The demons in the air irritate you, and you suspect they might be working for the Count. You decide to disabuse them of any silly notions.
7!
You start with the littlest ones, and they are simple to catch with empty promises. AND MAKE SATISFYING NOISES WHEN CAUGHT and chewed to bits
Leaky things that they are, they fail to keep their secrets when sufficiently mutilated.A trail begins to emerge - with an inkling of their hierarchy, you move up the next rung and snap up the demon following the town's musically-inclined, grabbing it literally for a song.
It sings while being gnashed, too. great to see someone so committed to entertainment
You find the next one as a shadow within the wishing well, working to render hopes into stories, and reel it in with a desire tragically improbable yet tantalizingly plausible. a refined flavor
Well-cultivated! AND IT SCREAMS REAL GOOD TOO
And finally, a being you could conceivably call a demon in the backwoods, an old servant driven to madness, his body long since lost but his demon still prancing about with stolen knowledge. This one you draw in with feigned innocence. ITS SUFFERING IS THE MOST GRATIFYING BY FAR though not a peer it is close enough to be contemptible
Before it is digested to dust and memories, the last demon knows enough to tell you about the estate - the Count keeps no staff, only apprentices. Each is possessed in their own way, and wields strange powers as a consequence. And the Count, why, the Count himself does not live in the castle at all, but rather under it - it remembered, yes, it remembered a time when its host used to work there, and supply the Count in his terrible secret tasks, calling more and more demons, for what purpose? Youth? Power? NONE OF THESE HE GAINED but a noble effort nevertheless
The tide has turned, and you feel the background of demons contaminating this place shift to avoid you. It feels like a mist gently clearing. SHALL WE BEGIN
A) Strike in the daytime, while the apprentices still pretend to do their duties.
B) Strike in the night, when the devilry has started in earnest.
C) Approach in plain sight, armed with the knowledge of how things truly are.
You feel a twinge in the back of your head. IT HAS BEEN SO LONG may we break free in earnest
We have such sights to show these dilettantes.A) Stay as you are, my demonic friends.
B) Show me the way, but allow me to walk by myself.
C) Lend all of your power and minds to me!