Is there a better way to deal with ranged t5? They seem to be as cheap as we are in this match. Have Combat Patrol, 10 Wyches, Succubus and Drazhar available. This is the best list I could think of to counter. Pray for good charges and unit wipes. Maybe drop the ship for some Kabbalites or an Archon?
++ Arks of Omen Detachment (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Imperial Fists) [35 PL, 555pts, 1CP] ++

• Configuration +

Chapter Selector: Imperial Fists
Arks of Omen Compulsory Type: Troops
Battle Size [3CP]: 1. Combat Patrol (0-50 Total PL / 0-500 Points)
Detachment Command Cost
Game Type: 1. Eternal War
Unit Filter

• HQ +

Tor Garadon [8 PL, 120pts, -1CP]: Siege Master, Stratagem: Warlord Trait, Warlord

• Troops +

Heavy Intercessor Squad [7 PL, 115pts]: Heavy bolt rifle, Heavy bolter . 4x Heavy Intercessor: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Frag & Krak grenades . Heavy Intercessor Sergeant
Heavy Intercessor Squad [7 PL, 115pts, -1CP]: Hellstorm bolt rifle, Hellstorm heavy bolter . 4x Heavy Intercessor: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Frag & Krak grenades . Heavy Intercessor Sergeant: Digital Weapons, Stratagem: Gift of the Phalanx
Heavy Intercessor Squad [7 PL, 115pts]: Executor bolt rifle, Executor heavy bolter . 4x Heavy Intercessor: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Frag & Krak grenades . Heavy Intercessor Sergeant

• Elites +

Aggressor Squad [6 PL, 90pts]: 2x Flamestorm Gauntlets, 2x Aggressor, Aggressor Sergeant
++ Total: [35 PL, 1CP, 555pts] ++
Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)
++ Arks of Omen Detachment (Aeldari - Drukhari) [20 PL, 365pts, 2CP] ++

• Configuration +

Arks of Omen Compulsory Type: Troops
Battle Size [3CP]: 1. Combat Patrol (0-50 Total PL / 0-500 Points)
Detachment Command Cost
Game Type: 1. Eternal War
Obsession: Kabal of the Obsidian Rose: Flawless Workmanship
Raiding Forces - CP Refund
Unit Filter

• Stratagems +

Stratagem: Prizes from the Dark City [-1CP]

• HQ +

Drazhar [8 PL, 145pts]: Hatred Eternal, Warlord

• Elites +

Incubi [4 PL, 90pts] . 4x Incubi: 4x Klaive . Klaivex: Klaive

• Heavy Support +

Ravager [8 PL, 130pts]: As Detachment (Kabal), 3x Dark Lance
++ Patrol Detachment 0CP (Aeldari - Drukhari) [13 PL, 186pts, -1CP] ++

• Configuration +

Detachment Command Cost
Obsession: Cult of the Cursed Blade: Only The Strong Will Survive
Raiding Forces - CP Refund

• HQ +

Succubus [5 PL, 95pts, -1CP]: 2 - Grave Lotus (Combat Drug), As Detachment (Wych Cult), Precision Blows, Stratagem: Tolerated Ambition, The Triptych Whip . Agoniser & Archite Glaive . Show Stealer (Cursed Blade): Show Stealer

• Troops +

Hekatrix Bloodbrides [8 PL, 91pts]: 2 - Grave Lotus (Combat Drug), As Detachment (Wych Cult) . Hekatrix: Hekatarii Blade, Splinter Pistol . 6x Hekatrix Bloodbride: 6x Hekatarii Blade, 6x Plasma Grenades, 6x Splinter Pistol
++ Total: [33 PL, 1CP, 551pts] ++
Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

Cover Art!
Just because you’re transported to another world, doesn’t mean you’ll escape from your pain.
Abused by her parents, thirteen-year-old Frances only wants to be safe and for her life not to hurt so much. And when she and her class are transported to the magical world of Durannon to fight the monsters invading the human kingdoms and defeat the self-titled Demon King, Frances is presented with a golden opportunity. If she succeeds, Frances will have the home she never had. If she fails, Frances will be summoned back to the home she escaped.
Yet, despite her newfound magic and friends, Frances finds that trauma is not so easily lost. She is dogged by her abuse and its physical and invisible scars. Not only does she have to learn magic, she has to survive the nightmares of her past, and wrestle with her feelings of doubt and self-loathing.
If she can heal from her trauma, though, she might be able to defeat the Demon King and maybe, just maybe, she can find a home for herself.
Teaser: Martin and Ginger are thrust into an unenviable role.
[The Beginning] [<=Chapter 182 part 2] [Chapter Index and Blurb] [Chapter 184 on April 5 or now on patreon ]
The Fractured Song Index
Discord Channel Just let me know when you arrive in the server that you’re a Patreon so you can access your special channel.
Despite his curly crimson beard and heavyset build King Jerome was quite a mild-mannered man. His soft chin and cheekbones lent the man a face more inclined to smiling than scowling.
He was doing both, which wasn’t something Martin nor Ginger had seen that. His eyes were narrowed and brow furrowed. His lips however were tilted in a wry smile.
“We did give you the authority to make treaties with Queen Janize directly, but these are harsh terms for us, Sir Martin, Lady Ginger.”
Martin had set up their mirror so he and Ginger were standing in front of it. He dipped his head, placing one hand over his chest. “I am afraid I don’t see any other option, Your Majesty. You know of the strategic situation and the dragons that Thorgoth has under his command. We didn’t want the civil war in the first place, but now we must end it or risk annihilation.”
Queen Forowena, despite her limp, was pacing around her chair. One hand clenched her chin. “We don’t even know if Janize will agree to meet with us in the first place. Though, that’s beside the point. You want to know if we ought to approve of this at all.”
“Yes ma’am, I mean, Your Majesties.” Ginger swallowed. “More importantly, we want to know if there are any terms you are demanding Queen Janize to accept.”
The eyes of Forowena and Jerome met. No words passed between them. Jerome only raised a thick eyebrow and Forowena nodded, before turning to the pair. “No, but I do have one question. Did Elizabeth and Frances tell you about my infertility?”
Martin winced, whilst Ginger coughed officiously. “Elizabeth did, Your Majesty. She said that she will take full responsibility for that breach, and states that trying to keep the secret was impossible given the nature of her mission and our involvement in it.”
Nodding, Martin braced himself and clasped his hands behind his back. “Which brings the question, Your Majesty, with all due respect, did you intend for us to assassinate Queen Janize and her child?”
Forowena and Jerome again glanced at one another. This time, Jerome was giving his wife a knowing smile and the Earl was pinching her nose.
“To speak truthfully, Sir Martin, Lady Ginger, we were not sure ourselves whether we wanted to kill Janize if she was pregnant. We have continued to debate the question and its consequences,” said Forowena.
Jerome grimaced. “What we knew for sure was that Erisdale had to be put to siege. Now, I argued that my sister should be spared as with her child.”
“And I argued that Janize and her child were a threat to our rule and our chosen successors. I don’t want to kill them for both moral and practical reasons, but I was not sure how to neutralise them.” The Earl ran a hand through her hair and glanced at her husband. “Dear, I believe that we can accept most of the terms that Martin and Ginger have offered our behalf except for the second point.”
The king took her hand, running his scarred fingers over Forowena’s knuckles “You are correct my dear. We will allow Janize's child to enter the line of succession, but we have chosen our successors.”
Martin did his best to keep his expression neutral. “Your Majesty, I don’t understand. There’s no other direct descendant of House Grey left.”
Forowena sighed, her eyes meeting Martin and Ginger’s. “No. That’s why after very careful thinking, we planned to appoint our successors. We have even talked to all the other lords and ladies who support us and even our kingdom’s most powerful mages. That’s why there’s no way we can fully accept that second condition. It would be impractical if not impossible to get them to switch their support.”
Martin frowned. He suddenly recalled a call where his mothers and sister had given him a very strange look. They seemed oddly proud, even when they’d just been talking about family gossip.
Jerome nodded, “That and we would still be at war with Alavaria. A child successor would be inherently less appealing, and especially one underneath the influence of Queen Janize at that.”
Rubbing her temples, Forowena drawled, “It’s also why Janize and her child are such a threat. Unless Janize formally renounces her claim, she’d always be able to make a bid for the throne through her child. Not to mention she could just influence the throne through her child if he or she becomes ruler of Erisdale.”
Ginger coughed into her fist. Lifting her chin, she glared defiantly at the mirror. “With all due respect, Your Majesties, it would be better than continuing this pointless civil war. So long as we execute Darius and strip the rest of the Traditionalists of their power, who cares if Janize has some influence over her child? She won’t be able to harm Alavari in Erisdale, or affect lasting change. We’ll still be here. We’ll watch her and if she goes too far we will have Queen Titania’s Alavaria assisting us.”
Martin narrowed his eyes. Forowena and Jerome were exchanging looks again. Both were smiling at each other, but the ends of their lips were curled into just a bit of a smirk.
“Your Majesties, perhaps you can enlighten us on who you decided to be your successors? If they are not a very popular choice, maybe we can accept Janize’s terms.” The knight watched the king and queen carefully as his words hung in the air. He watched as King Jerome blinked, tried to avert his gaze, before forcing himself to look him in the eye. He noted how Queen Forowena forced her features into an expressionless mask.
Martin felt a cold shiver run through the very core of his being. Unconsciously he grabbed Ginger’s hand. His fiance blinked, tuning to look at him with wide eyes. Martin swallowed.
“That is, unless for some insane reason you’ve chosen me and Ginger?”
The queen let out a small breath, while trying to keep her neutral expression. Jerome’s shoulders sagged and he patted Forowena’s shoulder. “Told you he’d figure it out.”
Ginger’s head whipped back to face the royal couple. “Wait, what? Impossible. I’m a commoner. A former convict!”
Forowena’s eyes narrowed and her voice rose. “You’re also popular with the people, one of our national heroes. If your little rebuke to us was any indication, you also are loyal not to Erisdale’s monarchy, but our country and people. As for the matter of your commoner background, you’re marrying Martin and you know what that means.”
Ginger hands clasped behind her head, almost screamed, “Yes, I am marrying into a distant relation of the Royal Family and one of the founding noble houses of Erisdale. I was ready for that! You’re asking me—us to become King and Queen of Erisdale!”
“Yes.” Forowena growled, bitter tears wetting her eyes. “And we would never do so if there was no other option, Lady Ginger, but I can’t conceive a child!”
Jerome’s hand reached over to squeeze his queen’s shoulder. “And there’s no way I’m divorcing my queen. I am a man of my word and I vowed to be with Forowena until death do us part. That won’t change.”
Martin coughed to clear his throat and crossed his arms. “Then why didn’t you just have a surrogate give birth to your child, Your Majesty? I know it would be shameful but did you consider that we may not want to be king and queen?”
The king blinked, looking a little like an owl caught by torchlight. Forowena grimaced. “I did discuss this with Jerome, but I couldn’t quite convince him. You do have a good point, Sir Martin. However, even if Jerome did finally agree to father a child with a surrogate, we would still want you and Ginger to become the next King and Queen.”
“Right, potential child ruler. Not good for Erisdale,” Ginger muttered.
Forowena grimaced. “That and how many children could Jerome father? He cannot simply start fathering children haphazardly. More importantly, children are vulnerable. Even if by some miracle I could bear children, I would push for you both to be added in the line of succession.”
Jerome nodded solemnly. “Neither of us are willing to risk the fate of Erisdale on a child, even if it was our own. Considering that our original discussion was about the potential for Janize’s child to inherit, I think you see our point.”
Ginger, biting the tip of her thumb, yanked her hand out of her mouth. “We couldn’t have been that popular a choice, though…right?”
Forowena grinned. “You weren’t everybody’s first choice, but you were on the lips of many and once we started to seriously press those who were hesitant, they agreed you two were the best option. They even pledged to support you.”
Ginger glanced at her husband, but he was still crossing his arms. He’d gone so still for a moment she wondered if he was breathing. Then her mind caught up with her.
“Every lord and lady under your command agreed on us?” she stammered.
“Including your sister Mara, Martin,” said Jerome.
Clutching her hands, Ginger took a deep breath. “But why not Lady Edana—
“Of Erlenberg and not Erisdalian,” said Forowena.
“Frances!”
Jerome shook his head, wincing. Forowena sighed. “Otherworlder and clearly too close to Prince Timur to make her look out for Erisdale’s interest.”
Ginger pressed a hand over her mouth, her free hand clenching into a fist and opening. “Shit. This…this is really happening.”
Martin closed his eyes and nodded. “I believe so. My…personal feelings aside, I will do my duty. But what do we tell Janize?”
“That we’ve appointed our own successors, but her child will be in the line of succession, with our successors house to take precedent over her own. That might complicate the succession law for the future, but that can be resolved in time.” Forowena snapped her fingers. “Ah, and we will also make it a condition that the amount wealth and land confiscated will be determined on the basis of who the Traditonalists persecuted and to provide compensation for property damaged by their forces in the war.”
Martin and Ginger exchanged a glance. “Including Alavari, Your Majesty?” Martin asked, his voice quiet.
Jerome nodded. “That is the intention, Sir Martin. Now…I believe you and your fiance have much to discuss. If that is all, you may request to be dismissed.”
“We do wish, Your Majesties,” said Martin, bowing. Ginger mirrored her fiance and the images of the king and queen faded.
Promptly walking over to one of their chests, Ginger fished into it and drew out a bottle of wine.
“Care for glass?” she asked as she fetched a goblet.
Martin sat down heavily onto his bedroll. “Yes. We…well nothing is guaranteed. I mean we haven’t even gotten married yet.”
Ginger poured herself and her fiance two glasses and handed one to Martin. “But we pledged to after the war, and so have the other lords and ladies of Erisdale. Damnit, of course Frances, Elizabeth and the others would support us, but everybody else?”
“It’s unexpected, but now that I think about it, most people wouldn’t want to be named heirs to Erisdale. It’ll be a hard job rebuilding this kingdom after the war and essentially starting a new dynasty.”
Sitting down, Ginger sipped from her glass. “Dynasty. Fuck, I’ll have to do something about my family.”
“Give your parents a stipend and nothing else.” Martin pursed his lips. “Of course, if you don’t want to be queen, Ginger, you can just—”
His fiance leant against his shoulder. “Finish that sentence and I will smack you. We’re in this together, Martin.”
“I know and I love you. I just wanted to make sure.” Martin took a deep gulp of wine and swallowed hard. “Hopefully, this is the last of the big responsibilities we get.”
Ginger snorted. “I would not bet on it my dear knight.”
Her fiance chuckled, before his lips pinched together. “Promise that you’ll never start calling me Your Majesty, please.”
Wrapping her arm around the blonde man, Ginger smiled. “You’ll always be my shining knight, Martin. Nothing will change that.”
“Thank you, Ginger.”
Pulling her feet off the table where Janize’s mirror was and sliding them back into slippers, Leila crossed her arms. “How many years since you’ve seen your brother?”
“Not since the civil war started, so about two years.” Janize smiled gave Leila a peck on the cheek. “Honestly, I am both irritated and a little proud of Jerome. I didn’t expect him to hold out, much less turn the tables on me. I always teased him when we were younger. He was too honorable, to the point that he was dumb. I suppose he just needed to find the right group of people to help him along. How long before the meeting by the way?”
Leila glanced at the high noon sun outside. “Not long now. I’ve also redoubled the security spells and checked the room.”
Janize nodded serenely. “Good. Anything else you can think of with regards to the conditions we have and their terms?”
The Otherworlder tapped her fingers on her arm. “Well, it’s not exactly something they demanded, but it might come up. They probably will demand compensation for the Alavari that we’ve been experimenting on. It’s probably why they demanded land and wealth from our rebelling nobles.”
“Pardon?”
Leila frowned, meeting Janize’s narrowed grey eyes. “I mean, it’ll be hard to argue with them. They’ve captured several of the labs and have our research notes—”
Janize raised her hand, her usually relaxed brow now furrowed. “Leila, what are you talking about? What do you mean by labs and experiments?”
The Otherworlder’s eyes widened and she found herself sitting up ramrod straight. “Um, is this a particularly amusing prank of yours?”
“We are minutes away from a critical meeting. Why would I joke about this with you now?” Janize hissed.
Leila blinked and slowly shook her head. “You’re kidding me. There’s no way you could have not been aware of this. The castles and labs were garrisoned with army troops and Red Order mages.”
“Leila this is the first time I’ve heard about these labs and castles—” Janize grimaced as the mirror began to glow, the sign that a call was coming. “Oh dear. Oh dear. I…I suppose I will have to request to be informed.” Settling herself, the queen touched the mirror and watched as King Jerome, Queen Forowena, Elizabeth, Ayax, Martin and Ginger appeared.
“Hello Janize,” said Jerome, coolly.
Janize smiled without mirth. “Greetings, Jerome. I must begin this meeting with a bit of a somewhat incredulous confession. But please bring me up to date on what exactly has been going on in the labs you have found that were apparently operated by my forces?”
The queen’s smile thinned as sceptical scowls and narrowed eyes met her question. Ayax blinked, tail whipping side to side. “You’re joking right?”
Janize cut before the stunned looking Reformists could ask another question. “I wish I was, but I was just informed by Leila here that they did exist. Speaking of which, how did you come to know about them, Leila? This is not something discussed in my palace.”
A grim, almost haunted look came over Leila’s face. “I found out about it recently as well. A few months ago, Master Scarlet of the Red Order requested Otherworlder assistance in defending their outposts and castles. They had no strategic value so we pressed her and she told us they were magical research laboratories and they couldn’t move the research easily. After that meeting, Earl Darius tried to convince me, saying that it would please Janize if I sallied forth. I wouldn’t normally have believed him, but our situation was so desperate I thought it made sense. I started to prepare a counterattack, but then it didn’t matter anyway because you folks in the Lightning Battalion started to attack them and there is no way in hell we would survive a fight with a full army division.”
Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth tried her best to get her own temper and confusion under control. “You mean you weren’t told what was going on in there? When did you find out about the children?”
“Our standing orders were to take Alavari prisoners of war and hand them over to the Red Order. So I figured—” Leila dropped her arms to her side. “Hold on. Children? What the fuck are you talking about? I thought they were experimenting with prisoners of war and criminals?”
A cold snarl twisting her normally serene expression, Ayax rose to her feet. “You Traditionalists haven’t even been fighting the Alavari! How could you have gotten prisoners of war? And experimenting on them is still wrong!”
Feeling a headache coming on, Janize gingerly massaged the side of her temple. “Wait, children? I thought that was propaganda you were spreading. Where the hell did you even get children from?”
“From the Alavari that lived in Erisdale, and from those that you kidnapped from Alavaria!” Elizabeth hissed.
“I authorized funding and troops for magical research, not that.” Her stony-masked stoicism wavered as her lips twitched. It was as if the queen was trying to prevent a wince. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but this is extraordinary.”
His eyes narrowed, King Jerome leaned onto his elbows. “Janize, I don’t understand. How could you have known nothing? You don’t trust Earl Darius or Master Scarlet that much.”
Janize pulled her hands from her temples. Drawing herself straight, she narrowed her eyes at the mirror. “No I don’t, but this is the first time I’ve heard about these experiments.”
Leila blinked. She knew her lover better now and as good at hiding her feelings the queen was, she did have some subtle tells. In this case, her shoulders were just a bit too stiff, stretching skin across her high collarbone. “Janize, I’m sorry, but that’s…not entirely true isn’t it?”
The queen tilted her head toward the Otherworlder. Her grey eyes glared daggers at Leila for a brief moment, before she turned back to the mirror. In an arch tone, she hissed between gritted teeth, “I know they were making mana batteries. However, it’s the first time I’ve heard about children. I have been suspicious about why Master Scarlet and Earl Darius require so many facilities for some time and have been trying to audit them. They’ve been stonewalling me with magical and military jargon or burying it in budget books under nondescript lines.”
Leila blinked. “Oh that’s why you were asking me what those words meant.”
“Yes, dear. Now, if the interrogation is over, I will agree to offer compensation to those children and their surviving family members. In return, I have my own conditions.”
Forowena sneered. “Name them. We have our own conditions as well.”
Janize grinned back. “First, my child is not to be next in line to the throne of Erisdale. In fact, I would like to renounce my right of succession and that of my child.”
It was rather hard for Elizabeth, Ayax and their allies to hide their surprise. Admirably, King Jerome only managed to show his shock through a series of rapid blinks. “That’s a major concession, sister.”
The queen turned her chin up. “In return, once you depose Earl Darius, you grant me his personal lands and make me an Earl.”
Crossing her arms, her thoughts racing a mile-a-minute, Elizabeth muttered. “You’d become Erisdale’s chief powerbroker.”
“I am surrendering after all and most of my allies will be gone. You got to give me something. Besides, if I remain Earl, I’d be able to keep what remains of the Traditonalists in check. Exile honestly doesn’t suit me, as comfortable as it would be. I want my child to have a future, not one where he or she has no allies and is bound to the crown.”
Forowena and Jerome glanced at one another, exchanging frowns.
Martin also looked to Ginger, who shook her head. He nodded. They’d had their own discussion about Janize’s possible offers and they had their own opinion.
“Go get em, Martin,” Ginger rasped.
The knight swallowed and coughed officiously. “If I may be so bold, Your Majesties, I propose we grant Queen Janize a county, not an earldom. In return, we shall protect her from reprisals and reparations that the Crown of Alavaria will undoubtedly request.”
Leila rolled her eyes. “What crimes? As you said, we didn’t fight Alavaria.”
A shit-eating grin blossomed over Ginger’s face. Idly twirling a lock of her hair, she crossed her legs. “Earl Darius’s forces kidnapped Queen Titania’s niece, Princess Morgan Greyhammer from the Alavari Academy of Magic and subjected her to a year of torture and experimentation.”
In the silence that followed, all that could be heard was Leila trying not to sputter. Janize was quiet and still. Yet the color was drained from her face.
“That dumb bastard,” Janize whispered.
Leila slammed her fist on the table, causing Janize to flinch. “Fuck.”
“So a county it is, then?” Ginger asked in an airy tone.
“Yes. Do you confirm your side of your terms?” Janize asked.
“We do. Our demand was that your child could not be our successor, which you have agreed to.”
“So the dynasty of the House of Grey ends I suppose.” Janize let out a shuddering breath and shook her head. “Then who is to be your successor?”
Martin and Ginger clasped each other’s hands in unison before facing the group.
“We are,” said Martin slowly.
“Until someone better is found,” said Ginger.
Janize arched an eyebrow. Leila sighed. The queen, however, nudged her Otherworlder quiet and gave a nod of assent. “A wise choice. Shall we continue?”
Author’s Note: So yeah, this is a bit of a twist, let’s see what happens.

