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kaibutsushidousha · 5 months ago

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What do you think would happen if the Lostbelt War was simply carried out properly?

The only way the Lostbelt War could only be "carried out properly" is Novum Chaldea not appearing. And Chaldea is relevant to the motivations of many participants, so why they don't appear alters the situation.

If the cause of the divergence is Chaldea dying in the prologue, Beryl has no reason to bother anymore, so he just remote-triggers everyone's Sirius Lights. However, Akuta amputated her Sirius Light long before, so only her Lostbelt doesn't explode. ORT could possibly survive the Sirius Light, but he would explode his own heart in one year anyway, so it's just a matter of waiting. Eternal China Ending.

If the cause of the divergence is Chaldea never returning from their Imaginary Number dive, there's no proof they're gone and Beryl will keep waiting for Mash, extending the conflict a lot more long-term.

January

Chaldea takes 3 months to come back, so the movements of the Crypters will remain pretty much the same until March. Keyword: the Crypters. They're not the only players in Part 2.

As soon as the Lostbelts form, Kama escapes India and begins planning her Oo'oku. She's supposed to build it in 6-7 months by yoinking roughly 210 Servants from Chaldea, but here her best option is to take everything from Atlantis. It's the Lostbelt with the most Rogue Servants and it's the only one with a surface level not supervised by its Lostbelt King. The Godbreak Alliance plus the Atlantis Defense Servants gives her roughly 20 Servants, allowing her to build Oo'oku in 60-70 months if the world there keeps spawning new Rogues at the same rate.

"Doesn't Traum have 1000 of Servants to grab at once?" Yes, but Traum didn't appear in Sion's map scan at LB3 prologue, so I'm assuming it doesn't exist yet. Novum Chaldea only discovered it after the New Year, but since Don Quixote moved to it before their arrival in Atlantis, I'll assume it formed somewhere between June and October.

March

Without Fujimaru summoning Avicebron, Kadoc doesn't have the means to beat Ivan. After his Amadeus dies and his Salieri can't handle the job, Ivan awakens and learns the truth as he did in canon, but here he survives and remains active.

Rasputin's main interest is in letting Anastasia be satisfied with her ending, so in canon he only ensured Kadoc's survival and freedom after Kadoc and Anastasia had an honest shot at ruling the Lostbelt, but since here that didn't happen, Rasputin will take both outside to try conquering a new Lostbelt. There are six options for Kadoc to go to, but for reasons, I have to choose Rasputin sending Kadoc and Anastasia to Britain.

April

Gotterdamerüng without Chaldea leaves Napoleon and Sitonai as Ophelia's only opponents. Even if they still have the idea of freeing Brynhild, they lose the fight if they rush in unaware of what Ophelia's eyes do. This means Sigurd's body isn't killed, therefore Surtr doesn't incarnate in April, therefore Skadi is still in control of the Fantasy Tree. No progress on Ophelia's side until Russia grows big enough for their walls to touch. Checking the map, the distance between Scandinavia and Russia is roughly twice the distance between Britain and Atlantis. Atlantis touched Britain during the climax of Olympus, but that was a case where Britain wasn't growing. With both sides growing at decent paces, we can schedule the contact for October.

"But why Russia? Britain is closer." Yes, Britain is also not growing because its tree was sucked dry 2017 years ago, and most importantly, due to the reason I had to send Kadoc to Britain. Britain has a prophecy I'm forced to deal with. There inevitably has to be one outsider mage who accompanies Arthuria's journey and all the steps there need to happen, including all bells, all calamities, and the journey allowing Cnoc to dethrone Morgan. And I feel like Kadoc has the best opportunity to do that. Avalon le Fae in April causes fewer changes than you'd expect. All parties were pretty much done with their 16 years of prep time and were only waiting for the Child of Prophecy. Pretty much everything would play out the same except:

Mash's absence means Beryl would be not invested enough in the plot. After he was done with Spinel and Morgan lost the throne, he'd declare himself a loser and bail to Olympus before the calamities began.

Pepe isn't there to save Kadoc from the Moss humans, but that's nothing Anastasia can't deal with. Freeze them without touching and everything is fine.

Koyanskaya is not developed enough to survive Muryan's request very long. Koyanskaya dies in April.

Muramasa's absence means Arthuria fully becomes a Holy Sword.

Arthuria needs to save Kadoc from the Garden of Lost Will. He can't get out on his own like Fujimaru. And recovering from this would require gigantic progress in his romance arc with Anastasia. Huge increase in Kadoc's protagonist level.

Anastasia was a member of Aesc's party. I really would rather have Kadoc there, but if she has the reaction speed to shield him from Billy's bullet in canon, she has the reaction speed to shield him from the Water Mirror.

The most instrumental changes come from the differences between Mash's and Anastasia's personalities. With how deeply devoted she is to her emotional attachments, she'd take Morgan's side in the faerie conflict. In the Camelot invasion, she'd beg Morgan to escape Britain with them and find a new home in Yaga Russia. Morgan is absurdly stubborn but if they get her to check her memories with Nastya, have this emotional appeal from both Nastya and Habetrot, have a logical appeal from Kadoc telling her that Britain is doomed and that Cnoc will steal her throne but the prophecy doesn't mention that Morgan has to die so she can get away with just disappearing to Avalon, and Spinel's murder removing her last attachment to the fae world, they have a chance of getting through to her.

The last thing Kadoc's journey needs is a means to let him escape Britain during the calamities. Which he can get if he manages to recruit Morgan, the other Avalon le Fae. While Arthuria will forge herself into the Holy Sword, Morgan could forge herself into the Avalon sheath, allowing Kadoc to survive Britain's collapse and return to Russia. Like in canon, Oberon's world-ending hole fails to expand and consume the planet because Melusine cuts him off. But since Kadoc didn't fight the calamities, this time it's a mutual kill from both of them starting at full health. Britain excised. 6 Lostbelts remain.

Another April event in canon is Nemo diving into Imaginary Sea in search of the Chaldea survivors but in this version, we can't have him finding them. He could still find Gogh drifting there, but without Fujimaru forcing riskier decisions, he'd dump Gogh back there if not outright kill her. If Sion's canon plan was already revealed, I could work out a Sion plotline by having her redo her predictions and respond accordingly, but since that's not the case, I'll just write Sion and Nemo off by saying their computer tells them Chaldea is in the Imaginary Sea and they keep searching indefinitely.

May

Kadoc, Anastasia, and Habetrot sneak their way back to Russia. Kadoc could use his new tools as a catalyst to summon King Arthur but opts against it because he can't afford Excalibur coming out of his own mana supply. It's better to lend his Holy Sword to a capable Rogue Servant, and luckily Beowulf is a suitable option for the job. Beowulf excaliblasts Ivan dead. It was a convoluted journey, but Kadoc has finally established Anastasia as his Lostbelt King. Now it's steady expansion progress until contact with Scandinavia.

June

Without Chaldea's intervention, Shi Huang's war preparations continue smoothly. They finish reverse engineering Mei-ren's body for themself and she gets paid with Xiang Yu's ownership. Lan Ling and the couple retreat to the peaceful uninhabited mountains and Akuta stops attending the Crypter meetings. Nothing to worry about until contact with India, and even then that's mostly Shi Huang's problem. China and India's distance is not that much bigger than the distance between Britain and Olympus, so I'll schedule that for November (it won't happen).

September

Without Chaldea's intervention, I think Nezha kills Pepe here. Even if Pepe survives and fights the same way Chaldea did, with Koyanskaya dead in April, Daybit can't save Pepe from Asclepius. Pepe dies. 6 Crypters remain. Lakshmi and Jinako are the only forces opposing Arjuna. "How does Jinako's big cube work?" I have no idea. It may have never existed. Doesn't matter either way without anyone to pull Jinako out of the cube.

October

Three more Yuga cycles after Pepe's death, Arjuna burns his own Fantasy Tree as Douman planned. India excised. 5 Lostbelts remain. Douman once again moves to Olympus.

In the same month, the walls of Russia and Scandinavia touch. Ophelia has the overwhelming advantage in soldiers (the giants and Valkyries vs the Yagas) while Kadoc has the overwhelming advantage in heroes (Anastasia, Habetrot, Beowulf with Excalibur, Billy the Kid, Minotaur, and Atalante Alter vs only Sigurd possessed by Surtr). Kadoc has enough of a tactical eye to figure out that Skadi is not a fighter while she's using all her power to keep the giants (+ Surtr) in check, so his strategy should be to assassinate Skadi first. But all the snow serves as Skadi's eyes, so she should know that's what he's going for. I don't think aiming for Skadi first would work, especially with Ophelia's eye being a factor. But Kadoc is informed about her eye and not informed about the consequences of killing Sigurd's body, so his logical approach would be: Attempt to kill Skadi regardless of counters -> Ophelia stops this possibility -> kills Sigurd instead. That causes the Surtr scenario. Skadi hits the panic button and frees the prisoners Napoleon and Sitonai. Kadoc is forced to shoot his trump card: Beowulf with Excalibur. Ophelia's sacrifice Sirius Light + a blast of the Holy Sword + an overloaded Grendel Buster + Napoleon's finisher should defeat the giant. Ophelia dies. 5 Crypters remain. The last major enemy left in Scandinavia is Skadi, who wishes only for her children not to be trampled. Kadoc seizing Scandinavia's Fantasy Tree instead of cutting it down doesn't make him an enemy, and it only plays to Kadoc's advantage to recruit Skadi instead of fighting her. Russia and Scandinavia merged. 4 Lostbelts remain.

But October is not over yet. Fantasy Tree Magellan is blooming. That's where Zeus set up Demeter and Aphrodite to die fighting Chaldea so that he could run away from the incarnated Alien God without shaming himself in front of his family. But here there's no Chaldea. So we're left with the challenging question of "Would Zeus prioritize his pride or his survival?". And that's the divergence point of the Lostbelt. This is a Zeus that chooses to survive at all costs. Zeus would abandon Demeter and Aphrodite, moving the two to Kirschtaria's side. Zeus escapes the Lostbelt and tries to escape Earth. But like Koyanskaya's egg, he can't leave. The dome to the cosmos is closed. He'd need to open a hole with a properly charged World Discipline Keraunos but other things are happening at the same time.

As usual, Muramasa kills Atlas, preventing Kirschtaria's plan while Kirschtaria is being held off by Beryl. The Rhongomyniad tactics aren't at play here, but Beryl can still fight full-power Kirschtaria because he got his Woodwose transformation earlier than canon. U-Olga successfully emerges. Apostle count 3->4. Muramasa is urgently dispatched to deal with Zeus, causing the last World Discipline Keraunos charge to be wasted smiting him. Muramasa dies. Apostle count 4->3. Olga gets to consume the Olympus Lostbelt, removing the Cronus Crown power source that let Zeus use his Noble Phantasm, so now he's just stuck on Earth, humiliated and desperate.

Olga didn't consume Olympus in canon because of Kirsch's Sirius Light kicking her away, but here there was no Rhongomyniad that he had to wall, so no opportunity for Beryl to fatally stab him, and Kirschtaria wouldn't use Sirius Light if he wasn't about to die anyway. He has the option to survive. Caenis was always in and out of the Lostbelt walls thanks to Poseidon's authority, so Kirsch could have an emergency escape route by having Caenis pilot the actual Poseidon Alitheia carrying his party of Dioscuri, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Artemis.

Since U-Olga still manifested, Douman still got inspired to develop Naraka Mandala, and Beryl refuses to die without seeing Mash again, so he allies with Douman and uses that as his ticket out of this doomed place. Olympus excised. 3 Lostbelts remain.

November

Zeus studied his options. He has nothing left to lose. He just wants to get away from CHALDEAS ASAP and needs all Fantasy Trees gone for it. South America is a time bomb thanks to ORT's heart, so Zeus will resort to stalling against this one. China is beatable at any time despite Shi Huang's Grand-level body. But Russia is an easier pick now since Skadi still hadn't much time to recover. Zeus attacks Kadoc and can counter or overpower all of his remaining options.

Meanwhile, Kirschtaria has a big target on his back due to betraying CHALDEAS. With his plan lost, trusting his friends is his only option. He mainly trusts Daybit to save the day, but he can't join Daybit because that would draw U-Olga's attention to him. Instead, he chooses to join Kadoc's side. Kirschtaria with his party of 5 gods is all Kadoc needs to turn the tides against Zeus. Kadoc's roster suffered a few casualties, but should still have its most important members (Anastasia, Habetrot, Skadi). Kirschtaria's third and last use of his ideal magecraft happened here, so he's no longer a combat asset for Kadoc.

At the same time, Douman is running the Imperial Holy Grail War in the Heian without Fujimaru's presence to intervene. This time he also brought his new assistant Gatto Beriru, probably with a really stupid spelling like 歹戸辺璃瑠. Fujimaru is honestly not much of a factor in Heian. Douman would still set up Ibuki to become a Beast, still realize the day before that Ibuki was not guaranteed to be loyal to CHALDEAS, still try to become the new Beast himself instead, still fail because he never loved mankind, and still get chopped by Kintoki. Cagliostro obtained. Apostle count: 3 -> 4.

There is a crucial difference in this scenario, however. Pepe never put Douman on his last life. Kintoki's victory accomplishes nothing. Douman can just reset the Singularity and try again. Grab a second copy of Cagliostro while he's at it, why not? Neither he nor Cagliostro can be turned into Beasts by the Fantasy Tree because they never knew true love, but Douman's team in this version has one more member. One full of opinions on love and beauty. One with a solid vision for the mankind he wants.

Speaking of Beasts, Kama also lost her source with Olympus being excised. She needs to reevaluate where's the new best place to grab Servants from, and luckily, Traum exists now. That's a few thousand Servants taken, making for a bigger, badder, and more loading-screen-filled labyrinth than ever before. However, Traum fails to provide with a human to complete the ritual by breaking all the Buddhist vows. Our twig and nerves friends aren't too equipped for that life of desire. Kama returns Bluebook to Traum, where they begin to rebuild their Servant armies from scratch. His main partner Zhang Jue might be still around.

December

Douman's second round of Heian concludes with the manifestation of Beast VII, U-Beryl. Now that he has Independent Manifestation, he can roam the Imaginary Sea in search of the disappeared Shadow Boarder. He plans to keep his word about being an allied force to CHALDEAS and U-Olga Marie, but he'll only be back after he finds Mash, and since that'd defeat the premise of this scenario, he'll never do. Nonetheless, Douman and Cagliostro consider this a job well done and regroup with U-Olga and Kotomine in Mictlan. Beryl doesn't die but metamorphosizes and leaves the plot for good. 4 Crypters remain. Cagliostro 2 obtained. Apostle count: 4->6->5 if you want to count U-Beryl as one.

Beryl's metamorphosis leaves Kadoc and Kirschtaria as the last two humans on Earth, therefore Kama's only options for Oo'oku. I don't think either of them would be able to cheat the system the ways Fujimaru did, but together, they have the combination character traits necessary to succeed. Without Goredolf completing Kama's maturation, she shouldn't be much trouble. Mata Hari's hypnosis duty can be done by Aphrodite. Scheherazade's Reality Marble duty can be done by Demeter's land-making authority. Tajima's swording really good duty can be done by a Saber from grabbed Traum. We know Yamato Takeru was one the earliest summons of the Revenge Realm, so that works. Kama gets defeated not too differently from canon. Unfortunately without Kiara to enable her development.

Second January

The canon crumbling of Oo'oku returned all Servants to Chaldea, so in this versions, all Servants in the walls should return to Traum (except Takeru who went to Kadoc's party). But Traum was already reconstructing for 2 months, so it already developed new factions. Kriemhild and Constantine are no longer faction leaders and I don't think they could manage rising to the top again. Kriem probably wouldn't even try since she'd find Siegfried in their return. Either way, someone would get the three Grails, and Zhang Jue would lead the attack on Antarctica.

