The Chronicles of Arnora: The Curse of the Blood Moon

Chapter Two: The Calm before the Storm

Luke: "If such creatures cease to exist in your homeland then how did you come to study them exactly?"

Sigmus: "A very excellent question indeed, you see my home is deep underground within the mines of the Iron City so we constantly trade with the Dwarves. One day I happened to come across a book of beasts that the surface races face on a daily basis and I was fascinated by it. So I took the work I developed in my homeland and applied it in ways that could be beneficial to help keep the monsters of the surface world at bay. When I first came to the surface I had the honor of meeting your teacher Aqua, who just so happened to be in Valgrim at the time. She then helped me find my way here to the institute where I told her about my reasons for coming here and shortly after she told me everything about you and your knowledge of vampires. Including what happened to you as a child, I must say I find it fascinating how you were able to stop an entire coven of upier."

Luke: "I too find it interesting, because it's a night that I can't recall, I have no memories at all of what happened. I would be more than happy to share it with you if I did, but I'm eager to help out in any way that I can. So when can we start?"

Sigmus: "That is very interesting, for you to lose your entire memory of that night, but one must not dwell too much on the past and we can start right now if you would like. If you'll please follow me, I can give you a tour of my lab." Sigmus then walks off into the institute followed by Luke and Aqua where they soon reach his lab. "I must warn you to be very cautious, we have a few cages that contain some vampires we been experimenting on." Luke and Aqua then walk ahead of Sigmus and looked around at the many experiments that the lab workers have been developing.

Aqua: "You've definitely come a long way on a few of these projects since the last time I visited Sigmus." Aqua looked around and picked a sword up off a table in front of her. "I remember this, It's the Helios blade if I'm not mistaken?"

Sigmus: "You're correct as always Aqua. It's actually in the final stages of development and we hope to have it done for mass production within the next few weeks." Luke walked over beside Aqua and examined the blade she was holding.

Luke: "What exactly does the blade do? It looks like a regular sword to me."

Sigmus: "That it does but I'll tell you a little secret, it's not just a regular sword haha! You see, by combining silver ore with a few fire and light crystals we've come up with a way to harness the power of the sun in the palm of one's hand, may I?" Sigmus then took the sword from Aqua and swung it around a bit, the blade started to glow red hot, causing an upier in a nearby cage to go crazy.

Luke: "Well would you look at that it actually works! I know of a few people that would love to get their hands on that blade." Luke then walked over to the upier cage and peered inside studying the creature. "I know we could have used it that night and maybe then my family could have lived." He looked over at the other cages each containing a different species of vampire. "You have quite a few interesting subjects here professor and they're all very docile. How is it that you're keeping them that way?"

Sigmus: "Yes they are quite interesting and to answer your question the institute is protected by powerful warding magic that weakens the vampires." Sigmus walked over next to Luke while grabbing a notebook and quill off the table beside him. "Care to tell me about them Luke? It's getting late and I know you've come a long way. So the sooner we start the sooner you guys can go and rest." Luke nodded happily to the professor before turning his attention back to the vampires.

Luke: "Well this one here is clearly an upier, although they resemble humans much like higher vampires they are truly monstrous. Their thirst for blood is unquenchable and they are known to live in the biggest covens among all the vampire species. A single upier could wipe out an entire village in a single night. The more blood they consume the more powerful they become, but their biggest strength ironically seems to also be their biggest weakness as well because if they feed on too much blood at one time it could actually become poisonous to them."