​
[p]:Previous
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[Previous] [p] [Next] [n]
[One week later - One week old]
This is not happening. It must be some kind of reaction to my mind while in the vis state. I never looked into the effects on the mind for prolonged exposure to the vis state. I am sure this is all a bad dream.
[One month later - One month old]
I am trapped. This body is weak. My arch nemesis is, as the one my “mother” has dubbed, blankie. She wraps me in a cocoon of polyester and wool. My wrath will rain upon these people. I will destroy blankie. I will get back to my old self! I hate this!!
[One year later - One years old]
I have learned more about the current situation in the world from the adults talking. If I have been thrust forward in time, it is from me underestimating my own ability or Albian doing something. I do not know which I prefer to be the truth. I still hope this is a bad dream.
I have not seen anything to prove a time change. Technology seems to be similar to what I knew from 2020. No one seems to own phones though. It appears glasses or some form of contacts fill the role of a cell phone. I study every chance I get, unfortunately my “family” seems to be some kind of royalty and do not watch TV often.
I will learn something from this place that does not exist and is totally made up in my own mind.
[Two years later - Three years old]
A cold, dark reality has set in. If this is a dream, it is too real. I have started to walk and string together words. Dreams do not have this much realism. I can’t even defecate of my own accord. I, Liam Von Viea “The Great”, am useless. A failure with a poopy diaper.
[Three years later - Four years old]
I have come to enjoy the company of my family, I can’t believe I am saying it. From the children's stories I have been told, I have determined I have moved forward in time. It is a surreal feeling to listen to stories of my past self. Even though they are filled with inaccuracies, I am flattered.
My hair has grown out and it is half black and half blonde. Testing was inconclusive and was determined by melanin was influenced by my vis. It is illegal or unethical to test vis and abilities on children under six due to the “dangers” involved. The people of this time are weak. I would have gone through with the testing if I was not considered a minor. Damned body.
Biohacking was just starting to become a thing back in 2020 if I remember. Using testing and readings to estimate ability or bio-age. It has been taken to an extreme now. According to my father, who I have found out is a mid-ranking adventurer, once I get my contact implants and fully tested the rest of my life will be planned out.
It seems vis strength and power rule the world now. Poor souls. At times I do not know if I want to go back to my old life now. Haha! It is probably not even possible anyway. I have already drafted plans in my diary. Of course, the notes are illegible to anyone but me. One of the good things about this body.
My mother has set up a “play date”. I have spent most of these listening to adult gossip, my only way to learn about the world. From the sounds of this one though, Mother and Father will be in a closed meeting. I will have to interact with the other children. I do not mind most of the time. Since I am here I will need friends and allies for my future plans, retirement and an easy life!
However, we will be going to the local Lords estate. Lord Warrin. Lord Warrin is fathers boss, at least that's how I see it. He is kind of like the Governor of the state and my father is the Mayor.
I have not been to Lord Warrin’s estate, but I have had the unfortunate opportunity to meet his devil of a child. Julian Warrin. His red hair beaming with confidence and pride. All steaming from his father. I doubt he knows what hard work is. Last time we met he called me “Halfy” because of my hair… the nerve!
“Liam! Why aren’t you ready?!” Mother whipped.
“My lady, he refuses to get up.” Cidny, a young maid working for our estate said with a tired look.
“Liam, get up now or I will delay your contact implantation!!” Mother yelled. She knew that would get me going. I swear she must have some psynotic vis in her.
“Fine.” I huffed as Cidny began brushing my hair.
I got up and finished getting dressed. I am unable to do anything until I get my implants. Computers are no longer used commercially, for me to access the internet the implants are a must. I have gone to the public library a few times, but so much is age restricted! Why is vis taboo until six? I think I will never understand.
I would be lying if I said I was a little excited to take the train. I was ecstatic. Maybe it was the child in me or maybe it was the fact that trains are powered by vis. It doesn’t matter, it is cool and I want pictures!
I have not told anyone and have kept it a secret that I can control vis already. Apparently it is unheard for my age. I will keep this secret, after all I am almost six. Like hell I will let the CIA or whatever organization they have now take me away and test me like a lab rat. I hate those CIA guys.
I took many pictures of the train. I was told by one of the train employees that the train pulls in vis and uses it to run the engine. It only takes in what it needs. I wonder if vis is a renewable resource? I would not like to hear a train is taking my power.
To call the Warrin estate grand would be doing it a disservice. Through only gossip I know it is famous for its garden and welcoming environment. I am interested to see it, only because I have heard so much of it.
“Liam. This is Godfrey, he will take you to the other kids. Play nice and be safe.” Mothers stern eyes told me she meant business.
“Yes Ma'am!!” I raised my arm in a sarcastic salute.
“Young master, you might want to work on that salute. Come this way.” Godfrey smirked.
I can tell Godfrey is a meticulous man. His black suit is free of any blemishes or wrinkles. Every step he takes is planned. Even his glasses had no dust or smudges on them, an impossible feat.
“Sir, Mr. Butler Godfrey, what is your job here? Salute corrector?” I said with a childish chuckle. One thing I have enjoyed about my youth is getting away with little quips!
“Young master, I correct many things. Shall I make your attitude next on the list?”
Godfrey did not look down. I still felt eye contact. It sent a shiver down my spine. No one has made me feel this way in a long time. Excluding what I have started to call “the years lost”, it has to have been more than 10 years.
I better not pry into this man.
“Ok Sir Mr. Butler Godfrey” I smiled.
“Just Sir.”
I felt my spine shiver again.
“Sir” I whimpered. My body is scared of this man. He is stronger than me.
We approached a garden area. A group of three kids were waiting under a pagoda. Turning a calm relaxing scene into complete and utter chaos. I knew that devil Julian, the other two I had not met before.
“Young masters, this is Liam Reznor, first son of Lord Reznor. Get along and play nice. I am watching. Even when you think I am not.” Godfrey said in a cold dark voice.
There goes my spine again… damned thing.
Who’s idea was to make this guy our chaperon. Why couldn’t one of the maids take care of us?
“Hey Halfy! Long time no see!” Julian's smile was the inverse of my frown. His red hair neatly kept and black fitted suit matched his commanding presence. When older, he would be powerful.
“Julian I…” I was grabbed and brought in close to Julian.
“I don’t like Godfrey. Me and my friends here plan to ditch him like always. Follow along, Halfy.” Julian whispered.
While I did not like the way he spoke to me, I agree with getting away from Godfrey. Just knowing he is around is uncomfortable. I swear he wants to murder everyone not named Godfrey. I can’t believe I agree with Julian. Today is not my day.
“Ok, what next?” my eyes rushed around nervously.
“We run!”
Julian threw a gray ball into the air. I darted in the direction Julian ran in. Dark Grey smoke appeared above us.
“You little.. Young master, where did you get a smoke shell?!” Godfrey coughed.
“I do NOT get paid for this!” I could not imagine this man losing his cool like this. I might regret this choice later… but I was enjoying it. Even in my prime a primitive smoke shell could cause me issues. Not only did it block vision and smell, it acts as an emulsifier. It mixes all vis in an area making tracking and identifying a target impossible. Not a cheap toy a kid should have.
Keeping up with Julian and his little entourage was easier than I thought it would be. I have not been exercising like I want. Muscle production at my age is detrimental to my long term gains. I am not in any kind of routine, but I pick things up and put them down at times. When I am six I will start a vis and muscle building routine. One created by “The Great” Liam Von Viea of course.
“Julian, where are we going?” One of the boys, Grigor Chernin, asked. He is large for his age, in a gray suit with black hair. He was squinting as he asked. He was using more power than necessary for the question.
At least I was not the only one out of the loop on this.
“There! Grigor. I told you about it, remember?” Julian boasted.
“You can’t be serious…” the girl said. I think her name is Olivia. Her purple hair stood out to me. Perhaps vis was the cause of this unusual color.
I looked at where Julian was pointing. A cave. More accurately a dungeon. Was this little shit about to take a bunch of children into a dungeon? He is mad!
“Relax, it is an F level dungeon for training the servants. To build up vis resistance. I have been in like a billion times.” Julian smirked as he pulled out his training sword.
The other two pulled out training swords as well. So I was the one out of the loop… with no weapon. This could be a chance to test my vis resistance I guess.
“Hey, Halfy! Catch!” Grigor threw a stick towards me. “Use this!”
“This?” I looked down at a stick, well no not a stick. A twig.
When I looked up. They had entered the dungeon. I had done this countless times in the past. The pale blue and white swirls brought back memories. Why was I anxious? Maybe the twig or the fact I had not really used my vis in the body?
My spine shivered. I forgot about him…I took a breath and jumped into the dungeon.
[Previous] [p] [Next] [n]

Greetings once more my lovely readers!
Yes it is I, the marvellous, maleficent Meridiana, your scintillating spectacularly sexy Succubus here yet again to regale your with my tale of adventure in the modern world.
I know you’re excited, so am I!
Now then… right… here we go.
“This will do nicely,” I said with conviction because it was true.
No summoner had ever treated me this well before, well not without me charming and dominating their mind so utterly that they became my helpless worshipful slaves but that’s another thousand or so stories which are, quickly frankly, boring. I mean really, who wants to hear about a slave that is always wanting to kiss your ass all the time? What? Plenty do apparently? (My Magus is in the office at the moment and can hear me speak aloud as I type – he thinks it is most amusing) Ahem…
I shall have to investigate Fetish-Dommy-Mommy.com and perhaps create an account to make even more money. How wonderful!
Anyway…
“I am glad you are satisfied Meridiana. This saves us a lot of time. Later you can go shopping and buy whatever you wish but for now, you will have to make do with these clothes. Now I’ll quickly show you how the shower works and operation of the toilet.”
The Magus took a step back from the walk-in wardrobe and gestured back to the ensuite bathroom that my sumptuous bedroom contained.
I followed him as I needed to learn everything about my new home.
Inside the bathroom was a large glass cubicle to the right with a metallic spigot set high up on the marble tiled wall. There was an enormous triple mirror above a marble topped bench that had a wash basin cut into the centre of the bench with yet another metal spigot coming up and out of the bench. To either side of the main mirror were cabinets behind the smaller mirrors and cupboards under the bench.
“This is the shower. You pull that level there and water will come from the shower head above. Turn the level to the left and the water will get hot and to the right, cold. Shampoo and soap etc all there for you. Same with the wash basin tap. More things are inside the cabinets and cupboards for your use.”
The entire bathroom was covered in tiles making it look like a Roman bathhouse. Well sort of, as this was actually clean and most Roman baths, even at the height of the empire, were filthy places. You didn’t go there to get clean… well not really. You went there to get sex, food (often bad) and do business with either your patrons or clients, depending on who you were on the social ladder. Some bathhouses were better than others but meh… the Romans may have perfected the Aqueduct and running fresh water but they zero concept of keeping the bathwater clean and fresh.
“This is the toilet,” he said pointed to the porcelain seat with a lid next to the marble bench. “You operate it by pushing the metal button on the top of the cistern. See the roll of paper there next to it?”
I nodded.
“Clean yourself up with that then dump it into the pan and flush it all away. We don’t use Tersoriums anymore but there are wet wipes if you need them. Put the lid down first before you flush as germs spray everywhere when you flush.”
“No rough sponges to scrap my nethers clean? I used to like that Magus,” I said with a teasing smirk.
He shook his head slowly, rolled his eyes and carried on.
“Inside the cabinets are perfumes and lotions that you can indulge yourself in as well as teeth cleaning brushes, mouth washes and toothpaste.”
The Magus opened a cabinet revealing a vast array of perfume bottles of varying shapes, sizes and colours. My heightened senses inhaled the heady mix of powerful scented oils and fragrances. There were also make up products that I could see, a cornucopia of beauty in creams, pastes and shades, all would be worth a fortune back in the day.
“How utterly delightful,” I murmured, taking in what would be worth tens of thousands of Solidus (gold) back in Constantinople in perfumes alone, just sitting there inside a bathroom cabinet. He closed the cabinet.
“Behind you is the heated towel rail with towels, obviously, for you to dry yourself with.”
“Ahh… I know of these. Some of the Emperors’ nobles had copper pipes that performed a similar function in their bath houses, piping hot running water through them.”
I examined the towels which appeared to be of the same high quality cotton as my white soft robe that I was still wearing.
“Alright. I suppose you’ll be wanting a shower to clean up then?” he said with a flat tone.
“Will you be joining me Magus?” I said as I let my robe drop to the floor, smiling coquettishly at him.
He took a step back.
“No. Let me be absolutely clear: you are epitome of perfection of the female form. That is evident and indisputable. I cannot and will not have sex with you Meridiana. I know of your needs… for seminal fluid as it is one of your main sources of nourishment. That will be provided to you. Simply put, I know you will use my lust as a means of controlling me. I just can’t let that happen. Too much is at stake and I have worked too fucking hard to let my little head rule the big one. I’m not going to risk my plans for a quick knee trembler, no matter how tempting it is. I shall stick to raping the right hand for my needs. Now have a wash because you reek of sulphur.”
My jaw dropped in shock once more. I was lost for words at this point.
I was extremely and deathly affronted.
If I were not bound to him, forbidden to harm him I would have torn out his heart and shat inside his gaping chest wound for those grievous insults!
I narrowed my eyes, the infernal light flaring up but held my rage tightly within.
He watched me, almost bemused, with folded arms.
“You’ve never been rejected before have you?”
“No! How dare you refuse me like that? And saying that I smell!?! Intolerable!”
I folded my arms back over my heaving bosoms, as I was almost panting with frustration, barely holing my fury in check. Never before have I been spoken to like that, and had the offender been able to walk away still breathing.
“You do stink Meridiana. The stench of hell is on you. That needs to go. I am sorry if this insults you but remember, I said I was always be truthful with you, even if it is a painful truth.”
Now that made me pause.
I had never considered my odour in the past because everyone stank.
The Magus didn’t.
He was also extremely clean, free from lice, fleas and other unsavoury parasites and pests, unlike most of the people from Gerbert’s time. In fact he had a pleasant aroma of some scented oils, Sandal Wood, Lavender and Bergamot maybe? The scent emanating from him was faint but my enhanced senses could easily detect it now that I focused on it. He was also correct. I would most definitely tried to enslave him with sex as all males in the end are ruled by their cocks and balls. In addition, he was very well informed as to a Succubus’ needs. Normally we have absolutely no trouble in getting a man to “donate” his life giving juice to us. We do not need it everyday yet after a week or so in the universe, the hunger becomes powerful. Yet that was never a problem… until now.
“You are correct Magus. I do have the foul reek of hell on me and yes, I will require the fluid of life to survive here,” I said in cold clipped tones back to him.
“And you will get it from me, in a specimen jar, as and when it is necessary.”
“You take all the romance out it,” I muttered tersely, pouting and scowling at him.
“That’s the point Meridiana. You are not here to be my lover or replace my dead wife. I will appreciate your company as it does get lonely but I’m also used to that too. I want to learn from you, not fuck you. I can get that from any woman for the cost of a mere small sum of cash. It just does not interest me at all. What does interest me is all you have experienced and learned. That I find interesting. And of course, get you to flay and eviscerate the evil fucks who truly deserve it. Now, please, have a shower. Use the shampoos and soaps, you will feel better for it. Then find something to wear and join me back out in the lounge as I want to show you how the TV works.”
“TV? Huh?”
“The Television. Words are now often abbreviated into simple letters to save time in speech. Much like the Romans did with their inscriptions.”
“Oh… I see… hmmph! Well since you do not wish to embrace the unearthly delights my body would bestow upon you, I bid you begone from my bathing chamber!” I said pointing out, demanding he leave forthwith. I was not going to tolerate his presence any longer.
“As you wish,” he said with a dry ghost of a smirk on his lips as he backed away closing the double wooden doors as he left.
Now I was alone inside the bathing chamber, I leaned up against the cool tiled wall and let out a long exhalation. A few moments later I could hear music coming from the “lounge” room as he called it. It was gentle and honestly, relaxing. I listened for a minute, letting the notes and melody wash over me as the window next to the porcelain seat or toilet was partially open. My mood calmed as I suspect was his intent.
My admiration and dare I say it, respect for my Magus grew exponentially. Such self-control and discipline! Again, this was worthy of a Demon Prince such his control over his base urges. No male, or for that matter female, had ever resisted my allure. Often I had no need for employing my demonic powers of Charm and Suggestion as the humans would be almost begging me for my touch. No matter, I had time and he was male. Somewhere down the road of this… ‘partnership’, he would succumb to my charms, be begging on his knees to enter me and when that happened, he would be mine!
With a small sigh I picked up my discarded robe, it was far too valuable to leave laying on the floor even though the tiles were incredibly clean. There were hooks on the back of the double doors which I hung it upon then opened up the glass door to the ‘shower and stepped in.
The lever that activated the shower was in front of me, in the central position.
Pull it I suppose?
I screamed!
Cold water blasted into my face and body.
A cold laugh emanated from the lounge room.
“YOU FUCKING BASTARD!” I screamed back at the Magus as he chuckled to himself.
Then the water began to warm and became extremely pleasant to my senses.
He knew this would happen and didn’t warn me! Oh how delightfully, devilishly, and charmingly devious is my Magus. A harmless prank but also a lesson for me. Ask more questions! I admit I am supremely arrogant. After all I am an extremely powerful demon possessed with powers beyond human imagination, well that is not true as your kind have a vast imagination and have already worked out what we can do in a game of all things! Ahem. My point is that I must be much more humble and considerate of my new world. I have no desire at all to be returned to hell. I would butcher tens of millions of humans and demons to stay here if need be.
I stood in the shower, letting the warm clean water cascade over me in a very pleasing and powerful way. It was… bliss. Turning, I examined the various plastic bottles of soaps and shampoos, opened a few and sniffed the contents. Taking one that suited my senses, I proceeded to wash my hair with it. It was glorious dear reader. Nothing like this was present during Gerbert’s time. Yes there were scented oils, unguents and balms but nothing came close to this splendid liquid that nourished my hair, making it feel even silkier than before.
I stayed in the shower for a long while, playing with the heat and also the shower head as I discovered it could be adjected to differing levels of spray. Finally I had had enough so I depressed the lever and stepped out of the shower, reaching for my lovely warm fluffy towel. Despite the Magus being who he was, he was trying to make my new life comfortable. That was a small mark in his favour but he had a mountain to climb for those insults he gave to my self-esteem and dignity. I would find a way to make him pay or demand more in the way of homage and tribute for him to overcome those insults!
I took my time in selecting make up, lotions and balms plus testing all the perfumes that obviously once belonged to his wife. She had quite a range of beauty products as I later discovered they were called. Yet strangely, they were hardly used? Interesting.
Satisfied that my make up was alluring but not sluttish and wearing a few discreet dabs a scent called Issey Miyaki which was wonderfully fragrant, I left my bathing chamber and walked nude to my wardrobe to select something to wear.
The light was still on as I examined the hanging row of gowns, dresses and other clothing. One nearest the door caught me eye. I gently took it off the hanger, feeling the incredibly soft plushily wonderous material in my hands. It was a long dress, simply cut to allow the arms to be almost fully exposed while at the same time extended well past the knees, just stopped a few inches above the ankles. The colour of it was like red wine splashed on white linen (the Magus told me it’s called Burgundy) and it had a most intricate and repeating pattern or motif upon it to the likes I had never seen before. I had to wear this!
Adjusting my body size to be slimmer and a few inches taller, I eventually fit the dress perfectly. I made sure though that my tits still fully filled the bust region of the dress and my hips swollen just wide enough to still draw the eye. I saw many pairs of shoes and sandals on racks upon the floor. I selected an elegant but simple design of sandal and came out back into the lounge area.
I was again stunned but this time so was my Magus.
The reason for my surprise was that the ‘television’ was on. I could see moving pictures all lit up in incredible colour and fidelity and sound coming from the massive black metal and glass device. It was mesmerising!
The Magus however was shocked at seeing me in the burgundy dress. He closed his eyes as a flash of pain washed over his face. He drew in a shuddering breath, focused his towering will and recovered. I could feel it! Even I was taken aback by what he just felt within himself. It was such utter sorrow and anguish. While normally I would relish that in my victims, this time I did not as the bond between Magus and I allowed pain, of any kind it seemed, to flow between us. He finally spoke,
“Perhaps I should have gotten rid of that dress,” he said in a hollow low voice.
“Why Magus? It’s simply a dress?”
“It was one of the first ones my wife bought for herself when we were initially courting. She always looked so lovely in it,” he sighed as he stood up and sadly regarded me. “And now you do too.”
I blinked.
I had always been told that I was beautiful, a paragon of female perfection yet I knew that was often flattery or the results of my charms and suggestions or domination. The Magus would never lie to me. He meant everything he said. It made me feel…strange.
He sighed deeply once more, pinched the bridge of his nose while he gathered himself.
“I thought I was past this… but obviously not. No matter, it is a good lesson for me. I must not give in to it. I am the master of my own reality, I am free to choose whatever state of being I desire, I do not desire feeling s of loss and sadness,” he mostly to himself before continuing, “Now… since you took your sweet god dam time in the bathroom, a trait that seems to extend to female demons, we now have no time for me to show you how the TV works. Instead, we will go for a drive. I am going to show you what the wider world looks like Meridiana. How long is it since you saw the ocean?”
Now that was a question I did not expect.
“Unnhh… centuries?” I shrugged, mystified yet intensely curious now as I was aware of what he meant by a ‘drive’. We would be going out in his metal and glass box, also known as a car or automobile or vehicle.
“I am glad you are ready to go. Just a few things Meridiana, some rules you need to follow. One – we do not shit where we eat – that means no killing in this city unless it is absolutely, I truly mean absolutely, necessary. We need to stay hidden, especially you. As I said earlier, there are demons who have made Earth their home. Your presence has not been noted yet but once we start our campaign, you will draw attention from others of your kind to yourself. So no going out and draining stupid young men just because you feel like a bit of fun. Do you understand? I want the chant of three to know you fully comprehend!”
His Sea Green eyes flashed with power.
My eyes widened as I felt the force of his will, held in check, just barely brushing against my mind.
“I accept, I accept, I accept,” I said hastily. His sorrow had been morphed into anger. Not at me as such, at the world in general but it wouldn’t take much for me to be the brunt of his ire. This is common amongst Demon Lords and Princes, those used to wielding power and have supreme control over their mind and will.
“Next – there are a few people I still call friends. They may visit me from time to time and even meet us out in the wider world. As such, you will be my new partner for the sakes of appearances. They will see this as me having finally moved on and accepting the loss of my wife. We will have to concoct a suitable narrative that will bare up to scrutiny so that you will pass as a normal human woman who has gained my affection. None of these people are to be harmed and if they are ever under threat, you will help them as best you can. Don’t think you can use them against me either as I will know and I will break you worse than your lord ever did. Do you understand?”
“I accept, I accept, I accept,” I repeated in a meek voice. He would hurt me in way that my lord could not even imagine. This I knew instinctively and once he had broken me, would cast me back into hell to be tormented for eternity. He’s so dreamy!
“Oh, one final thing for now, we don’t wear shoes inside the house. I know I have mine on but that’s because I was in the garage and it’s a dirty place and I forgot to take them off once we came upstairs. This is not something you need to be bound to by oath by the way, just it’s better and cleaner for us both plus it makes it easier to keep the floor clean.” He paused for a moment, considering his next words. I was puzzled by that request but saw the logic of it so what do as he asked. He then spoke on,
“You are going to be… stunned for want of a better description in a few minutes once we get going. Just remember who you are, what you used to do, how to blend in and observe. I think that you will enjoy this Meridiana. Now, come on, lets go and have a look at the beach. I think it will do us both the world of good. Follow me please,” he said as he gestured towards the stairs. I nodded and quietly followed him down the staircase back to the basement garage.
He stopped briefly back at the kitchen bench to retrieve a.. hat? Of the likes I’d not seen before which contained a leather wallet (I now knew what somethings were) sunglass and a set of keys. He also handed me a pair of sunglasses and took off a bright red, wide brimmed floppy hat from a hook that was behind the door that lead down to the basement stairs. I took the items wordlessly from him, mildly amused by it all. We descended the short flight of stairs.
The summoning circle was still there, the blood now fully congealed.
“Magus…as question if I may?”
“Yes?”
“How was it possible to you to have used so much of your blood in making the circle of summoning and binding and not be dead?”
He laughed and smiled, them walked over to what I now knew was a refrigerator and opened the double doors.
“Phlebotomy my dear Succubus!” he grinned with a devilish smile and harsh glint in his eyes.
I could now see a plastic bag, full of blood, hanging inside the fridge.
“I have a dear trusted friend, who is a medical doctor, that for the past couple of months has taken my blood and we stored it here inside the cold fridge. She thinks it’s because I might need an operation, a medical procedure. Once I had enough, I rested and rebuilt my power and strength and voila! You are here and bound to me. Science and magic, an unbeatable combination!,” he broadly grinned as I gaped in astonishment at him.
I could now see a container next to the fridge that had at least half a dozen of the soft plastic bags with the residue of his blood still within them.
What genius!
No wonder he wanted to fully bind me and he worked out why none of the previous summoners had ever truly succeeded in fully binding a demon to it’s summoner. The ENTIRE circle had to made of their blood. And no one in the past had ever had the method in which they could safely store and preserve their blood for such a use.
“I had to have a few infusions of blood to replace what I lost as well as it’s unsafe to give out so much in a short time. Lucky for me Victoria is a very caring, understanding, and above all, discrete person. I think you’ll like her. She’s probably one of the nicest people you will ever meet. And again I stress, she is inviolate, untouchable. You might be surprised at making a friend you know?”
I nodded, not wanting to argue with him. And he might actually have a point. I might need allies beyond the Magus. It never hurts to have a backup plan.
He stepped back over to the car, opened a front door and gestured that I take a seat within.
I did so, carefully so as not to bump my head on the vehicles roof. I stared around the cars interior.
“Ahh, if I may? I need you to put your seatbelt on Meridiana. Here, I’ll do it for you this time. You take this buckle on the belt,” he said as he showed me what he was speaking of, “and insert the buckle into the clasp next to the right side of your waist, just there,” he said as he leant partially over me and placed the buckle in the clasp with a little click. “Now you are safe and secure.”
“Why would I need to be retrained in such a fashion Magus?”
“Good question Meridiana. Basically it is for your own safety as we will be on the road with other cars and drivers and sometimes, humans being the idiots they are, fail to drive properly and thus become a danger to others as well as themselves. The seatbelt will stop you from flying out of the car if we are impacted by another vehicle.”
My eyes widened then narrowed.
“I would not be harmed by such an event. You should know this.”
“Oh but I do. I know only an enchanted or blessed weapon or magical attacks will harm you however, the local laws demand that all who travel in vehicles must wear seatbelts and I do not wish to attract the attention of the local police if they spot you not wearing one just because of your demonic invulnerability.”
“Ahh… I see. Prudent. I respect you thinking of outcomes and possibilities Magus. It is… refreshing.”
He gave me a brief nod then closed my door, walking around to the other side that had the wheel in front of the seat he was going to sit in. He got in, buckled his belt and inserted the keys into the base of the column that the wheel rested upon. Pressed a small button, the massive metal wall that was in front of us suddenly began to open much to my surprise.
“I used a remote to open the garage door Meridiana,” he said with another dry smirk at seeing my reaction.
I sniffed and turned away, trying to pretend not to be impressed. It didn’t work.
Starting the engine, a little roar of life came from the front of the car. He reached down to his left and pulled a small lever, shifting into a setting that read D. The vehicle suddenly began to move, slowly at first. The Magus carefully eased the car out of the garage and I now saw that it opened into a large paved laneway that was lined with houses, all adjoined to one another.
Simply astonishing!
My eyes were wide once more as I gaped at the marvellous building acumen in front of me.
The Magus turned the wheel that he held in his hands which in turn guided the car in the direction he wished it to go. Now I can fly, when in my true form, but this was just so nice. Sitting comfortably in a soft seat, having cool air gently blow on you from small vents in the front of the dashboard as I later learned it was called… just bliss. Flying is hard work by the way. Ever run up a hill? That’s what it’s like. You can do it and once you’re at a certain level, you can glide along easily but getting into the air… not so much fun to be honest. Yes I know, I’m a demon and lies are second nature for us but in the case of flying, this is true. It’s a thing I don’t need to lie about.
The Magus had us sedately travel down the laneway till we came to a junction where he turned right. All the while I was staring up and around the buildings about us and then I caught a glimpse of the bright blue sky above us. No matter who long I have lived, that sight never failed to move me. You humans always seem to ignore the wonder that is around you. Ahh well.
My eyes grew even wider once we turned into the main tree lined street as I saw even bigger buildings ahead of us.
“Those are apartment blocks, or what the Romans would have called Insulae,” said the Magus casually as we drove past them.
“Some things don’t change do they?” I said in idle fascination as we continued.
“I suppose not,” he replied as we now came to a stop in front of a number of coloured lights mounted in a sequence upon yellow metal poles. The lights were red at the moment.
“Red mean stop, green means you can go and amber means go very fast,” he remarked as he saw me staring at the lights in some confusion.
“Oh… I see..” Not really but I sort of understood.
The light changed to green and we moved off once more, this time traveling a speed faster than a galloping horse. I was in complete awe as we effortless travelled down the well paved, black road, seeing other cars driving alongside us and in the opposite direction. Trees were everywhere as were hundreds of buildings. I could see people waling along the side of the road on a paved path, leading dogs on a rope?.. I couldn’t quite tell. I saw a man on a very slim, two wheeled device, his legs pumping away on some small peddles that his feet seemed to be attached to.
“That’s a bicycle,” said the Magus. I nodded once more as it was almost overwhelming.
“Where are the city walls?” I asked in a small voice as we must have travel a few miles by now.
“We have none.”
“What?”
“We have no need for such things. This city has over two and a half million people who live in an area than spans probably about seventy miles north to south and about thirty or so from the coast to the hills in the east. This is the lucky country Meridiana. Our shores have never been invaded, well they were once by my ancestors, taking it from the indigenous peoples who had lived here for probably sixty thousand years of more? Non one is really sure or perhaps you might be?”
“Terra Australis?”
“The Romans know of it? Incredible!”
“They heard of rumours of it from traders from the far eastern Spice Islands. The only people who bothered to head that way were divers for the rare shells of creatures that lived in the reefs there.”
“Ahh Troccus Shell of course. Makes complete sense. Indonesians must have been sailing from their islands down here for thousands of years but simple fishermen don’t write historical journals for later generations to read now do they?”
“No, they don’t. I found fishermen to be a mostly rough, ready, usually rude and definitely ignorant bunch of sea lice infested peasants. Literacy and leaning and the preservation of knowledge was never high on their list of priorities,” I replied with a smirk.
The Magus nodded with his own smile. I could see that these little snippets of my experience were intriguing for him as he mentioned that he is a historian, a scholar of learning. A person who was almost on my level of intellect.
We carried on down the wide open road in comfortable silence for now as I sat and admired the incredible vista sweeping by us.
Soon we crested a hill after a few more stops and starts at various intersections contained the coloured lights on poles.
I couldn’t help but let out a gasp of delight as I suddenly saw the magnificent blue ocean before me.
Far off in the distance I could see massive ships?... just sitting there in the ocean. There was an island on the horizon that was clearly visible as it was a perfectly clear late afternoon.
We drove down the descending hill and turned onto a very busy road that was full of cars and people.
“Aha! We are in luck Meridiana!”
“We are?” I had no idea what he was talking about.
“We got a parking spot right there. People pray for these you know?” he said as he guided the car into the free space between two other cars.
“They do? Who do they pray to? Do they offer sacrifice for such eventualities?” I wondered as he parked the car.
“Maybe? My best friend calls upon a goddess he named Pamelia, goddess of Parking, invoking her name in praise when he finds a free parking spot in a good location.”
I shook my head with amusement and disbelief but I knew the Magus wasn’t lying. It was just so ridiculous that it had to be true.
“Praise Pamelia then?” I said hesitantly.
“Indeed,” he replied as he switched off the car’s engine. “Just press the red button on your clasp and that will release your belt. The door handle is just there,” he said as he pointed to it.
I did as he said and was out and standing on concrete pavers that formed a neat and well-constructed pathway that led past busy tavernas, shops and eateries, all full of people enjoying themselves.
“Come this way Meridiana. I’m going to buy you a Gelato. I think you will enjoy it. Oh, put on your hat and sunglasses, you’ll feel better and blend in more,” he suggested.
I did so and what surprised me even more was that he offered his left arm for me to hold.
“We have to look normal Meridiana, although most people are going to take one look at you and think what the hell is that gorgeous woman doing with that pudgy, middled aged old fart then?”
I let loose a genuine laugh.
“True but they don’t know who you or I are,” I said with a demure smile back at him.
“And that’s the point. Always leave the proles guessing.”
And with that we walked down the path, with many furtively looking at me. I notice that I drew the glances of women more than men as women always compare themselves to others, they simply can’t help it. It pleased me greatly and I ignored the stares and longing looks from both sexes, keeping a serene smile on my sensual lips as I lightly held the Magus’s left arm between my hands.
We soon came up to a busy food venue that had a large lit up sign saying “Gelato!”.
We made our way into the venue with little fuss, just briefly waiting to be served as the people working behind the counter were quick and efficient.
“Hmm… I think I’ll get you a Rum and Raisin double scoop to start with,” said the Magus.
I shrugged, not knowing what that was but knowing what Rum and raisins were.
“One Rum and Raisin and one Vanilla double scoop in waffle cones please,” he requested. The server nodded and I was again astounded as the Magus just took out his phone and tapped it to a device that the server held out. That was a financial transaction!
We got our Gelatos, walked out, crossed the busy road, found an empty bench, sat down and I tried Gelato for the first time. Dozens of people just walked by us with little regard.
I closed my eyes as I sampled the ice cold substance.
Nirvana in food form!
This must be just like living in Paradise.