We still don't know enough about CHALDEAS's total forces, but considering Kriem with 2 Traum Grails was on Siegfried's level, I can confidently say Bluebook's army gets easily wiped. No casualties among the 5 Apostles.

With that surprise threat quickly out of the way, the Apostles can return to their respective plans. A Douman shikigami attacks Kadoc, dies easily to his current party, as everyone including himself expected, and the two Cagliostros get planted in Kadoc's and Kirschtaria's heads. They don't have Dantès to cause an Id scenario, but Aphrodite continues to be an extremely value party member, allowing an Anastasia power of love solution to the horrors that inflates Kadoc's protagonist levels even harder. Kirschtaria's relationship with Caenis is unfortunately not like that, so he'd have a worse handle of the malignant information, but he can infodump all of the plot's secrets to Kadoc before he's gone. Cagliostro double dies. Apostle count: 5->3. Kirschtaria dies. 3 Crypters remain.

Second February

Kadoc and Kirschtaria not dying at the same time causes a huge disadvantage state for CHALDEAS. Remember, the reason why Bluebook could command millions of Servants at once was because he gained Representative of Mankind status from being the last human of his world. Camazotz seems to count as another example of the power a Representative of Mankind gains. Akuta and Daybit aren't human, so Kadoc is the last one left. He now can make his own Traum equivalent and become a threat CHALDEAS can't afford to ignore.

However, this is happening at the same month as ORT becomes accessible. They need to be on these two battlefronts at the same time or else they're checkmated by the one they previously ignored. The smartest option here is send Olga to get rid of Kadoc and send Douman and Kotomine to kill Daybit and secure ORT.

Even if Kadoc doesn't stand much of a chance against full power Olga, I don't believe there is any fast solution for a Representative of Mankind, so the Mictlan side of the conflict should end first. Not much to say here. Kotomine and Douman just kinda get hard walled by Camazotz. Daybit wins the race.

Izcalli's change of heart comes from the Dinosaur King reveal rather than from the few times Chaldea humiliated him, so I think he'd still say no to ORT at the last minute. And without Olga's heart to make Daybit a viable core, they have to use blond Tezca to wake up the spider. ORT retrieves the sun with practically no resistance. Apostle count: 3->1.

Kadoc and Olga probably disengage to go after Olga. Camazotz is also fighting on their side. I think ORT still takes this one. Kadoc's Servant army is very whittled down from holding off Olga, Olga can't assimilate ORT because Tezca is already there as a core, and most importantly, even if they manage to destroy ORT's body, it should be able to make shikigami copies after eating Douman. RIP Earth. Kadoc, Akuta, and Olga die. No Apostles remain. 1 Crypter remains. The Russia-Scandinavia, China, and Latin America Lostbelt weren't excised but their lands were shattered, so maybe they still exist but only in the shard that contains the tree. Lostbelt count: 3->0 or 4 depending on how this works.

ORT, Daybit, and Camazotz all survive to either be lost in space forever or become another planet's problem. The end.

#type moon #fate grand order #easily one of the post brewing on the backdrop of my inbox for the longest

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vintagerpg · 9 months ago

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Friends, if there is one Role Aids product you should have on your shelf, it is this box set, Realms of Fantasy: To Hell and Back (1993). I have had it on my shelf for a while and kind of paid it no mind, partly because of use of a colored Doré engraving from Inferno just makes the thing seem so generic. Especially as it came out in the shadow of the very Vertigo-esque Role Aids sub-line, Demons, which was a far glitzier series of box sets. But this is the one. Pure gold. Probably my very favorite Role Aids product.

Inside are two primary books, by the late, lamented Nigel Findley. The first essentially translates Dante’s Inferno into game terms, from the first circle to the ninth. The second half of that book presents Dis, the city of hot iron, in fairly vivid detail. Grade-A stuff, distinct in character from and very much anticipating Planescape, which was still a year off.

The second book is perhaps even more interesting, because I simply didn’t expect it. Here we have profiles of other realms: Atlantis, Avalon, Faerie and, most intriguing, Selene, the city of vampires. The first trio adhere, essentially, to what you expect, with just a little bit of spice added by Findley. The fourth though, was a complete surprise, based on a vampire novel by Frenchman Paul Féval, one of three he penned decades before Stoker’s Dracula. I have never heard of this before and it is so exciting: in the original novel, the city is made of black jasper and situated near Belgrade, but normally invisible to mortal eyes until Ann Radcliffe (yes, the author of The Mysteries of Udolpho) and a band of unlikely allies lay siege to it in order to rescue a kidnapped friend. I need to read this ASAP.

There is also a pile of maps and a sheaf of monster sheets, full of interesting critters. The art throughout is excellent: the historical images, credited to P. Domain and Clip “The Clipper” Art, mix well with new work by Julian Jackson and Joe Develasco. Get this. You won’t be disappointed.

#rpg #roleplaying game #tabletop rpg #dungeons & dragons #d&d #ttrpg #Mayfair #Role Aids #Hell #Selene

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leabeesworld · 3 days ago

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ETERNAL SUNSHINE; JK.

#JEANKIRSTEINXFEMREADER

trope; childhood best friends to strangers to lovers!

modern au in university.

1. new beginning

You're finally here, Los Angeles, a sprawling city in Southern California, the heart of the film and television industry. You worked so hard to get here, it's pretty complicated to be accepted into this university, you're really happy to be here and especially far from home, you need to be independent more than ever it can't go on like this, luckily you managed to get a room in the dormitory, but quite honestly you don't know how you would have managed to find accommodation given the housing prices here... Your room and your tuition fees are already enough to take a good part of your savings, you have to find a job quickly before you run out of money.

When you arrive in front of the UCLA university, reality shakes you a little, it's so big, there are so many people, the diversity of studies in this university is so varied that it attracts all profiles from all countries, artists, those who want to be in finance, future actors, future great film scriptwriters, great athletes, future directors of giant companies, those who are starting in medicine or even great computer scientists. It feels like a different world, a change from your small town of Avalon. The size and the number of young people in this university... it's a bit scary.

When you're finally about to start climbing the stairs someone bumps into you from behind and you drop your phone and purse. "Hey!" You shout, just catching your phone at time, you look at the person who just bumped into you and it's a guy, he's... bald? "Fuck... im so sorry i'm in a hurry" he grabs quickly your purse and gives it to you. "Connie get your ass back and quick we're late!" you look up and it's another dude, his hair tied in a ponytail, some of his hair is falling on the back of his neck and he has green eyes. "Shuddup im coming!" the bald guy looks quickly at the other and looks at you again "Once again excuse me" he leaves quickly and he joins the one with emerald eyes, they both starts running fast.

I don't know why they're in such a hurry, but it seems very urgent lol.

Not gonna lie you would have dreamed of a better first interaction with one of the people here but it's still kinda funny, it could have been worse.

You climb the long steps and finally arrive at the main door, you push it and it's breathtaking. You look around you and it's full of people everywhere, there isn't a place where there is no one. The interior is so beautiful, the charm of this university is incredible, it's both modern and old.

Damn I've never been so happy in 20 years of existence to enter in a school but this one is something else, it makes me really want to work hard.

It's all well and good to look around but it's time to go see your room, but you still need to know where the boarding school is. You approach a map hanging on the wall but it only explains where the corridors lead, you don't see a section with boarding school written on it anywhere.

You know you should ask someone but you don't dare, you really don't know anyone here, especially since you're arriving almost halfway through the year so obviously a lot of people know each other and have already formed groups. You take a deep breath in and try to ask someone who passes by you but without success, they ignore you and continue on their way. You don't lose hope and start again with a girl, but this time she's on her phone and ignoring you too.

I'm that invisible?

"Can i help you?" You may not be as you thought after all, you turn around and see a tall and big blonde boy, you're kinda intimidated but you can tell he seems like a nice person. "Hum yeah..." you say while giving him a small smile. "I can't find the boarding school" He smiles slightly "I see, you're in the wrong building, the boarding school is at the back of this building" you raise your eyebrows slightly and thank him, honestly you thought you were going to sleep outside tonight. "excuse me but, are you a new student?" You nod and smile.

"That's what I thought, I'm Reiner and you?"

"I'm Y/N, nice to meet you Reiner." you both smiles. "Do you think it will be okay to find boarding school now?"

He's pretty cool and nice...

"Now yes, thank you very much, I'll quickly go see my room" He smiles slightly at you, says goodbye to you and leaves. You don't waste any more time, you leave the building and head to the back of it.

You finally enter in the right building and you go to reception and kindly ask for the key of your room, after giving all the information requested you take your key and look at the plan of the floors and rooms.

3rd floor.

Climbing three floors with a huge and heavy suitcase, makes you want to kill yourself a little bit. But the receptionist interrupts your depressed episode and tells you that there is an elevator at the end of the corridor.

Thank god.

You get in the elevator and press the button for your floor, so far so good, maybe it's actually going to be a great year. You arrive at your floor and get out of the elevator, you take out your keys and head towards your room, but just as you are about to put the key in the lock you hear strange noises. You put your ear against the door but the noises have stopped so you end up opening it. You start to look into the room and you want to disappear right now, your roommate is having sex with her boyfriend or her sex friend, who knows.

"Oh my god im sorry!" You quickly cover your eyes and close the door slightly, in the end, this day was too beautiful, you had to end up traumatized... You hear them stop immediately and get dressed.

"Sasha, you could have told me your roommate was arriving today!" You open your eyes and he puts on his shoes.

I swear I just wanna disappear right now...

"But I didn't know! The receptionist just told me it would be this week, they didn't tell me the day or time" She sits on her bed and looks at him. "I'm really sorry" he said while looking at you and you just give him a small smile, you don't know what else to do right now... "Bye babe" He leaves the room and you get in.

"Im so sorry I swear I didn't know you were coming today, it's your first day and I probably just traumatized you" She takes away the things that are on the side of my room. "At least it spiced up my day a bit, which was going too calmly..." You smile and put your suitcase on your bed, she chuckles in response. She tells you she's going to wash her hands and that she'll be back soon.

Meanwhile you observe the room more closely, it's quite spacious, your beds are each against the walls and there is a window between both of you with a desk for each at the end of the bed, with a large closet at the back of the room next to the door, you even have a bathroom in your room, you couldn't dream of anything better. It has garlands on the ceiling with a large red carpet on the floor, it's pretty cozy here.

Just as you were about to lean out the window to look at the view, Sasha comes back and closes the door behind her. "Now that my hands are clean, how about we just pretend like nothing happened and this is the first time we've seen each other?" You chuckle and nod. "Hi, I'm Y/N, entertainment studies and I'm your new roommate." She holds out her hand to you and you take it.

I hope she really washed her hands though...

"Hi Y/N, I'm Sasha, journalism, your roommate. Nice to meet you." She smiles and I let go of her hand. "So Y/N where are you from?" She sits back on her bed and you do the same on yours. "I'm from Avalon" She looks at you in silence because she had absolutely no fucking idea this city existed until you told her. "It's a small town on an island in California, but I was born in Texas."

"Oh! I know a close friend who's from Texas too! but from the bit he told me about it, he didn't really like the place, he said he didn't really like the climate there"

I'm willing to believe it, this place stinks of shit, and I'm not talking about the climate.

She looks at her watch and gets up quickly."Is everything okay?" You ask. "Not really, I'm late, I have to go out for a drink with friends" She puts quickly her shoes and grabs her bag. "I'm sorry Y/N I have to go as you understood, but I'll see you tonight, if I haven't drunk too much and I can find my way back to my door..." You roll your eyes and smirk slightly. "Don't bother waiting for me, you can leave the door open, there's never a problem here, and that way I'm sure I won't sleep on the doormat because I wouldn't have managed to open the door."

I feel like I'll never get bored with her lmao.

"Okay, have fun and either see you later or tomorrow babe." She smirks and looks at you. "Are you flirting with me...?" You shrug your shoulders. "I already like you, we'll get along well girl."

She says goodbye to you and quickly leaves the room. As for you, you empty your suitcase and put all your things in your part of the closet and listen to music with your headphones to relax. But your conversation with Sasha about Texas inevitably brings back some memories and you don't like that. Of course you can't erase that part of your life from your mind, but you would like it to be possible, because you don't have any good memories of your childhood, only a few, and they have one thing in common.

You shared them all with the same person.

You always try not to think about him but it's impossible, he has affected you and helped you so much that it's not possible to forget him and deep down do you really wanna forget him? You will always be grateful to this person for showing you that in this world even when everything is going wrong, there's always a glimmer of hope and people who will love you no matter what. But you don't like to think about it because it makes you sad, because this person is no longer in your life, you often wonder if he is okay, if he too managed to escape this place filled with demons and wickedness.

Deep down you can't deny the fact that by losing him you lost a part of yourself, your happiest part. You often hope to see him again but the chance is so low, you no longer have any contact and you no longer know what he looks like, it was more than nine years ago, now he's a man and not a little boy anymore.

But you know that if one day you see him again you will recognize him immediately, certainly it was a long time ago and he has grown up, but your instinct and heart will recognize him immediately.

I could never forget you my Jeanie... How could I forget a person like you, a soul like yours?

You try to think about something else even if it's complicated, you take your things and go take a shower in your bathroom to unwind and relax after this day filled with emotions.

A few hours passed, you ate at the cafeteria alone while watching an episode of Breaking Bad on your phone. You changed yourself when you came back to your place, you tidied the corner of your room a little more, put your things everywhere. You put on your sheets and get into your bed, it feels so good to finally be able to relax.

You quickly look at your schedule and set an alarm for 7:30 am, you start at 8:30 am but you like to take your time and not rush. Anyway you're so tired that you will quickly fall asleep for sure, you put your phone down and put it on charge.

You finally close your eyes and quickly fall asleep, without thinking for a single second that the person you've been thinking about for years is at the same university as you and is friends with your roommate. But he's not the little boy you knew anymore, he's still there but deep down to protect himself.

⋆☀︎｡ ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

2209 words.

El.

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windforestsso · 11 months ago

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OC map 2024!

It was not long ago since Valedale been updated and it shows. Many OCs have moved there.

I have not included OCs from the old map as I didnt have access to the old file and I dont want to jump between multiple posts to get names and photos because that was just too confusing. I have done a google doc list with the Ocs so next update will be easier. But even if I didnt include OCs from the old post, we went from 73 to 95 Ocs, the population is growing.

I will not update this untill a new area been updated or added. But if anyone sees spell mistakes or wrong infomation given for ocs I can edit that. But I will not fix the map pic.

