in her memoirs, "... we clearly stood before a predator who hunted other predators."   It dawned upon them then that the strange, vampire-slaughtering creature who decimated the Lemnera was a Slime Queen.   Visibly transforming before their eyes, she slurped up what remained of her meal, her gelantious form becoming more ... human-like. Pale flesh grew over crimson gelatin as her sheer size compressed inward. Her body, however, looked gaunt and putriefed, no different from a corpse fresh from the grave. She stood before them, crooked and hobbled, her gaze monstrously different. Such a form seemed as if it were an uncomfortable set of clothes.   She chastized the huntresses with a sharp, venomous tongue for their stupid decision of sheltering vampires. As her anger grew, the huntresses bowed and propitiated immediately. They offered to work along with the queen in the hopes of eradicating other vampires; they'd simply used Julianne as bait, after all. Though clearly annoyed by their shortsightedness, the queen agreed to cooperate.   So it came to be, the name Akai Juugatsu finally wore a face.   When the last of the Lemnera were devoured, the vampire huntresses quickly offered even more prey to Akai. They shared with her all their knowledge of vampire dens, secret families, and other sinister cabals that tormented the living. Akai, ever glad to be offered such wonderful meals, adventured across Fauverngarz in pursuit. She spared little attention to those in her way, and the temptations of riches or luxuries meant even less. So long as she had her hunt, anyone who offered suitable prey would attract her attention.   Such defined the countless tales left in Akai Juugatsu's wake. In some, she was a tall, haugty noblewoman whose skin had never seen sunlight, come to make bargains. In others, a horrifying monstrosity that erupted from evil persons seemingly at random. The most telling sign of her coming would always be her unique crimson slimes and their conspiciously sudden appearances. They shadowed her coming and going, whether or not Akai herself ever showed.   In part, slimes themselves became seen as wards against evil and the undead. While they could be pests and multiply out of control easily, they were nigh immaculate creatures whose cleansing did not discriminate. Crimson slimes, especially, were venerated as they were Akai's direct progeny. On Fauverngarz, it became said that if a slime attacked someone, they were either being an idiot, or a vampire in disguise.   As in much folklore, the peoples' respect belied the fears hidden beneath. Akai wasn't a heroic figure, but a dangerous predator who lived in the dark. The living merely benefited from being unappetizing, not inviolable. In time, when Fauverngarz lacked in vampires to devour, Akai simply migrated onward. Accounts of her appearance arose in Votyoger, Aerthen, and even far away Nerzin. These sporadic sightings, riddled with inconsistencies, led many to assume they might've uncovered Akai's descendants, rather the horror herself. Decades upon decades passed, far beyond when any other slime queen may have died naturally, it seemed as if the original had simply faded away.   Centuries later, at the advent of the Traitors' War in Aerthen, Akai herself resurfaced. Drawn to Vorhein's undead swarms, Akai feasted upon them with gluttonous abandon. Her hunt eventually led her into the direct path of the Federation's armies, led by crown Princess Corentine Durand. The armies and the adventurers with them swiftly attacked Akai, mistaking her for a perverse kind of undead. Refusing to suffer such an insult, Akai begrudgingly donned her human-like guise once more, much to the horror of the onlookers.   Berating the ignorant soldiers, Akai snidely pointed out their incompetency with managing the vampires in their own ranks, nevermind the rampaging undead. Princess Corentine, caught by surprise, challenged Akai to prove her audacious claims. An easy enough thing to do, for Akai's appearance carved fear into the hearts of the hidden vampires. Try as they might to avoid Akai's attention, they were flushed out one-by-one. Each one soon tried fleeing, only to be skewered by either Akai or Federation soldiers.   Fearing more infiltrators yet lurking, Princess Corentine faced a dilemma. Her armies were rattled by the sudden exposure of such dangerous beings, let alone their unawareness of them. Various nobles in the ranks started feuding immediately, casting suspicions or attempting to prove their own innocence. Though her advisors protested, Princess Corentine saw a simpler solution through Akai herself.   A bargain was struck, one that saw Akai offer her 'services' to Princess Corentine. Though on the surface it merely meant the Federation wouldn't try to impede Akai, other secretive agreements were made away from the public eye. So it was that Akai became the Princess' monstrous hunting beast.   Throughout the Traitors' War, Akai proved reliable; she ever wanted simple things, and the crown Princess found no reason to deny them. The fact so many vampires hid within the ranks of the Federation deeply disturbed Princess Corentine. At the end of the war, the princess feared far greater machinations at play than anyone realized. Immortals and their schemes were dangerous foes to contend with, and she'd only just caught the tail end of one such plan.   To Akai, such a conundrum was a feast of intriguing complexities. Sinister forces moved throughout the dark that she lived in, plotting and conspiring. Something that, to her surprise, hinted at an even greater power at work: an ancient vampire lineage the likes of which she'd never seen. The allure of such exotic prey captivated her attention. Whatever they wanted, she wanted; what they had, she would take.   It mattered little to Akai what fate would befall the Federation; it simply became the hunting grounds between two terrifying powers.