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​
Synopsis:
Juliette Contzen is a lazy, good-for-nothing princess. Overshadowed by her siblings, she's left with little to do but nap, read … and occasionally cut the falling raindrops with her sword. Spotted one day by an astonished adventurer, he insists on grading Juliette's swordsmanship, then promptly has a mental breakdown at the result.
Soon after, Juliette is given the news that her kingdom is on the brink of bankruptcy. At threat of being married off, the lazy princess vows to do whatever it takes to maintain her current lifestyle, and taking matters into her own hands, escapes in the middle of the night in order to restore her kingdom's finances.
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Action, Fantasy, Copious Ohohohohos.
​
Chapter 16: Starry Eyed Alchemist
“Let's see … an alchemy shop … it should be just about … here?”
I was completely lost.
There was a reason I was making Apple trot at slower than walking pace. And it wasn't just because I was very puzzled by why mud appeared to be dripping from that one window over there.
I took in the hodgepodge of buildings around us, feeling for the first time my utter lack of familiarity with our smaller domains.
Rolstein was clearly not the Royal Villa, where every block of quarried stone was carefully measured before being allowed to set. There was little uniformity in this town. Its architecture was a flamboyant mix of differently shaped clay roofs and brightly painted wooden, stone or brick facades, as though each and every dwelling had been designed on a whim and then redesigned that very same evening.
Though it filled me with dread, I'd need to navigate these labyrinths of poor architectural design in the coming days. And I'd need to do so without bellowing high and low that I needed directions in my own homeland.
Fortunately, Coppelia was not a subject of the kingdom! Why, she wasn't even a dignitary, but an assistant librarian. I had no qualms about maximising my use of her. And she in turn could have the joy of assisting me. It was a wonderful, mutually beneficial arrangement for all parties!
Coppelia glanced at me as I subtly stared at her.
“My masterful skills of observation indicate that you seem to want to ask something.”
“Perish the thought. You've been remarkably helpful thus far, and I have no intention of intruding on your cordiality or your clockwork memory of names, places and locations, such as a shop owned by a local alchemist named Marina.”
“Well, okay—”
“But as declining assistance is the height of ill grace, I'd be content to allow you to direct me to my destination while I'm still gathering my bearings.”
I smiled considerately.
Now, fair clockwork maiden, guide me through this maze of poverty!
Coppelia pointed at a building right beside us. And then the signboard next to a pile of cauldrons stacked like salad bowls.
Fresh Potions, Balms & Remedies!
Accredited alchemist inside.
Garden picked and rare herbs for sale.
Loyalty card available. 10% discount on all weekly orders now!
I felt my admiration for Coppelia's skills grow.
Not only could she lift heavy objects, but she could also conjure entire shops right beside us! Indeed, it definitely wasn't because I was blind. No, no, no. Not at all.
“By any chance, do you need something for your eyes?” she asked.
“O-Ohhoho! M-My eyes are perfectly fine, thank you!” I replied, closing the topic with a cough—before bringing my hand over my nose. “... I can't quite say the same about my sense of smell, however. What is that?”
It was a tiny shop that required half of its wares to spill out onto the street.
Even so, the pungent odour wafting from within was more than our three kitchens in the Royal Villa could emit even in the midst of preparing for a large scale function. It was the scent of several witch's gardens being boiled, and that was if they grew manure straight from the ground.
Coppelia sniffed the air.
“Yep. Something died,” she said cheerfully. “Recently.”
“What manner of creature found its end here?”
“The question isn't what. It's how many.”
I shuddered.
Alchemists. They were like mages without the magic. And that meant they had to make up for their insanity with their own hands.
Be that as it may, a princess did not shrink from her duties!
Climbing down from Apple, I left him to chew on a bundle of daisies growing from a cauldron while I rummaged in the satchels for an envelope. Finding it, I headed inside. The door was already wide open, and once I entered, I realised why.
Here, the sheer pungency almost threatened to knock me off my feet.
The effects of a hundreds herbs, plants and dead things dotted on shelves stacked against every wall rushed out to greet me … as did a lilac miasma, which wafted from a room further inside the store.
I coughed while waving my hand furiously—one or the other catching the attention of the young woman peeking her head out from a room billowing with the lilac cloud.
“Good evening!” she said, her arms clearly in the midst of mixing, or perhaps fighting something. “You made it just in time. I was about to close up. What can I do for you?”
She had a bright smile. I wondered how much of that was genuine and how much was simply intoxication from permanent herbal exposure. If she could somehow bottle that lilac miasma, I had no doubt that some of the zanier members of nobility would purchase it in bulk.
I opted not to inform her about this opportunity.
“I'm searching for Marina the alchemist.”
“Oh my! That'd be me. What crime did I do this time, I wonder?”
I paused.
It sounded like a joke. But I couldn't be certain. Not when there were enough ingredients in this store that she could close her eyes and likely create something illicit by accident.
I decided to reserve judgement. For now.
“Salutations. I have a horse named Apple. I was asked to deliver him to you by a barkeeper. He's outside eating your daisies.”
The young woman's arms stopped working. The thickness of the miasma immediately intensified. She let out a note of panic, disappeared from view, and after the sound of crashing pots and pans echoed throughout the store, the hiss of a fire being quenched flooded my ears.
If there was any steam, I wouldn't know. I was blind to my own hands at this point.
Fortunately, I didn't need to see to know where Starlight Grace was!
“[Spring Breeze]!”
In an instant, the lilac cloud poofed out of the open door, ushered by the tip of my sword. A faint fog still remained as I put Starlight Grace away as swiftly as I'd drawn it. Gathering the mist for more than a heartbeat would have resulted in her wares flying in every direction. Including my face.
Of all the things I didn't wish to experience today, eating the dried root of some carrot-like vegetable was most certainly at the top of my priority list.
The next would be to complete this errand as swiftly as possible.
“Oops, I'm—ack-hack-ack-ughh—sorry there!” called out a voice. “I wasn't expecting that! Did you say—ack-ughh—that Apple is here? And .. a barkeeper?”
I waved my hands in a futile attempt to disperse the remaining fog. I held back the twitch that demanded me to draw on [Spring Breeze] again.
“A barkeeper,” I repeated after I couldn't hold my breath any longer. The air tasted like … oh, raspberries? “I was permitted to ride Apple here in exchange for delivering him to you.”
The young woman reappeared in her doorway, her hands wringing a damp cloth. Both her apron and her face were unkempt with blotches of unidentifiable powders, like splotches of paint on a canvas.
It was an appearance that made me momentarily speechless. Protocol demanded that a certain level of grooming be required so as to not deface my eyes. Even so, I noted her prettiness at once, powder notwithstanding. It was not the same classical beauty I monopolised, but she had a youthfulness that was common in towngirls.
“A barkeeper? Do you mean … Father?”
“I wasn't made aware of his relationship with you. Only that Apple be brought. Speaking of whom, Apple enjoys eating apples. There was an insufficient supply provided for this trip, so you'll be required to purchase some immediately for his enjoyment.”
“What? … Wait, I don't—”
“I suggest Red Princesses. They're crisp, aromatic, slightly sour, and highly vulnerable to caterpillars. Please make sure you check each apple thoroughly before buying. If you spot any, search for me at any cost and I'll deal with it.”
I waited for the young woman to provide acknowledgement of this very important point. The crops felled by disease, blight or magical illness was one thing. But if the local apples had been compromised by caterpillars, then I'd be forced to take off my gloves on the matter.
Instead, the young alchemist merely looked dazed. The whiff of a cauldron spitting out miasma had clearly gotten to her more than me.
“Hold on. You're telling me that … Father gave me Apple? Why would he do that?”
I produced the envelope provided in the satchel. I would have walked up to her as well, but each step further into the store was to swim against a tide of conflicting aromas.
The young woman approached and gingerly took the envelope.
Pulling out the letter within, she creased her brows in preparation for whatever contents she was expecting.
As she read, the expression on her face turned listless. A sigh eventually followed as she slid the letter back into its container.
“Thank you for bringing this to me. However, I'm sorry to say that I have no reply that I can offer at this time.”
“The apology is unnecessary. As is the reply. I have no intention of being a return courier. I have my own tasks to accomplish.”
The woman's eyes glanced at Starlight Grace by my hip. She tilted her head in puzzlement.
“Oh, I see. Are you … a student of my father?”
“Student?”
The woman nodded.
“Thomas Lainsfont. He … He used to teach people how to use a sword. Soldiers, adventurers. Sometimes those pretending to be soldiers and adventurers. If you're acquainted with him, I thought that maybe …”
Odd.
In my memories of that barkeeper, he neither boasted a sword nor struck me as one who'd teach it. Was it common for sword instructors to turn to barkeeping to make ends meet?
Clearly, the state of the economy was even more dire than I'd feared. I had no time to waste!
“We're not acquainted. I simply borrowed his horse, his crowns, and his provisions. The first I hand over to you, as per my agreement with him. The latter two I will repay in due course.”
“I … see?” The woman looked confused at me. “That seems like quite a lot. And you two are strangers beforehand?”
I placed my hand to my chest and smiled.
“I have a noble purpose.”
Indeed, a simple barkeeper he may now be, but his sense of duty was impeccable. I may not remember his name, but I shall remember his loyalty. It will stand him in good stead for when I began my hiring spree.
“A noble purpose … I see.” The woman smiled faintly. “Well, thank you for bringing this letter to me. And Apple, of course. I haven't seen him since he was a foal. I'm Marina Lainsfont.”
“Juliette. And my future attendant, Coppelia.”
“Yaho~”
Behind me, Coppelia waved while she busied herself with taking in all the ingredients on the shelves. She seemed markedly curious about the wares on offer. Perhaps the powdered roots and crushed eyeballs in the Kingdom of Tirea was different to the ones found in the Northern Realm of Ouzelia.
The woman nodded at us both. Once more, her eyes wandered to my sword.
“That technique you did to disperse the alchemical smoke—sorry about that, by the way—what was that?”
“That was [Spring Breeze]. A convenient way to eject common garden pests from my orchard.”
The woman blinked, then tilted her head once more.
“Excuse me? Did I understand that right? You use a sword technique to do away with insects?”
“Well, no, I think it's rather a stretch to call it a sword technique. A broom would be more useful. I simply use what I have on hand.”
“... And that would be your sword?”
I smiled proudly.
“Though inefficient, swords are highly versatile. From sweeping up caterpillars like a broom or for use as a quill when writing breathtaking poetry, one must simply be open minded when utilising the tools at their disposal.”
And also lazy! … Ingenious, but lazy … creative, but lazy … innovative, but lazy!
The woman's mouth opened wordlessly. The disbelief and the, well, palpable confusion in her eyes was evident. But I stand by my methods!
A sword can do almost anything, provided that the willpower and the time was there!
“I … see.” The woman tidied her expression, then looked between Coppelia and myself. There was a glint of optimism in her eyes. “That's certainly new. By any chance, would the two of you happen to be with the Adventurer's Guild?”
“We are not,” I said, wondering which part of my well-dressed state made me look as if I could be an adventurer. “And if you seek the services of the local branch, you'll have to barrel through the door first. They appear to be selectively choosing which commissions they accept.”
“I know. Cedric is the guildmaster. He explained his reasoning to me. I was hoping that if you two were new adventurers, that would mean my commission could finally be received ...”
The woman's shoulders fell as she continued.
“... Unfortunately, it seems I'll have to wait a little bit longer. And I was so close to a breakthrough, as well ...”
I frowned. I was no adventurer. But I was a princess. And even if the guild didn't adhere to their standards, I did.
That meant pretending to listen to the concerns of the townsfolk before waving them away.
“A breakthrough in what? What assistance did you require?”
The woman's eyes looked straight at me.
“A cure for the Withering laying waste to our fields. I believe I … no, I know I have a cure.”
My attention perked up at once.
What was this woman's name again? Marine? Marlene? Maria?
“Miss Lainsfont, what do you mean by having a cure? I was just informed that the cause for the blight was suspected to be magic. Do you have alchemic concoctions that can dispel such effects?”
The woman shook her head.
“I have nothing that can remedy magic. But I have reason to believe that this is no such thing. It's possible that an alchemical solution is both the cause and the cure to the Withering.”
“Oh? And why is that?”
“It spreads,” she answered simply. “Like mildew, the Withering's effects continue unabated from field to field, as though passed on from leaf and root. Even the strongest magic depletes over time. It shouldn't continue to spread. To grow. To cast a spell that powerful, an incredibly powerful mage would be required. One whose existence is not known to the Mage's Guild.”
I nodded. What little I knew about magic suggested the same.
But at the same time, magic was preposterous. What was spellcraft and the arcane, if not wholly without rules where rules should certainly exist?
“Surely, this would be a common assessment. Why is it that magic is deemed the prime culprit, then?”
“It's an easy explanation, I imagine. Or rather, a non-explanation which can be accepted. People are scared. They want answers. Magic is an answer. Alchemy less so. It's difficult to believe that a potion could have caused this. And yet I believe it might be the case.”
“Did you bring your beliefs to Baron Alonte?”
Marine, Marlene or Maria gave a slightly pained smile.
“Well, I don't really have access to the baron. However, I did bring this to the attention of my peers. They were … well, they were unable to identify any alchemical properties in the affected crops. As a result, neither the garrison nor the Adventurer's Guild can spare anyone for my request ...”
“Understandable. Have a nice day.”
“Wait!” pleaded the woman at once. “Ingredients! I need ingredients. Pixie dust. Sprite wings. Meteorite ore. Living essence and more ...”
I raised an eyebrow.
That was quite the list. Had the Royal Villa's physician had access to those ingredients, I'm sure he'd have discovered a kinder way to check if my reflexes were working other than striking my knee with that ridiculous little hammer of his.
“You believe you can devise a cure for the Withering?” I asked. “Even without evidence?”
“I can't have evidence without trying. And I believe I'm close to something which is worth these ingredients. Just as the Withering can spread, it can also recede. I'm … I'm certain.”
“Have you any basis of fact for this theory?”
The woman bit her lips.
“No. But I know it to be true. I can feel it. I just need … I just need a chance. But I need help. I need help so I can help others in turn.”
I stopped myself from rolling my eyes.
Here lay a true do-gooder. Meaning she was either a saint or a psychopath. I'm sure she was the type of person who offered potions for free and remedies at a below-cost discount. And thus, the practicalities of having little coin and little influence meant that any heroics were sadly short lived.
Because to affect change, one must first earn a prodigious income.
This is precisely the problem with these types of people. While they're doing good, they're not making money. And when they're not making money, they're not hiring help for their herb picking errands. Because, yes, even adventurers, for all their public displays of cat fetching needed crowns. And much more than they cared to admit.
Fortunately for ... Marina? Marina Lainsfont, I was no adventurer.
I was a princess. And my goal wasn't to make crowns. It was to keep it.
Thus, I raised my hand to my cheek and smiled.
“Ohhohoho! Rejoice, for Lady Luck has smiled upon you this day. I happen to have a vested interest in curing this Withering. Merely state what must be done, and it will be so. What is required to concoct this supposed cure of yours?”
I received a stunned look in response.
Even so, it was clear from the movement of her gaze that she was appraising me. I was more than happy to oblige. Whether it was my character or my willpower, I was flawless in both mind and heart.
“I … well … to be clear, I already have most of the constituent ingredients to create a sample. Really, there's only one thing I cannot get myself. I … I just need …”
“Yes?”
The woman hesitated. I immediately started wondering what ghastly monster she required the eyeball of.
“The petals of a newly bloomed starflower.”
Ah.
Even worse than an eyeball.
At least they could be found. Two of them per monster as well. Usually.
But the petals of a starflower?
It was said to be a flower with divine healing properties. And it could only be found blooming in the darkest places in the world, shining like a star amidst the darkness. Hence its terribly dull name.
Whether or not the healing properties were true, however, what was certain was the flower's extreme rarity.
It was only recently that a single starflower had the effect of bankrupting several bidders in a public auction—even though only one had gone on to win it.
For a chance at curing any ailment, things as meagre as loans, collateral and consequences were irrelevant. Such thoughts were only too easy for someone who not only desired a starflower, but needed it.
This woman, Marina Lainsfont, was certain to meet disappointment in this request. Both from a lack of funds, and from a lack of starflowers.
“That'll be difficult,” I said plainly. “As singularly capable as I am, I cannot conjure divine flowers on a whim. Unless you happen to know where one can be freely acquired, I'm afraid that you'll have to make do with alternatives.”
I was given no response.
At least, none so far as spoken words were concerned. Her eyes told me a different tale. And it didn't require my innate skills at diplomacy to understand what.
“You know of one's location?” I asked, genuinely intrigued. “Where is it?”
Why, if I could cultivate a starflower, then the capital that could bring in would surely off-set all of the kingdom's financial woes!
In fact, I could double dip! I wouldn't need to solely bankrupt our own citizens to fill the Royal Treasury. Sovereigns from other nations would pour chests laden with crowns into our country if it meant providing even a single starflower.
Even so, the young alchemist shook her head.
“It's not as simple as that. I can't just tell anyone. It may be very dangerous. And … I don't know if it's actually there. The risk is too high ...”
Her voice trailed off.
Still, I could finish her words for her.
She couldn't just tell anyone.
But she could tell someone.
The implications, I rather suspected, being that she couldn't tell anyone she personally knew. To risk life and limb for a theoretical starflower of further theoretical use would certainly weigh on the conscious of a self-styled do-gooder.
“Rest assured that you may safely divulge the details of this starflower to me. Both myself and my future attendant are highly capable. If such a vaunted specimen exists, I would like to retrieve it for both your use and my personal study. If possible, I will attempt to harvest some seeds.”
“I was under the impression that the seeds of a starflower couldn't be harvested?”
“Allow me to concern myself with that. If the starflower is used to cure the Withering, then I'll consider this venture a success.”
The woman was motionless. A final pause, as if to measure the merit of my words.
Naturally, I passed with flying colours.
“My father was always an excellent judge of character,” she said. “And I trust in his choice of rider for Apple. If you're content to scour the darkness, I can show you the way. Give me a moment to prepare my things. Hopefully, it won't be needed, but ...”
“I understand. Thank you for your consideration.”
The woman glanced at my clothes.
“Um, there's just one thing.”
“Yes?”
“It might be a little bit … well, dirty.”
My confidence only dipped as she began fidgeting with her hands. I regularly braved fresh, clean soil within my orchard. Yet something told me this would be more disquieting than that.
“How dirty?”
The woman offered a nervous smile.
“Have you ever climbed down a well, Juliette?”
​
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Unknown
This story is strictly fictional.(Not a fan fiction, this is original.)
The Beginning
I had gone to sleep pretty late that night so when I actually woke up I thought I was thrown into another random dream where I woke up in a forest, but things were realistic. I could feel the droplets fall from the leaves of the trees to my hands and the squishy slimy mud below my feet. Alright I need to assess the situation. I just woke up in a random forest, none of the plants or trees are native to where I’m from, and I’m in a thin long sleeve shirt with a jacket over it and layered tactical pants which are obviously different clothes than what I went to sleep in, and then there’s that rumbling that shakes the ground periodically. Well I can only do two things in this situation: sit here and hope that someone will find me or try looking around.
It’s been about 2 hours since I started roaming this seemingly infinite forest and I finally saw something besides trees and more trees. It's a lone rocky hill and after reaching the top I looked ahead and I saw a beach. When I turned back to look at the forest I saw the cause of the rumbling sound. “This must be a dream, it has to be.” I thought “I have to get out of this cursed forest right now!” And as I ran towards the beach, I saw that vicious, vile creature. The predecessor of the modern serpent, the Titanoboa. It rushed towards me and even running with every ounce of strength and explosive power I had there was no chance. The snake coiled up around me crushing my bones. I felt everything from my wrist snapping to my legs breaking.
Eventually I had either passed out from the pain and died or I died in that moment but… why am I lying on a beach? The chill breeze, the hot sand on the back of my neck and the upwelling tides hitting the heel of my foot. I guess I’m still alive. My clothes are folded next to me. There’s a stone with a book next to it.
Words were being chiseled out as I looked at the stone, they said:
“Unknown’s status”
“Survival Time: 5 hours and 34 minutes”
“Encountered Enemies: 57”
“Enemy Type: insect 56”
“Predator: 1”
“Death Type: Death by a predator”
“Enemies defeated: 5”
“Calculating Achievements…”
“Rewards will be granted based on achievements.”
“Rewards granted!”
“Rewards obtained look in inventory to view.”
“View inventory by visualizing it”
I opened it and it says:
“passive skill Bug killer level 5”
“Earned by killing 5 bugs in your first life”
“Passive skill Poison/Venom resistance level 22”
“earned by getting poisoned 22 times in your first life”
“Journal of the next life”
“Earned by surviving 2 or more hours in your first life”
“10 Stat points granted!”
So I died and got and was brought back with game abilities. What the hell? There was also that book when I tried to open it, It opened directly to the middle. I was able to flip the page back once but that was it. It was already written in, and it read: “this is the second time”. “That’s… creepy.” I started to feel hungry and began to roam again.
Survival
I saw a river that secured freshwater, I take out my pocket knife and start to sneak around. I see a dilophosaurus. I rush towards it and stab it in the neck. I take out the knife as it shoots poison at me. I stab it again in the head and kill it. The stone structure appears from beneath me once again. It says “First predator kill”
“Predator kill results”
“Damage dealt 100%”
“Damage Taken .5%”
“Weapons used: Knife”
“Calculating Achievements…”
“Rewards Granted!”
“Rewards obtained look in inventory to view.”
“View inventory by visualizing it, your inventory will be viewed as whatever you visualize it as.”
“Melee Mastery Level 1”
”Experience gained 10”
It looks like I’m going to be here for a while, I should get familiar with everything. I open my inventory and I see a new option, it says “Stats”. The stats are Health which adds how much damage I can take, Strength which helps deal more damage with a physical attack, and a gray option which reads “Craftsmanship”. There’s also a catalog of everything I’ve encountered like the Carboniferous and Permians. I can’t even pronounce that, why do insect dinosaurs have such weird names? The snake that killed me out of nowhere was a Titanoboa. I don’t level up automatically so I have to do it manually. I get to level 2, I get 2 stat points and a new option opens which is “craftsmanship”, The ability to craft something instantly while consuming the needed material. Putting more stat points into it unlocks more craftable items. I can only make a small fire for now. I guess what they say about carnivores is true, this tastes so bad. I hope that poison resistance can hold up to this. That’s my first day here, or second if I count the time before I died.
It’s the second day. I need to gain experience if I want any level of security. I hunt dodo birds on the beach, by the end of the day I get to level 5, I gain 2 stat points for every time I level up. I put the 6 stat points into “craftsmanship”. I can make a stone axe and a stone spear now. I have all the materials needed except vines that I can get from the forest. I use coconut shells to collect water and take some with me. I managed to get some vines without a problem so now I’m back at the river and I have plenty of food to cook. Now that I'm back I make the axe and spear. I wonder if there is anyone around.
Survival
I’ve developed a routine to go hunting to gain experience for the beginning of the day, then check my stats and inventory, after that I would look for any materials that might be useful. On the way back I’d look for any signs of people. After doing this for 3 days I’ve found a grave. It said “Though life may seem like a game it never is. You don’t come back, at least not the same.” Well I guess I’m an exception. I pick up the bag and it’s heavy like it has tools in it or something. When I get to the river I finally get to go to sleep. I wake up and do my routine. When I got back to the riverside I saw something running across the river. I've never explored the other side of the river but I’m curious as to what I might find. Looking deeper into the plains I see a forest and an icy mountain in the distance, but suddenly a small stone looking creature pops out of the ground waving a small flag with a peace symbol on it and the ground starts to shake. What the hell is that? A large stone wall is launched from the ground and lands straight up behind the golem. 5 humanoid golems climb out of the hole that the stone wall came out of. The wall starts to tilt towards me and the smaller golem and I back up then the wall falls crushing the mini golem. What’s going on here? The 5 golems run over to put the wall back up, they’re panicking because of the small one. Once the wall was back up they gathered the pieces of the small stone golem then they held them all up, the pieces started to float together and the small golem was together again but still had cracks in its body. It waved. The golems looked at me and pointed towards the stone wall then they started writing carving out words. I can’t even say that, they just lightly press their fingers on the wall and the small area just crumbles. When they’re done it says “Sorry about that mess right there. The point of this is to tell you what you need to do to thrive in this world, if you follow my instructions you will. Give a thumbs up when you’re done reading.” I hesitantly give a thumbs up and the layer with writing falls off.
The other missions were blank. I should prepare food and tools for this new companion. I’m going to start the mission tomorrow. Morning has arrived. I walk across the river and after touching the stone a guy appeared behind the stone. This is gonna be interesting.
Day 1
Unknown- “Hey, new guy.”
New Person-“Huh what?”
Unknown- “You took long enough.”
Unknown - “Ask questions later, follow me.”
I take the new guy to the otherside of the river.
I don’t want to tell him about my first life so he won’t get any false hope of a second life.
New Person - “ Can you at least tell me your name?”
Unknown - “You can call me Unknown for now.”
New Person - “I don’t remember my name.”
Unknown - “Yeah, you don’t remember much about before you got here the same thing happened to me.”
Unknown - “I’ll explain while we eat.”
2 hours pass…
New Person - “So we’re eating a dinosaur right now?”
Unknown - “Yeah .”
New Person - “So how did you say you opened your inventory?”
Unknown - “I just visualized it like a game.”
New Person “Nothing’s happening”
Unknown - “We could try getting back to the beach where I first learned about the abilities”
New Person - “Yeah let’s go in the morning”