Address book is under line:

Central Jorvik:

Jorvik city:

Breasha Keane - Somewhere by Leonardos Lottie Emberwoods - Lives in Governors fall, she have no horses. Have a twin in South Hoof, Charlie Mary-Ann - lives close to Leonardos

Crater of Jor:

Alexei Sparrowhawk - lives in the mountain between Wildwoods and Dino Valley Sora Sparrowhawk - Kallter witch in dino valley searching

Firgrove:

Moa Windforest - Hidden shack in the forest Ryland - lives at the ranger station

Firgrove Village:

Adelaide “Swift” Swiftheart - A kalter from Icengate lives near Firgrove Alexis Carolina Nightjar Elaina Hawkwatcher - Lives with her grandmother Luca Goldstone - Wilderness enthusiast. Big brother to Max in Tailtop village

Starshine Ranch:

Athena Rockstorm - Calamity Claymore - Charlie Emberwoods protoge, soul rider and chaos child. Have a big brother, Kit, in Cape West Fishing Village Daine Dusty Claymore - A retired cowboy. Uncle to Calamity and Kit Claymore Rora Dolphinheart -

Goldenhills Valley:

William Ravenyour - haunts the hayloft on Goldenleaf Stables (belongs to Dakota Ravenyour) Willow Crazytree - (no photo)

Cape West Fishing Village:

Adriana Braveheart Bella Highgirl - Officially owns a house here but has a second home in Avalon’s Meader where she stays under busy soul rider/druid times. Used to hop from hotel to hotel. Cody Hunter Doveshovel - Rents a bed with the Jorvik Fishing Club, but travels frequently for work and soul rider shenanigans. Kit Claymore - A fisherman and Amnesiac. big brother to Calamity in Starshine Ranch

Harvest Counties:

Crescent Moon:

Feya Elfchild - Lives alone

Jarlaheim:

Alyssa Evelyn - Lives close to the rocker hairstyles shop Everlee Songbird - lives with a roommate thats also a member of the keepers Iris- Neightbour to Linda. Frequently visits the family in Cape West Fishing Village Johann - Lives in the northern part of Jarlaheim. Joins Ruth on adventures often Lucy Flowerhill - Lives with Linda Niko Northlight- lives in an apartment Riley Wolfstorm Selena - Lives by the vet Yasmine Westbank -

Jorvik Stables:

Amira Monsave - 19 year old, rents a room. In jorvik to look for Anne Arya Mistwood - 24 year old, works and lives at Baroness’ racetrack but because of renovations she currently lives with their half sister, Shilo, in Jovik Stables Brook - Lives behind the white double doors Monty Lionheart - A fancy lad just vibing Shilo Stormfire - 18 Year old, dorming at the stables during the summer to train and compete with her Lipizzaner, Glory. Currently have her half-sister Arya Mistwood as a roommate

New Hillcrest:

Blake Silvercrest - lives in the stables Lucas Roni - Lives with her two dogs Opal and Potato. She works as a waitress in the local café during the day

Mistfall:

Dundull:

Azalea “Az” - lives around Dundull and work as a ranger Bodhi Applewright - Charlie Emberwoods protoge, soul rider and wanderer. Big brother to Toby in Redwoods Vendela Zoe Silverborn - lives alone

Wildwoods:

Astrid - precise location of home is unknown Heather - Sleeps in the hayloft of the stables in Redwood Point Max Goldstone -Charlies protoge, soul rider & adventurer. Have a big brother, Luca in Firgrove Rachel - Redwood Point Ranger Station Toby Applewrights - A junior ranger. Little brother to Bodhi in Dundull

North of Northern Mountains:

Donna Buttergood

Silverglade:

Alina - lives in the field between Silverglade Manor and Nilmer’s highland

Fort Pinta:

Esther Darkdragon - 26 year old, lives with Svea Darkdragon in an apartment Morgan Saltcrest - Pirate in the sea outside of the Fort Pinta Rose - Svea Darkdragon - 24 year old, lives together with Esther Darkdragon in an apartment

Moorland Stables:

Esther Northberg - lives in the hay loft above the stables Jamie Nightlock - A baby doing his best Kit Applewood -21 year old, lives with Mrs. Holdsworth, thinking of getting a small place in Valedale Montana

Silverglade Manor:

Nahla Wolfwalker - Half kalter on a quest

Silverglade Village:

Adelaide Odenburg - Lives in the pink house in the circle with two others Amelie Emberwoods - Lives at Steves farm as a riding camp instructor. Is cousin to Charlie and Lottie Emberwoods Athena Peacecry - Lives with her parents Aurora Bellavance - rents a room, wants to move to Firgrove or Goldenhills one day Ava - Recently moved to the north side of town, close to the championship Lady - Lives with Big Bonney

South Hoof Peninsula:

Ines - Lives in the cottage south of the Rescue Ranch

South Hoof Rescue Ranch:

Charlie Emberwoods - Work as a rehabilitator, have a twin in Governors fall, Lottie. Juni - travels a lot Vilda Ravenhill - Accidently roommate with Hugh Wynonna - Rents a room

Valedale:

Hollowwoods:

Damian - Lives with his family

Silversong River:

Rowan Riverborn - she a näck chills as a horse and is a danger to children Zelda Krüger - 22 year old, rents a room in Avalon’s Meander

Valedale Village:

Corinne Eaglebridge - Lives alone Evangeline Bitterhouse - A druid in-training. little sister to Genevieve Genevieve Bitterhouse - Charlie Emberwoods Protege, soul rider and a nature witch. Big sister to Evangeline Halo Starborn Joseph - had an apartment in Fort Pinta but let the lease run out Kelly Nightborn Lexa - Moved to Valedale Village after she used to live with her family in Moorland Marie - Lives in a house next door to Avalons Renata Rose Riverlee - Is a Pandorian hunting for someone, lives in valedale when not in Pandoria Sadie Algren - Take cares of horses at the village stables while their owner is away, travels to pandora to study flora and fauna Sora

Homeless:

Alou - contantly traveling with other shopkeepers on the Southern Jorvik event circuit Juli - Either in Pandoria or traveling, he supposed to live in south hoof but wont stay there. Ruth - drifter, can be seen more frequently around Jarlaheim and Greendale

#sso #star stable #star stable online #oc map #oc map 2024 #mina inlägg #sso Jorvik #Jorvik Map

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thydungeongal · 3 months ago

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Do you have any good system suggestions for map exploration and such? I have ideas for various types of campaigns involving exploring hostile wilderness and I'd love some frames of reference to base my ideas off of. A small party with limited supplies weighing risk and reward.

Into the Wyrd and Wild is a system neutral (but really meant for D&D, especially pre-WotC editions) toolkit for generating a random wilderness sandbox with simple, easy to adapt procedures for giving resource management and exploration a bit more weight. As it happens it's still available as part of a Bundle for only like twenty bucks, and I can vouch for pretty much everything in this bundle:

Another one I recommend checking out is Forbidden Lands by Free League Publishing. It's very much a classic fantasy RPG with all the Tolkien cliches (for better and for worse: it plays a lot of unfortunate classic fantasy tropes to the hilt) but its main focus is on exploring a wilderness sandbox with a bit of base-building added into the mix.

Also if you can find it, the board game Outdoor Survival by Avalon Hill is the game that inspired D&D's various wilderness exploration procedures back in the day, and the original little brown books edition of D&D expected you to have Outdoor Survival on hand to run the wilderness exploration parts. It is pretty easy to find digitally despite being long out of print and I think it's worth looking at if only for the sake of historical context.

#thydungeongal answers

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stardeer-valley · 2 months ago

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Winter 26, Year 2 To avoid legal issues coming back to Pelican Town; officially, Pierre took credit for Avalon Farm's produce. This avoided questions of ownership of the farm, Lewis fudged some tax forms (what else was new?), Marnie took credit for the animal goods that Beep made, Robin was the one finding and selling the material goods, and Clint was responsible for the mined resources. When Beep discovered kegs and preserves jars, Sophia and Andy took credit for the respective goods. When Pierre tried to charge ten-times the value of the produce, word got back to Beep within the hour. Beep was already pissed about how Pierre blamed him for the missing product codes, and didn't even thank him for finding the list and returning it two months ago. (Caroline thanked Beep in Pierre's stead.) Beep was still getting base cost of the produce, while Pierre tried to maximise profits. He didn't even care about the money; it was about the immoral greed Pierre was shoving onto the townsfolk. With JojaMart shut down, Pelican Town had literally nowhere else to go shopping unless they wanted to drive to Zuzu City over an hour away. It became a case of "pay Pierre's insane cost, or starve", and Beep would not put up with that. The townsfolk were still arguing with Pierre when Beep kicked the door open, unusual for the typically reserved deer. Even weirder was the lighting in the shop, the shadows falling heavy over Beep's eyes to obscure the blue completely so they appeared black, though nobody would mention it to anyone else for fear or sounding crazy. One thing everyone could later agree on, however, was the sounds that came from Beep were no normal deer vocalisations. It didn't matter they didn't understand what Beep was saying, if it was a language at all, but it was very clear Beep was cussing out Pierre. At least Pierre had the smarts to deflate and stammer about rolling back his "experimental business strategy", but the damage was done. After stomping around town a few times, still hissing and clacking in his strange language, Beep calmed down enough to have a plan in mind. Susan had still been trapped up by the railroad when the deal was made with Pierre. She woed about missing out on the opportunity at the time, in a joking manner, but Beep still made the trek up to Emerald Farm. It took some time to express his intent, and then even longer to inform Lewis of the plan as well, but before the end of the year, Susan would be taking over selling the produce from Avalon Farm. Pelican Town still knew it was Beep's hard work at play, but should anything be sold out of town, Susan was credited for the deer's anonymity. If this was how Pierre acted publicly, his mistreatment of his wife and 'daughter' a poorly kept secret, how bad did he act when nobody was around? (And that didn't even get into why Caroline didn't, or couldn't, leave him, even before seeking comfort elsewhere years ago and having Abigail.) If Pierre would wait until he became the sole food supplier in town to hike his prices up, what else did he intend to do? Bastard. ----- Things different from canon; (AU???) Gramps never had an heir, or they never show/ed up. Stardew Valley Expanded; new maps, new NPCs, new events, a LOT of new stuff. The new “Farmer” is just a Weird Ass Deer. NPCs will respond/react accordingly. This is my first time playing Stardew Valley Expanded. Please no spoilers if you play SVE.

#stardew valley #stardew valley expanded #stardew valley au #stardeer valley #peryton #conlang

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starshinedragon · 2 years ago

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SSO: WINTERDALE Fan written main storyline

The Map of Winterdale:

The Life Warden Trees of Winterdale:

Story design:

-> This is the updated version of an old post, taking into account the new main story quests and describing the quests in much more detail. -> It takes place after aging Concorde up and escaping Devil's Gap, after all of the main story quests up to 2023 December. -> Part of SSO Rewritten (my writing project of the whole story of SSO until defeating Garnok). You can find the story related posts with the tag "sso rewritten" -> Phases 1-2-3 is the main story so far, here I wrote phases 4-5-6 which are the main story quests connected to Winterdale.

-> The area of Winterdale was established in the Star Stable Winter Riders game and I added elements from SSO (kallters, rangers, druids) to fill in the empty places. The focus characters of the Winterdale main storyline are going to be Katja (as the main opponent), Linda (as she is her rival), Mr Sands (redemption arc) and the kallters. The setup for them is already in the game with the extremely effective hook when the MC spots them in Dino Valley leaving. The thematic guide for the Winterdale story is the rumor of the Ice Witch, already suspected to be Katja. The final confrontation of this phase is tied to Garnok and Pandoria.

So saddle up and get ready for the adventure!

PHASE 4 – Entering and exploring Winterdale

PART 1: Icestorm

Unlocking Winterdale:

-> MC is called to Valedale. At the runestones before the portal spiral leading to the Secret Stone circle, we meet with Avalon, Evergray and the druids who arrived from Winterdale. The leader of the Winterdale druids is Cairn Stevenson (middle aged, but younger than Evergray, white beard, blue and brown robes) and his horse is a white Percheron wearing new brown and light blue druid tack, called Ossian. They came to ask for help, since the storm in Winterdale has gotten worse. Last night a huge blizzard hit the valley and they think it is magical and suspect the hand of the Ice Witch might be in it. They are unable to dispel it and ask for the help of the Soul Riders.

-> We ride with them through Dino valley and they give us some exposition about Winterdale. They say Pine Hill ruled over most of the valley historically. They tell us about the cold micro climate, when the kallters migrated from Dino Valley to Winterdale, and that the current persisting winter storm started many years ago. The storm is sometimes weaker, sometimes stronger, but always present. It cut them off from the other parts of Jorvik as the Frostfire pass leading to Ashland and the Seaview pass leading to Marchenghast froze over and the blizzard halted the works on Northlink tunnel. The Lord of Pine Hill mansion, who has the strongest voice in how Winterdale runs itself does not seem to care anymore. Avalon asks them how did they leave and intend to go back to Winterdale then if there is no way open.

-> MC, the Soul Riders, Avalon, Evergray and Cairn arrive at the Icengate where Nanook and Sedna (kallters) wait for us on horseback. They perform a ritual and open the magical lock on the passage. The team is escorted through the tunnel of ice and rock, made of a similar design as Stonecutter’s vault. Halfway through it Magnus Steinar’s ghost appears as he guards this tunnel. Sedna tells him everyone here is a friend and they are to have safe passage through the Icengate whenever they please. The team exits the tunnel high in the mountains and looks over the snow covered Winterdale valley ravaged by the blizzard.

Fighting the Storm:

-> The team descends on the steep Meander trail (from the Winter Rider game) and arrives in Meander Stables, where the druids set up camp. You are greeted by Eric Lowe, the owner or Meander stables. There you are introduced to the other druid characters of Winterdale by Cairn. They tell you of the situation: the magical storm started some days ago and won’t stop. Katja’s frost powers wreaks havoc, flash freezes sweep across the valley every other minute and the winds, snow and raining icicles destroy houses, stables and threaten to freeze everyone to death. The team is asked to help the valley. MC agrees to help, while the druids try to figure out a solution to stop the storm.

-> MC is sent on four different missions in four consecutive days with the Soul Riders to introduce you to the layout of Winterdale. For each mission, you go to a location in Winterdale to help the people fight the storm by dispelling frost, gathering firewood, saving the animals, etc. To get anywhere, you have to ride through the storm. Each time a flash freeze is coming you have to take cover. Icicles rain on the way indicated by the circles appearing in front of your horse that you have to dodge. You and your Soul Rider partner get there, help out and return to Meander. First, you go with Lisa to Cape Point village, next with Anne to Icewind Station, then with Linda to Pine Hill village and finally with Alex to Anvil Woods Druid Village and back to Meander.

Dispelling the Storm:

-> In the meantime, Evergray and the druids tried everything and figured out that they can’t dispel the storm alone and need help from Fripp. MC is sent to ride back to Valedale through the Meander trail, Icengate passage and Dino valley (there is not an available trailer in Meander yet- not until you open Northlink). You ride to the spiral portal in Valedale and fail to open the way.

-> Katja appears on horseback, cornering MC, tells you that they have blocked your access to the Secret Stone Circle. MC vows to stop her terror of Winterdale, but she just laughs and tells you not if I stop you first – forever! She sends fer frigid powers after you. You race back to Meander the way you came, dodging icicles and also Ice Spectres, that are like shadow seekers, but made of mist and frost and are controlled by Katja. You get back to Meander and tell the druids that Katja blocked you from opening the portal. Evergray is unusually cheerful about this and when they ask him why is this a good thing, he tell you that he figured it out. Katja blocked you from going to the Secret Stone Circle, because the solution lies there. By uniting the power of MC, the Soul Riders, druids and kallters and Fripp, you will be able to stop the storm. Avalon, the forever optimist points out the only problem is getting there.

-> You can actually get to the Secret Stone Circle on foot, however, there is one problem besides the storm, and that is the cursed Nightmare Forest. You have avoided it so far, taking the paths next to the Meander river, but now you have to go through it. As only the Soul Horses are strong enough to go through the storm and the dark forest, Alex, Anne, Lisa and Linda are riding double with Cairn, Avalon, Sedna and Uyarak (the other magic user of the kallters beside Sedna) and MC takes Evergray. You ride through the storm, hiding from the flash freezes and ride into the dark forest. The Nightmare Woods in covered in snow and ice, shadow seekers patrol and dark blue and purple wisp-like spirits drift amidst the gloomy trees. The team takes the path through the abandoned Crescent Lake Ranger Station up to the Aurora pass and then the western road leading up to Starshine Mountain. You ride up the steep mountain path (design based on the Starshine Legacy games) and get to the broken bridge.

-> Katja appears behind you sending an army of Ice Spectres. You run through the narrow path and jump the broken bridge. She stops before the jump and her horse rears, not being able to come closer to the Secret Stone Circle. Fripp awaits you in the circle and tells you don’t worry, no servant of darkness can come into the circle again, because he woke up the guardian tree of the Circle: Astral Crown. You see the formerly leafless big tree towering over the circle now covered in azure and lilac leaves, that shine like stars. The riders dismount and form a magic circle, everyone positioning themselves in front of each runestone. They perform a ritual and dispel Katja’s Icestorm from Winterdale.

