Satyr-Vampire Miyori, At your Service! (18+)

Chapter 8: Back to Barovia

In a far off mountain range, a tall orc woman with one long black braid tended to her sheep. It wasn't much work, but it was her job to keep them all safe from predators. They were as gentle and clueless as newborn babies, and all those babies belonged to her. She sighed as she sat in the tall green grass.

It had been months since Maeve had left Barovia. She remembered the place as being gloomy, with its people in constant depression and the streets being riddled with dangerous creatures, waiting to kill.

Her main reason for going there all that time ago was to avenge her brother. She was unsure as to why he insisted on going to a place like that, but it seemed serious. All she knew is that he left one day and never came back.

So she went, looking for him, and in a crowd of spirits headed toward Castle Ravenloft, she saw him. His spirit looked depressed as well, and he looked as though someone attempted to tear him apart. She knew then that she had to kill that damned vampire, Strahd Von Zarovich, or at least make him suffer by getting that girl Ireena out of Barovia.

She, however, didn't even get a chance to look him in the face.

When she arrived in Barovia, she had met two other adventurers with the same goal as her: a shifty human man named Fitz, and a bubbly yet strange-looking satyr woman named Miyori.

Miyori was so trusting and curious. She would always tear up a little if she saw someone innocent in pain. She would often touch anything that shined or sparkled. These two traits of hers would be her downfall for the most part. She got bit by a vampire who she mistook for a regular suffering man. She touched a crystal ball in a old haunted house that gave her a direct psychic link to Strahd. Despite her bad luck, she always seemed happy. All that bad luck, however, made Fitz overly cautious.

Fitz never trusted anyone. He said he had grown up in the streets with little to no money to his name. His main priorities seemed to be gaining money, and keeping himself safe at all costs, even if it meant betrayal. He would often go to taverns to gamble, and always came back with a lot of winnings. His greed was tolerable, but his disrespect towards Miyori had caused her to abandon the party once, then abandon the quest altogether.

She knew that the only reason Fitz was there was to take the money and run. The only reason why he was getting Ireena out of Barovia is because he was under the impression that he would get paid handsomely.

One night, after Miyori had fallen asleep, Fitz had came to Maeve with a few things, and a plan. He talked about blindfolding Miyori, plugging up her ears, feeding her a potion of disguise, and leaving her at castle Ravenloft.

When Maeve asked why, Fitz said something truly terrible:

"Well, while Strahd is distracted with Miyori, we could loot for a little while, and then take Ireena off to safety!"

When she asked about Miyori's fate, Fitz said something even worse:

"Well, Strahd'll probably kill her! One less problem to worry about, right? I mean come on, she's nothing but a walking, talking, bad omen that's bought us nothing but trouble. We'd be killing two birds with one stone. One of them, quite literally, right?"

Maeve decided right then and there that this entire quest... the money, fighting Strahd, avenging her brother... it all wasn't worth it, if it meant leaving a friend to die. Sure, Miyori always had a series of terrible events happening to her that sometimes affected the whole party... but she was a friend. Despite every bad thing that happened to her, she smiled.

Maeve couldn't find it in herself to carry out such a plan, and she knew that she couldn't take Strahd on alone, so with a heavy heart, she decided to leave. She had heard of a nice group of people called the Vistani. She heard that they had the ability to travel in and out of Barovia. During the night, when Fitz was asleep, she took off, found the Vistani, and never looked back.