Unknown - “You could get some leaves to use as a bed.”
New Person - “Alright.”
Day 2
Unknown - “Wake up.”
New Person - “Ugh.”
Unknown - “Do you want to see your stats or not?”
New Person - “Fine, fine”
I lead the way to the beach and we get to the stone.
New Person - “What do I do now?”
Unknown - “Put your hand on it.”
The stone cleared back to how it was at first.
It says “choose name”
He put his name as “Anonymous”. He only got 2 skills but one of them is an active skill. That’s the first active skill that I've heard of. The 2 skills are “companion’s stat copy” which is a passive skill and “temporary skill copy” which is the active skill.
Unknown - “Try being more original.”
Anonymous - “Wow ok.”
Unknown - “Now that you have your skills you should try opening your inventory.”
Anonymous - “Alright.”
Anonymous - “I can see it.”
Unknown - “Try equipping your passive skill.”
Anonymous - “Ok I did”
Unknown - “I don’t know how you would activate or use it”
Anonymous - “it says I could use a voice cue or an action cue to activate it”
Unknown - “I see”
Unknown - “Now that you have your skills lets do a little hunting”
2 stone structures unexpectedly appeared, they say:
“All conditions have been cleared”
“Skillset acquired.”
“Skillset 1 Hunter, Skills: Target Lock On, Precision Strike, and Killstreak.”
“Skillset 2 Tamer, Skills: “Trainer, Taming experience, and Supreme Command”
Anonymous - “So what did you get?”
Unknown - “I got Hunter, what did you get?”
Anonymous - “I got Tamer.”
Two books fall from the sky landing 2 feet in front of him and I. We picked up the books and the titles read “skill set manual Hunter” and “skill set manual Tamer”. Both books give detailed explanations on how to use our class and what to do with them. With the Tamer, it says there are 2 ways to tame dinosaurs. The first way is through having a bond with it or building a bond like constantly coming back to feed it food and building trust but that can only be used with the trainer's skill. The second way is to put the dinosaur on the brink of death and nurse it back to health. It also includes how difficult it would be to tame the dinosaur and the recommended “method” to tame the dinosaur.
Anonymous - “This really does remind me of a video game”
Unknown - “Yeah it does…”
This guy seems more excited than anything but that made me remember that I didn’t open the bag from the grave, I’ll check that out when we get back.
The Hunter skill set is for hunting as it says in the name. The manual includes the weaknesses for encountered dinosaurs, it also said the recommended hunting spots for certain levels.
We are back and eating to get ready for the first hunt. Opening the bag, I see Rusted Iron tools. There is a “Rusted Iron axe”, a “Rusted Iron spear”, and a “Rusted Iron Blade”. We go to the edge of the forest without going in too deep simply so we can hunt a dilophosaurus.
Anonymous - “Did you hear that?”
Unknown - “Yeah copy my skills”
Anonymous - “Alright what do I do now?”
Unknown - “We’re going ahead just stay to my left side”
I pull out the Blade from my inventory.
Unknown - “This should be enough to damage it and give you time to kill it with your axe ok?”
Anonymous - “Alright”
The dinosaur leaps from the bushes. I activate the skills precision strike and target lock-on. I stab it but it doesn’t pierce far through its skin.
Unknown - “Now!”
He struck the dinosaur on the head with the flat side of the axe and knocked it out. A screen appears saying: “Conditions complete taming possible”.
Unknown - “You know how to tame this thing?”
Anonymous - “Yeah we just have to feed it. Its taming difficulty isn’t that high either.”
Unknown - “Help me carry it back to the river.”
We carry the dinosaur to the river. In about 10 minutes it woke up and we held food to its face. It ate the food and didn’t attack us. A screen pops up again and says “Velociraptor tamed”. I doubt it’s an adult Raptor. I didn’t even think it was a raptor to begin with; it’s too small.
Unknown - “Hey why don’t you try using your skill or something?”
Anonymous - “It worked! I could also give you control of the Raptor”
Unknown - “Cool, let’s head back.”
Day 3
Unknown - “We should go hunting with the raptor”
Anonymous - “You sure?”
Unknown - “What, you scared it’ll turn on us or something?”
Anonymous - “No.”
We head to the beach where all the dodo birds are. Anonymous sends the raptor to kill the bird.
It rushes toward the bird and it bites its head off. It doesn’t eat the body, it just drops the head.
Unknown - “Well that’s just brutal.”
We feed the Raptor and go hunting for the rest of the day. It got to level 10 and Anonymous is level 5 and I’m level 8. I put my stat points into strength and health. Now my strength is at +12 and my health is at +4. Tomorrow we’re going to the forest edge so we can level up more now that we are stronger.
Day 4-8
We’ve been hunting on the forest edge for the past few Fr days and I’m at level 23, Anonymous is at level 18, and Rapt is now level 25. He levels up faster than the both of us because he does most of the hunting for Anonymous. Anonymous does get 45% of the exp that he earns from targeted kills though.
Day 9
Today we head into the deep forest.
Anonymous - “What was the recommended level for this area?”
Unknown - “To go alone the recommended level was 12, but with the most dangerous creature it said recommended to be level 25”
Anonymous - “You really are a cautious guy”
Unknown - “This is our lives on the line here ya know?”
Anonymous - “Yeah I get it. Let's just go already.”
On the way there he starts to ask questions. Now that I think about it we haven’t talked about much besides trying to survive.
Anonymous - “Hey do you remember anything about before you came here?”
Unknown - “Not much but if you ask questions I might remember something.”
Anonymous - “Ok, how old are you?”
Unknown - “ 15”
Anonymous - “Yeah you are young”
Unknown - “How old are you then?”
Anonymous - “I’m 17”
Unknown - “Huh, well we’re here”
Anonymous - “Ok I’ll be on alert”
There’s just a group of Raptors around level 10.
The group only has 3 of them.
Unknown - “Copy my skills.”
Anonymous - “Ok”
Unknown - “I got the 2 on the right”
I take out the rusted blade swiftly as I rush behind the Raptor and stab it. Anonymous does the same and both of our weapons break as soon as we hit them while killing the dinosaurs but there is still one more. I bring out the spear and kill the last one before it could rush after me.
Anonymous - “Wow, that was close!”
Unknown - “Yeah I suppose they only had 2 hits each”
After collecting everything we store it in our inventory. Anonymous calls back Rapt and he comes running back. We switch back to the stone tools that we’ve been using on the forest edge.
Unknown - “Are you still up to hunt?”
Anonymous - “Yeah; you’re the one that almost got killed.”
As we continue into the forest I notice a grave.
Anonymous - “Is that a grave?”
Unknown - “Yeah I’ll check it out”
The grave said: “Time elapsed 255 days”
Beside it was a heavy bag.
Anonymous - “You sure it’s a good idea to take from a grave like that?”
Unknown - “It would be wasteful to let things go unused like this.”
Anonymous - “Yeah.”
We go back to the campsite and open the bag. In it is a book, the book’s title is “Caster Skill Set manual”. I’m too tired to read it so I toss it back in the bag to read in the morning. In the middle of the night, I hear Anonymous flipping through the pages of the book, but I continue to sleep.
Day 10
I get woken up in the morning by Anonymous.
Unknown - “Huh,what is it?”
Anonymous - “Last night I stayed up and read the book and I got some really valuable information.”
Unknown - “Like what? It said it was a caster Skill Set. Can we even use it?”
Anonymous explains how there are 2 ways to get mana availability or access to magic. The first way was to find a mana river or water source with mana and absorb it. The second way is to find a magic stone and you could do one of 2 things with it, you can absorb the mana out of the stone to increase your mana capacity or use the stone as a staff to increase your magic power.
Unknown - “Did it say where the mana river could be found?”
Anonymous - “It didn’t say where but it did show an image of the river and it looked like a snowy area.”
Anonymous - “The only place that has snow is where I saw I first got here; the icy mountain.”
Finally something new that I can look forward to.
Unknown - “We should head over there tomorrow after the first challenge is completed”
Unknown - “I've been putting stat points into “Craftsmanship” for a while and I’m finally able to make all the things needed for a house. Now we just need to gather the materials. Deforestation time!”
Anonymous - “Finally, I’m tired of sleeping on palm tree leaves.”
A few hours pass…
Building the support beams is the worst because we have to make sure they are aligned, and that alone takes about an hour.
Thanks to the auto crafting feature, all we have to do is gather the wood in one place and I can easily select the option in the crafting menu. The walls fit like wooden puzzle pieces because they have slots to lock it in with smaller blocks. The end result is about the size of a classroom.
Unknown - “I can finally get some shade without going into that insect-infested forest!
A shadow comes from behind the wall and raises its scythe to strike Anonymous.
Unknown - “Anonymous get outside now!!!”
Anonymous runs out not knowing what's going on.
I dash outside, the reaper follows Anonymous and he still can’t seem to see it.
Unknown - “Go across the river!!”
Anonymous - “Why what’s going on?”
Unknown - “Just trust me go!”
As soon as Anonymous gets in the river, the dark figure stops at the river bank. I equip my axe and swing causing it to phase through it. But water splashes on it and it seems to have taken some damage from it so I quickly take out my shovel and splash the water on it. It melts into green slimy goo and Anonymous appears to be able to see it now. A screen now appears, it says: ”Special Achievement! You've defeated the grim reaper! The minimum requirement was to survive from it. I'm impressed. As a reward you and your companion shall receive mana accessibility! The next mission will be revealed shortly.” 2 copies of the same book explaining about mana dropped. The basic casting skills are “heal” and “ally heal” . We can use them just as we would use active skills. Anonymous crosses the river to come back and we make our way into the base but it’s pitch dark, we make torches and hang them up. The first thing I want to learn is ice magic. Though it’s called caster skill, the term magic is more convenient. In my stats I have a high Ice magic proficiency and a high earth magic proficiency. Anonymous has an electricity magic proficiency and a wind proficiency. To cast spells we have to visualize it just like we would visualize our inventory. The more we master the specific skill the less mana it takes to perform the skill. I tried to make a sharp ice projectile but all that happened was I made a small ice sickle. I’ll just read more into the book, and if I increase my knowledge of this I might get better at it. I walk back and anonymous is sleeping on the wall with his book in his hand. I make a sleeping bag for myself because I had unlocked that with the house parts. I just go to sleep. I'll read it in the morning.
Day 11
I wake up and Anonymous is still sleeping. I can just continue to read until he wakes up. The book says that not having proficiency can make using other elements difficult to use but we are still able to use them. The effectiveness of the magic depends on your current physical state. For example, if you’re dehydrated and using water or ice magic it will be less effective. This doesn’t apply for all elements, this rule doesn’t apply to earth, lightning and wind ect. The rule only applies to anything rooting from fire or water. Using magic can work 2 ways. You can use purely mana to create your magic or you can use the surrounding area and use less mana. Training mana does not expand the mana capacity but it does make it easier to use magic and not use all your mana at once like I did the first time. Mana replenishes over time but it is faster to meditate. Anonymous wakes up when I finish reading it.
Anonymous - “You done reading it?”
Unknown - “Oh you’re awake.”
Anonymous - “Yeah let’s see the next mission.”
Unknown - “Alright”
We walk across the river to the stone, it says “It seems you have already completed the second task which was to tame a dinosaur of choice. As a reward, you can choose to stop the timer for another 5 days or continue on to the next mission right away.” I discuss it with Anonymous and he agrees. We choose to use the next 5 days to train our new skills. It’s still bright out so I feed Rapt, we haven’t gone hunting in a while. I decide that I should start to train my earth magic. Using earth magic is more convenient because it’s everywhere so I won’t have to use much of my mana. We head over to the beach where all the dodo birds are first. I'm just trying to at least make a small part of the ground collapse like a sinkhole. With magic, it is not limited to anything as long as we have the mana and creativity for it. When I have more control of it I want to try to combine elemental attacks. The ability to become stronger here is what makes this world even slightly enjoyable. Trying to make a sinkhole without any open space below it didn’t work but splitting the ground and closing it did work. It’s only the size of my foot right now. As I continue to practice it gets larger and starts to take less mana in comparison to the skill size. I eventually run out of mana and so does Anonymous.
…
My attack is now able to fit a fully grown dodo bird and I’m also able to execute the attack quickly. I’m able to split the ground and close it as soon as the victim gets inside, crushing it and having blood spill out of it. It feels like a rubber band when I split the ground then it snaps back when I release it. Too much detail maybe? The Sun is still up so while Anonymous meditates I stand guard just in case something happens. After 10 minutes he’s done and stands guard for me. We continue to practice magic until the end of the day guarding each other when meditating. It’s the end of the day and I can confidently say that I can practice in the deep forest right now. I’ve practiced moving around while casting and it feels like streams of mana coming out of my body and pulling the ground apart. It would be nice if I’m able to move and cast at the same time. We go back to the house and I just read through the other elements and fall asleep.
Day 12-14
We continue to train in the forest for the next 2 days. I am now able to use magic in different ways now, I’m able to use earth as spikes from the ground and pierce the target. I’m not sure what Anonymous is able to do because we train in different areas so we don’t interfere with each other. Tomorrow we should be ready for the next mission.
Day 15
Today I’m just going to relax and check out my stats and options. I forgot that I didn’t level up automatically and I’m able to level up 5 times now. There is a new option that is called “Mana Strength”. I was able to strengthen my mana the whole time. Although I’m able to strengthen it through stats, the practice for control is still useful. I’m going to see the difference so I go to the backyard of the house. I’m able to make spikes out of the ground larger and I’m able to make multiple at the same time. Splitting the ground is less efficient but after some experimentation I found that I can soften the ground to make areas in the ground like quicksand or slippery.
Anonymous - “Still practicing?”
Unknown - “Yeah, I didn’t know that I could put my stats into mana strength”
Anonymous - “Oh ok, I’m going back to sleep.”
I continue to practice until I run out of mana for the 5th time. I cross the river to check how much time is left until the next task and there are 5 hours left. After Anonymous goes outside to practice when I’m done and I go to sleep because I’m tired from practicing. A few hours later Anonymous wakes me up to say the next mission is about to appear. We go across the river to the stone and the stone crumbles and it says:
“I hope you enjoyed your training, but now it’s time for your next mission.”
“Go to the town near the peak of the mountain”
“The map and route is accessible through your inventory.”
“You will be able to see the missions through your inventory as of now.”
The stone crumbles and leaves nothing but rubble on the floor.
Unknown - “It hasn’t even been a week since we had the house.”
Anonymous - “Yeah but If we take down the house and store the parts in our inventory we might be able to rebuild it when we get to the town.”
Unknown - “Yeah, I guess that could work if it doesn’t take up too much space.”
We take the house down, our inventories can’t fit everything so we leave all the food that we didn’t need in Rapt’s inventory. We can’t afford to waste time so we quickly prepare. I check my inventory and see a message from “???” a blank space. It's the map. The mountain is about 15 miles away so it should take at most 2 days to make it to the base of it. 5 miles ahead is a forest with fairly large trees. Anonymous finishes his preparations and we are on the way. An hour later we are still walking 2.5 miles in and we both get a new stat option “stamina”. Stamina can be gained naturally, but stat points can also be added to it. By the next hour we make it to the forest and our stamina stats are at +10 by just walking. Rapt is keeping up like it’s no problem. We rest once we get to the forest. We take a break for about half an hour and continue for another 5 minutes and a triceratops appears. The triceratops seems aggressive and is trampling the area. This is exciting! Something that might be a challenge to test my strength.
Anonymous - “Wait! I might be able to to tame it”
Anonymous runs towards it but it’s too aggressive to approach. I loosen the ground below it and it slips around and falls. Anonymous continues to go towards it then puts his hand on it and I can see particles of electricity leaving the dinosaur and it falls down.
Anonymous - “You got any berries?”
Unknown - “Yeah, but not that many. I gotta get more”
Anonymous - “Ok I’ll watch it for now.”
I go to get more berries deeper in the forest and come back.
Anonymous - “Ok place the berries in front of it, I’m gonna wake it up.”
I pull all of the berries out of my inventory and drop them in front of it. He wakes it up forcefully with electricity and it wakes up aggressively again. Anonymous puts it back to sleep. We do this process 3 more times and Rapt is still on standby to attack but it finally works. The screen pops up just like last time and it says “Triceratops Tamed”. It’s night time now so we set up a fire and sleeping bags and we rest for tomorrow.
Day 16
I wake up before Anonymous so I check for new options and I see that I can make a saddle for our newly tamed dinosaur. I have all the materials to make it except animal hide (Skin or Leather) so I go hunting for a while and I find a lystrosaurus. It looks ugly but kind of like a dog so I can’t kill it. I continue to look for something while not going too far from the camp and I find a dilophosaurus. I kill it with earth spikes and I skin it for the animal hide. I walk back to make a saddle but I make two instead of one. I could still use the other one if we tame another one. I attach the saddle and wake up Anonymous.
Anonymous - “ Oh you made a saddle, nice.”
Unknown - “Yeah I made 2 so if we find another one I can use the second one”
Anonymous - “Alright, let’s continue”
We continue on two feet because it would be difficult to maneuver with all the trees on Trike. That’s the nickname I decided because it has three spikes (Triple Spike). We continue for the rest of the day. We don't need to take any breaks because of our built up stamina. About 6 hours later we are about to make it to the base of the mountain. From the corner of my eye I see another triceratops.
Unknown - “Look! There’s another one.”
Anonymous - “Hey do you have any leftover berries, I don’t need as much as I did the first time.
I give him the berries that I got just in case of a situation like this. He walks over to it and gives it berries “Triceratops Tamed” the screen appeared. Just like that! It would be that easy compared to the first time.
Unknown - “How is it this easy now?”
Anonymous - “It’s less aggressive and there was a skill from the trainer skill set, it was called “Taming experience ” it makes it easier to tame dinosaurs that I’ve already tamed before.”
Unknown - “Well that’s convenient”
I put on the saddle and we use the dinosaurs to get up the mountain. We reached the snowy part and to get to the village it is another 5 miles. They are slower than us running but it’s safer to ride them because of the risk of getting sick. Catching a cold is a possibility for us after all. Since I’m in a snowy area I start practicing Ice magic. By the time I run out of mana I check “Journal of the next life.” I’m able to see day 17.
“Day 17”
When I wake up I see the village and Zephyr is awake before me as always. When we reach the village there’s a gate with 2 people guarding it side by side with iron spears and wearing real world jackets. We walk over to greet them. I notice the chilling breeze stops when we get near the village.
Aster - “Hey there”
Guard 1 - “Hello you must have had a long journey here, what's your name?”
Guard 2 - “You know they probably don’t remember their names.”
Guard 1 - “Yeah I’m just messing with them.”
Aster - “My name is Aster”
Zephyr - “My name is Zephyr”
Guard 1 - “Oh you came up with names already, that’s surprising.”
They look fairly young then what I would have thought the stereotypical guard would be. They look around my age. They lead us in the village. They have an abundance of people and large wooden houses that looked like they could hold many people living there. When we left the gate another 2 guards took their place.
Zephyr - “What about our dinosaurs?”
Guard 1 - “So there's another tamer, huh”
They then open the second gate and it’s way larger. We lead all our dinosaurs to the pen.
The town has a warm glow that makes it feel comfortable. They lead us to a small building. There is a woman sleeping at a desk with papers all over the desk.
Guard 1 - “Hey Lauren, it’s time for you to do your job. Stop acting like you're so busy.”
She wakes up drooling. She has glasses and is wearing a business dress, like a secretary. She wipes the drool off of her face
Lauren - “That’s Ms. Lauren to you.”
Lauren - “So you survived?”
We explain the situation to Lauren and the guards.
Lauren - “Hahaha. That guy has a weird way of wording it making it sound like it’s that urgent, but it’s fine. The fate of the world isn’t all in your hands.”
Aster - “What do you mean by him?”
Lauren - “Well to summarize it there is a threat to this world and the creator of this world summoned us to defeat it. We will fight it in about 5 years. It’s a war between 2 worlds. The “Plunderers'' as they've called themselves have been invading our land and routes for about 10 years.”
Zephyr - “Sorry to interrupt, but why were we summoned?”
Lauren - “Well, 10 people from earth were chosen to create a world. I don't know the main details but they all had a level or skill system. One of the world’s creators lost control of the people so as a result they left and went back to earth leaving the people of their world stranded. This happened 10 years ago.”
Zephyr - “Sorry to interrupt again but-”
Lauren - “I’m getting to it ok!”
Zephyr - “Sorry, Sorry.”
Lauren - “So, to continue Free is what we call the one who summoned us. Because the other creator abandoned his world he opened what we call routes which connect the other worlds so the people from his world who aren’t Plunderers could escape and go to another world, but in that process Plunderes were able to invade. The plunderers have a mark given to them by the creator of their world. In its early days this used to be a calm paradise, hopefully we can go back to it.”
Lauren - “But to answer your question you were summoned to defend this world.”
Guard 1 - “You love telling this story don’t you?”
Lauren - “It’s not like I get to tell it much anymore.”
Guard 2 - “Ok we got the story now let’s give them names already.”
Lauren - “Whatever name comes to your mind.”
Aster - “Aster works.”
Lauren - “Ah I see, the violet flower nice choice,”
Lauren - “And for you mister interruption?”
Zephyr “Zephyr.” Lauren - “Interesting.”
Zephyr - “Yeah”
The guards lead us out of the building to head to the housing district. As we’re walking we see many people wearing modern clothing.
Aster - “So, how do they have modern clothes?”
Guard 2 - “The one that created the routes trades with us. We give valuable materials from our world that we can’t use and we get modern comforts.”
Aster - “Cool.”
We get to the housing district and there are furniture shops and dining halls.
Zephyr - “The town didn’t look this large from the outside.”
Guard 1 - “That’s because this is a cleared dungeon.”
Guard 2 - “Yeah dungeons are basically-”
Guard 1 - “There are plenty of books on it. You can check it out if you're that interested, but I’m tired.”
They lead us to different houses and I go back to sleep. I'm too tired.
It’s been so long since I’ve felt the comfort of a soft mattress. I wake up and I see a letter on the desk by the bed. It says: There are clothes in the closet and a shower in the door to the right, please prepare and go to the main hall for your documents to be written. I get ready and head out but I have no Idea where to go.
Mist - “Hey my name’s Mist, are you new here?”
Aster - “Why do you ask?”
Mist - “I’m supposed to lead the new people to the main hall to get all the documents done if you saw the letter.”
Aster - “Was there another guy here?”
Mist - “Yeah I saw him but he’s still inside, did you want to wait for him?”
Aster - “Eh he’ll be fine.”
Mist - “So what’s your name?”
Aster - “... Aster”
Mist - “Ok let’s go then.”
We walk down the main street and get to a small office building.
Office lady - “Weren’t there supposed to be 2?”
Mist - “Yeah but the other guy is still inside resting.”
Office lady - “Well I can get this one outta the way, but get the other guy in as soon as possible I want to go home.”
She asked questions about how I got here and my encounters with dinosaurs and when I responded they were both in shock.
Mist - “So umm, what type of lifestyle do you want to live.”
Aster - “What do you mean?”
Mist - “Would you like to get stronger.”
Aster - “yeah.?”
Office lady - “Would you like to be an explorer? You can bring your friend too?”
Aster - “What would I get out of it?”
Office lady - “Well, when you’re on break you get to live the luxury life. There’s a process to it though.” Aster - “And that is?”
Office lady - “Well first you have to take “classes” then combat training, then you will be able to prove yourself through an achievement if you want to be a high rank.”
Aster - “I’ll go wake him up.”
Mist - “Alright I’ll be waiting here.”
At the office…
Office lady - “So how’s Misty?”
Mist - “She’s becoming an explorer.
Office lady - “Are you joining too?”
Mist - “Nah she’ll be fine, I already have a job to do and I don’t want to have to go through all that fighting again.”
Office Lady - “That’s shocking, the overprotective brother letting his sister do what she wants?”
Mist - “Shut it.”
Back to Aster
I walk over to the house and I see him standing outside confused.
Aster - “Zephyr follow me.”
Zephyr - “Do you know where the Main Hall is?”
Aster - “Yeah follow me.”
We head to the Main Hall.
Mist - “Hey my name is Mist, we just need to sort your documents.
Office Lady - “So first what’s your name?”
Zephyr - “My name is Zephyr” Office Lady - “Ok how old are both of you?”
Aster - “15.”
Zephyr - “17”
Office Lady - “Now, I’m going to explain what an explorer is and if you’re not interested you can choose another job. An explorer is a part of the military. You have the potential to become an explorer if you can use magic and have combat experience. You get to live a luxury life if you have a high position. Although it is difficult to get to a high position you both seem to have the potential for it. You might be fighting in dungeons or defending routes from the plunderers. You might even get to meet Misty.” Zephyr - “Who’s Misty?”
Office Lady - “Oh, she’s Mist’s beautiful sister that he’s been hiding from the world, but the bird has escaped from the nest and is going to explore and She’s about your age Aster.”
Mist - “Hey hey hey. Calm down there Jade”
Jade - “What, are you afraid that she’ll get taken away from you?” Mist - “Don’t pay attention to her.”
Jade - “Sorry about that but what’s your decision?”
Aster - “I’ll become an explorer.”
Jade - “And what about you Zephyr.”
Zephyr - “I’ll do it.”
Jade - “Ok I’ll get everything sent through to the teachers.”
Mist - “The next entrance is in another 6 months so you guys should find temporary jobs.”
Aster - “What are the options?”
Mist - “I would recommend becoming guards if you guys do fit the requirements. You can apply after I show you around.”
Aster - “Alright”,
We walk out of the building and he shows us around and there are libraries, stores, Training grounds, and different housing districts. We go to the job application center. Mist talks to a guy and he comes over to the desk.
Mist - “You’ll start tomorrow there should be a clock in your inventory, be ready by 12pm you’ll be out by 6pm. Set an alarm now.”
Aster - “What about payment?”
Mist - “We use a system which can be seen through your inventory; it's called the points system. You will receive your pay automatically once you reach the end of your shift.”
Zephyr - “That’s interesting but I’m tired so are you ready to go back?”
Mist - “Yeah that should be it for now”
We head back to the housing district, but I stray off to head to the library. It really is a warming place. “There are a lot of magic related books here.” I finish reading by 10pm and I head back to the house. “Ugh this is such a pain, to think I would have to have a job at this young of an age.” I fall asleep as soon as I hit the bed.
Beep Beep Beep! I go to guard the gate with Zephyr. I grab a chair and read until the end of my shift.
Aster - “Nope I don’t have the patience for this I’d rather go back to living and hunting in the forest”
​
Thank you for tolerating my 8th Grade Writing. Part 2 is already completed, stick around for it!

