For more than three decades now, I
have undertaken to investigate and expose
creatures of darkness to the purifying light
of truth and knowledge. “Hero” I am
named in some circles; “sage” and “master
hunter” I am called in others. That I
have survived countless supernatural assaults
is seen as a marvel among my peers; my
name is spoken with fear and loathing
among my foes.
In truth, this “virtuous” calling began
as an obsessive effort to destroy a vampire
that murdered my child, and it has become
for me a tedious and bleak career. Even as
my life of hunting monsters began, I felt
the weight of time on my weary shoulders.
Today I am a man who has simply lived
too long. Like a regretful rich, I find
myself inexorably bound to an existence I
sought out of madness and, seemingly, must
now endure for all eternity. Of course I
shall die, but whether I shall ever rest
in my grave haunts my idle thoughts, and
torments me in my dreams.
I expect that those who think me a
hero will change their minds when they
know the whole truth about my life as a
hunter of the unnatural. Nevertheless, I
must reveal, here and now, that I have
been the indirect yet certain cause of many
deaths, and the loss of many good friends.
Mistake me not! I do not merely feel
sorry for myself. Rather, I come to grips
with a devastating realization: I now see
that I am the object of a baleful Vistani
curse. More tragically, the nature of this
hex is such that I have no borne the brunt
of it; instead, far worse, those who surround
me have fallen victim to it!
I have related the tragic story of how my
with a heavy heart. The darkness had torn only child Erasmus was taken by Vistani
him from my loving arms forever, and I and sold to a vampire. I explained how
foolishly believed that the curse had exacted Erasmus was made a minion of the night
its deadly toll. I wept until an insatiate stalker, and how it was my miserable part to
desire for vengeance filled the bottomless free him from that fate at the point of a
rift in my heart. stake. What I have neglected to illumine
hate before is how I tracked Erasmus’s
kidnappers across the land, or how I
“extracted’ the whereabouts from them.
In fact, the Vistani took Erasmus with my
own, unwitting permission. They had brought
an extremely ill member of their tribe to me
one evening and insisted that I treat him,
but I was unable to save the young man’s
life. In fear of their retribution, I begged
the Vistani to take anything of mine if only
they would withhold their terrifying powers,
of which I knew nothing. To my lasting
astonishment, they chose to surreptitiously
take my son in exchange for their loss! By
the time I realized what had occurred, ( I say in hindsight) the plan worked. I
they were already an hour gone. found the child-stealers, and my unwelcome
Incensed beyond reason, I strapped the entourage included a growing horde of
body of the dead young man to my horse voracious undead that could not touch me,
and doggedly followed the Vistani caravan thanks to the lich’s ward.
through the woods, naively allowing the When I found the caravan, I threatened
sun to set before me without seeking shelter to set the zombies on the Vistani unless
from the night. Shortly after darkness they returned my dear boy. They replied that
fell, I was beset by undead that would he had been sold to the vampire, Baron
have slain me, had not their master - a Metus. Something inside me snapped. I
lich - intervened and spared my life, released the zombies, and the entire tribe was
for reasons that I do not completely eaten alive.
understand. He somehow detected me and, Yet the story has not ended. Before she
with his powerful magic, took control of died, the leader cursed me, saying “Live you
a pack of zombies that wandered in the always among monsters, and see everyone you
forest. He spoke to me through the mouths love die beneath their claws!” Even now,
of dead things and placed a magic ward so many years later, I can hear her words
against undead on me, then animated the with painful clarity. A short time later, I
dead Vistana and bade it tell me where found my dear Erasmus made into a vampire.
I could find its people. Unfortunately He begged me to end his curse, which I did
