Amon/Butu The Vampire: Ch. 10

Epilogue

Table of Contents

Photo by Niranjan _ Photographs on Unsplash

Let me tell you a story…

There once was an Egyptian priest named Amon, living in Alexandria around 30 BC. He had a brother, a mentor, and a lover. He was part of a secret cult led by a self-proclaimed god. That god used a dark ritual to turn Amon into a Vampire.

He killed his mentor to feed and then accidentally turned his lover, Chione, into a creature like himself.

His brother found out about his condition and tried to help. But then Amon was enslaved by Sekhet, the Bloodthirsty, for a hundred years, forced to perform despicable deeds. When he escaped, his brother had been long dead.

Amon then gained a follower named Mido before growing disgusted with himself and fleeing to the Qattara Depression to be alone. He gained a companion named Hanan who visited him regularly from a nearby oasis village. He forced her to kill her family and be his alone. The villagers came after him, thinking they’d killed him. He returned to their village and murdered them all in their sleep except for Hanan.

The reputation of the monster in the Qattarra Depression had grown and finally an army came after Amon. He fled with Hanan to Italy and became Cassius. In a small italian village, he came into conflict with Drusa, a stryx, who turned Hanan against him. She nearly killed him but allowed him to flee.

He ran to Rome and took an interest in observing humans going about their lives. An old follower, Mido, found him, pledging him and his descendants into service for Cassius.

Christianity grew more popular and Cassius tried to influence Rome’s aristocracy against it. Christian vampire hunters emerged as well, hunting for Cassius. Cassius learned how to shapeshift, growing stronger, but was eventually found by the vampire hunter and chased out of Rome.

He fled to the Gupta Empire, in India, where he began to lose bits of his mind. He dreamed up experiences that did not happen, as well as becoming more and more feral, as he continued to shapeshift. He drifted into a routine, losing all interest in humans and even forgetting that he was once named Amon. By happenstance, he came across the daughter of the vampire hunter who’d chased him out of Rome.

Soon after, his old lover-turned vampire showed up and attacked. She beat him, took his servants, and had them bury him in the ground, where he slowly grew more and more insane, drifting into and out of torpor.

Finally, he emerged from the grave to face a sword-wielding man. The steel of the blade hurt, but Cassius was able to overpower, kill and feed on the man. A few of his ex-followers found him and re-pledged themselves into his service. Chione, still around, found out he’d freed himself and came after him. He fled back to Rome under the name Mshai, to Constantinople, trying to find a new life.

The fear of Chione was strong, so he fled further, to Brittania (or Caledonia) and took the name Butu. There, he worked with the locals fighting for independence against the weakening Roman presence, but one day he woke to find himself trapped in a cave and a 100 years had passed. He escaped and became a mindless animal, hunting for food.

One of his followers, Azad, found him and was still alive, with golden eyes and a bulkier body. Azad explained that they had been unable to wake Butu from slumber and had closed the cave up to protect him. Butu thanked Azad for his continued service.

He came upon a tree in the forest, beautiful and uplifting. It calmed him to be around it. He slept beneath it’s boughs often.

A mortal named Aedh found him and offered a partnership of sorts. Butu accepted.

Butu found a mortal that reminded him of Chione though he couldn’t remember Chione’s name. He curried her favor.

Aedh betrayed him, leading a band of villagers to attack him whilst he slept under his tree. He escaped but the tree burned and he could not find Aedh after, no matter how hard he tried. He wept for the tree.

Butu had a few close calls in villages, but managed to blame an innocent beggar for murder rather than himself. He found that he’d lost the ability to enter that state of restfulness he’d found when he’d been buried.

He learned that a vampire named Chione had been burned to death in a town not far away. He knew the name from his diary but that was all.

He preyed upon woman and children left alone while their men fought in bloody wars across the land.

Chione’s followers found him and followed him, or so he believed.

One night, he remembered a time of living with Chione, a long time ago, when they were both vampires. He remembered it was a beautiful, lovely, fulfilling time. It never happened. It is a false memory.

Around 520 AD, Chione’s followers turn on Butu, leading him deep into a cave before causing it to cave in behind him. He was trapped, forever. He curled up into a fetal position. He tried to remember his time with Chione, for as long as he could.

It’s possible he still lives there, in that cave, still struggling to hold onto a memory that didn’t even happen…

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This was the story of my vampire. He began as an Egyptian priest and ended his life with a fractured mind, betrayed and trapped in a cave, trying to hold onto a false memory that never happened. He ‘lived’ from 30 BC to 520 AD before being trapped, almost 500 years! That’s a pretty good run.

This was a blast to play, as Thousand-Year-Old Vampire always is. I had to delve into the depths of wikipedia, learning all kinds of new things, such as ancient Indian vampires and ancient Greek monsters, etc. I messed up with the diary, thinking it could only hold one Memory, but oh well, mistakes happen, you just keep playing.

This game forces you to drop story threads at a moments notice, as you might get a string of big numbers, pushing you way past a prompt that you had hoped to return to. That’s the nature of being a vampire and living thousands of years. And it surprises you! You’ll return prompts you thought you wouldn’t, follow story threads you thought were long gone, and have characters return that you assumed were long dead. It’s a fantastic game.

Now, you might be wondering, when you read the last chapter, what this was all about:

Roll: 2 - 6 = -4 → Prompt #67.2 →Alternative Prompts

Randomly generated number between 1 and 132 = Prompt #90 67

Rarely, when playing TYOV, I’ve come across prompts I simply don’t know how to respond to. (I think it’s happened twice in 4 playthroughs) I give myself a day or two to think about it, I try to do some research to help me, but there’s times I’m still just at a loss. And that’s okay! You come across these little difficulties when solo playing and you just have to decide what to do. I could’ve simply re-rolled, or gone 1 forward or 1 back, but instead, I looked to the back of the book, where there are a ton of alternative prompts, 132 to be exact. I randomly generated a number, got 90, didn’t really like it, so I did it again. “But-But-That’s cheating!” You might be thinking, “You didn’t go with the first randomly generated number!” No, I didn’t. And guess what, you can do that whenever you want when you’re solo-gaming. Don’t go with a choice you’re not enthusiastic about just because of randomness. It can demotivate you and make you less interested and engaged in the story you’re telling. You can always choose to take the more interesting path. You’re playing with yourself. You should be having fun! And this allowed me to try an alternative prompt which I otherwise would not have, so I really enjoyed it.

This is just one of many, many solo journaling games out there. There are games about in all different genres, with all different characters and prompts for any interest. Find one and give it a try!

If you have any questions about the game, the process, how I decided things, etc. drop them in the comments.

Next week will be a “What’s next” post, with possibly a week or two break after that. Thanks for reading!

Also, I’m sort of playing mini solo games through Substacks new Notes thing. Right now, it’s Cthulhu Dark where I play a librarian slowly going insane. Check it out!