Dan Vs. The Pale Moors: Arrival

[Paige Turner]

The portal’s swirling colors within its mossy stone frame were of various greys and pale greens.  As Dan was falling between worlds, black streaks flew by and his vision started to blur.  Eventually, even his hand was hardly visible to him as he was enveloped in a nearly opaque fog.


Soon enough, he felt a hard thud- his back on the ground- and found that his vision had returned.  He got up and rubbed his back.  “Augh, I think my spine split in two!”


Dan turned around and took in the austere surroundings.  Howling winds pierced the heavy, greenish grey fog that enshrouded the distant land.  Trees stuck out of the ground, separated like a bunch of loners too afraid to grow next to one another.  Most shrubbery was brittle and decayed, as if life that once thrived had every ounce of soul it possessed stripped from its being in one fell swoop.  A nearby path led toward a bleak little town which existed on the border of the fog’s edge.  Dan walked toward this town, hoping that someone there could help him with his cause.


*rustle*


A sound came from some shrubs to Dan’s left.  Contemplating whether or not to examine it, he shrugged it off as him hearing things.  He took a few steps toward the town.


*rustle rustle*


There it was again, a noise from the left.  Dan was definitely not hearing things.  Something was out there and it wanted something from him.  Whatever it was looking for, it wasn’t that sandwich he ate earlier.  He decided to examine the bushes, and-


“AUGH!!”


Some small beast jumped out and gave Dan a good fright.  In startlement, he fell onto the ground with a wump.  The monster was a dog-like creature with dark particles floating off of it like loose pollen, and its glowing red eyes were focused on the large manchild in front of it.  It latched itself onto Dan’s right forearm with its yellow teeth.  “Ow ow ow ow!”  He shook his arm violently to get the savage off, but it was still holding strong.  With a large swinging motion, he extended his arm to the side and threw the beast behind him.


As Dan turned to face his attacker, it ran up and clamped its maw onto his left shin.  “OOW!!  Get offa me, you mutt!”  He tried shaking his leg as he did his arm, but he found it ineffective.  The pain in his leg started to grow.  Soon, he began to punch the monster in the snoz, loosening its grip on his shin.  Dan summoned all his energy and slung his leg around him, flinging the beast away from him.  The dark creature growled as it slouched away into the shrubs.

“Yeah, and good riddance!” Dan snapped.  He looked at his wounds.  His arm was rather unaffected, surprisingly, though the beast did a number on his leg.  Large bite marks were prevalent on his shins.  It wasn’t too bad, though, he could probably just walk it off.  Nonetheless, he quickly jotted down “dark mutt” on his list.  He turned back to the path, walking a tad faster and looking behind him with every other step.

[Paige Turner]

Dan dragged his feet through the grim gates of Darkshire.  His cartoonish figure drew a few disinterested gazes.  It worked out well, since he had no interest in them either.  A cobble path led deeper into the town.  Several small grocery stands lined the street.  An inn and a tavern faced across the street from each other.  “Hmm, that tavern could be a good place to start,” Dan mumbled.


The tavern’s door burst open, with everyone inside turning their heads in suspicion.  Dan stood there, yelling “Alright, who-”
*thunk*
Dan opened the door again, shuffling back inside, and closed it behind himself.  “Alright,” he repeated, “who here knows how to get to Omni?”


Everyone in the tavern gawked at the stranger.  “Feh, just anuther kook,” some drunkie blurted out, then everyone returned to what they were doing.  Dan glared into the tavern, nobody paying him any mind except the bartender, a hulking figure with a clean shaven face who was decked in a black vest, pants and white collar shirt.  He was walking over to the irate stranger.


“Excuse me, sir,” the bartender scolded, “but our tavern does not tolerate the impolite.”
“Excuse yourself, buddy, I just asked a question.  Besides, this is a pub.  Nobody’s polite when they’re drunk.”
“Let me rephrase, then; we do not tolerate fools bursting through the door like children.”
“Children?  Who are you calling a child?  You don’t have even a hair on your chin!”
The bartender punched his left palm as he gave Dan a deathly leer.  “You don’t want to go there.  I suggest you leave promptly.”
“Or else what, baby face?  What are you gonna do?”


In no seconds flat, Dan was flung out of the bar.  He at least got a souvenir, though; a nice black eye to match his shirt.  The bartender slammed the door behind him.   He barked, “Whatever, I didn’t need you guys anyway!”  As he sat on the edge of the road, watching the horses clop by while pondering what to do next...


“I believe I may be of assistance,” said some voice behind Dan.  He jumped and turned around to see a tall figure, probably 8 foot tall or so, standing just beside the door to the bar.  He wore a large black trench coat and a fedora which kept his face hidden from view.
“AGH!  What’s with this place and sneaking up on people?!”
“I hear you are searching for access to the ‘almighty’ Omni?”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“All are not particularly enchanted by Omni’s policy of drafting Primes into his delusional little realm.  If your intent is revenge, go rap on Dracula’s front gate.”


The stranger turned Dan around, pointing past him toward a castle in the distance, its presence hazy through the fog but very much visible.  As Dan turned to ask the creep his name, he found himself alone in the street.


“Tch,” Dan muttered, “what a freak show.”  This place was not sending very good signals for Dan.  He lost his sandwich, got kicked out of a bar in under a minute, and got caught off guard twice now.  The sooner he got payback on the New York bright light that brought him here, the better.

[Paige Turner]

Dracula’s Castle, despite its foreboding nature, did not give Dan any sense of dread or despair.  Perhaps it was dedication to his mission, or it may just be that he was daft, but he kept walking through the bleak town toward the even grimmer citadel.  As he was walking, however, he was blocked by a guard with an obsidian-tipped spear.

“No entry past this point,” asserted the guard.
Dan argued, “Let me through, I need to see Dracula.”
“Any who approach the castle of Count Vlad Dracula will be marked for death.”
“That fiend!  He set me up the whole time!  Probably planned to off me just so he could make a quick buck!”
“Move away from the gate, sir.”

Dan walked back, his rage narrowed toward that shady charlatan who tried to get him killed.  Since he was unsure of who this being was, he simply directed his fury at the next best, relative thing.  He quickly scrawled “Dracula” in his notebook and continued walking through the town, passing by the various stores.

[Paige Turner]

Merchants lined the street, attempting to get the citizens of Darkshire to purchase their goods.  From inn advertisers to traveling salesmen, the variety of options was rather remarkable.  People sold weapons, armor, general goods, various supply stores, poisons, alchemy, rarities, even dinky little mushrooms; if it couldn’t be found in the inventory of mercantile citizens, it may be stocked in those of the traveling businessmen.  In fact, a fireworks saleswoman was making her rounds down the lane right now.  Hmm, Dan realized, that could prove useful.

“Wait, you want how many fireworks?” said the disbelieving saleswoman.
“I said I want twenty of ‘em, the most powerful ones you got.”
The saleswoman’s eyes lit up like pyrotechnics as she realized how much she would get for this deal.  “Alright then, twenty showstoppers it is!  That should be two thousand omnilium, please.”
Dan drew a confused, angry glare at the lady. “What the heck is ‘omnimium,’ and why does this sound like a scam?”
The merchant returned the gaze, saying “It appears I’ve been speaking with the wrong person.”  Before Dan even had a chance of raising the tension again, the woman had already walked away.

“...I need Chris.”