Spooky Stories Around a Campfire in South Gustaberg

As night falls Jestor makes his way from the city to the designated campsite. Nodding to all the others gathered he sets down a bag. Pulling back the hood from his Eerie Cloak he opens the satchel and pulls out a few books.

"Greetings all. For tonight's spooky stories I've done research and brought some of the scarier tales that I could find."

"Is it about a dragon? Wait...there really aren't many horror stories about dragons..."

Rhoa quietly thinks to herself for a few moments, mumbling to herself about dragons maybe having horror stories.

Despite the warmth of the campfire, Saehel draws her hood closer around her face and shivers in anticipation of the stories to come.

"Are they are about ghostarus?" Aenini asks as she scoots closer to Humaisna. "Stories about ghostarus are oh so much scary-wary!"

Humaisna smiled down at Ninny, then returned his attention to Jestor. Despite not being a fan of scaring the tarutaru, Humaisna was eager to hear what Jestor would tell.

Jestor looks around, clearly nervous about telling a story. Then he reaches down and picks up a thin children's picture book. He finds comfort that the words will be someone else's as he's not comfortable with his creative skills.

He looks over at Aenini. "I do have some with ghosts, but I thought I'd start out with an old children's story I found." He figitds a little as the continues "Better to start with something simple and work our way into things." It's not clear if he's saying that to the group or to himself.

Holding the book upside down he holds he pages open for the others to see the pictures as he reads through the book. ((Yes, have fun with this if you want James. *smile*))

"This is the story of the scared goblin."

Jestor opens the page to the first one.

"Once upon a time there was a young boy who lived with his mother."

Next page. (( every new line will be a page turn with a new picture being shown to the group. ))

"His father was dead so he had to do al the chores by himself."

"One day while he was out collecting wood for the fire he saw this goblin in the woods."

"Upon seeing the boy, the goblin ran away."

"This confused the boy as he was told goblins attacked people and ate children. Why did this one run away? So the boy followed the goblin."

"The boy soon realized he was lost in the woods, and it was starting to get dark."

"Not knowing the way out, the boy decided to make the best of it and set up a campfire."

"The goblin that had run away was on the edge of the camp watching the boy."

"When the boy finally went to sleep the goblin crept up to him and poked him in the nose with a stick!"

"Waking up, the boy screamed!"

"The goblin screamed!"

"Then the goblin ran away dropping a black ball behind."

"The boy picked up the black ball and then it exploded!"

"And the boy was never heard from again."

Closing the book, Jestor looked around for reactions. He thought the tale was kind of silly, but the pictures were kind of spooky and it was meant for kids. Best to start out small and work your way up, right?

Comforted by Humaisna's presence, and prepared to grab him the moment things got too scary, Aenini listens to Jestor with growing intensity as he tells his story. She giggles and covers her own nose when the goblin poked at the boy. However when the story concludes she lowers her hands and looks sad, her ears drooping slightly.

“That wasn’t scary-wary Jestor-Nestor, that was sad. That poor teeny-weeny boy…”

"It's okay, Ninny. We don't know what happened to the boy. And you know those goblin gadgets. Maybe the black ball was like a warp ball or something. Maybe the boy ended up somewhere nicer, after all," Humaisna said, patting her shoulder.

"Go on," he said encouragingly, surprised at Jestor's obvious nervousness. He'd assumed that telling stories would be something Jestor would be comfortable with.

"Oh come on," Keahi says as she reclines on a nearby rock. "We've all seen what 'black balls' goblins leave behind."

"BOOOM!" she shouts raising her arms menacingly in the air. "Too bad he didn't have a shield. Little bits rrraining down everrywherre... Bet that campfirre was a lot like this one. Maybe if we'rre veeeeerry still we'll be joined by the ghost of a little boy."

"Because we've never survived a goblin bomb, Keahi," Humaisna observed dryly, shooting her a stern look. "I bet the kid was okay. Kids are resilient, after all."

Keahi shrugs with a smirk. "Just keep telling yourrself that, Humai. Bu just so you know most horror storries don't come with a happy ending... so you don't get scarred as the night goes on."

"You'll find that very few things scare me, not even Gusgen, you'll recall. No story could do that," Humaisna replies contemptuously. "No offense, Jestor. Do your worst."

Saehel nods a little, relating the most to Aenini. She'd agreed to come out to hear the scary stories her friends told, but to tell the truth, she got creeped out by stories worse than by actual monsters or ghosts. Probably the worst part, in her mind, was that monsters were mostly outside the cities. Stories can follow you anywhere and keep you up at night thinking about them.

She tried to look brave when Humaisna challenged Jestor for a more scary story.

