In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
Not too long ago, there has been a rise of strange tales around Kiten of a hooded individual wandering about in the middle of the night, of women and children disappearing from their homes or plucked from the streets. Since the guards themselves have not been able to find any clues as to what might cause all of this, the townsfolk have set up an organization of their own as they believe the cause of it all might be a “Vampire”. While many of the people in town, including the guards, do not pay them much heed, recently, one of their own has been attacked by the one they believe to be a vampire, resulting in her falling into a death-like sleep. Having two puncture marks on her neck, there is no doubt among the members of the group that she was attacked by a vampire, and now they require outside assistance due to their dwindling numbers.
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[attr="class","shadowsSub"]Details
Maximum Number of Players: 3 [break]Minimum Word Count: 1500 [break]Location: Kiten [break]Special Requirements: Due to the nature of this mission, the person taking it on will first need to check in with the members of the order, talk about what they believe needs to be done while receiving all of the information they have available. Receive this information either firsthand or use the books and tomes at their disposal. Once they share their knowledge on vampires and vampirism with the player and the members made themselves known, the next thing they must do is to choose a course of action.
[attr="class","shadowsSub"]NPC Information
What NPCs are in this mission? Please fill out the template for any notable NPCs. While those you have to socially interact with during the mission are not required, any enemy that is presented in the mission must be listed here.
Walking under the cover of darkness, something most parents taught their children never to do, especially not when they were entirely alone and bridging the gap between one town and the next. While the magic knights seemed to have most things under control, especially down south, there were always areas that more or less fell short as the criminal element in those regions kept slipping through the cracks. While he personally couldn’t really care about such things a whole lot until it became troublesome for him directly. That was mostly the kind of person he was, as he really did not take any kind of enjoyment out of helping people for the fun of it. It just wasn’t the kind of individual that he was, things like that did not make him tick, which was likely why he had never bothered looking into whether or not he might have a spot with any of the magic knight squads.
As an individual, Gawain was the kind of person that wanted to get stronger as a mage, stronger as a fighter. Simply put, he wanted to become a stronger, smarter combatant that could give anyone a run for their money. Even the wizard king.
While such dreams would just remain dreams for most, Gawain wasn’t the type to just let things be as they were forever. After all, there was a time for every great leader to step down eventually. Whether this happened because they were replaced by someone better for the job, were beaten and supplanted by someone stronger or because of old age, it happened all the time. Within the magic knights for instance, you saw new captains and vice captains rise and fall from time to time, though not all that often. From what he had been told, Griswold had been well on his way towards becoming captain of the black bulls himself, though he had given up on that goal as it wouldn’t change anything for him. The way he saw it, if he took a seat as a captain, he’d really just be feeding into the system as it was, as no one who got in ever really managed to change the system from within. While many tried regardless of that fact, he had known better than to waste his time.
In a way, it was almost sad, though in the end it changed nothing. As someone who was constantly keeping an eye out for potential rivals and individuals to test his own strength against, he knew a fair amount about the knights that currently held positions of power. He also knew that there were some magic squads that were on the verge of dying as you heard close to nothing about them and rarely saw them in the field. Whether that was because people were just sick and tired of working for a system Griswold had called broken more than once, because they were losing more to the war against the demons than they’d like to admit, or because the people who could become knights simply didn’t want to risk their necks anymore was something he did not know. All he knew was that it was somewhat sad, as it meant that the more people refrained from becoming knights, the fewer individuals he had to mete himself with as a potential sparring partner.
It was for this reason that he had also turned his attention towards an altogether different avenue of people, the ones known to most simply as rogue mages. While many chose to believe that all of these individuals were inherently evil, the way he saw it, those that wished to make enough money to survive sometimes had to do things that most would deem bad or evil. Gawain however realized quite well that those who wandered the grey areas of the world sometimes had a hard time navigating away from the black and the white. Those that did often steered away with the intent of doing better next time. And then there were those that didn’t. People that decided the life of a hero was more up their alley, as well as those that decided that being dubbed a criminal and doing what they wanted when they wanted it was better suited to them. At this point, Gawain honestly felt like he might go either way, but enjoyed being between things most. At least for the time being.
All he really wanted right now was to learn new skills, all the while perfecting what he already knew.
And that’s when he heard it. People discussing a woman having been attacked in the streets quite recently. It wasn’t so much the fact that people were discussing it openly, but rather the time in which they did so. It was after all still very, very early in the morning. As he began wandering throughout the town after having overheard the attack on the woman, it seemed that there were more of them talking. All of them men. Standing in front of their homes armed with knives, hammers or actual swords, it was as if they had formed some kind of a militia intending to protect their loved ones. Whatever the story was behind this attack, it piqued Gawain’s interest quite a bit. Enough to prompt him towards asking several of these men about the attack, figuring out whatever he might from them.
As he had expected, most of them would not respond to him much, treating him like a child and telling him to run on home. Once he flashed his four-leaf grimoire however, some of them came around under the assumption that these kinds of tomes were quite special. While some remained steadfast in their determination not to drag a child into this, there were some that understood the importance of a grimoire such as this one. Telling him that if he wanted to be of some use, he should check in with a bunch of people that had taken it upon themselves to find the culprit behind the attack. Apparently being holed up in a rather sizeable mansion, the men inside held some favorable positions within the region. Though it did not directly warrant any aid from the capital, it was enough for them to exert a measure of control over the town and its people, quickly setting up a functional militia to make any killings less likely to go undetected.