The results are in for Match 7. The winner is…
It reeked of bleach. Sharp and horrible, it burned the skin and sends the head swimming. Yet, this was not the rebellion Brandy had planned. Wah forced her to compromise at every angle. As time ticked by, their defences only grew, while hers diminished.
Now, the Wildebeest Queen stood in their oasis, cloaked in the skin of lions. They set to work destroying the walls, Brandy’s remaining resource, one by one.
She knew this was her only chance. Gathering her final angels, she hatched one last plan.
The waiting was the worst part. As seconds passed, the suspense ate at Wah. They glanced around, smashing wall after wall, trying to find her.
At last, their eyes caught sight of Brandy, charging forth with spear in hand. Her flesh bubbled with copper, trying to grow, trying to shock them, anything. But with a scream, Wah hurled a table at her head, smashing it into a splatter of gel.
Another fallen angel.
Tensed with instinct, Wah whirled around to find the real Brandy tearing through the last wall standing, leaping at them with The Heritors Picaro.
Everything stopped.
The two locked eyes.
Brandy realized how similar they look, while Wah confirmed what they had already feared.
What gripped them is a wordless, bestial terror…
…before the Bastion smashes Brandy to the ground.

Mx. Wah, with a score of 72 to Brandy Judge’s 65!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Brandy Judge	12 (3.5+2) - 18 (6.5+2)	Brandy snagged a commanding early lead and held it through to the end!
Quality	Mx. Wah	22 (7 7 8) - 17 (5 5 7)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Mx. Wah	28 (10 10 8) - 20 (6 7 7)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	Judges had issues with length in the delibs, but ultimately found no conduct penalty.

As Brandy hung on the verge of unconsciousness, it felt like a century went by. But finally, to break the silence, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Opening her eyes, she saw Mx. Wah in front of her, offering a paper cone filled with water.
Brandy would slap the stupid offering away if she still had the strength. But all she could do is close her eyes again, drown it all out.
Sighing miserably, Wah finally staggered and crumples against the wall next to their daughter. Their ‘consequence’.
They tried to tell her they wouldn't kill her. They tried to tell her they just didn’t want to die. They tried to tell their child that they’re scared.
All the while, Brandy was silent.
Wah tried again. “Come back to COLOSSI with me, and we can work something out. I have to take responsibility once in my life. You already came this far for me–neither of us are going to give up now.”
At last, they extended a hand to her, remorse creasing their tired face. “...What do you say?”
Finally, Brandy pushed herself upward, and weakly nudged the hand away. She exhaled a pained breath, gave Wah a stoic look, and spoke at last.
“Fix your fucking life, mom.”
Wallowing in frustration and foiled rebellion, Brandy turned away. She had no more words to give.
Yet, before Wah could respond, footsteps approached. There stood Alalu, brows knit with concern, though her eyes were gleaming.
“Poor dears…” she sighs. “These battles are difficult, but the fact that you survived is a sign of your strength,” she smiles, nodding to Wah. “In honor of that, even though you didn’t fight Frederick, when we start this friendship I’ll still owe you a-”
”Not now,” Wah rasped. ”Please.”
Alalu raised her brows, before nodding solemnly.
“...I understand. Later, then. For now, allow me to escort you both home.”
She extended a hand to them both. Neither Wah nor Brandy had the strength left to refuse. With a smile, Alalu lifted them and led them from the wreckage. Outside, the night was cold. Alalu idly fussed over them as they walked to her car, as she talked about sending them a care package full of good food and clothing.
Love is warmth, Wah heard her say. But the night was so cold.
Quietly, they turned towards the ruined building.
｢Wolf Murder｣ watched back. Her body heaved with pelts, gathered from their funeral procession. There was respect in her eyes. This too was cold.
Above her, Wah spotted something else. Pale porcelain, and glowing socket eyes.
An old friend. The terror of death. Nobody at all.
They turned away quickly, heart pounding. Cold and desperate, Wah reached out a hand for Brandy. For their daughter. So they might share this promised warmth, this love.
She did not take it.
The results are in for Match 8. The winner is…

Errok, with a score of 72 to Cody Enfield’s 69!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Cody Enfield	14 (4+2) - 16 (5+2)	A steady back and forth with Cody sliding in with a one vote lead!
Quality	Tie	22 (7-7-8) - 22 (7-7-8)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Errok	26(9-8-9) - 21 (7-6-8)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	A strat time extension was issued without penalty, but do note that these are given wholly under judge discretion with sufficient notice and good cause. We have been more liberal than tournaments past, but even we have limits. So far extensions have been in lucky spots where they did not interfere with the schedule of other matches, but there is also the consideration of fairness to both teams and when an extension is necessary by circumstance or become needed due to not being able to finish in a given timeframe. The reason we delay granting match extensions for the latter case is because we are uncertain whether or not they are actually necessary or if the team will be able to work and have gotten in their strategy in anyways. And ideally we want people to work as if they will not be getting an extension to prevent procrastination or effectively squandering time that could have been utilized. Final note as a reminder, turning in a strategy late for a conduct penalty, while it can feel bad, is an option for a reason in the sorts of cases where we cannot grant an extension in good faith.

The dust settled, and Errok was alone to laugh.
“Ah…I love the putrid rot of millenia,” Errok mused aloud to himself, looking out with satisfaction towards the utterly brutalized ruins as he steps forward, foot planted on Cody’s stiff body as the demonstration of the land’s history lay in rotten, distorted pieces. He clutched a Temple in his hand, unsure what even to do with it. “Thousands of years it took for this place to hold, years of your archaeology to find it, mysteries awaiting answer and investigation…And it’s wiped away by disease and swordplay in a matter of minutes. In my professional opinion, in fact…I’ll even give you my answer for what became of this high-and-mighty civilization.”
Unsure if Cody was even alive or dead, Errok uncapped his hand once more, allowing the worms to trail slowly down it and burrow into his body, burrow into the soft, barely-living ground beneath him.
“They were struck down by a plague!”
Crash! Clang!
Errok was knocked forward into a nearby wall by an explosive volley of arrows, feeling a familiar cutting sensation digging into the flesh of his arm and demanding that he retract it. A familiarly ‘clean’ feeling attempts to invade his rotten arm, but his own disease and maggots eat it away before pumpkins could grow. Even as his helmeted head rested against the wall, he groaned, but it turned into a laugh nonetheless as he cracked his neck, rose, and looked at them.
Ninian and Dédalo stood , weapons drawn, staring him down with blatant contempt. Grey, in the back, also prepared to either support them or get Cody away.
“You removed everything, you stupid piece of shit!” Ninian shouted, voice low and grainy and bloodthirsty. “What’s the point of any of this? All this…Everything we’ve got here, and now..!”
“And it’s been reduced to feed for my worms…It, and all your documentation, and the spirits you wear…All of them will be reduced to nothing anyway! I’ve just become the agent of its rot. The conqueror of what had stood for ages…I did it because I can, in short, MacBeth.”
Realizing then that those were about to be his likely last words, he hurriedly held up what Temples he managed to steal, hold onto, waving them tauntingly. “And now, a half-life lays in my hands! The very last vestiges of what you all came out here…Strike me down, children, and it all becomes for naught. At least if I walk away…You’ll know that all your work was for something, no? It’s a compromise…Your Temples go to my Ends, and they’re still out there, someplace in this world. Sounds like a fine deal from where I’m standing…And the only one you’ve got.”
The others stood there, utterly stiff from realization that Errok, for once in his wretched life…was right. Like him, they had no choice now but to choose between a rotten-away half-life for the remains of this place and complete oblivion.
Scenario: Alexandria National Museum, Alexandria, Egypt — 7:16 AM
At this hour, the tour groups that normally plagued the museum’s halls weren’t due to arrive until later in the morning, leaving it in a state of calm for a few blissful hours. Beams of sunlight streamed in through the windows and illuminated the exhibits inside—important pieces symbolizing different periods in the grand history of Alexandria.
Dédalo idly wandered from display to display, examining each and every one of them. It had become a habit of his to do this in every museum that he came across on his travels, after discovering several artifacts and potential temples of Pieduron origin mislabeled as ones from other ancient civilizations. Dédalo’s eye passed over canopic jars, ushabti figurines, gleaming jewelry and statues of long-dead emperors and pharaohs. From the recreation of the funerary chamber on the first floor, to the display of Alexandria’s Hellenistic and Roman periods on the second, all the way up to the city’s Coptic, Muslim and 19th to 20th century, one could learn the entire history of Alexandria in a single trip.
As he scrutinized the exhibits Dédalo noticed that many of its placards had a small footnote underneath the main text: ｢Donated by the House of Muses.｣ While he wasn’t an expert in appraisal by any means, he could see the distinct glint of Cleria in some of the artifacts, masked by thin layers of acrylic resin.
“How strange,” Dédalo muttered. “The House of Muses have amassed a number of Temples, yet the ones here are all mislabeled. I should inform them when I get the chance.”
He pulled out a notebook and began to jot down a few of their names as Perdida floated behind him, arms crossed. “Are you not concerned that they have this many temples?”
“Well, relabelling everything will certainly take some time. And these pieces were improperly restored because the curator must have assumed them to be Egyptian relics, so that will also need to be taken care of...” Dédalo continued taking down notes and sketches.
“That’s not what I’m worried about, it’s just...”
“Excuse me,” A suited man with the build of a bodyguard interrupted Dédalo and Perdida’s conversation.“Patron Cullinan is ready to see you now. Please come with me.”
“Perfect timing, lead the way.” Dédalo closed his notebook and moved to follow the suited man with Perdida trailing after.
Scenario: Alexandria National Museum, Alexandria, Egypt—7:26 AM
Old painting…Stone tablet…Weird looking statue…
Passion didn’t know what she expected to find when she decided to sneak through the storage room of a history museum. It seemed like a fun idea at the time, but all that was here was a bunch of boxes filled with old junk; no wonder why it wasn’t being displayed.
Passion stepped over the snoring body of the security guard stationed at the door and started heading towards the nearest exit, past rows of shelves of more boxes.
“Sorry, miss, this is the employee-only section. Are you lost?” Passion looked to see a suited woman sorting boxes on a shelf, 15 or so meters away.
“Think I got separated from the tour group I was with,” Passion lied. “‘Scuse me.”
“I can help guide you where you need to go.” The woman put the box she was holding onto the shelf.
“Exit’s right there,” Passion pointed out. “I can just go,”
“Please, I insist. It's not everyday we get a direct visit from a member of COLOSSI.”
Passion remained silent, holding ｢sleepyhead｣ close to her chest. If the woman took one step closer, she could send her to dreamland…but she remained just shy of ten meters away.
“We fully respect your anonymity. But if we could have a moment of your time, the House of Muses could offer our services with your ‘problem’.” The suited woman made a devil horn sign with her hands and tapped the side of her nose.
Passion glanced at her plushie, one glassy eye staring back at her.
“Fine.”
“Ah, Dédalo~boy and Perdida~girl. Make yourselves at home.” Cullinan spread his arms wide in a welcoming gesture.
They were in what Dédalo had first assumed to be the basement of the museum, but his adventuring sense told him this place was much older. The place was lit through a series of wired cave lamps; Too barren to be any sort of underground burial chamber, perhaps it was an old storage facility or some type of bunker.
“I am still waiting for another guest to arrive before we can begin the main event. But in the meantime, care to join me in a game of Senet?” Cullinan gestured to a table, a gridded board set up in the middle
Dédalo eyed the game board as he put his hat and coat on the back of his chair. “You know the rules of Senet?”
“Of course. The ultimate goal of the House of Muses is the preservation of information, and history most importantly. Especially when that information comes from its homeland of Egypt. However, the informal rules will suffice for now; we are not here to perform any funeral rites or cross into the afterlife.” Cullinan chuckled and sat down at one end of the table, Dédalo sitting across from him.

The game of modern Senet is simple! Each player has 5 pieces; whomever got all of their pieces off the board first won. The board itself is a 3 by 10 grid, with each piece starting in the first row. Each turn, players roll senet sticks to determine how many spaces they can move one of their pieces. If an opponent’s piece was in the slot they wished to move to, the player could swap the positions of the two pieces. However, if the opponent had two or more of their pieces adjacent to each other, those pieces were ‘protected’ and could not be swapped. Though many of its rules have been lost to time, it’s easy to see why Senet was such a popular game!

Dédalo stretched out his fingers and wrists. He had heard that Cullinan enjoyed board games, so he decided that he might as well humor him. This way, he could get on his good side and get the opportunity to ask a few questions.
“Would you like the wood pieces or the obsidian ones?” Cullinan offered as he set up the board.
“I’ll take the wood pieces.”
“Then I will be obsidian. Care to take the first turn?” Cullinan passed Dédalo the set of senet sticks. Dédalo gently tossed them onto the table, allowing the clatter to ring out before continuing.
“I understand that the House of Muses has been collecting temples and researching Pieduron history.” Dédalo inquired politely, moving forward one of his wooden pieces.
“Ah, so you’ve heard.” Cullinan rolled and moved his obsidian piece to the space right behind Dédalo’s. “Picking up the trail that Pieduro left behind in the Mediterranean has been a challenge, even for an organization of our size.”
Dédalo moved another one of his pieces. “Really? You might be further on that trail than you think. Quite a few of your artifacts upstairs are from Pieduro, you know.”
“Is that so? I’ll have to inform the curator, then.” Cullinan chuckled, as if he was making a private joke to himself. Dédalo sensed that Cullinan didn’t seem surprised by what he said.
“Tell me, Dédalo~boy. You have been in pursuit of the Piedurons for much longer than I. Why? What keeps you going on such a Sisyphean task as this?”
“Simple. I am helping Perdida find out what happened to her home and people.” Dédalo rolled the sticks and moved his front piece further forward. “As an adventurer, I can’t just leave this quest uncompleted.”
“My, how noble. Personally, I wish to document and understand what these Temples can do. Our research into their functions has been quite fascinating.” Cullinan took his turn and moved his second piece up behind his first.
“And how is that research going?” Perdida asked, hesitant, as Dédalo rolled his sticks and pondered his next move.
“It took the sacrifice of a few Temples, but I believe we have managed to understand how they work just a bit. Of course, not enough to craft any new ones or find a way to reliably power them.”
Perdida faded into the background, watching as Dédalo finally decided to swap his last piece with Cullinan’s fourth piece. Sacrifice…she didn’t like the way he said that so frivolously.
“That’s a shame,” Dédalo sighed. “Well, if it’s Temples that you need, my companion and I have become rather skilled in locating them. Perhaps we could come to a mutual agreement. You find the outposts, we find the Temples…I assume that’s what you called us here for, after all.”
“You would be correct, but we should wait for our other guest before we finalize any agreements.” Cullinan smiled mysteriously. “Patience, Dédalo~boy. Our game is not yet finished.”
Dédalo could feel his patience towards Cullinan’s vagueness beginning to wane—Cullinan maneuvered around his questions as masterfully as his pieces maneuvered around the board. Time to push harder.
“You’re aware of the symbolism of ‘Wood’ and ‘Obsidian’ to the Piedurons, I assume. ‘Wood’ represents the Earth that binds us all, grounding us to the world around us; Obsidian represents the power that we can wield, and the paradox of how strong yet brittle it can be. In your opinion, which one resonates with you more?”
Cullinan furrowed his brow. Feigning ignorance, Dédalo continued on. “Personally, I’m fascinated with the concept of ‘Wood’. Growing with the Earth, instead of against it. Rebuilding, persisting, even when all seems lost. ‘Wood’ reminds us of our place in the world—not to live wealthy, or live poorly, but to simply live.”
“Hm…I believe that ‘Wood’ is a beautiful ideal.. However, it is simply that; an ideal. For lack of a better term, it’s too ‘soft’ for my tastes.” Cullinan glanced at the obsidian piece he held in his hand. “‘Obsidian’, on the other hand…when it breaks, when it shatters, it is lost forever. But for the short time that it lasts, its strength outweighs its fragility. An obsidian dagger needs only to cut once to make a mark on the world. After that, what use does it have? Better to grind the shards into dust than risk them cutting your hand open.”
Dédalo nodded slowly. “I see.”
“Patron Cullinan, your other guest has arrived.” A suited woman opened the door and waved Passion inside. She surveyed the dimly-lit room as the woman shut the door behind her. She immediately noticed Dédalo, recognizing him as one of the strong Stand users to keep track of. “Big fuck-off airship,” if she remembered correctly.
She didn’t know who the bald man that he sat beside was, though. She barely even registered that he was talking to her.
“Passion~girl I presume?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Oh pardon me, it’s a formal title I use for people. The House of Muses is akin to a familial structure in its design. Call it a bit of an archaic tradition, but it’s quite the honorific for guests such as yourselves.”
Passion cocked her head slightly. “Who’re you again?”
“Right, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Cullinan Dwarf Star, Patron of the House of Muses. You might know me as Sphinx.”
Vague recognition dawned on Passion’s face, “Oh. You’re the guy that shot Solsbury.”
“Shot past, actually,” Cullinan shrugged, “Anyway, to get to why I brought you here. How much do you know about Pieduron technology and history?”
“Not much,” Passion shrugged. She had seen Dédalo’s file before, and knew about Pieduron technology from there. Other than that, nothing.
“Perfect. You will be serving as an outsider’s perspective to our discussion.”
“...ok.” Passion took that to mean, “sit quietly and say “I see” every now and then.” Worked for her.
“Don’t look so glum. There may be a few details you and your organization may be interested in, if my introduction doesn’t bore you.” Cullinan smiled. Passion’s expression didn’t change. “Now, the Piedurons were an isolated people with highly advanced technology known as Temples. Based on our findings, these temples were highly sophisticated and almost universally ran off some type of spiritual energy. Dédalo~boy, what can you tell us about your recent findings in that planetarium?”
“It was extraordinary,” Dédalo explained, a bit of excitement escaping his guarded demeanor, followed by a mix of sadness and anger at the destruction Errok had wrought. “A visual history of Pieduron civilization. From its roots as an ancient agrarian civilization, the discovery of spiritual energy, the creation of the first Temples, their migration across the Mediterranean, and their eventual collapse. Like a last broadcast from the radio of a sinking ship, a final monument to their civilization before it was lost for good.”
“In our correspondence, you mentioned that there was a symbol in the depiction of their collapse; a face with a zero on it. What do you think that meant?” Cullinan motioned for Dédalo to elaborate.
“To be frank, it could mean anything. A bad ruler, a natural disaster, maybe something the Piedurons perceived as divine judgment.” Dédalo recalled the scene in his mind. “We can’t know for sure without more information.”
“The final stage showed that all of the active Temples stopped working, yes? And around the world, Temples have only recently regained their functionality. That includes your “El Cor Terra”, and your companion along with it, which you used to activate the Planetarium, yes?”
“How did you—”
Cullinan raised a hand. “The House can gather information in many ways, no matter the difficulty—especially when they align with our interests. My question is, if all of the Temples lost functionality, why would the Piedurons make the key to the planetarium a Temple itself? Surely, they would have built some other means of activating it so that future generations could read their message without the use of a Temple.”
“Maybe the necklace survived by chance,” Dédalo suggested, a bit too quickly.
“With all due respect, Dédalo, that’s preposterous. The capabilities of your traveling companion are unlike anything that we have ever seen, and far less powerful Temples were permanently deactivated by the shutdown. No, the Piedurons must have known that your necklace would survive their collapse and eventually regain its power, then built the planetarium around that fact.”
Dédalo grit his teeth. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Simple. I believe the Pieduron shut down their Temples on purpose. What’s more, the planetarium is not a simple message in a bottle. It’s a warning that could only be viewed if the Temples were ever reactivated.”
“Well. Uh. That’s. A bold claim,” Dédalo said slowly. “I understand the drive to speculate, but that is quite the outlandish theory. Isn’t it, Perdida? …Perdida?”
“...sorry, it’s nothing.” Perdida grasped her arm to stop it from shaking.
“The thought has crossed your mind before, hasn’t it, Perdida?” Cullinan leaned forward. “Try as you might to avoid it, you know it’s a plausible explanation.”
Perdida said nothing.
“Your silence speaks volumes, I’m afraid. My theory is as follows. Using the power of the Temples, the Pieduro created something so destructive, so threatening to themselves and maybe even the entire world, they were forced to deactivate all of the Temples to prevent it from ever being used. In their final moments, they created the planetarium and El Cor Terra as a final message to anyone who found it—the Temples are never to be used again.”
Cullinan sighed. “Thus, it is my utmost belief that knowledge of the Temples must never reach the public eye. As much as it pains me to say it…Pieduro must remain buried. For good.”
“...excuse me?” Dédalo’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you said that the House of Muses was supposed to preserve history. Now you’re just going to leave it to rot? Torch it like the Library of Alexandria?”
“Don’t be absurd. We will retain our records on Pieduro and any artifacts that we have collected to the utmost scrutiny. They will simply never see the light of day again.”
“Oh, so you’re keeping ‘em,” Passion spoke up. “That makes sense. But, sorry, I must’ve missed the part where you told us why the House won’t use the Temples as weapons either. Since you’re so worried about your safety and all that.”
Cullinan hesitated. “That’s…I would never allow that to happen.”
“Sure you won’t. But there’s gonna be other Patrons. Patrons that aren’t you. Patrons who’ll look at a vault full of ancient weaponry and think…well, you get the rest.”
“As if you aren’t salivating at the chance to obtain the Temples for yourself, young madam,” Cullinan retorted. “The Piedurons knew exactly how to use the Temples—where are they now? One small misstep, one fool with too much hubris, and the entire Mediterranean could be at risk. This way, everyone will be safe. I’ll make sure of that.”
The room grew silent. Cullinan cleared his throat and straightened his robes. Before he could continue, Dédalo rose to his feet.
“My apologies, Patron. I will have no part in this. Consider our deal off the table. Permanently.”
Dédalo snatched his hat and coat and made for the door, Perdida following close behind.
“There is no need for apologies, Mr. Viatger,” Cullinan called to him. “Not for you, and not for me. You have forced my hand.”
From within his sleeve, Cullinan produced a flat, rectangular stone in the shape of a playing card. Suddenly, it was as if the world froze, and all colors inverted to a photo negative. Then, just as suddenly, the world returned to normal; with one notable exception.
“Perdida?” Dédalo whipped around, searching frantically for his partner, clutching his necklace tight to his chest. “Cullinan, you bastard, what did you do to her!?”
“Calm yourself. I have done your companion no harm.” Cullinan flipped the stone card around. Carved into its surface was a perfect portrait of Perdida, eyes wide in shock, screaming a silent scream, reaching out towards Dédalo. “This is no different from how she rested before you found her. There’s no need to-”
Dédalo unsheathed his sabre and lunged for Cullinan’s throat. Cullinan rose from his seat—in one swift motion, he sidestepped Dédalo, grabbed him by the collar, and hurled him across the room into the opposite wall.
Passion shot awake and leaped back, pointing ｢sleepyhead｣ straight at Cullinan, its mouth open and ready to strike.
“It seems we have reached an impasse,” Cullinan stated calmly. “Dédalo, Passion, we could fight and make enemies of one another—but this is not the way of the House of Muses. Instead, I am willing to wager my resolve versus your own. A test of body, mind and spirit.” Cullinan pulled out an ornate hourglass, its frame entwined with green and gold snakes and its interior filled with fine metal shavings.
Dédalo slowly rose from the ground, forcing the air back into his lungs. “Your games mean nothing to me, Patron. Give me my friend back. Now.”
“You have been clear that you are unwilling to compromise and rash in your judgment. But I invite you to a game invented by the Piedurons.” Cullinan tapped the side of the hourglass. “I will reveal this to you now—my Stand is bound to this hourglass, and the hourglass itself is a Pieduron Temple. It can enforce any wager we make. Win this game, and you will have not just my word, but a promise to help understand and uncover the mysteries of the Piedurons. Not only that, I will do whatever you feel is appropriate in regards to anything related to the Piedurons.”
“And if we lose?” Passion interjected. She didn’t give a shit about Perdida, but she also didn’t want to lose her soul or whatever.
“I ask for nothing, I will even give your companion back. But give me this opportunity to show you what Piedruon technology is capable of and why it is so dangerous.”
It was hard to take Cullinan at his word, but it was the only option Dédalo had been given. “Fine.”
“You may resent me all you like, but know that I am trying to do you a favor. Most other factions would have already killed you by now. Here, I’ll make it easy for you.” Cullinan brushed a hand across his face, spreading a black glittery face paint with his palm. Opening his eyes he revealed black sclera and red pupils.
Motes of light saturated the room and flickering projections painted the room in bright light. It was like what happened at the planetarium, only on a smaller scale. No…this felt more real than even that, the floor changed underneath their feet and the stale cave air was replaced with fresh air. Dédalo felt a new weight press down on his arm as a disk-like shield materialized and attached to his gauntlet.
By this point Cullinan had moved to the other side of the room. “To make this fair we will be playing the simplified rule set! Once you are content you understand them, we may Open the game!” (Shoutouts to u/TreeTurtle_852 for the match art!)
Location: A strange pocket dimension? The battlefield of a game played by the Piedurons.
The area here is 21 by 22 meters with each tile being 1 by 1 meters. Cullinan starts on the top of the map while the players are on the bottom half. The ceiling is 50 meters high and the stage is lit by an unknown, omnipresent light source.
The blacked out tiles are endless pits; a player is RETIREd if they fall in without a way to get back out.
The ground here is sandstone with certain areas having been painted to look like the colors shown on the map. The sides of the map are sandstone walls, the general rules of the game are outlined on the walls behind the players. Half a meter underneath the sandstone layers is a thick layer of A Durability Cleria.
The Purple “X” marked circles are Cullinan’s summoning zones and the Brown “X” marked circles are the Players’ summoning zones.
Goal: Beat your opponent in this game that tests body, mind, and spirit!
Additional Information: In this game designed by the Piedurons, each side summons Pieduron warriors to fight for them.
General Unit Info:

• Unless otherwise stated, each unit has C Power, Speed, Durability, and C Precision with B Durability on their weapons and armor.
  