Nekaru shrugs, "I have to agrrree with Keahi therrre. Most storrries do have a 'bad' ending. And besides, who rrrreally would pick up a goblin's bomb?"

Jestor nods to Humainsa and pulls out a thin black journal.

"This isn't a story, but it's something I found interesting while I was doing research on the Gusgen Mines. This is the Log Book of Gerard Barble, he was one of the men who was sent to investigate the mines to get them reopened after the accident closed them."

With the preface said, Jestor opens the journal, he seems more at ease reading about something that happened rather than the children's story.

"There was a major accident at the Gusgen Mines. I was sent to investigate what had happened and determine how long until we could get the mines opened up again.

"As I stepped into the mines it was filled with a rank musty odor. The smell made me sick to my stomach, but this was part of the job. I had heard that the excavation team wasn’t able to recover all of the bodies of the people that died in the accident. I felt sorry for their families and I tried not to think about my family trying to survive without me.

"I started by examining the walls. They appeared to be sturdy. So the integrity of the opening of the mine shaft is still good. It would be a tragedy if there were a cave-in and everyone investigating the mines were trapped in here and starved to death.
Then I started investigating the rails that were used to move the ore through the mine in the mine carts. They looked like they could use some repairs. For the most part they were still fine, but there were some rocks and other debris in the track that would get in the way of the wheels. So that is something that would need to be looked into. We wouldn’t want a full cart of ore careening into somebody and crushing them to death.

"Moving deeper into the mines I went to check on the door system. We put that in place to close off the mines that weren’t in use and allow the tracks to run through the spots we were mining in. The levers seemed to be broken in that they only worked one way. So it looked like I was going to have to go around and through the other side to see why some of the doors weren’t operating correctly.

"A siren just sounded.

"There shouldn’t be anyone in here. Why is the siren sounding? Wait, is that a little girl? What’s she doing in here?

"I followed the little girl through the mines it felt like she was leading me somewhere. In the end I came into a small room where there was only a pool of water. There was no place for the girl to go. I even looked in the water and didn’t see anything. It must have been my nerves or something I was imagining.

"So, I think with a little work we will be able to open these mines up again by the end of the year.

"Wait, the siren is sounding again."

Jestor closes the Log Book and pulls his hood back up over his head.

He looks up with a deadpan look in his eyes and in a matter of fact voice says, "In the notes with this logbook it states that this Logbook was found by one of the pools in the Gusgen Mines. It was then brought to Bastok to be filed away. Gerard was never found, and the mines were never reopened. Others went to investigate the mines. All of them heard the siren, but only a handful returned. Their tales were all that of a little girl beckoning them onward. What happened to those that followed the girl? The ones who came back were too scared to follow her. The San d’Orian Cathedra sent in exorcists but all they did was made a seal to ward off evil in the depths of the mines. But to this day the siren still sounds. And the ghosts still wander. Who will hear the siren next? And who will follow the lost little girl into the depths of the mines?"

Nekaru shivers a little when there is talk of the siren and the little girl. And by the end of it has pulled her legs up into her chest as she sits quietly looking into the fire.

"I'll tell you who hearrd the sirren next," says Keahi. "We did."

"You rrememberr. When that big..." She gestures wide with her arms. ".. ghost thing chased us all the way out of the mines. We got split up and had to hide forrr a while as the damned thing just starred down the entrrance. Man, I thought we werre gonna be stuck in therre forreverrr til Misterr Smarrtypants rrememberred he knew the spell to teleporrt." She laughs.

Saehel nodded, remembering the time spent in Gusgen Mines hiding and waiting and hoping the ghost would go away. When she'd finally plucked up her courage to go out and try to lead it away from the others, Jestor had remembered he could take them to the Crag of Dem safely. "It was really scary, though, Miss Keahi, I think I probably forgot half the things I could do, too. All I wanted was to go out and lead it away from everyone so you could escape."

Humaisna looks thoughtful. "That IS interesting. Why would a little girl spirit be in Gusgen?" he asked, shaking his head. "I've gone to Gusgen many times to train and never seen anything like that. And no one has been able to investigate it without going missing or cowarding out?"

Aenini clutches at Humaisna as Jestor starts reading from the Gusgen log book, burying her face into his side as the story continues. She hates the mines and the ghosts therein and remembers all too well how her and Big Brotharu got separated from everyone. The memory makes her shake a little and she looks up at Humaisna.

"I saw a little boy spiritaru when we were in there lastaru time," she says quietly. "He walked rightaru through me! I tried to getaru you to see, butaru he was gone before you turned around. Then that big scary-wary ghostaru separated us all..."

"You think thataru they are all trapped? I would hate to think that innocentaru children would be trapped in there with that scary-wary ghostaru."