PART 2: Exploring the valley

The Roads to Winterdale: Marchenghast and Northlink

-> Now that the storm is gone, MC can properly explore the valley. The Secret Stone Circle’s portal to Valedale is open again. A cutscene takes you back to Meander so you don’t have to ride through Dino valley again. Eric, the owner of Meander stables thanks you for saving the stables and the village and promises to put in a good word for you for each place in Winterdale. The Meander Championship is unlocked, it runs through the Coldstone forest and Frostbitten fields.

-> After the full introduction to the Meander area, it is time to open Winterdale properly for people and the horse trailers. Eric sends you to Cape Point to meet a ranger friend of his (Aiobhinn, the leader of the Winterdale rangers) who will lead you through the Seaside pass up to the Marchenghast Castle. Eric apparently knows everyone in Winterdale.

-> At the Marchenghast Castle they open the gate for you. There are very few people and servants there and MC meets the lord of the castle. He was told that you stopped the storm and asks how. As you can’t say magic, can choose from different stupid options to try to explain scientifically how you stopped a whole blizzard. Whatever you choose, Lord Marchenghast laughs and says he know about magic in Jorvik, don’t worry he just thought you would be better at lying. He opens the gates and grants you safe passage through the castle and estate and sends you on your way. The rocks have been removed from the road in Goldenhills and cars can now access it, opening the trailer options in Winterdale.

-> MC rides to the Baroness and tells her that the storm is over and the work on the Northlink tunnel can continue. You are sent to tell this to the workers. While the main story calls you back to Meander, the tunnel dailies are now unlocked, requiring you to help in the work for seven days to build the tunnel.

Rangers and Pine Hill:

-> Eric tells you Aiobhinn liked you and is willing to properly show you Winterdale, now that the storm is gone. You are led though Coldstone forest with the blue crystals and trail riding pathways and arrive in Explorer’s Rest Ranger Station. You are going with Aiobhinn as she checks on all of her rangers throughout the valley. You help the rangers clear the paths covered by the snowstorm, unlock races. They show you the path leading to Frostfire pass, but it is not accessible, until it melts.

-> Next, you ride north, and he shows you Pine Hill village and tells the gossip about the lord of the mansion, Mr Sands. You meet the people of the village and stables, unlocking many side quests. The ranger shows you the Rimefang woods, but you only ride on the path next to Meander river, because the forest is infested with wolves. Frosted mammoth pine trees, fallen trunks, misty woods. If you go too close to a wolf, it will start to chase you and you need to gallop to lose it. If it catches you, you are teleported out of the woods with the message: “Your horse got you out, but be careful, next time you might not be this lucky!” She tells you there is a hidden kallter village in the middle, but you can’t reach it, unless they invite you.

-> You ride to Icewind station. You meet Henry Stevenson(the old guy from the Winter Riders game), second in command to Aiobhinn and brother of Cairn who is the leader of the rangers at Icewind station. He reports to Aiobhinn and tells you the rumors about the Nightmare Woods and that there are two abandoned stations there. They plan to man them again one day, but not until the woods are haunted. You unlock side quests and races in the Icewind Woods.

Druids and Cape Point:

-> Aiobhinn remains in Icewind and Henry offers to guide you through Anvil Woods to meet the druids and his brother. You ride to Anvil Woods and are introduced to their Life Warden Tree, Wise Leaf. They built their village around it. The tree is a gigantic oak who talks in verses, metaphors and talks like an old wizard and is generally whimsical and wholesome. In the side quests, you help the druids fight against Dark Core, as the corporation wants to cut down the forest. The Anvil Bay Championship is unlocked (joint project of the druids and rangers, organized by Henry and Cairn, running through Anvil and Icewind).

-> The druids tell you of their brothers and sisters in the other druid village of Winterdale: Jorwatch. You go there and meet them, unlock quests. They tell you that they guard the path leading to Jorcrater, since noone is allowed to enter as it is too dangerous. Finally, MC is asked to meet Fripp and Cairn in the Secret Stone Circle and you are rewarded with 100 Star Coins (just like at the end of each phase).

PHASE 5- The Kallters and Mr Sands

PART 1: The Redemption of Mr Sands

Secrets of Pine Hill Mansion:

-> Meeting at the Secret Stone Circle. The dark side have been awfully quiet lately and the Soul Riders suspect they are up to something. With Pine Hill Mansion so close, Linda proposes a plan for she and MC to sneak into Pine Hill Mansion (like she did in Starshine Legacy 2) and gather information. MC meets Linda in Pine Hill Village and they wait for nightfall.

-> The hole in the wall Lisa made back in SSL 2 is still there, hidden by a bush, but Linda knows where to find it. It is dark now and you have to find your way through the maze. You do, but there are some guards and dogs outside the house, you have to sneak past them. This time, unlike in the game, you get in through the greenhouse after finding an open glass panel. Linda tells you of the adventure they had here back in high school with Lisa, when she got stuck up in a scaffolding. Luckily, the house itself is empty so you are free to wander.

-> In the main hall, Linda shows you the pictures of the Soul Riders she saw last time here. However, there are four new pictures on the walls, paintings of the Dark Riders (Sabine, Katja and Jessica) similar in style, wearing similar ceremonial dresses. The fourth picture is still covered with a tarp, high on the wall, so you can’t see. MC and Linda get into the library and start looking for clues. Linda finds Sands’ journal. They find out about Rosalind, who was burned at the stake hundreds of years ago for being a suspected witch. She was in fact, a druid and Sands hates the druids because they didn’t save her. He himself turned to dark magics trying to bring her back, but only managed to reach Garnok, who offered him immortality and Rosalind back if he helps the forces of darkness achieve victory.

-> Mr Sands appears and captures them, trapping them in two magic circles. Linda and MC focus their powers (playing a slider-click mini game), but cannot bring his spell. Linda asks him about Rosalind and tells him she understands why he did it, but this is not the way. She manages to upset Mr Sands enough to break his concentration and MC breaks the magic circles. Linda makes a moonlight flash and they run away, escape through the main entrance. Meteor and MC’s horse wait for them there and they escape Pine Hill Mansion.

Saving Justin (again):

-> Katja makes a plan to lure the Soul Riders into a trap. Just like she kidnapped James in Starshine Legacy 4, she now plans to kidnap Justin. Justin has discovered his druid powers since meeting the Singing Yew in South Hoof and has been training. Justin was to meet MC for training in Silverglade, but he doesn’t arrive. After waiting a bit, you get up to investigate. MC finds signs of struggle and uses moon vision to see what happened. You see Katja surprising Justin and even though he tries to fight back, Katja charms and mind controls him, like she did to James. You call the Soul Riders to tell them Justin was kidnapped, but they say Katja already called and gave them an ultimatum: she wants MC to come to Dark Core Platform and bring their Soul Horse.

-> It is an obvious trap, but you have to go. No sneaking this time: you are to meet the goons at the DC ferry in Moorland. MC and their horse are brought to the platform and led in front of the portal, where Katja, Jess, Sabine and Mr Sands wait for you. Katja is keeping Justin in a magic circle at the edge of the platform where he last fell and Mr Sands is not happy about this situation at all.

-> Katja says get on with it, sacrifice MC’s horse to bring Garnok into this world. MC uses her powers to make a shield around them. Katja says fine, then I will push Justin off the platform and time you can’t save him. MC asks Sands if he is going to let this happen? What would Rosalind think of him now? She would surely not want a kid to die so she can live again? Mr Sands hesitates, doesn’t know if he is willing to sacrifice Justin for a promise of Rosalind. MC says Garnok is a force of destruction, not life and he is lying to Sands and cannot bring back Rosa, but Justin lives and he is his family. Katja is waiting for permission from Sands and she is getting more impatient by the minute. She yells at Sands to give the order and he can’t.

-> Katja pushes Justin off the platform and MC can’t do anything from the shield. The Dark Riders laugh, but Justin levitates back up. He says he has been practicing and just like his mother, Catherine, he is also very talented. He didn’t like almost dying the last time and prepared for this case. Katja is furious, and raises her hand at him, saying, cute, but cheap tricks won’t save you from the true power of darkness. She shoots dark energy at him, but a shield appears around Justin, cast by Mr Sands and it reflects the power back to hit Katja. The explosion also dazes Sabine and Jess.

-> Sands shouts at MC to flee and take Justin while they are dazed. Justin jumps on your horse and you also want to take Sands. Before he can react, a blast of dark energy hits him from behind, cast as a joint spell of Jess and Sabine. Jessica says I have always wanted to do that. You have to flee and leave Sands there.

-> You escape the platform and leave with the little boat to Goldenhills. You ride to Jasper’s farm with Justin and meet the Soul Riders there. Jasper is scolding you for getting Justin into trouble, doesn’t like this druid business that took his Catherine from him. You tell the others what happened. Linda speaks up, says I am fine with being the one to say it, but we need to save Mr Sands now. Justin agrees.

Saving Mr Sands:

-> Meeting at the Valedale spiral, going to the Secret Stone Circle, Justin is also there. Reporting what happened to the druids. All druids from Harvestlands and Winterdale met to debate whether to save Mr Sands. The conclusion is that we need allies and intel so we are going to rescue him from Dark Core. The others say we cannot be even sure that he is alive, so Linda and MC conjure up a moon vision to look for him. It shows that he lives, but barely, kept captive in some unknown Dark Core facility. You have to find out where.

-> Spying on DC with Derek. As a government agent, he knows where and how to get the information to find Sands. MC, Justin and Derek go to every possible Dark Core location and follow a trail. Finally we end up at the station above Valedale and manage to find a photo validating that Sands have arrived to the location of his imprisonment. It is not written where as DC is very secretive about him.

-> We meet up at the Valedale spiral and show the picture to the others saying that is all we have found, ready to give up. Lisa looks at the picture and recognizes the place: it is the DC Barricade, where she freed Starshine from is SSL 1. It is located just north from Anvil Woods, but the road is closed so we need a boat again.

-> Going to Cape Point to find someone willing to ferry us there. The Soul Riders and MC all plan to go and we manage to convince Justin to stay in Cape West as it is too dangerous for him to come. With the guidance of Lisa, we sneak into the DC Barricade at night. Linda conjures a vision and now that we are closer, is able to find Sands. He is held in the main building where Starshine was also held. MC, Lisa and Linda are going on foot, trying to find Sands, while Alex and Anne take the horses to a point where we can get on to escape.

-> We go through the Barricade and see many weird Dark Core projects, shipments of drakonium, artifacts, pandorian creatures in cages and imprisoned in a runic circle there is a massive, formless shadow monster. We can only see its glowing six eyes and huge clawed hand. We manage to sneak into the main building and find Sands in the same cage where Starshine was imprisoned. He spots them, but someone is coming. MC, Lisa and Linda hide and see Katja is there to taunt Sands.

-> She laughs. Oh look, how the mighty fall. Held captive in the very cage where you imprisoned the first soul horse. Another failed quest of yours. You could not get anything done even back then. Maybe I am going to be the new general of Garnok now. Sands tells her no, she isn’t going to be as she is nothing compared to Elise. You are weak, Ice Witch. You compensate well with your smarts, but you always were and will always be weak. And you know Garnok only values raw power. You are nothing to him.

-> He knows this will make her lose her cool. Linda realizes this is an opening and attacks Katja. They duel and Katja is too angry to concentrate. MC and Lisa get the cage open and get Sands. Katja wants to shoot him with dark power again, but Sands throws it back at her, weakening her a great deal. Katja uses an illusion spell, but Linda had enough of her magic. She counterspells, makes Katja lost in her own illusion labyrinth. The team runs and gets on the horses. Alex has stolen the remote opening the gates as Lisa instructed and we escape. We get to the shore and the ferry takes us back to Cape Point. Justin meets him and Sands says sorry for everything.

-> Mr Sands reconciles with Justin and the Baroness and moves back to Pine Hill Mansion. The Pine Hill Championship is unlocked. He becomes our ally, gives the Soul Riders important information about Dark Core and the Dark Riders. He promises to help us against Garnok.

-> MC has a vision: Darko has been stuck in the realm between worlds ever since Elisabeth’s sacrifice. Now Garnok needs a new general, so he rescues Darko. MC tells this to the others and Sands warns them that Darko is unpredictable, dangerous, very power-hungry and not to be underestimated.

PART 2: Cleansing Starshade Woods

Gathering intel:

-> The Nightmare Woods are still inaccessible, infested with darkness and shadow seekers. Team meets up in Meander, Linda’s idea is to check on Mr Sands and ask him for help in cleansing the Starshade Woods. MC and the Soul Riders ride up to Pine Hill Mansion and knock. A very grumpy Mr Sands opens the door and tries to send you away. You convince him to let you in, but he continues to be extremely grumpy. He leads you to the library.

-> You ask him what he knows about the Nightmare Woods. He tells you it is was the dark side’s plan to stop you from accessing the Secret Stone Circle, Darko, Jess, Katja and Sabine all kept throwing their worst dark magics to corrupt the forest. Over the years, the Starshade woods got so dark, the druids had to leave, the rangers had to leave and now noone dares to go into the haunted forest. Sands doesn’t remember all the monsters and magic that was thrown in there, so the Soul Riders keep investigating and find lists of them.

-> Sands also tells you, that the forest has a dark secret, but even he doesn’t know what it is. You have to find out if you want to cleanse the forest. Going around Winterdale, asking to people about the Nightmare Woods. Long investigation, eventually you go to Lord Marchenghast, but he only gives you cryptic answers. You investigate the Baroness’ and Fort Maria’s library too to find out more about Lord Marchenghast.

-> You find out what happened in the Starshade Woods hundreds of years ago: that was where the witches (druids) were burned. You and Linda go to Marchenghast Castle to confront the lord about it, but you cannot find him. You go into the castle and get lost in it, realizing it is cursed. You keep wandering and see the pieces of history as it was basically a tragic misunderstanding and the then young and gullible Lord Marchenghast was pressured into ordering the burning of witches. He and the castle was then cursed by one of the dying druids to suffer misfortune until he admits the truth. You and Linda finally find him in the „throne room” of the castle. Linda realizes using her powers, that the visions were not the complete truth, the castle shows you the lies of Marchenghast. You get him to admit he is not blameless in the tragedy and it is his fault as well. When the truth comes out the curse of misfortune is lifted. Marchenghast gives you a diary of the events.

-> The main story continues as you prepare for the Battle for Starshade Woods, but the Matchenghast Castle side quests are now opened. Lord Marchenghast wants to open the castle as a museum for the public and host an equestrian championship. MC is tasked to try to convince people that the curse is gone. You get merchants and horse people to come and organize the first Marchenghast championship. As the name roughly means „dark fairy tale” new magic horse breeds will be available to buy here after you do the introductory fairy tale quest line for them.

Preparation:

-> MC and the Soul Riders make a plan for the Battle for Starshade Woods. Now you know the druid ghosts, that originally haunted the place and the dark creatures the forces of evil put there. You have to find ways to neutralize each. Linda briefs you on the plan: come back every day to decrease the darkness of the woods to a manageable level until we can finally go in to cleanse the forest. You get a progression bar and have to complete daily quests for some weeks like with the Rune Runner grind.

-> You get multiple, various dailies every day. One quest is always soul riding, where you are sent into the edge of the forest to close a portal, vanquish a dark creature, etc. The other two are coop quests with one of the Soul Riders. With Lisa, you sneak in, avoiding the hostile creatures and heal and cleanse plants and animals from the darkness. With Alex, it is basically a sniper mission, you ride to a high point and shoot Shadow Seekers with lightning. With Anne, you use your light powers to dispel the dark wisps, collect their light and use it to cleanse a patch of forest from the darkness. With Linda, you ride to certain points in the forest and dispel Katja’s illusions by playing various mini games.

-> Every time you reach a milestone in the progression bar, you get a quest about the druid ghosts that died or were burned in the forest. The druids were five in total: Nimue, Moria, Lucius, Einar and Rosalind. You have to help the ghosts find peace. First, you find them in the forest, then you solve their murder (for example one was frozen to death by Katja), you make their last wish happen (e.g. take their bones out of the forest and to the place where they want to rest eternally) or bring their descendants to meet them (convincing people to come meet a ghost in the haunted forest is tricky). Lucius was Marchenghast’s friend and now wants revenge on him. MC convinces him to just talk and maybe tell him to go to hell, but Lucius ends up forgiving him and from now on lives in the castle.