• Units are defeated once they take C Durability’s worth of damage.
  
• Units each have effectively a 3 stat in using their main weapons and working in their intended roles.
  
• The armored parts of armored units are not removable
  
• Similar to Stands, the units are able to incorporate their summoner’s experiences and utilize their fighting techniques. They are almost like a pseudo-swarm Stand, with their summoner having a mental link to the units and giving orders to them remotely.
  
• For the players, Passion or Dédalo can summon and command units, but they share the same summoning zones and cooldowns.
  
• Each unit is made of stone and clay, but are hollow enough to weigh about as much as a human
  
• For Passion’s Stand, they count as living things with stamina while active and objects when defeated.
  

Each Summoning circle has a 30 second cooldown and can summon any of the listed units below:
Unit List:

• Knights: Armed with a scimitar and small round shield. They have a layer of body armor and helmet.
  
• Defenders: Armed with a large rectangular riot shield. They have a layer of body armor and helmet.
  
• Spearmen: Armed with a spear. They have arm guards and a helmet.
  
• Archers: Armed with a bow and quiver of 25 arrows
  
• Fishermen: Armed with a fishing rod and three fishing spikes attached to their hip
  
• Farmer: Armed with a sickle and hoe
  
• Lumberjack: Armed with a hatchet
  
• Excavator: Armed with a pickaxe and a shovel
  
• Gremlin: Half the size of the normal sized units, the gremlin has D Power and D Durability as a trade off for its small size. They also have sharp B Durability claws with no opposable thumbs.
  

While the game is active, Cullinan and the Players are unable to attack or directly interact with one another (their bodies, Stands, and attacks will pass through each other.). Nor can they cross to the opponent’s side of the field (both sides can still cross into the center area)
Note, both sides are able to attack and use their abilities against enemy units.
Each side can only have up to 10 units at a time on their own side of the field. However they can have as many of their units as they would like on their opponent’s side of the field.
The game ends when their opponent(s) are Retired and no longer able to continue fighting. Any injuries when the game ends vanish and you will be brought back where you were before the game started.
Dédalo does not have Perdida physically with him in this match, but he does have access to the rest of Perdida’s ‘Stand’ abilities and starts with a Temple that is a thick shield-like attachment for his gauntlet:

Temple Name	Tier 1 Ability	Tier 2 Ability	Tier 3 Ability
Alqurs Almubaraza (The Duel Disk)	The front end of the shield opens up and can convert any one Temple stored in the gauntlet into a Cleria stone card (1 Pilot)	The shield can convert a second Temple into a card (2 Pilots)	The shield can convert a third temple into a card (3 Pilots)

In this game, cards created by this temple can be cast and equipped to any unit under Dédalo’s control, with any additional benefits Dédalo would have. (The card-form temples still require the requisite number of pilots to get their effects.) All they have to do is mentally target which unit they want and place the card on the face of the shield. When the equipped unit is defeated, the equipped Temple is returned and stored back in the gauntlet.
The game has just started and there is 5 seconds before all summoning zones can be activated.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
House of Muses	Cullinan Dwarf Star	"I've split their souls into six chips each. In poker, if you think you might lose, you can fold. You need to be able to drop out and up the ante, so we can't play with just two chips. Winning back six chips is the equivalent of winning one soul." Show your resolve and your trust in your methods!
HECATONCHEIRES	Passion Little and Dédalo Viatger	"Fine. I'll bet my soul." Show your resolve and your trust in Pieduro!

Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!
Days ago…
As the stormwinds blew the ship off-course, Val instead took this as a blessing, standing at the bow, pointing ahead.
“THERE!” She barked, at the top of her voice. “IF THE STORM BLOWS US SO, WE! SHALL! FOLLOW!”
And so, The Bruce turned with the wind, merely allowing it to spell the course of the ship. And so soon did the ship arrive, at the deadliest trial yet.
Val stopped the vessel here, dropping the anchor just before the range of the Scylla, pulling down the sails so The Bruce might not continue into the depths. L pulled the spyglass to its eyes, spotting the beast.
Val readied the ‘cannonballs’, composed of the 30-odd-kg chunks of wood she had brought from Circe’s islands, and from a distance, she released her ‘grapeshot’–a group of possessed objects tied to a bullet as the leader.
Even from such a distance, the force of these were immense, barrelling down upon Scylla from past where she could manage to stop them. But even when Val’s volley had run its course, Scylla stood just barely. In her desperate search for more cannonballs, she had found the remains of a poor sandwich she hadn’t noticed being slipped into her belongings, gone hard from weeks unprotected at sea. It performed admirably as another cannonball, but there was still more to do, and Val was still determined to finish off this beast.
S possessed Val as R possessed the bullet of the Soul Slug Dividing Heart; Val shot the gunsword upwards, at a steep angle. Val now soared thousands of feet above the Scylla monster in the air, whereupon she had 70 seconds to travel the whole arc of the bullet. As she sailed towards her quarry, she readied her gun again: 70 seconds to fell this beast, 70 seconds of bullets, 70 seconds for one of the most epic victories of her life. With a deep breath, she smiled, laughing a little…God, this was…exhilarating!

• Server Name: Black Winter Challenging Survival 1PP Building Wiped3/20
• IP/Port: 63.143.56.107 : 2302
• Discord: https://discord.gg/8pRTUF7ftB
• Max Players: 30 - Wiling to increase as the community grows if the community wishes
• Restarts: 11/5/11/5 CST
• Automatic Mod Updates during Reboots
• Time Settings: 6/4
• Lighting: Bright nights, no personal light
• 1pp only (3pp while driving)
• Playstyle: I'd say at our core, we're PVE'rs .. Base Building, Hunting, and Map Lore are interests. However, what fun is that without the threat of death around every corner? So, PVP is legal everywhere
• Base raiding on Saturdays. Vanilla Damage to BBP Doors/Gates/Windows
• Max FPS Server (Upgraded RAM, Max CPU Cores/Priority, NVME)
• Revised Stamina
• Ammo Making, BoomLays, BBP, Leatherworking, and many many more crafting options.

Hello Reddit,
I'd like to invite you to join my gaming community. We just wiped on March 20, 2023. The server is built around the community and not the map. DayZ is an amazing game, but after a while, maps get stale, boring and we all fade out and loose interest. On my server we will be swapping out maps from time to time to keep things interesting and fresh. Same people, same play style, same mod set (within reason), new challenges. That said, we just moved on to Banov so I expect we'll be here for a while.
The community is an older, more mature crowd and we're pretty cooperative with more of a PVE Mindset. That said PVP is legal everywhere. The threat of death should be ever present. In all, I would say that the community promotes good sportsmanship and we lack any toxic drama for which I have zero tolerance. We do use Dogtags to remind us to stay frosty and play cautiously.. You can be sure someone is collecting.
The Black Winter theme is really one of just regular folks making due with what's left. Although I have some amazing weapon mods in place, I've only picked out 1 or 2 civilian weapons from each to add to our theme. There are a few "item pack mods" installed as well but again, only a select couple items have made it into play.
A lot of attention has been placed on Quality of Life - both good and bad.
The economy has been reduced as follows:
Category - Usage - Reduced by %

• Clothes - Military - 80%
• Clothes - Farm, Village, Town, Industrial, School, Hunting, Coast - 30%
• Clothes - Police, Medic, Firefighter - 50%
• Containers - Military - 80%
• Containers - Village, Hunting, Industrial, Farm, Coast, Hunting, Medic, Town, Village, School - 35%
• Explosives - Military - 80%
• Explosives - Police - 50%
• Food - All - 50%
• Industrial Food - All - 50%
• Tools - All - 30%
• Weapons - Military - 80%
• Weapons - Police - 50%
• Weapons - Civilian - 30%

I've offset the challenging start for freshies by adding airdrops to a few locations near the largest spawn clusters. These airdrops will contain the basics like, insulated clothing, food, medicine, and basic weapons and ammo. Enough to get you on your feet. Careful going to an air drop though, you might not be the only starving person in need..
My target audience is the mature gamer who would like to build a cozy base, do some hunting and fishing and chat with some new folks and go on some adventures. Maybe shoot at a nerd when the mood is right =)
We currently have a very solid group of regulars, mature professionals who just want to unwind after a day at work and hide from the kids while trying to get lost in the world we're building together. This is an excellent server to meet some folks and start your Banov adventure.
We do have a couple of "light" role players. Nothing to "hark who art thou" - but I think all of our game play is along the lines of, this is me and this is what I'd do in the apocalypse. Meet up conversations are usually focused on what we're doing in the game.
Quick and Dirty FAQ.
​

• There is no trader, though a player suggested he may be working towards that.
• In game map, you need to find a map to use the M key. You need to find a GPS and have it on to see your location on the map. 3D Marks are disabled.
• Is KOS Legal? Yes ( player interactions are what make this game special ) KOS is not required however. Most interactions on the server are very coop and pleasant.
• Is there global chat? No - but there are TacSat Radio's and Field Radios that won't despawn - some players chatter via radio. The white noise adds to the ambience =).
• Time is not persistent so your base will need a flag. Anything without a flag icon at your base should be in a container or may poof.
• Check the discord for crafting recipes and base building recipes in the tips and recipes section.
• Press the pause key for the Server Information Panel - Rules, and details in there.

Some of my players have been giving feedback in the days since wipe; their misery is perfectly on point. The economy is a challenge, but not impossible. You will need to prioritize getting warm, fed, and hydrated first and foremost. There are no natural foods (apples, mushrooms etc cuz winter reasons) so don't waste your time looking there.
Hope to see you in game!

Diablo 4 is Great!
But...
I am about to tear into it, so if you are on the hype train, and don't want to fall off, I suggest you stop reading now. The game is good and if you are enjoying the hype, I suggest not reading this thread. Just turn back now.
If you are a Dev... just wear a helmet and you are good to go.
TLDR if you don't want to read the whole thing, here is the issue I have with the game - Vanilla, Strawberry and Chocolate are all delicious flavours of ice-cream. Some are missing here.

Table of Contents

1. Nailed Horror
2. Impaled for 7 Years
3. Meaningless Death
4. Skills like Pile On
5. Legendary Buttcrack
6. Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate
7. Solution
8. Conclusion

Alright now let's get into it.
-----------------------------------

1. Nailed Horror

As always we gotta start off with the positives, to let the Devs know all the things and all the work we appreciate.
Visuals 9/10 Story-Telling 10/10 Atmosphere 10/10 Sounds 10/10 Seriously impressed with the visuals here. The story-telling is... 10/10 Horror. The atmosphere is there. The ambient sounds are as great as I remember them in D3. The sound effects are punchy and BANG on! D3 nailed the sounds and so does D4.
Everyone and their mom has made a video about these. I have prasied them in my previous threads e.g. https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/%E7%9B%8A-what-i-hate-about-diablo-iv-gameplay/27541 . So I am not going to go in much detail.
I think the game is worth buying just for these four.
I think the campaign is going to be awesome and I am looking foward to it. I am looking forward to clicking on all the characters and hearing their dialogue and learning about their story and lore of this universe. I spent hours in the beta, literally doing that.
And these are things I have never even cared about in D2 and D3. But in Diablo 4, they are on another level! Diablo 4 is making me care about it.
Anyway let's get into the juicy stuff now.
-----------------------------------

2. Impaled for 7 Years

Difficulty
Hot take - I liked how difficult the game was as a Melee class. I played with a pure Werebear build and enjoyed the difficulty a lot. This might be an unpopular opinion but... this is how the Veteran difficulty should be for ALL classes.
But...
Bosses
At one point I encountered a boss that was too difficult. I died to it three times. I decided to get Wolves to take the pressure off me a little bit...
I ruined it.
I straight up ruined it.
All the boss did was attack my unkillable wolf pair. By the time he killed one the other would respawn. The fight went from - 10/10 Dark Souls would play again - to - Checkers with my nephew.
I felt so bad afterwards, that I had completely ruined this otherwise challenging boss fight for myself.
​
Normal Monsters
There are these guys that just impale you and just stun for 7 years. They stun you and as you are standing there impaled on their sword, you get hit by all other monsters. During this time, you are unable to do anything. Then there are guys who knock you down and you just lie on the floor thinking "This is my life now".
Devs, early on you said you did not like when small monsters did micro-stuns on the player. I argued back that micro-stuns along with chip damage is better for player experience and that long stuns and burst damage are frustrating - https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/%E7%9B%8A-what-i-hate-about-diablo-iv-gameplay/27541 (see: Letter to Joe Shely)
In Diablo 4 we have this exact problem of long stuns and burst damage.
If you want to do stuns correctly, study Fighting Games. The Fighting game genre is the master of how to do stuns correctly (and how to mess up really badly also). The whole genre is based on stun mechanic and seeing how long you can chain your stun... otherwise known as a Combo.
Monsters need to be behave like a fighting game character. Where they combo you. But the combo should not be long. It should be a short combo, then release. Then short combo, then release.
I would say if the player gets stunned and thereafter is able to get hit by more than 3 attacks by surrounding monsters, your stun is probably too long.
​
Scaling Difficulty
The monsters always scale up with you, so they feel difficult but... at no point do you feel you have overcome them. This is an issue in the game. I much prefer the Inferno difficulty in Original D3... yea remember those impossible to kill elites? It felt just right.
I'm kidding...
sort of...
D3's Hell difficulty did not drop the gear required to help you in Inferno so Inferno felt terrible when you first enetered. But as a fixed difficulty, where you try to gear up to overcome impossible odds and eventually overcame them, Inferno was perfect! I enjoyed it for that reason.
-----------------------------------

3. Meaningless Death

The biggest issue with Diablo 4's difficulty is this -
It never never scares you.
Diablo 4 has went back to the its Horror roots with the visuals and story-telling... but... in the game, dying has no consequence. It does not feel scary at all.
In fact, I was try-harding so much that the first time I was about to die to a boss, I actually was scared to die. But then I died... and nothing happened. I spawned right next to the boss room. I lost nothing. I felt nothing. I eventually learned that dying is meaningless.
The game drilled it into me that dying doesn't matter.
This is not good for a Horror game. A Horror game should not be teaching the player that death is meaningless.
Dying should have some serious consequences. Somewhere between what we have now, where there are no conseuquences, and hardcore mode, where you lose your character. Somewhere between that, where death actually means something and is more than an mere inconvenience.
I think D2 was in that middle-ground where you dropped all the items, and you had to run back through dangerous territory wearing nothing but your underpants. There, death felt like it had consequences. But that's not going to work for Diablo 4 as areas are always renewing and repopulating. Or maybe it might work. I don't know. Devs need to test it or they need to come up with something else.
I also liked Runescape's Wilderness, which not only gave your death dire consequences, i.e. losing all your equipped and carried items, but the consequences were so dire, that the wilderness legimately felt scary to be in. The wilderness had the most precious mines, dungeons and other loot, but it was an area with the most powerful monsters, and where other players could fight and kill you, at any moment without warning! It was truly a terrifying place.
I think Diablo 4 needs to have more consequences attached to player death. And Diablo 4 needs to have areas like the Wilderness in Runescape, where valuable items drop but where death means you lose all your gear. You risk everything for the best drops. That is what Horror is about.
The OG D3 Inferno area would be perfect as well!
So that was the Good (Visuals, Atmosphere, Story-Telling, Sounds), and the Bad (long stuns, lack of Difficult areas, lack of meaningful consequences when you die)...
Now let's talk about the Ugly!
-----------------------------------

4. Skills like Pile On

Where is the skill tree? Why are there so few skills? - many people are asking this question.
You know what? There are 30 levels and you unlock about the same amount of skills as you did in D2 and D3. It's fine.
But man D3 had sooo many runes! Now many runes felt similar but you also had crazy runes like the Giant Toad, which transformed your smaller explosive toads into a big one that swallowed enemies. Smaller spiders into a Giant walking spider that did damage over time.
D3's Zombie wall rune that had these Zombies run up and stack up on one another only to collapse down on enemies. This skill was awesome because it had a long wind-up (the Zombie's stacking up) and big damage (when they crashed down). It was called Pile On and it was all about timing their crash.
D3 also had a rune that made your Zombie Charger summon Zombie Bears! Zombie Bears is 10/10 skill design, one of the best skills I have seen in an arpg. Its visuals were good but the way it played and the ways you could move and stack the Bear rows... the skill changed with how you positioned yourself... brilliant!
Pile On and Zombie Bears is how you design your big damage skills, and D3 Skills Runes is how to you diversify your skills. I don't know why D4 didn't do this.
Let's look at an example of where this would be useful -

Diablo 4 Druid - Enhanced Pulverize
Your next Pulverize will Overpower every 10 seconds while you remain Healthy.

I enjoyed using the Druid's Pulverize, I really did.
But I couldn't help myself constantly counting the seconds on the UI, looking away from monsters and waiting for it to say 10, instead of looking at monsters and timing the skill like Pile On.
The type of design that makes you stare at UI, while being in active combat, totally ruins the skill... it's just gross. You never want the player to stare at UI elements instead of active combat.
(And there was a passive where every 25 seconds you remained in Werebear form your next attack dealt Overpower... same issue. You are making us stare at UI elements instead of focusing on moment to moment Combat.)
And that Healthy requirement was sooo bad to play with. You'd get hit by a monster and instantly lose your build-up 10s.
Devs! There is already 1 condition of having the resource required. Then there is another of building up to 10 seconds. Then you add another condition of being Healthy!
This is mental!
Devs I like the idea behind it but please look at how Pile On plays in D3.
Druid's Pulverize changed to have Wind-up -

Enhanced Pulverize
Hold the button () to do a Pulverize that will Overpower.

If the player taps the button, it just does a regular Pulverize. If the Player presses and holds the button then they trigger Enhanced Pulverize. The Bear lifts his claws, there is a build up, then he smashes after 0.4 seconds dealing Pulverize with Overpower.
So it's turns Pulverize into something like Pile On, into an attack with a wind-up (with a lot of start-up frames as we would say in fighting games).
And if you want you can keep both -

Enhanced Pulverize
Active - Hold the button () to do a Pulverize that will Overpower.
Passive - Your next Pulverize will Overpower every 10 seconds while you remain Healthy.

​
In D2 the Hurricane had an interesting Donut-shaped hitbox where monsters that were too close or too far didn't take damage. In Diablo 4, it's just a small area around you like the D3 Monk's Sweeping Wind. That's not Hurricane!
I don't care about having more skills, it's things like this that need to be improved with Diablo 4's skill system. The skills need to be interesting and well designed.
-----------------------------------

5. Legendary Buttcrack

I could also go on about the Necromancer's Neon Numbskulls, and the Same 5 Laptop Dungeon Mechanics, and the Generic UI, etc etc. Yea they are all ugly as pretty much everyone has stated. But in an arpg it all comes down to...
Itemization
and bloody Petals, Devs really dropped the ball here on this one.
Where are the wide variety of Item Flavours the Devs showed us? https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23583664/diablo-iv-quarterly-update-december-2020#ItemQualities
https://imgur.com/6nmq1qD
-----------------------------------
Rant incoming...
The whole item game seems to be to funnel every player into using Legendary items. I asked around what Sacred and Ancestral items were, they are the same Legendaries, just higher stats. The Devs showed us some Uniques... what's the difference? They are just more Legendary items.
"Hello? Rare items are actually worth picking up you know? Just tack on a Legendary affix. Boom it's a Legendary." Yea that's the problem, it's all Legendary. Everything is a Legendary just tack on Legendary affixes to it and you have T H E ... L E G E N D A R Y ... I T E M ... O F ... T H E.. G O D S.
You know what? Your buttcrack is Legendary but your wife probably doesn't want to see it all the time. But maybe she is in to that or maybe it's...
The whole loot hunt seems to be find Legendary items. Then find better Legendary items. Then find better Legendary items. Then find better Legendary items... Someone called it D3's Set Items with extra steps.
It's as if it's Christmas and Santa is hell bent on feeding you Chocolate cake and more chocolate cake and more chocolate cake and blood petals... wait where was I?
Iosef - We need to find the key to open this gate...
Oh yeah, Itemization.
Where are the specialist, buff your strengths or weakness, but not both, but to an insane degree, Blue items?
Where are the standard, buff both your strengths and weaknesses (without a Legendary affix), Rare items?
Where are the creative, craft your own spicy, delicious and hallucinatory hot stew... I mean... White items?
They are there in the game. They just do not compete with Legendary items. They cannot compete with Legendary items because the Devs have gone out of there way to make Legendary items the only items worth wearing. Hell, they have gone out of their way to help you make other items into Legendary items.
If other Item Flavours cannot compete with Legendary items without being Legendary items then they cannot offer their unique Item Flavour in the end game.
See Legendary items are great because they change how your skills function. They do wacky sh*t. But I don't always want to change how my skills function. Sometimes I just want to buff a skill, sometimes I like the original skill. What do I wear then?
Where are the item flavours that just buff my skills without changing how they function?
Where are the Item Flavours that allow me to choose the Way in which I buff my skills?
The Devs have completely forgotten the other Item Flavours, and the purposes they serve.
And in the case of Rare items, they have betrayed their original purpose.
-----------------------------------
No Magics, no Rares, no normal Affixes can compete with 50%, 100%, 300%, 500%, etc bonuses of Legendary affixes. You think "no way those numbers are real." Let me tell you, there are items with affixes like "additional 250% damage to Pulverize", for example.
https://imgur.com/AbVuKtM
Let's go with 50% damage... seems reasonable right?
How much damage did your +1 to skill add to your skill?
It was minuscule.
Now consider that one Legendary makes it do 50% more!
Tell me how is + to skills supposed to compete with this? How is a normal affix supposed to compete with these legendary modifiers?
So everyone is forced onto Legendaries. Want to use a skill in the endgame? There is a Legendary for that, and if you don't use that Legendary you have garbage damage, and progression is non-existent for you.

• If you are min-maxer and you are hyper-focused on meticulously crafting your build and tweaking and tuning it with all these knobs and levers. Hey hey hey, stop. You can't do that in our game. Just use this Legendary and this and this... to deal 1000% more damage. Just take your Legendaries and be happy.
• If you are casual player and you don't want to mix-max anything. You are the type of play a fantasy role you have in mind. You want to use Wolves as a Druid, because ever since you were a kid you liked Wolves. You were fascinated by how they looked and how they ran and attacked. And you wana see your Wolves shred enemies. Well you can't because outside of these Legendaries that make your wolves into Werewolves, there is nothing for you. You want to see Wolves shred enemies? Go watch the Discovery channel.
• If you are just someone playing the game, and you don't care about fantasy or min-maxing, and you just want to make a build or use a skill. Nope can't unless you have this particular Legendary item. "Hey we have all these Blue and Yellow items in the game. Let me make a cool build with that. Let me use my skills. Let me progress my character by collecting these items." No. Stop it. How dare you do that in our game?

