"I was really baffled the first time I heard what stories in Alcidea painted Vampyrs like. To be fair, they got some parts right, in that these things suck your blood until you die, and they sparkle, eventually bursting into flames under direct sunlight.

On the other hand, the way they are depicted as suave, beautiful seducers has got to be one of the funniest thing I've ever heard all my life, and solid proof that whoever retold these stories had never seen one of the ugly fuckers themselves." - Danang Gioputra Avati, Ptolodeccan desert guide.

Three days after they reached the Navatas, the party departed, some of them still in awe at the sight they had just seen, especially Leila and Ying Xiao, who saw such sights for the first time in their lives. Elaina and Sidonie had at least been to Madginfjord with Cal just the year before.

For the next part of their trek, it would be at least another two weeks before they run into another oasis. The original route Dan proposed would have taken over twice as long, and included stops at three other oasis along the way.

Cal had requested they take a straight route instead. That route was normally avoided due to the lack of oasis along the way - a non-issue with the amount of supplies the party had with them - and because it was Vampyr territory.

The latter point actually became a plus point for Cal, as the trek had been on the uneventful side, and the girls could only spar with each other, apart from the orgryns they ran into early in the trip.

Soon after they entered what Dan had marked as Vampyr territory half a week later, they started spotting what looked like sparkles on the horizon during the day. Dan explained that it was likely some Vampyrs, scouting for the intruders in their territories.

He also mentioned that the bloodsucking creatures had an odd biology. Their flesh would combust into flames when exposed to direct, concentrated sunlight, and for that reason they were entirely nocturnal, and only moved during the days during the rare cloudy times. When they appear.at day like this, it was usually to see just what intruded upon their territory, a quick peek from their underground warrens.

They supposedly secrete some sort of mucus that protects them from the sunlight for a short period of time. It was this mucus that boiled off under the sunlight and caused the sparkling effect. Cal confirmed it for herself when one of the critters appeared a little too close to them and she told Sidonie - who was more accurate - to take it out.

Her niece didn't disappoint, and her thrown javelin took the critter right in the gut and nailed it to the ground, allowing the party to approach the sparkling creature. It was situated close to a hole that led underground, which Leila sealed shut with a stream of magma just in case.

"Sure is a damned ugly bugger, isn't it?" Cal asked while she crouched and inspected the sparkling creature. The vampyr before her was a small creature, barely a meter tall, with long spindly limbs ending on four-fingered thumbless hands tipped with sharp claws.

It had a humped back, with spiny spindles growing along its spine, and its head was proportionally too large for its body, with oversized multifaceted eyes reminiscent of an insect, and no nose of any kind. The lower end of its face elongated into a proboscis that was tipped by a lamprey like mouth, a concentric ring of razor sharp teeth that opened and closed as it wildly lashed out despite nobody being close enough.

"Eww," said Leila from where she stood, looking at the creature with a grimace of disgust. "How the hell are these things supposed to be dashing, suave seducers of men and women alike!?"

"The stories they tell of these creatures over at Alcidea and even some western parts of Ur-Teros are indeed quite… romanticized," replied Kino with a laugh. The creature's body had a sheen of mucus that covered it, and it was as this layer boiled under the sunlight that it gave off the sparkles they saw. "Or maybe the first people who saw them just had heavier tastes? Who knows?"

"Hah! We often joke about that as well amongst ourselves," said Dan with a bark of laughter. He looked positively amused at the situation, instead of being worried for being deep in vampyr territory like he normally would. Having seen the party butcher an orgryn tribe had assured him of his safety. "But yes, I do agree that some of the popular tales of these Leyak are utterly hilarious to hear. That said, lady Celeysria, you might want to step back a bit. It's about to pop, and you won't enjoy the stench, I think."

"Huh? Okay," said Cal as she took a few steps backward. She did so none too soon, as moments after she distanced herself from the stricken vampyr, the sparkling mucus on its skin crackled and revealed its actual body to the sunlight, along with an unpleasant sulfuric stench that reminded her of a dog's fart.

Then the vampyr burst into flame, starting from the area where the mucus peeled off. The mucus itself turned out to be quite flammable, and before long the entirety of the writhing creature had been on fire, even as it wildly flailed in agony, its futile attempts to extinguish the fire failing pathetically.

"Might want to get a bit further now," cautioned Dan with a more serious face as he took a distance from the burning vampyr. The rest of the party followed him without any protest. "They are known to explode when burnt like this, and believe me when I say you don't want to clean their burnt entrails off your hair."

As if to punctuate his words, the burning vampyr exploded with a loud pop moments later, the small explosion scattering bits of the creature all over the place, though the party was too far to be splattered as well. Even so Kino still erected a thin barrier of void in front of herself. The stench that permeated the area was even worse, like that of droppings on fire, and some of the girls looked positively nauseated at the stench.

"I repeat, Eww, gross!" Leila said while she pinched her nose with her fingers and backed away hastily.