-> Rosalind is the last one, who wants to meet Sands when you tell her he is alive to make sure he is okay. You bring Mr Sands to the Nightmare Woods and Rosalind says goodbye and tells you all that now she can rest in peace. The progress bar is completed and the Battle for Starshade Woods can begin.

Battle for Starshade Woods:

-> Druids, Soul Riders and MC gathering in Meander again. As the darkness decreased in the woods, Sabine and Jessica appeared attempting to restore it. You cannot let them undo your work, so it is now or never. The plan is to sweep through the forest, dispelling the final remnants of darkness and cleanse the Starshade Woods for good. The battle takes three days.

-> On the first day, you go into the part east of Crescent Lake station and disperse the remaining Shadow Seekers and dark wisps with the soul riders. The druids march behind you, cleansing the trees and animals. You get to Crescent Lake station, but Jessica is waiting for you there, defending it. Boss fight: she stands in the middle with a magic shield around her, powered by Shadow Seekers she summoned. You have to charge your lightning powers with the „catch a runner” soul riding mechanic and shoot the shadow seekers. After that you can hit her shield and defeat her. If the timer runs out she releases a dark explosion that knocks you out and you have to start again. When you defeat her, she retreats into the dark woods. You have taken the eastern part of the woods back.

-> The next day, you meet up in Cape Point village and do the same dance. You cleanse the part of the forest west of Storm Hill with the druids coming behind you. Sabine is waiting for you at the top of Storm Hill, promising she won’t go easy on you like Jess and makes a circle of fire around her and MC. Her bossfight works similarly to the Mr Anvir fight in Pandoria, except she is the monster chasing you. You have to dodge waves of fire, falling firebolts, gather sparks of power the Soul Riders summon to charge your attack and then run into her. She flees and you have Storm Hill Station.

-> The third day, you help Lisa and Anne first in pushing the front in Crescent Lake, then you fight with Linda and Alex in Storm Hill. In the middle you find Darko who is ready to unleash a massive dark creature he borrowed from Garnok. The thing is standing behind him in a cloud of darkness and you can only see its glowing evil eyes. Darko says if the forest can’t be theirs then it will be noone’s and the creature will have it. Mr Sands appears and taunts Darko. He says maybe you got what you wanted but it is not as easy being Garnok’s general as he thinks. Mr Sands counterspells Darko and the creature attacks its master. Darko teleports them both away in a panic and we win. Linda asks Sands if Darko is dead, but Sands says probably not, he has proven quite difficult to get rid of. -> The Nightmare Woods are cleansed and it returns to its original state: the Starshade Woods. It looks similar to the Hollow Woods, but with blue wisps flying around and also has a mother runestone and quests. Now we can get to the Secret Stone Circle on foot and the Winterdale rangers send people to the Crescent lake and Storm Hill Stations. The Starshade Championship is unlocked.

PART 3: The Kallters

The Blizzard:

-> Katja appears once again and unleashes a blizzard, but only on the Rimefang Woods. MC and the druids want to help, but noone can reach the kallter village unless they are invited. MC goes into the blizzard into Rimefang Woods anyways, trying to dodge the wolves. They start chasing MC and you run, but end up cornered in a gorge. A kallter girl Erika and her wolf Idun appear and save you. She leads MC to their village.

-> You meet the kallters: the council of leaders are Takuraq, Sedna, the high priestess and Uyarak, the spiritual leader (kind of a druid) whom you already met in a previous quest. Erika is the daughter of Takuraq. You have already met Nanook, who is a horse breeder. Malina and Anniq are the twins of Sedna, girl with golden hair, boy with silver and they do a little moon and sun circle magic. Kauyar is the main wolf trainer and Nasami is his wife.

-> MC is led into the communal hall and the council of elders accept your help against the wolves and Katja, but you have to gather reputation before progressing with the main story. Erika introduces you to the kallter village. It is in the middle of the Rimefang woods, next to a small lake. You have fishing dailies here. All of the kallters have their own tame wolves that keep the wild ones away from the village.

Gaining their trust:

-> In order to be able to properly help them and move around in the forest, you need a wolf. MC is sent to speak with Kauyar, who helps you bond with a wolf. They will run next to you in the Rimefang Woods and keep the wild wolves away so now MC can go wherever in the Rimefang Woods. You name it like you name a new horse you buy.

-> MC gathers firewood in the forest, helps repair the village walls, lights fires that the storm estinguished. In the forest, you have to hide from the flash freezes and dodge icicles, like in the first storm when you entered Winterdale. You have chores in Nanook’s stables for the fjords. You are introduced to Silver Runebark, the kallters’ Life Warden tree, that keeps Katja’s storm from destroying the village. When running around in the Rimefang Woods, you can sometimes see a wolf bigger and meaner than the others watching you. The kallters tell you it is called Amarok, but are strangely secretive and refuse to tell you more.

Fall of the Ice Witch:

-> Once you gathered enough reputation, the main storyline continues. The wolf pack of Amarok attacks and MC helps Nanook protect the kallters’ fjord horses. Katja is there, helping the wolves wreak havoc and using her ice powers. She says she has finally come to have revenge. MC helps stop her from freezing the village, but Nanook is cornered by the wolves. He turns into a bear and fights Amarok. The wolves are driven back and Katja flees.

-> Sedna and Nanook tell MC, that Katja is half kallter and hates them, wants to destroy the village. Nanook and his brother were cursed by Katja into a form of a bear and a wolf. MC agrees to help break the curse. The brothers have to trust each other again to break it (Amarok thinks Nanook betrayed him). Sedna and the twins help MC.

-> You have to find clues on how to break the curse. With Erika, you sneak into the den of the wolf pack using your magic. You find the writings of Amarok that he wrote before going crazy and permanently becoming a wolf. It tells you the full story of how Katja became like this. For looking different, having strong powers and being only half kallter the villagers treated her like an outsider and blamed her for every bad thing happening. She eventually got recruited by Garnok and destroyed the kallters’ previous village in Dino valley, making them leave for Winterdale to find a Life Warden Tree, that can protect them from the monster they created.

-> You confront Sedna and Nanook with this and they admit it is the truth. Nanook also chose the village over Amarok at one point and he is bitter. Amarok in turn used his wolf form to hurt Nanook’s horses and the cycle goes on. Erika says this is stupid we cannot be like this or the village is done for. Katja appears in front of the gates. She says now you see MC, I have a good reason for doing this. Help me get justice. MC says no and Katja unleashes the strom, blasting open the gates and the wolves pour in. Nanook changes into a polar bear and fights Amarok again, wins. Katja wants him to give in to hatred and strike Amarok down. This way he would complete the curse and stay as a bear forever because of his hatred. MC shouts to him not to and Nanook realizes. He changes back into a human and holds out a hand, saying i forgive you brother and hope you can forgive me as well. Amarok has managed to change back to human as well and takes his hand. The curse is broken. Katja shrieks impossible, but she cannot do anything. MC and Sedna unite their power and dispel the storm and Katja flees. Amarok returns to the village and the wolves of the Rimefang woods are no longer hostile.

-> Unlocking the Kallter Championship. You are rewarded with 100 Star Coins as it is the end of a big main story phase. The Wintersoul grind: the second "free" horse, like the Rune Runner. Now that you have completed the kallter questlines, you can start the soul riding-like grind and reputation collection with Uyarak. The Wintersoul is a special silvery-gray kallter fjord horse with ice blue kallter markings and it wanders in the Rimefang Woods. It was created when the a remnants of katja’s evil storm was trapped in a horse that ran away from Nanook’s stable. It has part of Katja’s power, freezing parts of the forest around it, needs to be tamed and who better to take care of it than MC.

PHASE 6 – Apocalypse

PART 1: Ashland and Sabine

Frostfire:

-> The dark side is properly angry now, that you have defeated every one of them again. They gather more dark power and openly attack Winterdale, sending Sabine to wreak havoc with her fire powers. Sabine always wanted to prove herself as best- now she wants to prove herself to Garnok, drunk with power.

-> The siege lasts a week, Sabine attacks different magical parts of the valley each day, until she depletes the powers she got. Every day MC gets called to a location and has to stop her. She brags about showing you all, that she is better, stronger, than Katja, who failed, just like Sands. Once the week is over she leaves and noone like the calm before the storm. The Soul Riders decide you have to figure out where she went, but before you could get on with it the earth shakes and there is a plume of smoke rising from Ashland.

Ashland:

-> This is bad. You have to get there to stop whatever Sabine is doing before she makes the volcano erupt and destroys half of Jorvik. First, you five are taking Avalon, Evergray and a Winterdale druid and ride to Explorer’s Rest and a ranger escorts you to Frostfire pass, but it is still frozen over. The druid says there is another way into Ashland. You ride to Dino Valley, but of course the path is still frozen.

-> The druid directs us to go talk to the Life Warden Tree of Dino Valley in the summit. Glacier Heart is peacefully slumbering still and we debate how to wake her. Before the team decides on anything, the ground shakes again and she wakes. At first she gets angry at you, but you manage to explain to her, that this is not your doing and you want to go to Ashland to stop it, but the path is frozen. Glacier Heart sighs: Do I really have to talk to her? Can’t you people just melt the ice of the road? The druid tells her respectfully that we are in a hurry, trying to stop the volcano from erupting and covering half of Jorvik in ash. That does it, because Glacier absolutely does not want warmth in her valley.

-> You can hear the telepathic communication between the trees. Glacier Heart calls out to her sister, Fire Glory in Ashland. She is very chatty and very ADHD and very excited about everything. It takes some tries for Glacier to explain to her that people want to go to Ashland, but the road is frozen. Fire Glory is very excited that she will get visitors and says hold on one second. She uses her fire powers to melt the ice on the road and the path to Ashland is finally open.

-> The team rides to Ashland and arrives in Ashfall village. There is a small community living there, some families and druids. The people grow extraordinary fruits and plants in the volcanic soil and the druids are stationed there to watch the volcano. Ever since the first quake, ash is falling from the sky like snow and the ground shakes here even more often. You ask about Sabine, but they didn’t see anything as they had to hide. You leave your druids in the village and go to ask Fire Glory about her.

Firefall:

-> Meeting Fire Glory, who is on one of the surrounding peaks, overlooking a valley. She likes the warmth in here, can’t image living in a cold place like like Dino and won’t shut up about how much she finds the fires beautiful. Linda politely shuts her up saying surely she would not want the valley to burn tho. She says no and we ask her is she saw Sabine. She did see her.

-> First, Sabine went to the caldera, and tried to control the fires to empower herself, but could not. Glory then saw her running around in the valley looking for something. We ask if she knows what, and the tree tells us about the Firestones. Hundreds of years ago, then the mysterious meteor shower rained pandoric stones, many landed in Ashland. Along the years they collected the fire energy of Ashland, and their pink glow turning to orange, they have become Firestones. Sabine is probably looking for these.

-> The Soul Riders and MC run around Ashland to collect the stones before Sabine does. Two progression bars show your and Sabine’s stones collected. When you found all you can, you return to Ashfall village as the druids found some more firestone locations. You go out, get them and now you have more stones, than Sabine.

-> When you return to the village however, you find the Soul Riders locked in anti-magic nullification circles. They tell you Sabine came and she was stronger than the four of them and she kidnapped Avalon. Alex tells MC that you are the only one still strong enough to defeat her, that’s why she attacked them separately. Sabine called you all to the volcano to surrender or she throws Avalon into the volcano.

-> You five ride up to the caldera. Sabine is at the edge, holding Avalon with magic over the lava. She’d drawn five more anti-magic circles and orders you to stand in it and surrender. Your lives for Avalon’s. The Soul Riders and MC all do, their powers are useless now.

-> MC has a plan to play on Sabine’s weakness. You kneel before her and admit defeat, saying she was right, she achieved what Sands could not, succeeded where Katja failed and Dark Rider Malumi is really the strongest opponent. The Soul Riders look at you like you’ve lost your mind and their reaction sells it to Sabine, who lowers her guard. Then you push Sabine and blast her with lightning and reach out for Avalon, barely catching him. Sabine falls into the lava and as her concentration is broken so are her magic circles and the Soul Riders help you pull Avalon up. Alex says nobody tell Fire Glory, but I fripping hate this place.

-> You collect Sabine’s firestones and go back to the village. As you have no use for them, you take them all to Fire Glory. She is very happy and melts the ice blocking Frostfire pass, opening the final blocked path to Winterdale. You ride back there.

PART 2: The Fall of Pandoria

Spying:

-> With Sabine gone, Katja weakened and Darko hurt by his darkness creature the Keepers of Aideen decide it is the perfect time to strike. Council meeting in the Secret Stone Circle, making a plan for how to defeat Garnok. Fripp tells us that he found the weakest point of Garnok’s prison: the Pools of Pandemonium in Devil’s Gap. He tells us that as of right now, he is imprisoned between the dimensions, that’s how he is able to access both Earth and Pandoria and that is how he was able to get Darko out of there. We debate different plans, but no decision yet.

-> The Soul Riders gather in Fripp’s rooms below and say that Linda and MC should scout DC using visions. You sit down to meditate and a series of cutscenes take place. First you see Darko standing in front of the portal, talking to a shadowy figure in it. They talk about Garnok’s return approaching, but the plans have been set back, since Sabine fell. The dark figure says my return also nears, you just have to buy some time. Darko asks what strategy you suggest and the dark figure says: They are so trusting in each other, it is disgusting. Time for some doubt. Conquer and divide, sow discord, make them make a mistake.

-> Darko’s evil plan, what we don’t see, is to make the Soul Riders send Garnok to Pandoria, where he will gather even more energy, will be stronger than ever and will be able to finally anchor himself to Earth. Darko knows MC is spying in a vision and he stages a scene. MC and Linda see him and Jess talk about how they must stop the Soul Riders from banishing Garnok to Pandoria.

-> We tell what we have seen to Fripp, not knowing this is a trap. Fripp thinks it makes sense. We have to sacrifice one world to save the other. We tell this to the druids and they agree to the plan, believing Garnok will be powerless and unable to reach Earth anymore if we manage to banish him to Pandoria. However this decision really divides the good guys, as a lot of druids believe Pandoria is not evil, there are creatures living there and the Keepers swore to protect all life. Evergray doesn’t like it either: How would you feel if someone decided Earth has to go, just so your world can live?

-> Ydris appears: How indeed. I believe one would feel quite resentful towards said people and would swore never no help them with anything ever again. Some druids ask him how did he get in here, but he just point at the runestones. I am pandorian you imbeciles. Typical humans. You surround yourselves with the magic of my world, take what you want and let the rest rot. Don’t count on my help when Garnok comes to destroy you all. Zee rears and they vanish.

-> The druids still go ahead with the plan. MC and the Soul Riders are piecing together the ritual that they will use to imprison Garnok in Pandoria. You go to the libraries of Silverglade, Fort Maria and Pine Hill with Linda to study magic circles. You gather magical herbs with Lisa, practice portals with Anne and go to Pandoria with Alex to gather crystals.

-> Now you only need to go to Devil’s Gap and convince Sive to let you do this. Linda stresses the whole way how will you convince Sive to give up the ancestral home of the vala (even if they drew power from Garnok’s prison), but when you get there she’s nowhere to be found. The Chaos Vortex is worse, than ever, a storm is raging above the gorge and lightning strikes. MC goes well that was easy, but Linda says easy never meant anything good for the Soul Riders. You go back to Fripp to report that you are good to go. Your final quest is going with Anne to close all of the portals to Pandoria.