Not only are other item flavours terrible when compared to Legendary items, your class's Normal skills also feel garbage in comparison to Legendary boosted skills. Because Legendary affix buffs it so much that it feels useless without the Legendary affix.
The item that adds 250% damage to Pulverize... ask yourself this - What are the underlying issues in the game that caused a Dev to buff this %damage so much?
There's an item that makes Druid's Minions do 300% Damage... ask - Why are the minions so bad in the first place that they need this big buff from an item?
We went from having forced into Sets to point where people started hating on Sets.. to the point where Devs said "Hey we are not going to have Set items in Diablo 4"... to having Legendaries shoved down our throat.
It shuts down creativity.
No matter the type of item, if you force it, it will shut down player expression.
Look, Sets have their place and belong in Diablo and Legendaries have a place in Diablo. But Rares, Magics, White, Crafted, etc, any new Item Flavours you can think of, also have a place in Diablo. They have a role they can fill, which Legendaries cannot.
-----------------------------------
So... How about having good functional skills that don't require 300% damage buff from a Legendary affix?
How about dropping fewer but quality items, making each item flavour (White, Magic, Rare, Legendary, Unique) more meaningful to the player, with each offering something different from the other, in the endgame gearing?
How about naming your items in a way that is more descriptive than "sword" so that the player can decide whether they need that particular type of sword or not, just by glancing at an unidentified item on the ground?
-----------------------------------

6. Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate

Let's clear up somethings first.
Character Building is how you advance your stats and skills. In other games, there are certain Specializations. In D4 for example, the Barb has skills, weapon masteries and paragon board.
These things are Character Building.
Finding Legendaries (and Uniques) that change your skills and have so much damage and mitigation attached that they become mandatory, is the exact opposite of character building. It undermines Character Building, and makes it pointless, since you are forced into wearing the Legendary item for a skill if you want to get any use out of that skill. Or you end up feeling forced into the taking the skills for which you found this OP Legendary items. https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/what-i-hate-about-diablo-iv-skill-system-a-case-for-character-building/5584
-----------------------------------
Collecting items and crafting them, this is gearing. This is Itemization.
Having different types of Items that you are hunting for in the end game. This is Item Flavour.
Not to transform them into all Legendary with aspects but to use their particular flavour to your advantage.
When your Legendary affixes are so strong that every other other item becomes useless, until you make it into a Legendary, then this undermines Item Flavours.
What is the difference between Legendaries and Uniques? How are these two different Item Flavours? https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23583664/diablo-iv-quarterly-update-december-2020#Uniques
https://imgur.com/EImdFgo
Is it just me or these Unique affixes look identical to any Legendary affix in the game?
-----------------------------------
The Role of Different Item Flavours
Magic Item

• rolls fewer affixes
• can roll higher affix rolls than other items

This allows the player to buff specific things to the max at the cost of losing other crucial affixes. It allows you to buff your strengths even more as your weaknesses become even weaker. Or the opposite. Whatever you choose to do with it, is up to you.
Rare Item

• rolls extra number of affixes

This is your standard item, that gives you a lot of stats, and you can use these to even out your character. To buff many areas and cover your weaknesses. Whatever affixes you decide to get on it is up to you.
If you have played the old Runescape, there used to be two styles of character. The Pures and the Standard. The Pure style was all about levelling 1 skill to the max, and not touching the other skill at all. Whereas the Standard would be levelling all their skills. The Pures had the benefit of having that really high skill at a lower level, at the detriment of, usually, defensive capibility.
This is kind of what Magic (Strawberry) and Rare (Vanilla) items can do in Diablo 4. These are the roles that they can fulfill in the endgame.
Now, both of these Item Flavours buff your skills. They do not undermine your skills or your character building. They just make them stronger.
Then there is a third Item Flavour which throws a wrench in the gears and shifts them in wacky ways. It throws your skills in completely different directions.
Epic Item

• rolls fewer affixes
• rolls a unique affix that transforms a skill

Epic Item (Chocolate) is like Legendary but not mandatory. It does not roll an affix that buffs a skill beyond what a Magic and Rare can, ie no 50%+ damage modifiers like what Diablo 4 is currently doing.
Epic Item transforms skills. This is something that D3's skill rune system did well. In D3 the WD could summon little toads that moved forward and exploded on enemies. But the WD had a rune that instead of summoning 3 little toads, he summoned a big one that swallowed enemies for a duration. This big toad was not a better choice than little toads. It was a not a worse choice than little toads. It was a different choice. One that you could opt for. It was not mandatory.
That Giant Toad item doesn't make your little toad build obsolete because it's not more or less powerful, so it gives you an option to play a different playstyle, if you wish.
This type of Item Flavour only works if it can pull that off. If it is too strong, it will undermine your character building. It will undermine your other skills and item flavours. If it is too weak, then no one will use it, which is not good either.
These type of Item Flavours are avenues for player expression and creativity. They do not invalidate your pre-existing Character Build.
Now that such a system is in place. The player is chasing items from a bigger pool of different Item Flavours. You have different types and different variety of items that you chase in the endgame, depending on what you are going for. Instead of being handed a Dev-approved Legendary, you have choice in how you build your character. This makes the endgame more interesting.
-----------------------------------
The Devs already showed us something like this and promised to give us a variety of Item Flavours back in 2020 - https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23583664/diablo-iv-quarterly-update-december-2020#ItemQualities
https://imgur.com/ueIiwt7
But even in their image, you can see that there is no way a normal affix is going to compete with that 46% additional damage. The first two item flavour are not competing at all with the third.
This is just terrible design in my view and it needs to change.
But what I am seeing is the Devs have invested all their cards into Legendary items. I like there is an item in the game that as has cool game-changing effects. I just wish that it wasn't the only way to gear my character.
I don't know if this can be changed at this point. But here are somethings they can do to bring back the Item Flavours.
-----------------------------------

7. Solution

Here's a list of my proposed solutions for the Devs -
1. Legendary Affixes
Nerf the modifiers on Legendary Affixes. Smash 'em with the Hammer of the Ancients with 100% crit chance.

• Bring the Legendary Affixes back down to earth and make them similar in power level to Normal Affixes like + to Skill.
• Make it so that Legendary affixes ONLY change functionality. Remember the example of little frogs that deal damage vs giant toad that swallows.
• Make them Optional, that's the key.

-----------------------------------
2. Rare Items
So there is a huge system in the game for collecting Legendary powers and converting your Rares into Legendaries.
I say leave it in. There is value in having such a system.
Introduce a new item type. Let's call it Mystic Item.

• Mystic Item fulfills the original role of Rare items.
• Mystic Items roll many affixes, more than Rares and Legendary items.
• Make it so Mystic Items can never be implanted with a Legendary affix.
• Make it so Mystics items can compete with the best Rare-Legendary items.

-----------------------------------
3. Magic Items
Buff the affix roles on Magic Items. Allow them to roll higher base stats like Weapon Damage and Armour, higher item-specific affixes like Overpower Damage, and higher rolls on other regular affixes e.g. 20% damage to Crowd Controlled enemies. Again -

• Allow them to compete with your best Legendary items.
• Make it so Magic Items can never be implanted with a Legendary affix.

Remember the downside with Magic items is that they roll fewer affixes than Rare, Legendary and Mystic. They are Specialist Items for people looking to strongly buff specific things.
-----------------------------------
4. Unique items
Currently Unique items are not really offering anything different from Legendary affixes, which is tragic. But if Unique items offered new skills to the Classes, that would be perfect. Like in D2 Assassin getting Whirlwind skill from Chaos Runeword or the Barbarian getting Werewolf skill from Wolfhowl.
You don't have to give classes any skills from other classes if you are not comfortable with that. But what you can do is design new skills, and put these on your Unique items. Maybe take some D2 and D3 favourites and bring them back like Summon Bear or Armageddon or Zombie Bears!
Rework your Unique Items. Take the bland ones, and make those into Legendary affixes. Design new skills for them.
I mean Legendary items when they are good, already offer, what are essentially, new skills. So your Unique Items have to be really out of the world. You really have to knock them out of park for them to be something different from Legendary items.

• Either capitalize on the nostalgia of previous games or
• Give them skills from other clases or
• Do something with them that the players just never expect you to do on an item

Otherwise, there is no point in having Uniques, there's plenty of Legendary items filling that role.
-----------------------------------
5. Normal Items/ White Items
With these items, you'd have to create interesting Doodads, like Gems (fixed affixes, which you currently have in-game), Jewels (randomized affixes), Runes (that link into Runewords)... as these items are meant to be the base items for crafting.

• Increase the number of Sockets they can roll like 1-8 sockets.
• Allow players to stack a whole bunch of doodads in these items to create any kind of item they want

In Diablo 4 early development, Runes worked like player-created If-Then statements. E.g. Rune 1 - After using Potion, you get... Rune 2 - ... 10% more Crit Chance. You'd fit the Runes together in that order to get the effect.
Pretty neat mechanic.
In these hyper-socketed White Items, allow players to fit a bunch of Gems, Jewels, and Runes to create their desired item.

Longsword
5 Sockets
Socket 1 is Gem (Amethyst) -
- 10% damage over time
Socket 2 is Jewel of the Serpent -
- +1 to Poison skills
- 30% more poison damage to slowed enemies
Socket 3 is Jewel of Infection -
- +1 to Rabies
- +2 seconds to Damage over Time duration
Socket 4 - Potion Rune
Socket 5 - Burst Rune
- After drinking a potion, your damage over time effects deal their full damage instantly

Bam! You've allowed the player to create a crafted item from a bunch of Doodads in your game that are easy to understand in themselves.
By the way... if you balance your Legendary affixes correctly to where other Item Flavours are still viable, then you can even make these Legendary Aspects into socketable Doodads to be fitted in Normal Items, allowing players to stack multiple Legendary affixes in the same item!... at the cost of regular affixes of course. But note - your regular affixes have to be good and able to compete with Legendary affixes for this to work!
-----------------------------------
You might be thinking this is too complex. This is too overwhelimg.
Here's the thing... Gems like Ruby, Sapphire, etc teach the players about Sockets, Socketed items and that whole process of socketing and unsocketing them. Have the players mess around with Gems during levelling. Save the rest of these Doodads for the endgame so that your new players won't be overwhelmed by this system.
Rather than shying away from complexity and depth in favour of dumbing everything down for new players, just create a game where you ease people into these systems slowly over time. So that they can learn about them at a comfortable pace. You are already doing that with Paragon boards unlocking at certain levels, and that's perfect!
-----------------------------------
​

8. Conclusion

Look, I like what Diablo 4 is doing with its MMO design. I like where Diablo 4 is going with the story and visuals. I like the vibes.
I am seeing a Druid... after 20 years! :.)
I am seeing dead people... in the quests I mean, with super sad stories, and it's perfect. It makes me want to explore the world.
I am seeing well-hung tortured souls and the attention to detail... https://i.redd.it/7w644ppm45qa1.jpg It's not actually what it looks like but it made me do a double take when I saw it in-game.
I like all of that. I just don't like some of the systems. And I think they should be changed, especially the Itemization.
I mean we all have a severe case of blue balls for Diablo 4 at this point but I would still be willing to wait and have the Devs improve and perfect their systems before releasing. I'd rather Diablo 4 be delayed than Diablo 4 be bad.
Thanks for reading!

Rewatch sessions #52:

• Title: Patriot
• Network: Amazon Prime Video
• Released: 2017
• Genre: Black-comedy; Political-drama; Spy-drama
• Stream: Amazon Prime Video

Warning!! Mild spoilers below!
Patriot is quite the beloved darling for avid TV fans. It's a series well-known amongst us hardcore TV viewers, but never really broke through into the mainstream audience, thus it's often acclaimed as one of the most underrated shows of all time. It is espionage dramedy that centers around John Lakeman Tavner, a consultant with a governmental department that collects intelligence and implements processes that are paid for and directed outside the prescribed structure of oversight... as so stated by the character himself. Basically, John is a secret intelligence officer, a concerningly depressed field agent at that, and when his previous assignment went south which led him to hideout in Amsterdam for a bit, he is immediately sent on a new one, one with the main objective of preventing Iran from going nuclear. Achieving this objective require the U.S. government buying out the 2012 Iranian election, which in turn requires a bag full of money to go from point A to point B. Point B is Luxembourg, the only European country Iran does financial transactions with (as so stated in the series). So to get to Luxembourg, John goes undercover as an industrial engineer to work for a company that does business in the country. But the issue is, John knows jack shit about industrial engineering, and that becomes the ignition of a series of unbridled chaos.
Patriot takes its sweet time to find its stride, with a pacing that's just as cool and easygoing as the main character himself. I've already mentioned his severe depression, but what I haven't yet mention is that in his spare time (or any other time really) John is folk singer, who plays guitar and make up songs on the spot. Usually the topics of said songs are the grueling and sad details of the mission he's had and cruel things he's had to do, and these musical bits fit right in with the overall calm tone of the series, and are also a great source of humor. In fact, it's a funny show overall, filled with numerous awkward situations, and incredibly dark and dry humor. Patriot is also masterful at building tension toward ludicrous outcomes, another source of the show's comedy. Given its dry nature however, and that a lot of its jokes are very memorable, the series might only be drop dead funny the first time around, but you could come to appreciate the more depressing side of the series like I did as a result. The calm tone of the series is sporadically met with bursts of violence, mainly from John's obligately taking action to fulfill his objections regardless of repercussions. And said repercussions are severe often for anyone who's involved or simply around him, from mental disabilities, to lost fingers, to addiction relapse etc. Though he's the protagonist, from no one's perspective is John the hero of this story, no even his. The series is coated in complete honesty.
With all the elements put together, Patriot is an hypnotic oddball of a series. One that is surprisingly cinematic, at least compared to most shows, especially in the 2nd season which carries a much more stylistic cinematography which favors wide shots and moody atmosphere. Another change made in the 2nd season that works in its favor is using those original folksongs as background music as opposed to standalone musical bits, fittingly scoring some of the most outrageous scenes of the season. Plot-wise though, the second season is more scattered and less convincing, relying on plot convenience a bit too much, but hitting the same high points the 1st season did despite that. There's also an ensemble of compelling supporting characters, each with their own intriguing backstories and motives which all eventually interfered with by the the main character's. By all means, Patriot should be a despondent piece of television, but what its more gloomy parts provide, is a surface to perfectly bounce its dry humor off of. The end result is still a very dark TV show where people are constantly hurt for a greater cause, one that I wouldn't blame anyone for feeling a bit guilty to laughing at.

rating: season 1: 9.3 out of 10 season 2: 9.3 out of 10 

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Chapter 15: A Vile Night for the Living and the Dead

I injected some extra venom into the three dead bodies of the German soldiers before bounding over the wall and injecting venom into the nearest guard. He was standing by a metal building urinating when I quickly slammed my fangs into his neck and pumped venom in. He fell to the ground frozen but continued urinating for another few seconds. I fought off the urge to feed and instead let him live. He remained still, ten minutes passed, then twenty, then forty, until finally he stated to move again. Slowly he curled up into a ball and started clawing at his head. I watched as he hissed and rolled in pain for several minutes until finally stopping and lurched from side to side until he stood up in a hunched position. He stood, no longer a man, but a mindless beast, growling and snarling. Foaming at the mouth he turned to me and lunged like a rabid dog.
I let the power flow through me and raised a hand, “Halte.” (Stop) He fell to his knees and his face plowed into the dirt and gravel. Slowly he stood up, calm, just like the three men from earlier. Aside from his pants around his ankles, a new set of fangs, and blood red eyes, he seemed like any other fellow. “Mach dich anständig.” I commanded. (Make yourself decent) His head tilted to the side, as if to think about my order, then he reached down and pulled his pants up as well as fixing his belt and tucking in his shirt. This time I spoke in English, “Raise your right hand.” He did nothing. “Hebe deine rechte hand,” this time he followed orders.
“So, you follow my orders, but you have to understand them.” I said to him, even though he had no idea what I was saying. “Kannst du sprechen?” I asked. (Can you speak?)
In a low growl, the creature’s voice strained and twisted out a single reply, “Ja.” (Yes.) His cognitive abilities were limited but still there. In this state, thinking must have been rather difficult for it. It would never be a scholar, but it might make a fine warrior. Its muscles pulsated with every movement, but I heard no heartbeat.
“Ich möchte sehen, wie geschickt Sie als Krieger sind, gehen Sie und töten Sie so viele Leute wie möglich in diesem Lager.” I told it. (I want to see how skilled of a warrior you are, go and kill as many people in that camp as you can.) In a flash, it turned and ran towards the nearest group to us. It was not a quiet ordeal, it snarled and howled as it tore into their bodies with it hands and fangs. It didn’t fight like a soldier, with skill and trained techniques; it attacked like an animal. I heard their screams, and the confused shouts of others who witnessed the carnage, but they were quickly silenced too. Gun shots and yells polluted the air, until a few minutes later an eerie calm settled on the camp. A lucky shot had caught the beast in the heart, but the damage was already done. I counted thirty-three mangled remains. “A single monster is worth over thirty men.”
I left the camp and found the three dead men I had injected with venom fighting with one another as if they were rabid dogs. “Genug davon,” I used my power on them. (Enough of that.) They froze, one’s mouth was around another’s neck and black blood dripped from it. I looked them over, they were so different from the other one that someone could have honestly questioned if they were ever even human in the first place. They were shriveled up, like the creature in the morgue. Their greyish skin had become dried and cracked. Their eyes were a pale grey, with narrowed pupils, even though it was dark. I reasoned that they were either currently blind or hypersensitive to light. Their clothes had been torn to shreds from the fighting. One by one they let go of one another and faced me. “Kann einer von euch sprechen?” (Can any of you speak?) They all growled, but none said a word; like they understood what speaking was but were unable to actually do it. They truly were different from a living specimen. I looked at their bodies, each was covered in wounds, but none of them was healing like I would.
“Time for a test. Geh ins Lager und töte alle.” (Go into the camp and kill everyone.) Unlike the living one, these three were slow. They didn’t move anything like it did; instead, they scrabbled around on all fours like some kind of demonic dogs. Their fangs bared, they charged into the camp.
By the time the sun rose, I had performed several tests of this nature and had fifteen total creatures, seven created from the dead and eight from the living. The camp was in ruins, parts destroyed from battle, other parts were aflame. What was left was covered in blood and severed appendages; these creatures were viciously thorough. I could see unbridled malicious behind each of their eyes, so much so that it unnerved even me. They had my unsatiable hunger, but also a roaring fury. I don’t know how to describe myself, maybe as broken or vile, I know I’ve certainly been called worse, but them… they were evil. I knew they wanted to kill everything they saw, even me, but my abilities kept them in check. I couldn’t help but wonder… if I was a monster, what did that make them?
“How many beasts like you have I unknowingly released on this world?” I thought aloud. I decided that once the war was over, I would need to search everywhere I had been throughout my life and make sure I didn’t leave any behind. I may be long lived but I try to stay in the same ten countries; those are the countries whose languages I understand and speak. Which would be Romanian, Spanish, English, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, German, Polish, and French.
I watched the sun just begin to peak over the mountainside and took shelter in what remained of one of the barracks. “Only one test left to perform.” I had given orders to all of the beasts, in fact I gave them all the same order… not to move, no matter what. The sun crested over the top of the mountain’s snow-capped peak and the light bathed the creatures. At first, smoke rose from their exposed flesh, then blisters formed, then each and every single one burst into flames. To my surprise, none of them moved, or even reacted to the fire and burns. I began to question if they could feel pain. The ones made from the living held out the longest, twice as long as the dead in fact, but within minutes all of the monsters were ash, not even the bones remained. A part of me was mortified at such a violent reaction to sunlight, another part of me was fascinated. I had spent time in sunlight before, it definitely has an effect, but nothing like that. I become weak, too weak to move if I stay in it uncovered long enough. Once during a test of my endurance, I even suffered blistering, but nothing like what I had just witnessed. “I must remember to run tests on this.” I told myself.
I turned my attention away from the ashes and corpses and towards my current situation. I was days overdue to meet up with the rest of the team, my partner was dead and rotting in the forest, and I have to explain how I managed to singlehandedly wipe out an entire German army encampment. I had at least half a day to think of a lie to tell that would be believable; that’s how long it would take me to rendezvous with the others. Since I was in the barracks, the was plenty of materials to wrap myself in, although some of it was burned it was still better than what I had now; a bloodied and bullet hole ridden German army uniform. I found a spare beige shirt and some light grey trousers; I traded the boots I had for a nicer pair of black, officer’s boots that had a much better fit. I also found gloves that went about halfway up to my elbow to protect my hands. For good measure I also put on a black button-up trench-coat and an old patched grey cloth hat; it reminded me of the type a newspaper delivery boy would wear.
Once I was as covered as I could manage, I set out and began my trek up the mountain to my comrade’s position. With blazing speed, I ran up the cliff, leaping over boulders and going in as straight a line as possible. I stopped only twice. Once to feed on a passing moose and again on a deer. By nightfall, I had the meet up location within sight. We had agreed on a signal that let them know that we were coming. If they were still there, they would see it. I was hopeful I had moved fast enough to meet the original deadline, but I was fairly certain I was still at least a day late. I pulled out a small square mirror from my pocket and aimed it towards their position. I placed my hand in an L shape and flicked the mirror up and down three times, then paused before repeating it twice; that was the signal that it was me and not an enemy. A few seconds passed and I saw a flash repeat the pattern from their position; that was the return signal. I walked slowly now, or at least at a normal human speed, and arrived at the campsite an hour later.
As I approached the camp, I smelt Reynolds and Baker before I saw them, one was in the camp and the other was behind me. I heard the chambering of a bullet into a rifle then, “hands up, and turn around.” It was Reynolds’s voice. I did as he instructed. As soon as he saw me, he lowered his gun and sighed. “Dang it, Alucard; you nearly gave me a heart attack. What are you wearing, and where is Akerman?”
“It was this or a German officer’s uniform that was a size too small.”
“Okay but where is Akerman?”
“He didn’t make it; he was shot in our escape. He’s dead.” I explained.
He lowered his head, “dang, that’s too bad. Was the mission a success at least?”
“More than expected, we took out the entire place, not just the artillery.”
“Whose there?” Baker called from the camp and poked his head around the entrance to the small cave.
“It’s Alucard,” Reynolds told him then slung the strap his rifle over his shoulder.
“Just Alucard?” Baker wondered.
“Yeah, Akerman didn’t make it.” Reynolds explained. Baker shook his head and performed a catholic cross, then pulled a cross neckless from inside his shirt and kissed it. “Alucard, you mentioned that the whole camp was destroyed, but how?” Reynolds asked as we walked over to Baker.
“I’ll explain while we pack up, let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 16: A Hero’s Welcome?

The lie I had decided on was simple, the artillery was close enough to the munitions that when they detonated the explosion took out half the camp. In the chaos Akerman and I had stolen two high caliber rifles and picked off as many as we thought necessary. Once we had done so we started to run, but one of the soldiers that remained shot Akerman as we fled. They seemed to believe me, and only asked a few follow up questions. “Why not run after blowing the artillery, why stay to pick off stragglers?” Baker wondered.
“We realized that there could have been someone who knew how to repair them, so we thought it was worth the risk… I still think we made the right call.” I said.
“Even with what happened to Akerman?” Reynolds asked. “We both took one look at the camp and knew it was probably going to be a suicide mission. Honestly, I’m amazed I survived.” After that they were satisfied, and we left the cave to go back to base. Just like last time, we traveled only under the cover of darkness, at least for the first half. Once we had left the danger zone, we felt it was safe enough to travel during the day too. That took a day off of our journey. Three days was all it took, and we were safely giving our after-action debrief to the captains and majors in their tents in the trenches. The fighting had stopped for the time being, but I could tell from the smell of hormones that tensions were still high.
Our debrief was given to Captain Lance, the man who originally gave us the mission, as well as Major Blanchet. We sat around a table, each giving our version of what happened. Once the others had finished, they were dismissed as they didn’t need to be there for the rest of it and were ready to shower and get a full night of sleep. Only The major, the captain, and I were left. I detailed the mission exactly as it happened up until the detonation of the artillery. I made sure to tell them the same thing that I told Baker and Reynolds, including the slightly altered details of Akerman’s demise.
“Perhaps we can locate Lieutenant Akerman’s body for a proper burial once we march through there.” Major Blanchet stated.
I was surprised to hear this, and it must have showed on my face because Captain Lance felt the need to explain. “With everything you have told us, the destruction of the artillery as well as most of the encampment, we have a clear shot to take the enemy by surprise.”
“They will be expecting an attack from the front, not the flank.” The major added. I was slightly worried, the camp was in ruins, but I neglected to do away with any of the bodies that I didn’t turn into undead. If they were inspected then it would be obvious that they were not killed by bullets or explosions, but it would seem as if they were mauled to death by animals. I even feed on some of them and allowed my creations to feed as well so I could observe, meaning many of the corpses would be without blood.
A soldier walked in and announced, “Major Blanchet, a letter has arrived for you sir. It’s marked urgent.”
“I can handle the rest of the debrief major,” Captain Lance said.
“Thank you, Captain,” the Major said and excused himself walking out of the tent.
Captain Lance turned to me, “tell me Alucard, is what you have told us today the truth?”
“Yes sir.”
“Then please explain to me why I keep getting the feeling that you are lying. Not about everything, but as soon as you and Akerman go off on your own I feel like that’s when the lies start.” He said and stood up.
“It’s the truth sir, every word.” I lied. The captain walked away from the table and turned his back to me to look at a chalk board with pictures and diagrams hung up on it by strings and clothespins. He removed several pictures and brought them back to the table.
Pointing at them as he spoke, he said, “these are stills taken by scouts of the camp you were sent to. Here is the artillery and here are the munitions building that our scouts spotted. They are nowhere nearly close enough to have detonated due to the TNT we gave you. So, something doesn’t feel right.”
“Sir, the scouts were wrong, or they moved the munitions building.” I told him. He was getting too aggressive, and I had decided to use my abilities to make him believe me. I didn’t want to as I prefer to only plunder around with enemy minds unless absolutely necessary. But then something I never expected to happen… did.
His eyes flashed a pale green and he spoke, “tell me the truth, tell me what happened at the enemy camp.” My brain felt foggy, and I began having thoughts enter my mind that I did not think, but I never lost control of myself. I fought and wrestled control of my mind back from the captain and his unforeseen power.
I was in control, but not of my emotions, “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” I bared my fangs and slammed the table, breaking it in the process. Captain Lance quickly stepped back and drew his pistol, pointing it at my head. He lost his concentration, and his power left my mind, allowing me to regain my composure.
“What are you?” He asked. The captain reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver cylinder. I watched as it melted and reformed into a long thin metal stick of some kind.
“Apologies,” I said and retracted my fangs, “I did not mean to yell, but if you attempt to use Mind Magic on me again, I will be forced to hurt you… badly.”
“You are not human, and you know of magic, I will ask again… who, or what, are you?”
“My name is Vladimir Dracula, and I am what you may know as a vampire. Now you will answer my question; did Merlin send you?”
His eyes widened, “you know of Merlin?”
“You didn’t answer my question.” I said.
His gun was still aimed at my head, “no, Merlin did not send me. I haven’t seen him in a very long time.”
“I take it that means you are one of his knights then, yes?” I asked.
He nodded, “I didn’t think vampires were actually real.”
“Well until a few years ago, I didn’t think that Merlin and King Arthur were real either, so no hard feelings.”
“If I put my gun down, are you going to try and eat me?” He asked.
“I don’t eat my allies; I do have standards.” He put his gun down and we both sat in our chairs at the destroyed table.
“So, what really happened at the camp?” Lance, who I found out later was really named Lancelot, asked.
“Up until the artillery, everything I said was true, but the explosion didn’t destroy the camp.”
“And Akerman?” He wondered.
“He really was shot and killed, but it didn’t happen like I said.” We sat there for an hour, I no longer had a reason to hide the truth, so I told him everything.
“So… you created undead monsters to destroy the camp, then you let them be killed by the sun?”
“Yes.”
“Did you do that to Akerman?”
“Of course not, he was an ally.”
“How did you get these abilities?” He asked.
“I don’t particularly feel like telling you my life story, just ask Merlin when you see him.”
“Speaking of which, when did you see him last, and where? I have been searching for him for a few years now, ever since my memories began to return.” He questioned.
“The last time I saw Merlin was in Italy back in the 1910s, and he was old then, so he has probably reincarnated by now.” He seemed disappointed to hear that. “Aren’t there supposed to be quite a few knights, where are the rest?” I asked.
“I haven’t located any of them yet.” He said. We talked a few more minutes about the mission, and what I knew about Merlin.
“I think that’s everything Aluca- uh... Dracula.”
“Just call me Alucard, in fact… forget you know anything about me. It’s what’s best for everyone.” I told him.
He took a deep breath and stayed quiet for a moment, “fine, but I’m keeping an eye on you.”
“Fine, but if you insist on watching me then I have a request. I work better at night, you’re a captain you should have the ability to switch me completely to night shifts.”
“…Fine, I’ll see what I can do.”

