Contract Contest #12 Round 5 - Vote 1 (Patreon)

Contract 2: “Subterranean Sabotage”

By: BlackRoseDragon 

Mila receives a summons from a self-important local vampire “baron” who treats her Dracul status with icy disdain—until she strong-arms him into upping her reward. He claims the Knights of Friedrich are launching a major strike on the Lamia in the Lingrave Wastelands, yet every ghoul and the vampire mercenary he sent has vanished. At the necromancer’s ruined home, Mila finds a Knights’ camp, defeats a lone hunter guarding a cave, and watches in confusion as panicked knights flee past her rather than save their comrade. Inside, she finds corpses and ghoul ash with no signs of Lamia combat, while the few Lamias she encounters bolt in terror instead of attacking.

Deeper in, Mila is snared by a trap—unless Clover or Liora spots it first—and is freed by the very mercenary who’d gone missing. Before they can regroup, something massive tunnels toward them; they hide and watch as a Lamia is cornered by a towering shadowy creature that thrusts something into her, instantly pacifying her into a docile servant. The mercenary explains this monster is the true cause of the Wasteland’s unrest, powerful enough that the Knights collapsed the cave entrance to contain it. Forced to fight their way through patrolling Lamias who cannot safely be turned without exposing them to the lurking horror, Mila and the mercenary are eventually ambushed. The creature bursts from the earth, revealed as a terrifying manticore—half human, half scorpion—whose body shrugs off the mercenary’s desperate vampiric bite. Mila escapes in the chaos; the mercenary does not.

Mila awakens in a Lamia den, face-to-face with Kathali, a proud descendant of an ancient Lamia ruling line tied to the Tumwih stones. Kathali reveals the manticore, Derra, has stolen and poisoned these ancestral gems with its own venom, using them to enslave Lamias and twist the mercenary into a vampire–Lamia hybrid thrall. Hunting Derra through its lair, Mila finds the corrupted mercenary and the chamber where the Tumwih stones are kept. Derra offers to transform Mila into a Lamia and make her its second-in-command. In the bad ending, if Mila falls to Derra or any Lamia, she’s coiled, bitten, and remade as a vampire–Lamia hybrid under Derra’s control, forced to help conquer the remaining Lamias. In the good ending, Mila defeats Derra; as the manticore staggers and mocks her inability to infect it, Kathali drops a boulder to crush its tail. With its main weapon destroyed, the free Lamias swarm and tear Derra apart. Grateful, Kathali pledges her tribe’s aid, and the Lamias forge a unique manticore-themed weapon or piece of gear for Mila, imbued with potent poison.

Contract 4: “A Merchant's Folly”

By: Aaron S

Mila receives a notice from a local merchant who claims his expedition to the distant realm of Naishon ended in disaster—most of his crew vanished or returned “not quite themselves.” In exchange for a mysterious treasure discovered in a local village, Mila agrees to help recover them. Once there, she quickly notices the crew behaving strangely, moving and speaking as if charmed. Each time she tries to investigate, the overeager captain keeps “accidentally” leading her straight into groups of enthralled sailors, forcing Mila into repeated skirmishes and deepening her suspicion that something bigger is pulling the strings. Her search eventually leads her to the village shrine, where she uncovers the truth: the charming entity is a kitsune who has enthralled the entire expedition—captain included—luring Mila into a trap on holy ground.

In the good ending, Mila defeats the kitsune and learns its motives: its former shrine maiden abandoned her duties, leaving the spirit furious and alone. If Mila agrees to temporarily take up the maiden’s role, the kitsune grants her a blessing, frees the crew from its charm, and allows the merchant to depart with his people—and the promised treasure. In the bad ending, Mila is overwhelmed, charmed, and forced to become the new shrine maiden permanently, serving the kitsune’s will. Optional twists can include hidden clues scattered around the village that, if found beforehand, let Mila unravel the truth and gain an advantage—or even negotiate a peaceful resolution—as well as the kitsune partially transforming some sailors, giving Mila the chance to turn or save them during the quest.