Devil’s Gap:

-> Arriving at Devil’s Gap: the team still debates wheater they should do this, but settle for yes, they won’t have another chance like this. Using the many narrow, winding stone pathways of the valley you draw the lines of the magic circle. At certain points you carve pandorian runes into the rock walls as makeshift runestones. You make the whole valley into a big magic circle to open the gate of the prison for a moment, then banish him to Pandoria. The success of your mission relies on the fact that he is technically still sleeping.

-> Once the magic circle is done, however, Garnok stirs. MC has to ride with each Soul Rider to four different points of the valley and help them activate a rune, before riding to the middle. While riding through the pathways Garnok’s tentacles appear (like in SSL 4 and when you escaped Pandoria after finding Anne). You activate the four runes and manage to ride to the middle to complete the ritual. Garnok roars, a portal opens and the dark presence leaves the Pools of Pandemonium and is sent to Pandoria.

-> The good guys think they have won, but trouble hits immediately. Darko appears on one of the rocks above you, laughing at how you fell right into his trap. He meddles with the spell. Linda and MC have a vision of Garnok turning Pandoria dark blue and purple, breaking the islands and laughing, deep as an earthquake rumbles through the doomed world.

-> You have to act immediately. MC and Anne open a portal to Pandoria and the Soul Riders go there to stop him from destroying all of Pandoria. Once he’s done, he will also come for Earth, your only luck is that he is too busy breaking Pandoria. Linda directs you to make a binding rune, similar to what you did in Devil’s Gap. Riding around, dodging his powers. You manage to contain Garnok in Pandoria, but the realm now answers to Garnok and tries to kill you. Escape from Pandoria, the portal is collapsing. Some sun circle druids sacrifice themselves, staying behind to stabilize the portal, while we escape.

PART 3: The Hope of Pandoria

War effort:

-> Pandoria is off-limits now. All the portals are closed and the locations are guarded by druids to alert us if anything tries to come through. Garnok is empowered by Pandoria and even through he cannot come to Earth, his evil magic can reach it. Garnok-effect appearing everywhere in Jorvik, the sieges led by Katja, Jess, or Darko. MC has to fight it with soul riding quests.

-> Chaos in Ashland, a fiery entity terrorizes the valley. The Soul Riders are sent there to investigate. Sabine returns as a flying fire-ghost entity(the ghost model is like in the picture in SSL 3's Pandoria) and she is really pissed at you. She joins the sieges.

-> This cannot go on, we need a plan. MC suggests to use Jessica. We need information, have to find out how to defeat this kind of void power and how to seal Garnok back to sleep. Jess has a rivalry with Katja and still wants to outdo her to show Garnok she is the stronger one. We organize an ambush: Anne is the bait. When she attacks her, all of us appear and say we just want to talk. We manage to strike a deal with her- in exchange for information, she will have a victory over us that Katja did not. Some druids and Anne are against this plan, but they have to make a sacrifice to have a chance.

-> Jess tells the info we need right away. Anne is suspicious, says she must be lying, why not wait until we fulfilled our promise? Jess says because she can count on the good guys being disgustingly honorable and if she told something useful, they will surely make good on their promise. Jess reveals that Pandoria can be saved if we bring Garnok back to Earth to his prison. The prison ship also used the dimension between world to keep him imprisoned. If we manage to do this, his generals will lose a good deal of power also. Linda still uses moon power to see the truth and announces that she’s not lying.

-> Agreeing on the plan: the Soul Riders are to attack the DC Barricade, pretending that we are trying to free the creatures and get the artifacts. Now we cause all kinds of havoc in DC territory. Katja and Jess arrive to protect it. MC and the Soul Riders have set a trap for Katja and we imprison her in a circle. As Darko arrives Jessica attacks us and we pretend to fall back to put on a show for him. Jess got a good point from Darko for defending the barricade, while Katja failed again.

-> We tell the information we got from Jess to Fripp and he agrees to the plan. We need to try and save Pandoria even if it means endangering Earth, as we cannot let another world be destroyed by Garnok. We just need to convince the druids of it when we get the chance.

Shadowfrost

-> Evergray calls us to meet in Valedale. Why hasn’t Sabine come back to her human form? Evergray suggests the Dark Riders can be defeated by the combination of their own power and their opposite Soul Rider’s. For Sabine it was fire and lightning. Jess must be defeated by darkness (in Pi’s swamp) and Anne, Katja by ice (in Dino vale) and Linda. We plan to make these happen. We split up: MC helps Anne and Lisa defeat Jess first, while Alex and Linda prepare to defeat Katja. If we manage they too will turn into elemental ghosts (shadow and frost), like Sabine. They will still be able to fight us, but without human consciousness, just as primordial powers. Until they get their bodies back, this will leave Darko alone in fighting us.

-> Anne and Lisa lure Jessica into Pi’s Cauldron Swamp, playing on her pride. Anne can go all in, make it seem like she gave in to hatred, then when Jess is sure she will win, Anne reveals Jess has walked into a trap pursuing Anne. She stepped in the darkness seal made by Pi, which draws power from Jess’s magic. Lisa, Anne, and MC focus their powers on Jess, she disappears, a dark ghost flies away from the swamp. This was the easy part.

-> MC, Alex and Linda go to Dino Valley, but Katja knows already what happened to Jess, she is angrier than ever. Finding her at the Ice Witch portal, she attacks us. 1st race through Dino: to lure her to the frozen lake, where we can fight her. 1st phase: Soul-riding-like bossfight in the frozen lake, Katja has a frost shield. Dodging icicles, Linda helps see where K’s magic will hit, so MC can dodge it, Alex shoots her shield with lightning. MC has to keep them ice-free, free them if they are iceblocked. Without Linda, MC can’t see where the ice will hit and without Alex it is only her shooting the shield. After removing half of her shield here, Katja starts breaking the ice on the lake.

-> 2nd race: to the higher valley, through the pine forest. The 2nd phase of the fight takes place amidst the ice columns, same fight, lightning strike her, remove her shield. She is defeated, but with the last of her power, summons illusions of many characters, hides herself as one of them. Linda and MC is find the one and point at it for Alex to blast it with lightning. When Alex turns, the illusion wears the body of James. Katja begs Alex as James not to hurt him, but Alex collects the storm from above the valley and lightning strikes her. A frosty ghost flies away. Cutscene: Darko roars and curses before the portal of DC platform as the three elemental ghosts hover before him silently.

Saving Pandoria

-> Soulriding stuff all over Jorvik, fighting the three Dark Rider entities. The Keepers try to agree on the plan. The options: A, Fully sever G’s connection to Earth and get rid of hom for now (he still may find a way back later) and let Pandoria die, or B, Save Pandoria by bringing Garnok’s full consciousness back to his Earth prison, just like Jess said. The alliance finally decides to try to heal Pandoria, sever Garnok’s link to it and defeat the monster on Jorvik for good.

-> MC and the Soul Riders are going to the Garnok-ruled Pandoria: instead of pink, it is dark blue now. We are trying to stay hidden and set up a base camp. Anne really hates being here, we have to talk her into not breaking We have to avoid Shadow Seekers and corrupted creatures. We manage to heal a small bit of Pandoria.

-> Darko notices this and comes to confront us. He siphons power from corrupted Pandoria and gives the Dark Riders their human bodies back. They are so empowered, they are just toying with us. We take part in the three bossfights for each of them, losing in each. Our Soul Rider partner magics us to safety every time, but ultimately, it seems like we have lost. Our Aideen magics start to weaken as Garnok gets stronger. His giant silhouette appears on the horizon in the distance in an epic shot.

-> MC still wants to try and fight Darko, but he blocks all your pathetic attempts at magic. The Soul Riders are on the ground, giving up. Even Lisa says all hope is lost. Then, Ydris appears with the Hope of Pandoria to save the day. For him it transforms from a fridge into a pink and golden blazing Sun and flies up to the sky its searing rays of light burning away garnok’s darkness. The low roar or a kraken reverberates from the distance.

-> Ydris combines his power with the Soul Riders’ and MC's, but Anne is still on the ground. He shouts at Anne: Stand up Sun of Pandoria and help us send him back to his prison! Concorde walks to her and holding onto Concorde, Anne is pulled to her feet. She guides the spell, and we banish Garnok from Pandoria completely, back on his prison ship on Earth, fully anchoring him to Jorvik. Darko and the Dark Riders are also sent back to Earth.

-> Linda walks up to Ydris to thank him, but he says he is still angry at them for doing this to Pandoria. He only helped the world, but still won’t ever help us again. Pandoria is accessible again, but parts are still corrupted and in ruins. Garnok is banished from Devil’s Gap and the Chaos Vortex disappears.

-> Victory, end of main storyline in Winterdale. You get a reward of the final 100 Star Coins upon returning to the Secret Stone Circle and the druids talk about possibly soon heading north to meet their brothers and sisters in Spring Valley.

TO BE CONTINUED!

THE OTHER PARTS:

SSO Rewritten 2nd Part: Springvalley https://www.tumblr.com/starshinedragon/716459529087401984/sso-rewritten-springvalley?source=share

SSO Rewritten 3rd Part: Summerplains https://www.tumblr.com/starshinedragon/726343248992419840/sso-rewritten-full-story-series-summerplains?source=share

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duckarchives · 5 months ago

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The story of bo6 season 2.

I know I didn't make a post explaining season 1, but I felt I needed to explain the second one because there are things in it that might bother some fans. But to give a quick summary of season 1, rogue black ops allied with a criminal faction known as the Syndicate to defeat the Luttazzi, one of the richest families in Europe and who had a partnership with Pantheon.

In the closing cutscene of season 1, we see that rogue's plan worked and that the Luttazzi lost in combat, but we see a mysterious soldier who was at the scene receiving a message from a pager showing the reward for the capture of Sevati and Marshall.

Now about the introductory cutscene of season 2, it takes place on 12/12/1991 and in it we see Sevati celebrating the victory they had against the Luttazzi with some allies, but everyone receives a message on the pager about the reward and then prepares to shoot Sev. But everyone is surprised when the lights go out and that mysterious soldier starts killing everyone. Sevati takes the opportunity to escape by throwing herself out of the window, and then we see the new character being introduced, Nocturne.

Look, I know he's going to be a very controversial character because of his appearance and such, but I admit that he didn't bother me that much because he could easily be a character straight out of cod comics, and I can say with certainty that the comics are far from realistic. Did I like him? No, but by COD standards he's pretty good.

And what's his story? He's a bounty hunter who comes from a family of assassins and was hired by the Luttazzi to kill the members of rogue black ops. Why do I feel like he's a character straight out of Mortal Kombat? Could this be a secret partnership between COD and Mortal Kombat?

Now about the maps.

・Bounty.

This map takes place on 12/12/1991 and is on the roof of a building that belongs to the syndicate, the same building that Sevati was celebrating in the opening cutscene. And if you're wondering how Sev survived the fall, she didn't jump straight into the street. If you follow her steps, you'll see that she jumped between the balconies of the building, as if she had done parkour there.

・Dealership.

The second map takes place in a dealership where people trade cars for weapons. It's like a part of Avalon's black market disguised as a dealership. The day after Bounty, the rogue goes to this place to get more weapons, but they end up being cornered by Nocturne and get into a fight.

In addition, there are two important Easter eggs in this map. One of them is a certificate given by the CIA to John Harrow, Jane Harrow's father. My theory is that John was killed because he was involved with Avalon's black market. The second easter egg is that most of the weapons are being provided by Barkov, the villain from mw 1 reboot. We've already seen references to Barkov in the company of bo6, now we have another one in multiplayer.

・Lifeline.

Now in this last map, in a desperate attempt to escape from Nocturne, the rogue ends up stealing a ship to try to escape from Avalon, but Nocturne ends up finding them and another shootout happens between them.

I hope this helped you understand the story of this season, I didn't talk about the other operators because only Nocturne is canon and in fact there are many things missing in this lore. But maybe I'll talk about it another day, have a good day and don't forget to drink water. (⁠＾⁠∇⁠＾⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♪

#call of duty #cod #cod bo6 #black ops 6 #bo6 spoilers #Any english mistakes sorry I wake up half an hour ago

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winter-leftovers · 1 year ago

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Til The End Of Eternity || Chapter twenty one: Coming Back (21/?)

(Douxie Casperan x f!reader)

Summary: Y/n is trying to figure her life out but is going to be hard since her brother is the new trollhunter and she is plagued by dreams and feelings she doesn’t understand.

Chapter Summary: Y/n recovers her memory. The search for the staff of avalon begins

Word count: 1661

Warnings: No

(Season 3 Episodes 6, 7)

Song?: Mother Stands For Comfort by Kate Bush

Previous - Next

Masterlist

Y/n holded the doorknob to the backdoor of her house until she felt her hot hand would melt the metal under it. After spending a couple days away in a remote part of the woods her memory came back.

Amongst the trees and the darkness, the old spell lifted, allowing all the old memories wash over her like water breaking through a dam. She could finally recall who she really was and why she was there in Arcadia, in the Lake’s home or at least why she thought her father would want her there: to help the first human trollhunter to fulfill his destiny.

All the pieces of her life came back and laid to rest in their designated place, all except one: the night she strayed from her old life to found herself in Arcadia as a child in Barbara’s arms. That rainy night is still foggy in her mind.

Finally, Y/n opened the door to an empty kitchen but to a full living room. Claire’s parents and Toby’s grandmother were sitting on the couch talking with Barbara.

She sighed, relieved, she hadn't figured out what she was going to tell her family about what she uncovered in the last couple of months and more people around could buy her a little more time.

“Hi,” she smiled, quickly walking to the stairs “I don’t want to get too close, I've been camping” Y/n chuckled.

Barbara walked up to her daughter before she could run upstairs.

“You don’t have to lie anymore. I remembered everything. I even put Claire’s and Toby’s parents up to speed” Barbara laughed.

“I’m not lying! You can smell my hair” Y/n smiled.

Barbara looked at her daughter. She could sense something about her was different but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Barbara always could read her daughter like the palm of her hand

“Something’s off” she frowned and grabbed her hand.

Y/n looked at her mother’s eyes, the only mother she ever had and gave her a genuine smile “I promise I’ll explain. Just not right now” she looked back at their guests.

Barbara nodded and squeezed her daughter’s hand

“You know that I’m always here, right, sweetie?”

Y/n nodded and let go of her mother’s hand to run upstairs to take a shower.

“I wasn’t finished. That’s deranged!” Blinky’s screams echoed through the hallway.

Y/n slowly opened Jim’s door and poked her head through it. The whole gang was there except for Aaarrrgghh with the new addition, Dictatious.

“You’re saying Jim should destroy his amulet ‘cause you think you saw some old man put a map inside of it?” Toby sounded like he was going to lose his mind.

“It was Merlin” insistes Claire “The key to finding his tomb, to finding his staff, is inside his amulet”

‘Yeah, that’s him’ though Y/n.

“The girl-child may be on to something. The amulet and the staff are connected” said Dictatious.

“Both fueled by the magic of Merlin” said Blinky.

“But if Jim breaks his amulet, he can’t armor up! And if he can’t armor up ‘Goodbye, Eclipse Blade!’ How’s he supposed to kill Gunmar?” Screamed Toby in desperation.

“If we don’t get the staff first, none of that will matter anyway” said Claire

“Maybe I don’t have to destroy the amulet. You said Gunmar has Aaarrrgghh captive?” Jim looked at Dictatious.

Y/n frowned.

“And Aaarrrgghh could be used as an emotional anchor” said Blinky.

“We’d portal jump right to him” said Claire.

“The plan is set. We save Aaarrrgghh and stop Gunmar by any means necessary before he acquires the staff”

“What’s going on?” Y/n entered the room.

“Y/n?” The kids screamed in unison.

“Who is that…?” Asked Dictatious

“Shh” Blinky hit his brother on the head “Y/n, where have you been?”

“Where’ve you been?” Jim hugged his sister tight.

“Yeah, I’ve been texting, I needed…ughh” Toby hugged her and took a step back “You smell awful”

“I miss you too but…Toby is right” Claire grabbed her free hand.

“I was in the woods. Doing some…spiritual work. It's a long story and from what I heard we don’t have time” Y/n scratched Jim's hair that was still hugging her.