Chapter 17- 1915

Everything went back to normal after that, I was issued a new weapon to replace the one I lost and for my actions and the success of my mission Major Blanchet gave me a promotion to Lance-Corporal. Captain Lance was able to get me moved to night shift as I requested, and true to his word he kept a close eye on me by also joining night shift. He had me switched to his platoon so that he would be my superior. We stayed out of each other’s way as much as possible, as long as I followed the orders I was issued by my Sargent, he seemed happy. Although I think having me around still worried him, but he seemed to trust that I wouldn’t eat any of the men.
The enemy had been attacking sporadically, short bursts to test our defenses. I was patrolling one night, not getting ready to hunt just watching for enemies, when I heard a few officers talking about news from all over the world. It was the first time in a while we had gotten any news at all, and most of it was bad. Zeppelins were dropping bombs on England’s coast, a submarine blockade had been declared by Germany against British shores, Britain had responded to a call of air from Russia against Turkish attacks, Russia suffered heavy losses after the battle of Masurian Lakes, and Germany had released hundreds of tons of poison gas against allied French and Canadian troops.
“Can you believe this, it’s only July and the world’s already on fire?” One of the men said.
“It’s been on fire, we are only just now hearing about it,” the other man replied.
“You two realize we are in the middle of a war-zone in a foreign country and have been for nearly a year right? We already knew the world was on fire because we have been in the middle of the flames.” A man, who was not a part of the conversation and simply interjected, said.
The other two stayed quiet for a moment, “…good point.”
I walked over to them, “where did you hear about this from?”
“I heard I from Captain Lance, and he said he read it from a stack of newspapers that got shipped to us.”
“Thanks,” I said and went back to my patrol. After my shift finished, I went to find these newspapers. I was just as interested to read what was happening as everyone else was. If Captain Lance had them, then they would probably be in the officer’s tent, or the communications tent. I checked the officer’s tent first. Captain Lance was there drinking coffee and reading a letter. Things weren’t as tense between us as they were at first, but that didn’t make them comfortable. “Captain Lance,” his eyes lifted from his letter, and I noticed he gripped his mug slightly tighter.
“Yes?”
“I was told that a shipment of newspapers arrived, are the men allowed to read them?”
He relaxed a bit and loosened his grip, “oh, yes, but they were taken to the mess to be put on display. We figured that was the best way for everyone to get a chance to read them without having everyone coming and going from the tent all day.”
“Thank you,” I said and left. The “mess” was at the back of the trenches. Really it was just a shack that cooked everyone food and handed it out on steel trays. I walked there and next to the shack was a wooden fence that was not there the last time I was here. It was about shoulder height and over twenty feet long. But the biggest eye catcher was that every inch of it was covered in newspapers. They had been nailed down at the top and sides so that people could flip them over and read the backs. A crowd of five or six people was gathered around the fence, some reading the same page, others were reading alone.
I’m not one for sentimentality, but there was something I wanted to know: how my home was doing. I was born in a small Russian village that I later learned became a small Polish town called Osowiec. I had heard that Russia was having a hard time against the Germans, and I wanted to know more about it. “Anybody see anything about Russia’s front?” I asked.
“Over here Alucard,” one of the men said and jerked a thumb at a page next to him.
“Thanks.” The article was about how the Germans had been trying to take several key positions over the last few months. The Eastern front was apparently nothing like it was here in the West, there were no fights ending in stalemate, no truces, and nothing even close to civilized combat. We had heard that the Germans were employing chlorine gas attacks in mass, but no one here had ever experienced it. It was commonly employed on the Eastern front, as well as other unsavory tactics. Then I read it:
German forces are still attempting to take multiple forts across Russian provinces. Retreats have been ordered from many areas, but some still remain. Most surprisingly is Fort Osowiec in Russian Poland. This fort has held its ground longer than anyone has expected it to, German troops try almost daily to take the fort but to no avail.
My home was under siege. It was surprisingly distressing to read; everyone I knew from there has long since died over a thousand years ago. Yet, those words bounced around in my mind, I couldn’t seem to let them go. Days passed, and I grew more anxious the more I thought of it. Perhaps it was some long dormant territorial instinct passed on from the beast that transformed me, the Bestia Krwi, or maybe it was some flicker of my former human life crying out. Either way, no matter how I tried, I simply could not put it out of my mind. I needed to act, lest I lose my sanity thinking about it. I decided to talk with the only person I could about it… Captain Lance.
I went to his private quarters and knocked on his door, which was a privilege the officers had that the rest of the men did not. Most of us made do with old blankets to keep our privacy, and to keep the bugs out. “Enter,” his voice called from inside. I opened the door and walked in. His quarters were bare, except for a single bed and trunk at the foot of it, as well as a desk laden with paperwork. It was a small and dimly lit room, but being so empty, it did not feel claustrophobic.
He turned and seemed rather shocked at seeing me, “Alucard? Did you need something?”
“I need to talk to you about something.” I said seriously and closed the door behind me.
“What’s wrong?” He asked and spun his chair around to face me.
“I think I need to leave for a while.”
His eyes widened, “What happened?”
“Nothing, I just have business I need to attend to.” He relaxed, perhaps he thought that his worst fear had been realized and I had eaten one of his men.
“What kind of business?”
“My home, where I was born, is under siege from German forces. I feel I must go and do something.”
He scoffed, “what do you plan on doing against an entire siege?”
“I don’t know, but I feel I must at least try to help them.” I felt like a sentimental fool; I knew I could do nothing against an entire army, yet every cell in my body screamed for action. The captain looked at the pile of paperwork on his desk and sighed.
“A soldier cannot simply leave his post… however, you are not a normal soldier.”
“I imagine if I were you would never even consider such a request, but let’s be honest… I scare you.”
“More accurately, what you might do to my men scares me.” We looked intensely at one another, as if daring the other in some way. “I will approve it on one condition.”
“Condition?”
“When you leave… don’t come back. I will tell everyone who asks that you grew ill and were rendered unable to fight and were shipped home. So, when you leave, stay gone.”
I thought for a moment, “…agreed.”

Hello Guardians,
Since the release of Mod 3.0, we again find ourselves with a new evolution of the Armor system once again. With the banishment of the elemental affinities that strangled the options of mods on armor pieces, as well as the disillusion of Match Game as a game modifier, the Mod system has never been more accessible.
But before we can get into build-crafting in general, we have to acknowledge the changes to subclasses, and Bungie's liberal and dedicated application of Champions within the higher tiers of PvE content. With Lightfall, the new properties we placed onto how subclasses can now affect Champions with their status effects elemental verbs.

• Solar – Barrier (Radiant), Unstoppable (Ignite)
• Arc – Overload (Jolt), Unstoppable (Blind)
• Void – Barrier (Volatile), Overload (Suppression)
• Stasis – Overload (Slow), Unstoppable (Shatter)
• Strand – Barrier (Unravel), Unstoppable (Suspend)

Also included is the fact that some weapon pools have perks that enable this verbiage to be inherent with the damage said weapon deals. Some examples of this include:

• Voltshot - grants jolt after weapon kills + reload
• Incandescent - grants scorch after weapon kills
• Destabilized Rounds - grants volatile after weapon kills
• Chill Clip - grants slow/freeze on weapons

(Note: there may be more examples of this in game, and it's also important to include Exotic perks as well, since their verbage has been updated in Lightfall to reflect the new system)
From this, we can conclude that weapons that are able to preform these elemental effects on targets can do so agnostic from the subclasses or season artifacts themselves. This is highly important from a build-crafting perspective, as now a single weapon perk can supplement a build and facilitate deviations to a loadout outside of the set seasonal options put forth by Bungie.
Now, as someone that plays exclusively solo in this game, self sufficiency is a huge necessity to survive in the hardest content. As such, for build-crafting it's important to consider what aspects of your build that you need to tailor around due to which subclass fits your overall play style. To start, let's go with the most straight forward example.

Monochromatic Builds:

These builds focus on a single element for both weapon damage and guardian subclass. Certain elemental effects (and seasonal mods) will only tie to a specific damage profile for a weapon type. As such, triggering these effects relies on the nature of the subclass itself (such as using grenades or melee on enemies, or incorporating finishers in combat).
An example of this would be: a Nightstalker using Leviathan's Breath, a Void Bow, a Kinetic Special Weapon, and a mod loadout that generates Orbs from Void weapon kills and subclass abilities.
The only catch is with a singular damage profile (excluding kinetic weapons), it has limited effectiveness against enemy shields. Which can be a problem in endgame PvE content. This also means that (outside of running a Stasis/Strand Weapon) your elemental verb usage is only congruent with the subclass your character is running.
In this sense, some bleed over into another element damage type can and does often occur. Since Stasis/Strand shares the same weapon slot as Kinetic weapons, builds can deviate into a dichromatic state. The question then becomes 'how do you know if a build is mono or dichromatic, then?' The answer is based on how much of their armor mod selection will be dedicated to the extra element in their weapon line-up, if at all.

Dichromatic Builds:

In this case, these builds focus on two elemental (hence the name) damage types with a selected subclass that matches one of the chosen damage types. The purpose for this is two-fold: most enemy factions come with two different forms of elemental shielding (Cabal have SolaVoid shields, Hive field Arc/Solar shields, etc.), and in some cases the other elemental damage type is meant to fill in the deficit of the selected subclass based on elemental verb effects.
Let's take Behemoth as an example. For a Dichromatic build, we would add a Riptide with Chill Clip, a Solar Auto Rifle with Incandescent, and The Lament Exotic Sword in the Heavy Slot. We'd also add The Path of Burning Steps Exotic Legs as part of our Armor Set, and slot in two Solar surge boosting mods.
The Armor Exotic is subclass agnostic, and only affects the Solar damage output. As such, this Titan can use both Stasis and Solar Siphon mods to generate orbs on kills. But we also have anti-Barrier capabilities thanks to our choice in weapon Exotic. The rest of the mods can be dedicated to ability regeneration, damage resistance, or ammo capacity/generation based on the player's preferences.
Again, the purpose of this example is to showcase how to build synergy between two elemental types. Solar weapons are boosted by the Exotic Armor, while the subclass is boosted by the other armor mods and Stasis Weapon within said loadout.

Prismatic Builds:

Perhaps the hardest build type to master in the game is a build that harness three or more elemental damage types and maintain a sense of synergy with them together. Thankfully, despite how intimidating such a task may be, one key feature that enables Prismatic Builds is the change to unlimited ammo for primary weapons. As such, a Prismatic Build will equip a Siphon mod that ties directly to the Primary weapon in said loadout.
For our example of this, we can look at a Stormcaller using Chromatic Fire, Arbalest, A Void Scout Rifle with Dragonfly, and Roar of the Bear Rocket Launcher.
Since this setup grants four damage types (Kinetic, Arc, Solar, Void), we can pull from all the Light based Siphons for this build for orb generation. We also have the option to apply all three anti-Champion options while dealing considerable AoE damage. As such, any other mod selections is up to the player's play style, where they can focus on particular abilities or benefits for their build.

Conclusion

Since the new Mod system and changes to subclasses focuses solely on elements as a whole, there are many synergies to be found for the players to use and master in PvE content. While the surface level of build crafting does seem more limited now, the underlying interactions that players can take advantage of has become interwoven at many levels of how the player faces challenges in the game. To that end, I'd hope to see more ways that the community can harness mixing and combining various elements together for builds, and perhaps finding new ways to play the game that haven't previously been done before.

Since the DLC launched I have picked up my hunter again and am having a blast. I ran through shadowkeep to get assassins cowl and have played through RoN with it to great success. I was a bit bummed about not having Gyrfalcons because I have been hearing about how strong it is in PVE, but was hesitant to try the lost sectors (I heard they were even harder this season).
Still, I tried. I ran through the master lost sector at 1795 with assassins cowl maybe 5 or 6 times and was surprised with how much easier it was with the exotic. I ended up getting Gyrfalcons, but now I am questioning how strong it is in comparison to assassins cowl considering the fact that it carried me through the lost sector.
​
Which build utilizing each exotic and the corresponding mods is stronger overall?
​
I ended up soloing a few dungeons with liars handshake too. I enjoy it about as much as AC. Is it still considered weaker for endgame stuff?
​
tldr: How would you rank the builds that use Gyrfalcons, Assassins Cowl, and Liars Handshake in endgame activities?

I hate the US... You never know what kind of fucking insane weirdos are out there, especially the ones with guns, and with the Republican party and their insane right-wing rhetoric and idolistic talking heads goading people into believing anything, making people's insane ideas feel normalized... society is unchecked, we are just humans living our best lives and yet this backwards capitalist society police state we live in is trying to force humans to fight against other humans just living their best lives when the wool is being pulled over their eyes. That the class war, and the siphoning of purchasing power and capital from the general public vs. the 1% is the real problem. That we, as constituents, voters, taxpayers, are weaker than we've ever been. That this system was built to be broken for a reason, and they are just distracting the masses from the truth, building up the death toll from infighting of all kinds, race, sexuality, gender... instead of us, as the public, being able to join together to fight the system and win our rights for all, human rights, economic rights...
it's 2023 and we all deserve to be happy and live our best lives, even some of the hateful Republicans and right-wingers. The truly, truly hateful ones that will never learn, sure, they will be lost forever, but there are so many people in the middle whom society is distracting from the truth, and if they weren't fed these lies, about "their" benefits of capitalism, about how race, gender, and sexuality (and children learning what is right and what is wrong) are the problems nowadays rather than the billionaires... we could all live in peace if we fought the system and overtook it and yet the dumbest will always be scared instead of empowered and listen to those above them... these cowards, those who bend to the billionaires, are causing us to suffer because of their indifference to us and their blind loyalty to a ruling class who would feed them to a wood chipper if they got paid for it. These people, they will always believe society is doing okay since they benefit from white cishet society, and they will be fed lies about how something different is now happening, that things are changing now because of liberals, they feel they are being attacked finally, when we've (the liberals, and also the entire public) have been attacked over and over since the beginning of time and it's only getting worse and yet the ruling class has been waging a war on us since even before Reagan.
Nothing has changed. Trans, gay, black, brown, none of this is new. We all have existed for forever. Instead of seeing the true problems, about how society is going in the wrong direction because of the way the ruling class has always ruled, the "scared masses" will listen to the wrongful and authoritative figures, hoping that this will be over soon, thinking it's just the "Blacks" or "Arabs" or "Mexicans" or "BLM" or "Antifa" or "Gay" or "Trans"... the goalposts are always moving... these are the same people who after 9/11 became xenophobic, hated EVERYDAY PEOPLE WHO WEREN'T RESPONSIBLE instead of realizing that America's top officials have been manipulating our emotions and goading us into acting a certain way while depriving us of our rights and independence and subjecting us to an increasingly hostile police state in the name of "public safety". And yet it was never about safety, it was always about putting money in the pockets of billionaires, for the sake of the "economy", and where the politicians can make a name for themselves and get a little on the side too. It was always about making the 99% be so scared, so weak, so powerless, that we will let them take whatever they want. With student debt, with the state of the economy, most people are so desperate to survive that they won't even have time to focus on winning this battle.
They are starving us on purpose, they are weakening us, and for example, and they do not help the homeless, because they want us to see what life would be like if we don't buy in to the system, that we would be left alone and without help if we do not buy in to the capitalist society. That, working a minimum wage job at the least, would "afford us more opportunities and benefits" than just giving up entirely. They made master's degrees NECESSARY for the entry level jobs because they want us to either be a senator's son who can buy their way into college, go into the military, or, (the intended purpose) keep us so desperate to pay off necessary student debt that we'd have to buy into the system.
How do you create a modern slave? Make the requirements so high to live that most (unless you're rich) won't be able to afford life, make them so desperate straight out of highschool that they'll have to take any job they can, even the most demeaning ones. That if you even think about asking for more rights, like in a union, they could bounce you out of the system immediately and you'd be left for dead. They are making us into economic slaves, they are making us so sickly desperate that we can't even fight for our rights, or fight back, and throwing it in our face the entire time what would happen if we refuse to cooperate with the system. And now we might be too weak to even overcome the entire system. But I don't think so. I hate this country, but I know we can change it. But it's not just the right-wing politicians, our "democratic party" in the US is not even that liberal, and the one candidate we had that would've truly changed society got conspired against. The DNC told CNN to make Bernie look bad, even though Bernie was the #1 option to beat Trump in all polls, and look at how many poor white Republicans would've totally benefitted from Bernie's policies, but they voted against their own interests because they were told lies about "SOCIALISM" and "Make America Great Again." It's so telling that the DNC, and their billionaires, would rather have Trump, than Bernie. Because Trump, while dumb and obviously manipulative, is honestly cut from the same cloth that nearly all of our presidents have been, but he was just too dumb to hide it. It was never about Democrats vs. Republicans, these two parties we're forced to vote for change every so often. The Republicans do fucked shit, and the Democrats say "hey vote us in we'll fix it" and yet they get all the offices and say "we can't do anything"... The parties change hands and yet more and more gets stolen from the public.
I hate this country. But we will fight. And we will win.

Sgsflair 1: here --- 90+ Confirmed Trades
Sgsflair 2: here --- 15+ Confirmed Trades (no longer updating)
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March 2023 Choice:

• Jurassic World Evolution 2
• Hero's Hour
• Demon Turf

February 2023 Choice:

• Fallout 1
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
• Othercide
• Shady Part of Me
• Scourgebringer
• Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel
• Five Dates

Survival Instinct:

• The Long Dark: Survival Edition
• SCUM
• Starsand
• State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition
• SurrounDead

Fighting Farmers:

• Forager
• Kitaria Fables
• Re: Legend
• Serin Fate
• Spirit of the Island
• Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands

In Case You Missed It: Gems of 2022

• Haiku, the Robot
• PowerSlave Exhumed
• Source of Madness
• Submerged: Hidden Depths

January 2023 Choice:

• Encased: A Sci-fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG
• Grow: Song of the Evertree
• Hokko Life
• OlliOlli World - RAD Edition

Black Friday VR Voyager's Pack:

• A Fisherman's Tale
• Acron: Attack of the Squirrels
• Car Mechanic Simulator VR
• Cook-Out
• The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets
• I Expect You To Die
• Sairento VR
• Shooty Fruity
• SUPERHOT VR
• Until You Fall
• The Wizards - Dark Times

November 2022 Choice:

• Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning - Fate Edition
• Shadow Tactics: Aiko's Choice
• Unmetal
• Morbid: The Seven Acolytes

October 2022 Choice:

• Disciples: Liberation
• Epic Chef
• Railroad Corporation

Starlight Children's Foundation Games:

• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• Full Throttle Remastered
• Grim Fandango Remastered
• Pinball FX3 DLCs
• Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic
• Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords
• Star Wars - The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition
• Star Wars Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast

Valiant VR Bundle:

• Budget Cuts 2
• HARD BULLET
• VTOL VR

2K Megahits Bundle

• BioShock: The Collection
• Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe
• The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour
• Mafia: Definitive Edition
• PGA 2K21
• Sid Meier's Civilization VI
• WWE 2K Battlegrounds + Ultimate Brawler Pass
• X-COM: Ultimate Collection

LEGO At the Movies Games:

• LEGO Marvel's Avengers
• The LEGO Movie - Videogame
• The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame
• LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game

September Choice Games:

• Just Cause 4: Complete Edition
• Crown Trick
• Shapez + Puzzle DLC

August Choice Games:

• Emily is Away <3
• Gas Station Simulator
• Omno

July Choice Games:

• Legend of Keppers
• Lawn Mowing Simulator
• Yes, Your Grace
• Atom RPG Trudograd

High Tier:

• 7 Billion Humans
• A Game of Thrones: The Board Game
• Amnesia: Rebirth
• Arizona Sunshine
• BATTLETECH
• Beyond Blue
• Cook-Out VR
• Crawl
• Dead by Daylight
• DMC: Devil May Cry
• ELEX
• EVE: Valkyrie - Warzone (removed from steam)
• Fable Anniversary
• Gears 5
• Generation Zero
• Gods Will Fall - Valiant Edition
• Golf It! x2
• House Flipper
• Hurtworld x2
• Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
• Kerbal Space Program
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance x2
• Kingdom Two Crowns x2
• The Long Dark
• Marvels Avengers: Standard Edition (might keep)
• Metro Exodus
• Monster Hunter: World
• NASCAR Heat 5 + Playoff Pack
• NASCAR Heat 5 + Ultimate Pass
• No Time to Relax
• Pistol Whip VR
• PGA Tour 2K21
• Phoenix Point: Year One Edition
• Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• Project Winter
• RPG Maker VX Ace x2 + lots of DLCs (just ask)
• Rubber Bandits
• Saints Row: The Third - Full Package
• Scythe Digital Edition
• Starbound
• Swords & Souls: Neverseen
• SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising
• Team Sonic Racing
• theHunter: Call of the Wild x3
• Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
• Trailmakers Deluxe Edition
• Trover Saves the Universe VR
• Universe Sandbox
• Vacation Simulator VR
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
• Warhammer Chaosbane: Slayer Edition
• We Were Here Too
• The Witness

Medium Tier:

• 112 Operator
• Battle of Polytopia Deluxe Edition
• Beyond the Wire
• Car Mechanic Simulator 2018
• Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactics
• Desolate
• El Hijo - A Wild West Tale
• Endless Space 2
• Endzone - A World Apart
• Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition
• GRID 2019
• Heliborne - Collection
• House Flipper VR
• Huniepop
• Imperator Rome
• Killing Floor Incursion
• LEGO Batman 2 DC Super Heroes
• LEGO Batman 3 Beyond Gotham Premium Edition
• The Lord of the Rings Adventure Card Game x2
• Memories of Mars
• Never Alone
• Overlord: Ultimate Evil Collection
• Primal Carnage: Extinction
• Quest Hunter
• Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
• Ryse: Son of Rome
• Skullgirls 2nd Encore
• Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed Collection
• Sonic Lost World
• Space Crew: Legendary Edition
• Splendor x2 + The Cities and Strongholds DLCs
• Star Wars Squadrons (Origin key)
• Street Fighter V
• SUPERHOT
• Townscaper
• Trine 2: Complete Story
• Ultra Street Fighter IV
• Victoria II
• Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide Collector's Edition
• Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
• We Happy Few

Low Tier:

• Act of Aggression - Reboot Edition
• The Battle of Polytopia
• Book of Demons
• Brawlout
• Bridge Builder Racer
• Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
• Close to the Sun x2
• Detention
• Dirt Rally
• Dungeons 3
• Enslaved Odyssey to the West Premium Edition
• Espire VR
• F1 Race Stars Complete Edition
• Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark x2
• Fling to the Finish
• Full Throttle Remastered
• Guns, Gore, and Cannoli
• Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
• Iconoclasts x2
• Legends of Keepers: Career of a Dungeon Manager
• The Letter Horror Visual Novel
• Lucius
• Magicka
• Mordheim: City of the Damned x2
• Out of Space
• PAYDAY 2
• PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate + Shooter Bundle
• Quiplash
• Rise of Industry + 2130 DLC
• Rise of Insanity
• Sheltered
• Shift Happens
• Small World + Cursed DLC
• Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode 1
• Sparkle 2
• Supreme Ruler The Great War
• Tannenberg x2
• Tools Up!
• Tooth and Tail
• Total Tank Simulator
• Traffic Jams VR
• Tropico 4 Collector's Bundle
• V-Rally 4
• Vanishing Realms VR
• Vikings - Wolves of Midgard
• Voidigo
• Worms Rumble
• WRC 7 FIA World Rally Championship
• Yoku's Island Express
• Yooka-Laylee

Very Low Tier:

• AER Memories of Old
• Ageless
• Alien Breed Trilogy
• All You Can Eat x2
• Archangel Hellfire - Fully Loaded
• Ballpoint Universe - Infinite
• Between the Stars
• Broken Age
• Combat Wings: Battle of Britain
• Crookz the Big Heist
• Crowntakers
• Crusader Kings Complete
• Deadly Days
• Deployment
• Detached
• Dino D-Day
• Drawful 2
• Earth 2150 Trilogy
• Enclave
• Endless Space - Collection x2
• Enforcer: Police Crime Action
• GoNNER
• GRIP: Combat Racing Artifex DLC x2
• Hiveswap Friendsim
• Homeworld Remastered Collection
• I Am Not a Monster: First Contact
• Imperial Glory
• In Between x2
• Iron Fisticle
• Jagged Alliance 2 - Wildfire + Classic DLC
• KnightShift
• Knights of Pen and Paper 2 x2
• Leisure Suit Larry - Manga Cum Laude Uncut and Uncensored
• Leisure Suit Larry 1 - In the Land of the Lounge Lizards
• Leisure Suit Larry 2 - Looking for Love (In Several Wrong Places)
• Leisure Suit Larry 3 - Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals
• Leisure Suit Larry 5 - Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
• Leisure Suit Larry 6 - Shape Up Or Slip Out
• Leisure Suit Larry 7 - Love for Sail
• Love Letter x2
• Magicka
• Men of War
• Milky Way Prince - Vampire Star
• MirrorMoon EP
• Mugsters
• Murderous Pursuits
• Newt One x2
• Nimbatus - The Space Drone Constructor
• Off-Road Drive
• Oh My Godheads
• One Finger Death Punch 2
• Overload
• Overlord II
• Overruled
• Pac-Man 256
• Pesterquest x2
• Porcunipine
• Realpolitiks
• Rebel Cops
• Rebel Galaxy
• Regular Human Basketball
• Save Jesus
• Septerra Core
• Sir, You Are Being Hunted
• Starcrossed x2
• Star Wolves 3: Civil War
• Steamburg
• Sudden Strike Gold
• Super 3-D Noah's Ark
• Swords of Gurrah
• Table Manners: Physics-Based Dating Game
• Tacoma x3
• Talisman: Origins
• Teleglitch: Die More Edition
• Tempest Pirate Action RPG
• Tropico 3 Gold Edition
• The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day
• Warlock - Master of the Arcane
• World War II: Panzer Claws
• World's Dawn
• Xenus 2 White Gold
• Ylands Exploration Pack DLC
• YOU DON'T KNOW JACK HEADRUSH
• YOU DON'T KNOW JACK MOVIES
• YOU DON'T KNOW JACK SPORTS
• YOU DON'T KNOW JACK TELEVISION
• YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 1 XL
• YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 2
• YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 3
• YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Vol. 4: The Ride

Want:

• PayPal (US) -- Priority
• TF2 Keys
• Sacks of Gems
• Steam Inventory Gifts
• Wishlist
• Game offers I plan on claiming

Timestamp
Price is $325 for both items together & I have included shipping.
Works great, used for gaming only. Motherboard will come in it's original box with the antenna. I unfortunately lost the original cube the i9 came in.
Pay with paypal goods & services.
Information: Motherboard / CPU
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SOLDSOLDSOLDSOLDSOLDSOLDSOLDSOLD