Bloodletting It Go

an adventure starring Reine and Ava.

## Short Episode Description

With blood as the ticket, the tourist trap Sangui-La opens its turnstiles. Join Ava and Reine as they encounter unwelcome acquaintances, search for a blood-sucking monster and explore Sangui-La.

Bloodletting It Go is an actual play podcast episode of the Specters and Spurs TTRPG System.

## Non Player Characters

* Blithe Hoard
* Dieter von Richenbach
* Sigrid Andersen
* Cameron Boneire
* Rick Vitas
* Amelia Vitas
* Henry Vitas
* Zara Bayleaf

## Plot Summary

The two FBK adventurers Avarice H. and Reine Ylvaby decide to spend the day at Sangui-La, a vampire-themed amusement park. They arrive bright and early in the morning and wait in line to enter, finding out that the entrance fee isn’t paid in gold – rather, it is paid for with a blood donation. Ava is unwilling to donate blood, as her fiendish blood has special properties and will likely taint the supply, so Reine donates for the both of them.

After they enter, Ava and Reine head straight for the coffee-shop, which is called Unholy Grounds and is very gothic-themed. Ava orders herself the darkest possible coffee - no cream and absolutely no sugar - and buys Reine a cup of warm milk as a thank you for covering her entrance. Ava tells Reine to go ahead and enjoy the theme park for a bit, as she has some “business” to discuss with her father Blithe Hoard, who was in Sangui-La for a business trip. She sends her pseudodragon, Penny, with Reine to alert her if Reine encounters any trouble and sits down at the table with Blithe.

Ava and her father chat amiably for a few minutes, and upon learning that he has a patent for an irrigation system, she suggests he connect with the Professor Edemir So to try to sell the product to the Niqamui Community College faculty of agriculture. However, she hears some shocking news from him: he discovered that she has been secretly shadowing him occasionally and has saved his life on multiple occasions – something she did not want him to know as he would probably cut back on personal security and give her more to do. He refers to her as his “lucky charm” and protector, which she is not thrilled about because he chose to send her to an orphanage rather than raise her – his attitude toward her only changed because she was now useful to him.

While the two are talking, Reine goes to the Bloodhounds & More pet shop, where a minkbird escaping its enclosure causes a chaotic chain reaction that leads to most of the animal pens falling over and many of the pets, including bats and bloodhounds, fleeing the shop. Penny naturally alerts Ava to this situation, so she finishes her conversation with Blithe and promises that they will talk again.

She meets up with Reine and the two try to find the shop owner, only to find a couple of children, who tell the adventurers that their father is probably at the High Stakes weapons shop. When they go to find him, Reine and Ava overhear a conversation between the cashier and a hunter named Sigrid Anderson, who sells him a rhino horn and tells him that a town has been sucked dry by a monster called a Hystracid. Upon seeing that woman, Reine grows pale and terrified, hiding under Ava’s wing for cover.

Sigrid heads toward them after finishing her conversation with the cashier, but before Reine can bolt out of the shop, her "friend" Cameron Boneire steps in front of her and Ava to protect them from Sigrid. The hunter passes by them without as much as a second glance, and Reine finally relaxes as she sees her beloved friend. Ava leaves them to share a tender moment and conversation together and follows Sigrid, hoping to get more information out of her about the Hystracid.

Ava fails to intimidate Sigrid and does not get any information from her, as Sigid believes Ava is far too weak to even try to fight it. Her dismissal of the Cambion and haughty attitude causes her to become Ava’s enemy, as Ava is getting very bad vibes from her, especially considering Reine’s reaction to seeing her.

She heads back inside the shop and calls for “Rick,” the person who works at the pet shop, to find that he is also the cashier at High Stakes! He goes back to the pet store as soon as he learns about the situation, and Reine and Ava take this opportunity to snoop around the unmanned store, hoping to find dirt on Sigrid, see if any particular “trophies” Reine was looking for were at the shop, and anything out of place or illegal in general.

The only things the pair manage to find is a cooler filled with blood bags labelled “Rick” that suggests he is a vampire and a picture of Rick with his children, who seem to have aged like normal human children despite him being a vampire. They also find a crate labelled Sacred Mountain Retreats, which suggests that they are being funded by said company. Ava is suspicious of Rick, but the adventurers soon learn that Rick is 1) not a shop owner but just an overworked clerk, and 2) not a typical vampire – he is more like a human that ages normally and can only drink blood, never water, due to reasons explained in HR VIOLATIONS IN SPAAAACE.

When Reine and Ava head back to the pet shop, they find that it had been attacked by a monster and many of the pets were killed. The children start crying upon seeing the bloody mess, and their father tries to comfort them while Reine and Ava investigate the area a bit, finding that the monster that attacked is a Hystracid – probably the one that Sigrid was talking about. Ava asks to see Rick’s boss, who is the CEO, offering him a tip of 2GP if he takes them straight to her. He gladly accepts, as he is only paid 10GP per year, so 2GP is a lot for him. As the three head to the office, Rick tells them all about the interesting lore behind the strange vampires of Sangui-La and the town itself.

When they get to the executive offices, they meet with the CEO, Zara Bayleaf, and tell her about the monster attack situation. They offer to deal with it, as long as Zara follows the terms of Ava’s deal – giving Ava and Reine 10,000GP to split among each other and halting/withdrawing business with Blithe Hoard until “Avarice Halevy” says so.

After making the deal, the two adventurers investigate the pet shop attack more and track the Hystracid down to find that it had broken into the blood bank in the corporate offices! They go to confront the creature, and the timelines split into two solutions / alternate endings:

1)    Canon ending: Reine wargs into the Hystracid and it becomes her friend/pet. She and Cameron work together to find a solution for how to feed it, as it feeds exclusively on blood.

2)    Non-canon combat ending: Reine and Ava fight and kill the Hystracid, working together to hinder and attack it.