“We really do not have any time” said Blinky.

“Do we have time to explain the new accent?” Toby lifted a brow.

“What?”

“You’re madonna-ing”

“I’m not. Shut up” Y/n frowned. Her memories had brought her accent back?

—

After taking a quick shower, Y/n came downstairs as the trollhunter team were saying their goodbyes.

“I’m coming with” Y/n announced “I’m not letting Blinky unsupervised”

Jim and Toby laughed.

Y/n hugged Barbara tight. Y/n whispered in her mother’s ear

“You’re the best mother I could ever have”

She quickly stood behind Claire before the tears started rolling.

“Part of the spiritual trip?” Jim smiled.

“Something like that” Y/n smiled back.

The five of them jumped through the portal to a dark ruin quickly finding Aaarrrgghh in a stasis trap.

“The work of Angor Rot” observed Blinky.

“Uhm, those are Dwarkstones. If we deactivate the stasis, this place is gonna blow” said Claire.

“Aaarrrgghh, my friend, they’ve used you as bait to kill us” screamed Blinky.

Aaarrrgghh groaned.

“We gotta get him out of there!” Screamed Toby in desperation.

“No, Wingman. You leave” said Aaarrrgghh

“No, we’re not giving up”

“Guys, I’ve got an idea!” said Jim.

Everyone turned to Jim.

“Okay. Toby drops the hammer, we drop into the room below” he points to the ground.

“The hammer’s power and weight might be enough to override the stasis trap or it’ll fail, Toby will disintegrate into nothingness, and we’ll die with the explosion” Blinky explained.

“Cool beans” said Toby.

“Charming” Y/n pated the trolls back.

“Even if it works, what if we drop into something worse?” Asked Claire, fear written all over her face.

“Than this? I’ll take my chances. Tobes, are you ready?” Jim crouched down.

“Ready to possibly kill us all and die in failure? Yeah” he took a deep breath before start running “For Aaarrrgghh”

Jim pushed Toby into the air, giving the hammer enough strength to break the floor and destroying the trap, making the team fall into a dark tunnel of nothingness.

Y/n felt her knees hit the hard floor, she looked up and saw Aaarrrgghh covering them from the rest of the debri falling from the trap.

“Is everyone alright?” Y/n asked once the rain of stones stopped falling.

Jim draw daylight to illuminate the dark room.

“Wingman” Toby threw himself to Aaarrrgghh.

“Wingman” Aaarrrgghh quickly reciprocated the hug.

The group laughed and followed the two, for a moment forgetting where they were.

“What is this place?” Blinky asked

“Smells old” Aaarrrgghh sniffed the humid air.

“Ah!” Toby tried to take a step forward, almost falling into the abyss.

“Remarkable” Blinky looked down “An ancient gyre”

The team went down to investigate the old artifact.

“Why would there be a gyre here?” Jim got into the gyre.

“It doesn’t even have controls” observed Blinky.

Y/n observed the cave with the help of little light that was able to shine through the broken ceiling. She walked around the gyre with a small smile on her face. Of course. She finally recognised the place. It was Douxie’s and her longest task.

“If I break the amulet it will lead us to Merlin’s tomb” Jim said.

Y/n stopped walking through the dark and dusty room, she turned her head back to the sound of her brother’s voice. She ran to the stairs and up to the gyre and saw Jim hit the amulet with Toby’s hammer.

For an instant, a blue light illuminated the room then disappeared as quickly as it came revealing the destroyed pieces of Merlin’s amulet.

Jim kneeled in front of the stone where the pieces rested and picked them up one by one

“No turning back now” he said.

“No turning back” Y/n whispered to herself, as she played with her bracelet.

She felt her stomach turn. She knew from the moment that she crossed that portal that there was no turning back but now, that notion is final. Her old and new life were going to crash and she wasn’t sure how that was going to go. She was nervous. She hasn’t seen her father in nine hundred years and she hasn’t told her friends about her identity yet.

Jim put the blue stone where the controls of the gyre should be and a warm blue light surrounded them, the gyre starting its travel.

Y/n started to breathe a little better as she felt Douxie’s old magic all around.

“If this is fate, I really hope we’re not destined to die” screamed Toby, grabbing Y/n’s hand as the machine started to gain speed.

—

“Whoa, a hidden entrance” Jim smiled as they crossed the waterfall.

“Yeah, but to where?” Claire walked close behind the trollhunter.

Y/n took a couple steps forward when she saw Toby starting to struggle with his war hammer. She didn’t want to be behind him when the ‘no-magic’ spell got to him.

“Why no war hammer magic?” Toby complained as the artifact fell to the floor.

“No magic here” Blinky translated the sign on top of the door “It appears this hallowed tomb is warded against sorcery”

“My shadow staff doesn’t work either” Claire tried to use her staff in vain.

“Hey, what’s that?” Y/n pointed behind the girl at the giant claw marks that shouldn't be there.

“These claw marks look fresh” observed Claire.

“Hmm. Yes, yes.” Blinky got closer “As if…a struggle”

“Draal” Aaarrrgghh said.

Y/n turned back and saw the troll holding a chain “There's no magic here. He’s free”

“Then we’re not just here for the staff. We can save Draal” Jim smiled at the idea of recovering their friend.

A/n: we’re getting closer to the part that inspired the series!!! Also!!! I fucking!!! Hate!!!! Summer!!!

Remember that reviews, love letters and death threats are always appreciated 💖

#tales of arcadia #douxie x reader #douxie #toa #trollhunters #hisirdoux casperan #hisirdoux x reader #my writing #Til The End Of Eternity

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is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not · 3 months ago

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Ryūga - THE LAST DRAGON'S CONFESSION

Canopian Zenith Recharge Station Islington System Two Days After Arrival - D-4

Ryūga Kurita had been in many places he did not belong. This was merely the latest.

The Canopian recharge and leisure station was vast, its winding corridors and identical maintenance hangars making navigation an ordeal even for the most disciplined minds. The sheer volume of troops, techs, and warriors from across the Star League Defense Force had turned it into a place of organized chaos, an unending flow of logistics, preparations, and maintenance as the war machine of Operation TOUCHDOWN prepared to descend upon Helios.

And yet, despite all their tactical brilliance, Ryūga, Reika, and Dahiya were lost.

“This is why we should have asked for a guide,” Reika murmured, folding her arms as she glanced around the foreign banners and insignias marking this section of the hangar.

“I thought you were following the map,” Dahiya countered with a smirk. “Guess the great Tai-sa Jurobei’s unparalleled sense of direction isn’t so unparalleled after all.”

Ryūga, walking a few steps ahead, exhaled sharply through his nose. The two were always like this, and at this point, he hardly noticed. His focus was on the ’Mechs in this hangar, because they were not his.

They belonged to the Knights Defensor. The warrior-monks of the New Avalon Catholic Church. The very same church whose leaders had been slaughtered on orders from Ryūga's predecessor, the hated Toranaga.

And at the center of the Knights, watching their misplaced entry with a calm, knowing expression, stood Pope Leo XXI.

For a man who bore the weight of faith upon his shoulders, he looked almost unassuming. Clad in the martial attire of a MechWarrior, he lacked much of the opulence many might associate with his station—though his cooling suit was certainly more embellished and ceremonial than most. There was an undeniable presence about him, the way his seemingly-ageless eyes assessed the three Kuritans with quiet intensity.

“You are quite far from where you are meant to be, Gunji-no-Kanrei," he said simply. His voice was smooth, controlled, neither warm nor cold. It was the voice of a man who weighed words as carefully as actions. Ryūga did not react immediately, instead meeting the Pope’s gaze head-on.

“We took a wrong turn,” Reika admitted, inclining her head slightly, her heterochromatic eyes flickering with curiosity. “We were looking for our ‘Mechs.”

Leo made a faint sound of acknowledgment, his hands clasped behind his back. “An easy mistake to make, given the sprawl of this station.”

Dahiya chuckled. “No wonder the Canopians use this place for leisure. If an invading force landed, they’d probably spend half the campaign just trying to find the command deck.”

The Knights Defensor in the hangar remained silent but watchful, their discipline unshaken. There was no hostility in their bearing, only intense curiosity. But Leo’s gaze never left Ryūga. A silence stretched between them. Finally, the Pope spoke again.

“You are the first Kuritan I have ever seen here,” he observed, voice measured. “And the first to stand before me, unbidden, since the massacre on New Avalon.”

The words were not a challenge. But they might as well have been. Reika and Dahiya glanced toward Ryūga, waiting for his response.

For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, at last, Ryūga exhaled slowly, his posture straight but not rigid, his expression calm but not indifferent. And then he spoke.

“I am not here as an enemy of New Avalon.”

Leo’s brow arched slightly, but he said nothing, letting Ryūga continue.

“I was not on New Avalon when my people put it to the sword,” Ryūga said, his voice even. “I did not give the order. I did not fire a shot. And yet, I carry the weight of that sin.”

Reika and Dahiya remained silent, watching their Kanrei speak words that no Kuritan leader had ever dared to say.

“I have no excuse,” Ryūga continued. “No justification. No denials. The Draconis Combine came to your world as conquerors, and in doing so, slaughtered those who could not defend themselves. That is the truth of it. I do not speak for my realm. I do not speak for my Coordinator. I speak for myself—as a warrior, as a man. And I offer you my personal apology for the sins of my people.”

The Knights Defensor in the hangar were still. Even Leo had stopped moving, his expression unreadable.

And then—Ryūga bowed. Deeply. Not a shallow tilt of the head, not a mere inclination of respect—but a full, formal bow of atonement, the kind few men of his station had ever given to anyone outside the Combine.

Reika and Dahiya followed, though not as deeply—as was appropriate.

A long silence followed.

When Ryūga finally straightened, Leo’s expression had not changed.

But his eyes had.

There was silence for several more seconds before the Pope spoke.

“You are the first of your people to say such words to me,” Leo said, his voice quiet but firm.

Ryūga merely inclined his head in acknowledgment. The Pope studied him for a moment longer. Then, after what felt like an eternity, he gave a single, slow nod.

“I will accept your words,” Leo said at last. “Not on behalf of the dead—for such things are beyond mortal hands—but on behalf of those who still live to hear them.”

Reika exhaled softly. Dahiya tilted her head, watching the Pope as if reevaluating him. Leo turned slightly, glancing toward the row of towering Defensor ‘Mechs behind him.

“If nothing else, Kanrei,” he continued, his tone lighter, “you have wandered into the right place to seek absolution.”

Ryūga allowed himself the faintest trace of amusement. “Then perhaps it was not an accident that brought me here.”

Leo’s expression was subtly knowing. “Perhaps not.”

The weight of history hung between them, but the moment was shifting. Not forgotten, but no longer so heavy. The apology had been given, and in its own way, accepted.

As the tension eased, Ryūga allowed himself a glance toward the towering ‘Mech standing vigil behind Leo XXI—his famous "Justicar." The Regent assault 'Mech's gold and white armor gleamed under the station’s artificial lighting, the gold filigree and sections of painted scriptures adding to its presence. The symbol of the New Avalon Catholic Church was proudly emblazoned upon its shoulders. It was a warrior’s machine, regal yet powerful, standing among the other ‘Mechs of the Knights Defensor like a sentinel of faith.

But what caught Ryūga’s attention was the large censer hanging from its left arm, swaying slightly with the subtle shift of the station’s spin-induced gravity.

He studied it for a moment, his emerald eyes narrowing slightly.

Leo caught his gaze and arched an eyebrow. “Something on your mind, Kanrei?”

Ryūga turned his attention back to the Pope, his expression unreadable at first. Then, with the faintest smirk, he gestured toward the censer.

“I must ask—can that be used as a melee weapon?”

Reika and Dahiya both turned to stare at him, as if questioning whether they had misheard.

For a second, Leo simply blinked. Then—he laughed. A rich, genuine laugh, not mocking, but thoroughly amused. It was the first true sign of mirth he had shown during the entire conversation. His Knights looked confused.

After a second or two of mirth, Leo managed to partially compose himself. “I had never considered that before,” he admitted, glancing toward his ‘Mech with a thoughtful expression. “But now that you mention it…”

One of the Knights Defensor nearby coughed lightly, clearly attempting to suppress his own laughter.

Reika crossed her arms, giving Ryūga a look of mild exasperation, though her lips twitched with restrained amusement. “Only you would look at a religious artifact and wonder if it could crush someone’s skull.”

Dahiya smirked. “I mean… it would make a hell of a flail.”

Leo clasped his hands behind his back, still clearly entertained. “I’ll have to bring the idea to my techs. Perhaps it could serve a more martial purpose. Divine retribution comes in many forms, after all.”

Ryūga’s smirk remained. “Then I look forward to seeing it in action.”

Leo shook his head, still amused, before his expression became once more composed, though the warmth in his eyes lingered. He inclined his head toward Ryūga, then toward Reika and Dahiya.

“This has been an unexpected meeting, Kanrei. But not an unwelcome one. The next time we meet, it will be in battle—hopefully on the same side.”

Ryūga gave a respectful nod in return. “May our blades never cross.”

“Indeed,” Leo said. Then, in a tone of measured courtesy, he added, “Go with honor, Ryūga-denka.”

With that, the three Kuritans turned and departed, leaving the Knights Defensor behind as they made their way to where their ‘Mechs actually were.

As they disappeared into the corridor, Leo found himself glancing back up at Justicar’s censer, watching it sway once more with the station’s rotation. He smiled to himself.

“I really should reinforce that…"

#battletech #mechwarrior #operation touchdown #ryuga kurita

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sekhisadventures · 3 months ago

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Deep Down Town

The Glittering Prize

It had been quite a night. Uh’kue had caught up with Shalandrae in Dornogal while the druid was heading into town with Aziguni to replenish the draenei’s supply of arrows and to buy a new herb pouch for herself after her old one had finally worn out on her. The zandalari woman had insisted on meeting with everyone she could and described the vision she and Orwenya had shared.

On their way back out of the caverns below Orwenya had sensed something in the Ringing Deeps and had split off to investigate, Uh’kue telling her she would relay her information to her allies and return.

A vision of hammers in the deep, a loud grinding sound, and what seemed to be strange machines…

Grimo had been particularly interested in this, something about what she described felt very familiar to the goblin, and the members of Avalon and Savage United had discussed this new business over dinner that night.

Afterwards, the group had all bedded down for the evening in the hold of the ship, the silence broken only by the occasional snore or the creak of a hammock, when Sekhi had sat bolt upright so fast she’d almost jumped out of her bed and cried out in shock.

The sudden shrieking sound of the vulpera had woken the rest of Avalon and Savage United and, after Nitika had managed to get the diminutive shamaness to calm down, she had explained that she had just felt the earth cry out deep below them. A huge crashing sound, like a giant bell slamming as hard as it could, had woken her out of her sleep.

The next morning Nelen and Grimo had gone into Dornogal to discover what they could and found that the new development was in fact the talk of the town. A cavern wall in the Ringing Deeps had collapsed and behind it were goblins. LOTS of goblins. A massive goblin operation was going on.

The two of them went back to the Glittering Prize straightaway to report what they had found out, and a plan was formed.

“We must look into this. I don’t know if its connected to Xal’atath and her followers evacuating Azj-kahet, but either way its something big.” nodded Nelen as he pointed to the southern end of a map of the Ringing Deeps.

Grimo nodded, his arms folded over his chest. “Yeah, I checked around with some of th’ Bilgewater boys in town and word is there’s goblins down there with a cartel nobody recognizes. Black armor ‘n weird ass weapons. Nasty ones.” he grunted. Some might assume a goblin would get offended if people thought a massive goblin operation was problematic, but Grimo knew better. That many goblins in one place could be a huge business venture… or it could wind up with the sort of ‘incident’ that leaves a dent in the planet. That and the idea of an unknown cartel worried him.

There were four major goblin cartels on Azeroth.

