G5 Adventures in Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire

Daphne and Ruby Jubilee had been captured by Bram and the rest of Fangenshanz, so Daphne could be taken as the vampire’s bride… and of course, the rest of our heroes had no idea of these disastrous events.

While all this was going on, the Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby were still lost in the swamp, having slept in the insides of a hollow tree for temporary shelter against the cold.

The sun was just beginning to go down, which meant that the vampires would be coming out again soon if they didn't move fast. Scooby looked around as the group emerged from the tree, not recognizing the area. “Where are we?”

“No clue, Scooby,” Minty responded as she shook her head. “We’ve got no service out here.”

“Not that it matters,” Shaggy said, scratching his back. “This swamp is as good a home as any for a vampire and his canine and pony pals.”

Blue Belle grimaced out of disgust as soon as she saw Shaggy and Scooby’s backs. “Well… all except for the leeches slithering all over your backs.”

“Leeches?!” Shaggy said, realizing that Blue Belle was right-- there were leeches all over Shaggy and Scooby’s backs, causing Snuzzle and Minty to quickly brush them off so the boys wouldn’t panic any more than they already were.

After the leeches were gone, Shaggy let out a sigh. “But, hey, we won't let a few little leeches spoil things, will we, Scoob?”

“No way!” Scooby responded. But as they continued walking again, that's when they encountered a huge snake on a nearby branch, causing Minty to shriek. “SNAKE!!!”

The group immediately bolted, running across the backs of alligators across the bayou. “GATORS!!” Shaggy wailed before he and Scooby dove into the murky water, only to rise a few seconds later, covered in crawdads. “CRAWDADS!!”

Shaggy and Scooby were able to remove the crawdads, thankfully, but Scooby was still a bit shaken up. “Snakes and gators and crawdads. Oh, my!”

“I think you and Shaggy might need a new life plan, Scooby,” Snuzzle said with a shudder. “If we could find some sort of shelter out here, we can plan our next move.”

“Hey… look over there!” Blue Belle pointed her hoof across the swamp, revealing a tin shack with a dock not too far away. “A tin shack!” Shaggy cried out in relief. “It's a dream come true!”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Minty asked. “Let’s get over there and get you boys dried off.”

“But… look at all that water…” Snuzzle shuddered, looking at the water around them. “Y-You guys know about how I’m scared of water, right?”

“Don’t worry, Snuzz,” Shaggy said with a smile. “I can carry you, so you don’t have to swim.”

Needless to say, Snuzzle quickly took Shaggy up on his offer, and Shaggy, Scooby, Misty and Blue Belle began crossing the bayou until they climbed out of the water and approached the front door of the shack. It wasn't much, and it looked like it was falling apart... but it was better than nothing. “Remember, guys,” Blue Belle told her friends, “don’t say anything about Shaggy potentially being a vampire.”

“Okay,” Scooby nodded to Blue Belle's statement. But before Shaggy could knock, the door flew open, and in the doorway stood an older man with no hair and very bushy eyebrows. “Company? Come on in, cher. Hoo-hoo!” he cried, pulling the group inside the shack, to their surprise and sitting them down at the table. “Sit you down a spell while I put on that gumbo.”

“Gumbo?” Scooby repeated excitedly. “Heh… must be our lucky day,” Minty smiled. “I’m Minty, by the way, and this is Snuzzle, Blue Belle, Scooby and Shaggy. Thanks for letting us come in, Mr… um…”

“My name's Tulie,” the man responded as he put on some goggles and used a blow torch to warm up the gumbo on the stove. “That's not my real name, no. But that's what it say on the shack, so I go with that. Hoo-hoo! Look at that right there. Now we cooking some kind of yeah.”

“How come you live way out here in the middle of nowhere?” Shaggy asked curiously. “Well, if you must know, I'm on the run,” Tulie answered, causing Snuzzle to become confused. “From what?”

“Vampires!” Tulie said quickly. “Ooh, I hate them, me. And if I ever catch me one, I'm going to grind his bones for stew.”

However, this was enough to get Shaggy a bit nervous. “Maybe we should be going.”

“Stay right there,” Tulie told him, pouring some gumbo into some bowls in front of them. “It’s gumbo time!”

Minty sniffed the air, and the scent made her taste buds water. “Well… I guess we could stay for just a few minutes. At least get some good food in our stomachs.”

Needless to say, the others dove right into the gumbo at this, finding it surprisingly delicious. “Well, I wasn't always a crazy old hermit,” Tulie went on. “I used to be a handsome inventor of fantastical devices.”

“Really?” Blue Belle wiped her mouth. “What'd you invent?”

“Gadgets, whatchamacallits, thingamajigs. Stuff that go ‘buzz, buzz, hoppity-hoppity, hoop’!” Tulie said, adding in the sound effects. “I had me a little shop over there at Petit Chauve Sourie Ville… where I sold things. The most popular item being a hat with two cup holders and a long straw… so you could have two soda pops while you're watching that ball game.”

“Like, wow!” Shaggy chuckled. “You invented the drinky hat?”

“No, but I sold them in the store,” Tulie answered, causing the Dreamlands to shrug at each other. “Ain't nobody ever bought my inventions because, like I said, they mostly just went… bleep, bleep, bloop, bloop, hoop, hoop. But then I created the greatest invention ever; flying shoes!”

That’s when Tulie showed the five of them a very complex set of blueprints. “They're based on the same principle as a hovercraft. But the fans be pointed down to lift you off the ground,” Tulie explained. “Whoo-whoo-whoo! There you go. And I was all set to show them to a big shoe company… when a vampire attacked me and stole the prototypes! Well, I filed me an insurance claim. But it turns out they don't cover vampire attacks. Hoo-hoo.”

“That’s awful,” Shaggy frowned before lifting his bowl. “More please!”

Scooby nodded and did the same. “Me too.”

“Boys!” Snuzzle scolded. “Don’t be rude!”

“No, they’re probably right, cher,” Tulie said in response, a frown on his face as he poured some more gumbo into Shaggy and Scooby's bowls. “I was ruined, y'all! I've been living out here in the swamp ever since. And that is why I hates me them vampires.”

Minty pulled out her phone and took notes, as well as took pictures of the blueprints before asking another question. “Mr. Tulie, how long ago did this happen?”

“I dunno,” Tulie shook his head. “As long as I've been growing these here whiskers. Maybe two, three weeks now.”

The Dreamlands hummed and glanced at each other, finding that strangely convenient… but Tulie didn’t seem to pay their glances any mind. “Oh, well, that's life. You know, sometime you lose everything on account of vampires… sometime you don't. Ha, ha. How y'all like the gumbo?”

“It’s pretty good,” Blue Belle said. “I’ve never had anything like it before.”

“That's because of my special ingredient,” Tulie told them with a proud smile. “Leeches. I likes to put them leeches in the gumbo. Leech gumbo. Yum. That's good, yeah.”

However… this was not the reaction that Shaggy, Scooby and the Dreamlands had. In fact, they looked like they were about to puke, and they ran out the door and the window, landing in a rowboat parked next to the dock. “Bye!” the Dreamlands said as they rowed away. “Thanks for everything!”

“Y'all come back anytime!” Tulie called back as the group vanished from sight.

But leech gumbo aside… now the Dreamlands had a sneaking suspicion that whoever was behind this vampire was also responsible for stealing Tulie’s shoe prototypes.

Now all they had to do was get back to their friends to prove it.