Following up on the directions he had been given, the young man made his way over to the mansion as instructed. Finding the building to stand out quite a bit from most that surrounded it, Gawain wandered up to the front door and knocked on it several times. Upon the door opening, he was instantly met with a fair amount of guards that seemed somewhat confused by the fact that a boy had shown up at this hour. Waving nonchalantly at the armed men, a smile on his face, no time was wasted to explain what he had come here for.
“Heyo. Heard you lot were dealing with a real shady kind of killer. Lots and lots of people out there that seem eager to string up just about anyone to make all of this go away. I imagine it won’t be a whole lot longer before they do just that to the wrong person. An innocent person. Can’t have that kind of thing besmirching the good reputation of this town now can we.”
Even as he spoke nothing but the truth, it wasn’t all that difficult to tell that some of these men seemed to not take him seriously, instead choosing to believe that Gawain was trying to make fun of this whole situation. Pointing his sword at the boy and telling him that it would be better for everyone if he turned around and left the way he came, the white haired youth raised an eyebrow as he placed the tip of his finger on the tip of the blade. As he did, a faint wind began to swirl around the weapon for but a moment. In that moment however, Gawain had made his intentions quite clear. If the man were to try and inflict any kind of harm on him, the boy would level this entire building and everyone in it for good measure. Not taking kindly to threats of any kind, the smile on his face turned into a look of stoic seriousness, perhaps better fitting to the situation they all found themselves in.
When a voice came shouting from a side door, an older man stepped into the room as if drawn there by the whole commotion. It seemed likely that he had sensed the exertion of mana, as it was quite clear to tell that the man was a mage himself, and a fairly potent one at that. Having a magical sphere of light following him around to illuminate the dark corners of the interior, he made it clear to the guards that they could stand down and should return to keeping the building secure from anyone trying to break in without using the front door. Also slipping in a remark regarding how they shouldn’t be bullying children, Gawain chose to let that one slide for the time being. For as the guards left, the other man told the boy to follow him down the hallway and towards another room. Passing through a rather solid wooden door, he couldn’t tell which kind of tree it had been made out of. All he knew was that it would take a rather serious spell to blow it down, making for a good defense against unwanted individuals.
The moment he entered the room, the door slammed shut behind him, instantly taking away any noises he heard from the hallway. From the looks of it, it seemed that this room was normally being used to discuss things without the rest of the world being able to listen in, or break into. A perfect location for a mayor to discuss his dealings with the other local nobles and prominent figures living in the area. Right now, it served as a place of similar discussion as it all would determine how this town would end up dealing with these attacks. But more than that, it seemed that they also brought in the latest of the women to be attacked, the one that had sparked this whole militia to be formed and made people believe this had all been caused by a mythological creature. A vampire.
Being guided towards the woman to have a closer look, the puncture marks on her neck surrounded by a bunch of other teeth imprints did seem to imply that this was the work of some kind of bloodsucking menace. Whether it was actually a vampire or not remained to be seen, though the other individuals involved with this case seemed to agree that it was. More than that, they seemed to have also agreed on a culprit, a man who lived in this very town and had disappeared since the attack. They had however decided not to share this information just yet, as the overly eager men of the militia outside would more than likely start beating down doors and raiding buildings just to find him, and more than likely kill him without a proper trial. While one of the men in the room seemed quite verbal about how a monster needed no trial, the others remained unconvinced.
Since Gawain was an unaffiliated mage, the mayor believed it to be a good idea to have him look into the matter, and he wasn’t even trying to hide his reasoning. Claiming that no one would believe a child over the mayor if things went south, none of this could come back to bite him in the ass as they’d just swipe it all under the rug. And if it came to that, they could just feed the name of the believed-to-be attacker to the men outside and let them deal with it. Hearing all of this, Gawain was once again reminded that most of these rich individuals didn’t as much as take a step without properly planning it out and making sure it wouldn’t cost them any good reputation or money. Despicable.
But at least the man was under no impression of needing to lie to him, which made this whole ordeal a lot clearer to him. After all, Gawain was under no obligation to help any of these people, meaning he could step away and leave them to their own devices at any given point in time. Which was exactly what made being a lone operative with no master so incredibly appealing to him. Going to shake the mayors hand and letting him know that he accepts the task of looking into things and figuring out whether the culprit named Weylon was actually the vampire they were looking for, one of the other men stepped forward. It was the man with the glowing orb that had brought him into this room in the first place. Claiming that there was more work to be done if he were up for it, it seemed that they had all forgotten that they also still had to deal with the woman in question, as she was very much alive at this point.
Claiming that the woman had herself been inflicted with vampirism, it would most likely not be long before her heart would stop. And once it did, her transformation into a vampire would be complete. While the man would not divulge the reasons behind why he possessed this information, Gawain decided not to press the point. What mattered right now was figuring out how to cure her, or how to put an end to her misery. One way was putting a stake through her heart, killing her and keeping her transformation from completing. The other was finding a special plant growing in the forest of witches. Knowing that place to be infested with dangerous beings, he figured staking her might be easier. However, when it was made clear that the man would pay extra if he would try to save her life, Gawain ended up agreeing. Getting some extra money was never a bad incentive. And besides, it would let him gain some insight into just how much he had grown as an individual, all the while seeing whether this vague cure would even work.
