This week was mainly spent working on completing those new illustrations. I have 4 more illustrations to get through out of 11, so I’m making some good progress. Work on the game’s end was spent on some smaller things, namely text on interactable events within the Rosenblad Estate.

Now that the Countess in Crimson quest is nearly complete, I’m starting to shift focus to the second quest, Terror of the Seas. The majority of the maps are done, as I have stated before. It’s a matter of finalizing some of the rooms, laying out the puzzles, and finally scripting the events. Truth be told, I’ve gone back and forth on how exactly I want the scenario to play out. As I was drafting the scenario, I realized that having Mila control a crew of pirates with a ship would be handy for a future scenario. But how would a crew of vampire pirates sail during the day? To resolve this conundrum, I decided to use this opportunity to instead explore a facet of vampirism that was only briefly touched upon. The concept of a blood thrall.

One of the earliest Bad Endings has Mila turned into a thrall, which can remotely perform tasks for a vampire, seemingly even during the day. Here are the ground rules I’ve established for them:

A thrall is born when a hypnotized victim is continuously bitten and healed of vampirism by a master vampire (through holy water or some other means). Thralls are addicted to getting bitten by the vampire that caused those bites. Though they are not undead themselves, the bodily fluids of a thrall can corrupt other humans and make them thralls of their master vampire. Thralls also grow an appetite for blood, though they do not need it to survive. Thralls can be better controlled than a hypnotized victim, and perform tasks more naturally than hypnotized victims can in a tranced state. Thralls can blend into society and do a vampire’s bidding during the day and remotely. A thrall can also be manipulated into not realizing they are a thrall, creating a sort of “sleeper agent” out of the victim. A thrall’s control can only be broken if the master vampire is destroyed and even then, the thrall will go into withdrawal, longing for their master long after they are dead. Widowed thrall’s often seek ways to revive their master or somehow become vampires themselves to continue their bidding in some way. This behavior can be treated with extensive therapy, however the victim’s bodily fluids will remain infected, unbeknownst to them. In rare cases this can cause multiple humans to turn into a thrall if the master vampire is resurrected.

Having a thrall around seems rather useful, so why have there been no examples of other thralls up until now? In most cases, having a victim turn into a vampire is more satisfying as a bad ending. But, I feel that the vampire route is the perfect place to reintroduce this concept!

Lastly, I have this week’s art teaser. This is for the Countess in Crimson’s Bad Ending:

The full version is currently available for all my $5 and up patrons. Check it out if you want to help support me.

https://www.patreon.com/MKRUdesign

That's all I have to share with you this week. Until next time everyone!