The Bilgewater Cartel was Grimo’s and its trade prince, what the goblins called the leaders of the cartels, was Monte Gazlowe, though he didn’t often use the title. Under his leadership the Bilgewater were becoming a haven for goblins, Azeroth’s first worker’s union. He encouraged dissent because he wanted to do right by his cartel, would insist on shouldering his own share of the load, and even offered fair pay and sick leave (a novel concept to goblin society.)

The Steamwheedle Cartel was based out of Gadgetzan and led by Marin Noggenfogger, a world-renowned alchemist and inventor of the famous Noggenfogger Elixir. His cartel was at the cutting edge of alchemical science, and they were credited with some groundbreaking work. Edwood was a very avid follower of their progress, being a member of the Grand Apothecary Society himself (what remained of it following the Blood War anyway.)

The Blackwater Cartel was based out of Booty Bay and its leader was Baron Revilgaz. A former pirate, he had turned legitimate, and these days was the de-facto master of shipping for all Azeroth, goblin or otherwise. For both the Horde and Alliance it was well known, no matter what you needed the Blackwater Cartel could get it to you if the price was right.

Finally, the Venture Company. Their leader had been killed during the Blood War and nobody really knew who ran the show now… but they had a horrible reputation among the Alliance and Horde, and even other goblins. Deforestation, strip mining, kidnapping, press ganging, nothing was off the table for the Venture Company.

The four goblin cartels were well established and had existed since before the opening of the first Dark Portal. The emergence of a fifth cartel would mean a goblin was styling themselves a new trade prince and either had somehow amassed a lot of capital without someone from the other four stepping in… or someone was helping them.

There were many worrying thoughts as to who that someone might be.

Nelen nodded, “Right, we need to investigate this. Grimo and I have already decided we’ll go… but I’d prefer to take several of us, six maybe. The rest of us can stay here until we have a better idea of whats going on down there and keep watch in case something happens in Khaz Algar proper.” he explained.

“I’ll join in matey.” grinned Edwood, “Goblin alchemy is somethin’ I’m always keen ta learn more about, ‘n ye might need someone who ain’t afraid ta fight fire with fire, aye?” chuckled the forsaken man as his imp Guzzle cackled and kicked his legs from his usual seat on Edwood’s shoulder.

“I’ll come too.” nodded Samantha, “I did a few ‘corporate espionage’ jobs for the cartels back when I was in the Horde and…” she paused as a tendril in her hair twitched a few times, “… Annulus says that she feels like something big is happening down there. She wants to see it for herself.” she frowned.

Galdia grinned, “If there is somethin’ big happening then I want in!” she laughed, “I’ve been bored without any nerubians to fight anyway!” the orc flexed her arms, her muscles pressing out against her skin.

Nelen nodded, “That may not be a bad idea… a sturdy melee fighter may come in handy…” he replied, sharing a glance with Grimo as they both shared the same thought. If there was trouble down there, the best way to deal with it was to point Galdia at it and stand out of the splash zone until she was done. “Anyone else?” asked the magus.

“Weeeeeeeeeell…” came a voice with a thick southern drawl. “Ya’ll said th’ goblins are down there… ‘n they’re th’ ones that made that Kaja-cola stuff, right?” asked Zhan-min. “If there’s one thing I’d never gotten a chance ta try in my brewin’, its kajamite.” he chuckled, “So if ya’ll don’t mind me taggin’ along…”

Grimo’s eyebrow rose at that, “… hm… elementally infused kajamite beer…” he grinned, stroking his chin as his stubble made a rasping sound against his gloves. “… now that sounds like a business venture I’d like to be part of!” he grinned widely.

Nitika snorted in an annoyed way but just rolled her eyes at him. Zhan-min would be the one actually experimenting with it, and at least his track record of ‘oops I blew it up’ was a lot better than Grimo’s.

It wasn’t zero… but Jaie had survived and recovered, so she’d take that.

Nelen nodded, “Alright then, gather what you need today. Tomorrow we’ll head down into the Ringing Deeps and see whats going on.” he said as the meeting broke up.

The Next Day…

The six adventurers had traveled down into the Ringing Deeps and found a massive goblin undertaking was well underway, even more than they’d heard rumors of! With Samantha’s help they’d snuck past a hastily constructed toll checkpoint, the void elf using Annulus’ power to hide the group from sight, and after she had stolen some paperwork from the local goblins Nelen had managed to forge them proper documentation.

With Grimo acting as their recruiter for a business venture on behalf of the Bilgewater Cartel they were able to enter the work site and upon reaching the end of it, Grimo’s eyes lit up.

Right there, built into the wall, was a massive rocket on rails set into a tunnel leading deep into the bowels of Azeroth.

“It can’t be…” whispered the goblin as he stepped forward, “That’s… that’s what we’d use on Kezan to…” he grinned widely, his sharp pointed teeth visible as his lips pulled back. “Guys, we gotta check this out!” he nodded.

The others glanced among themselves, but before they could stop him Grimo had jogged up to the goblin manning the controls and presented the forged credentials… along with a few gold coins to help ‘grease the wheels.’

The rocket’s operator shrugged and quickly pocketed the coins, then nodded. “Right, passage for six it is then buddy. Get yer team aboard ‘n hold on tight.”

Grimo looked back at the group and waved, “C’MON YOU MOOKS! TIME’S WASTIN’!” he shouted as the others quickly followed him, a hatch opening on the side of the rocket as he quickly ducked into it and took the most comfortable chair (and the only one with a safety belt.)

Nelen and the others squeezed inside, the rocket was rather cramped for non-goblins, as Nelen took a seat on what looked like a wooden kitchen chair bolted to the floor. “Grimo, what exactly is going on?” he asked.

Grimo smirked, “Ed, remember how I was talkin’ about th’ Undermine back in Mmarl?” he asked as the forsaken man tried and failed to make himself comfortable on a large beanbag chair.

“Uh, aye?” he asked as Zhan-min managed to squeeze onto two lawn chairs stuffed next to each other with great difficulty.

“Well, this is how we would get there! Unless I’m wrong, this rocket is goin’ straight to th’ Undermine!” replied the goblin.

At this point the group noticed just how excited Grimo looked, and it slowly sunk in they’d followed him inside of something known for going very fast and exploding.

“Uh… is it too late to lea-…” began Samantha as she tried to rise from the easy chair she’d picked, just as the hatch on the rocket slammed shut and locked with an audible click.

A speaker built into it crackled and a goblin’s voice said, “Express rocket from Khaz Algar to Slam Central Station departing in ten, nine, skip a few, ZERO!”

A moment later there was a tremendous explosion and several of the chairs came unbolted from the floor as the rocket shot off at the kind of speed normally reserved for bullets.

Edwood and Zhan-min were slammed hard against the back wall as the sheer force of speed pinned them in place, unable to move at all! Samantha and Nelen clung to their chairs for dear life as Galdia let out a whoop of excitement and gripped her armrests as hard as she could. Grimo let out a similar cheer, holding onto his seatbelt half from excitement and half to make sure it didn’t come undone as the rocket sped off through the tunnel!

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FEL IS GOING ON?!” demanded Nelen as he felt his eyes slowly press back in their sockets. He could swear it felt like the rocket had gone upside down several times, but the speed prevented it from stopping.

“JUST HOLD ON TIGHT ‘N TRY NOT TO BITE YER TONGUE OFF!” called Grimo back to him as their ride thundered along, a loud BANG from behind them filling the air as the rocket suddenly, impossibly, picked up speed!

“KEELHAUL IT ALL GRIMO! I CAN’T FECKIN’ MOVE!” shouted Edwood as he tried to move from the back wall but only managed to twitch one bony finger.

“ME NEITHER! THIS THING IS WORSE ‘N A MAD MUSHRAN!” yelled Zhan-min, his face pressed back to reveal his fangs as the force of their movement kept him immobilized as well!

“GOOD! YER SAFER THAT WAY!” called Grimo back to them, “JUST HOLD ON! IT SHOULDN’T BE MUCH LONGER!”

“MUCH LONGER UNTIL WHAT GRIMO?!” cried Samantha, gripping the armrests of her chair so hard her knuckles were turning blue, the tentacles in her hair thrashing around in panic.

Then the radio crackled again.

“Arrivin’ in Slam Central Station in three… two…” it said.

SLAM!!!

Grimo bounced forward as Galdia and Samantha managed to hold onto their chairs enough to keep from getting thrown out of them. Nelen smashed into the back of Grimo’s chair with a loud wolf like yelp of pain, as above them came a loud scream as both Edwood and Zhan-min shot over the rest of them to crash into the front of the rocket’s compartment before landing on the floor in a heap of fur and rotten flesh.

“We have now arrived at Slam Central Station, downtown Undermine. Mind the gap as you leave and thank you for choosing Rocketbus Transport.” the speaker said in a cheerful goblin woman’s voice as the hatch opened.

Grimo unbuckled his seatbelt and hopped out with a grin, jogging outside as Galdia leapt up and followed him, laughing at the wild ride they’d just experienced. Samantha followed rather more shakily than her, but unhurt, as Nelen stumbled out and winced, gasping as he held his arm. He could feel a bruise forming.

“Gordrin’s fangs that was insane… Zhan-min, could I trouble you for some healing mag-…” he began, but the large pandaren man shoved him out of the way, looked around, spotted a trash receptacle, and ran forward to it before sticking his head over it. A moment later his shoulders and back heaved as he retched loudly.

Edwood stumbled out, clicking his jaw back into place as he did. “I don’t blame ‘im… worse ‘n sailin’ through a typhoon that was…” muttered the warlock as he snapped his fingers, Guzzle appearing on his shoulder in a woosh of felfire. He’d unsummoned him just before the rocket had taken off and was convinced his imp would have been a smear on the wall inside if he hadn’t.

Galdia and Grimo had left their companions back on the Glittering Prize, reasoning a smaller team would be able to move faster, and Nelen would be able to open a portal for them if necessary.

“So… where the fel are we…” muttered Samantha, looking rather queasy herself after that as Zhan-min staggered upright and coughed a few times as they took in their surroundings properly.

They were standing in a massive building with several other rockets identical to the one they’d arrived in set up for passengers, several dozen goblins milling about. Some of them looked rather amused and Samantha caught a few of them saying things like ‘hah, must be their first time’ and ‘looks like their bear couldn’t take the speed eh’ and such… and then they saw the exit, and what lay beyond it.

Nelen adjusted his glasses, the pain in his arm momentarily forgotten as he and the others stared. Ahead of them was Grimo, grinning ear to ear. “Guys, welcome to th’ Undermine! Goblin Capital o’ Azeroth!”

Ahead of them was a gigantic city like none they’d ever seen before. They’d seen goblin buildings sure, small squat things made of sheet metal and riveted together mostly… but this city had roads made not of cobbles or bricks but some smooth paving that they didn’t recognize. The buildings were massive, easily five or six floors tall on average, and the windows were lit up brighter than any candle flame could manage. Neon signs hung off every other wall, flashing and flickering and sometimes sparking (though they probably weren’t supposed to do that) in all colors of the rainbow.

Down the path from the station, visible in the distance, was a gigantic building easily three times as tall as any of the others, and beyond it was an even bigger one with huge spotlights infront lighting up the cavern (though it was so far away they couldn’t make out any details.)

There was no sky above them, no stars or clouds, just a dark cavern ceiling held back by metal reinforcements… and along the streets thundered massive machines. Goblin vehicles like a carriage without horses that raced through the city at breakneck speed. They had seen Grimo’s deathwheel and flying machine, but these were new…

Grimo sniffed and wiped a tear from his eye, “Ah man I haven’t been back here since I was just a little squirt…” he sighed wistfully, “C’mon, first stop is the Incontinental Hotel. I remember th’ way.” he nodded as he started off through the city, the others hesitantly following him.

The group set out through the city, the other five a bit more hesitant than Grimo as they tried to take in the bizarre sights around them. Take a group of people from a world like tenth century Earth, where people still thought the water wheel was a neat invention, and drop them unceremoniously into any borough in modern day New York City, and the reaction wouldn’t be entirely dissimilar. Even for people who had traveled to other worlds and seen the technological wonders of the Draenei, this was a shock.

Grimo pulled a cigar out of his pocket and bit the tip off, lighting it with a match before taking a long pull and exhaling a cloud of smoke through his nostrils. He just couldn’t stop grinning. This felt like homecoming to the goblin, returning to your childhood neighborhood (though that was still buried under lava rock on Kezan, he’d only ever visited the Undermine as a child.)

“Its been too damn long… This is th’ beatin’ heart of Goblin Society guys. A city built by th’ cartels, for th’ cartels.” he grinned, “This is where business happens, where invention happens, where everything happens!”

Samantha however looked around with a frown, “Doesn’t seem like much of that is happening Grimo…” she warned.

“Eh?” asked the goblin, looking over his shoulder at her.

“Annulus says something here feels wrong… and… she’s not a void creature, but she was in the void long enough to be able to become like one. She can sense emotions. Annulus says this place is heavy with… despair, desperation… misery…” she frowned.

The goblin slowed, looking back at her, “Well yeah. Being in th’ cartels is a cutthroat business. Deals can turn sour ‘n fortunes can vanish overnight. Shit happens.” he grunted.

“Worse than that.” replied Samantha, “She says its here. The black blood. She can sense it all around us…” she warned.

Then a loud gasp of pain came from a nearby alleyway. The group’s heads turned towards it as everyone’s hands went to their weapons out of instinct. In the alleyway was a group of goblins beaten black and blue, three massive hobgoblins in black armor standing over them.

“Boss says youse gotta pay what youse owe!” snarled one of the huge creatures as he cracked his knuckles.

“B-be reasonable man! We don’t got any moolah left! We paid all we had last week!” stammered one of the goblins, blood running down his chin from where one of the hobgoblins had kicked him in the teeth.

“Ain’t our problem greenbean…” sneered another, “Youse don’t pay, youse gonna bleed.”

The third chuckled, reaching back for his weapon… then pausing as he felt something on his wrist. He grunted, trying to pull his arm free, but found he couldn’t move it. “Huh?” he frowned, looking behind him only to see a fist in orcish armor come speeding the other way and with a sickening crunch it smashed his nose in half and crushed it into his face!

The hobgoblin fell to the ground and roared in pain as the other two spun around to see Grimo, Nelen, Galdia, Edwood, and Zhan-min glaring at them. Grimo’s rifle was trained on the head of the lead hobgoblin and Nelen was already in his worgen form, arcane energy crackling across his claws. Zhan-min’s maces were ready, flames swirling around one as wind howled around the other, and Edwood was holding a ball of felfire.

Galdia cracked her knuckles, then drew her sword and slid her arm into her shield’s straps, growling. “Only cowards attack people who ain’t gonna fight back… am I gonna be killing cowards today?” she snarled, baring her fangs and tusks.

The two remaining hobgoblins scowled and one of them pulled a strange gun from his back, the other drawing a massive sword. Both weapons had canisters attached to them, the gun for an ammunition cartridge and the sword having it built into the flat of the blade with hoses attached to the metal.

“Youse must be new in town…” growled the hobgoblin, “If youse is dumb enough ta take on th’ Darkfuse Cartel!”

Galdia grinned widely, “You don’t know half of what we’ve fought, you’re just extra-ugly ogres to me!” she laughed, raising her sword as she prepared to charge, “LOK’TAR OGA-…” she roared, then suddenly there was a burst of shadows behind the two as Samantha and Annulus appeared. The ren-dorei’s blades were a blur as she slashed across the hobgoblin’s jugular as Annulus drove her own shadowy copies of Sam’s weapons into the ribs of his fellow.

The lead hobgoblin fell to his knees as his sword crashed to the ground, his eyes wide as he slapped his hands to his throat to try to stem the flow of blood, but it spurted out from between his fingers as he fell forward, the other one’s jaw falling open as a spurt of crimson shot out of it, his lung punctured and collapsing as he fell onto his side. Within seconds both were still.

Samantha let out a breath as Annulus’ temporary body vanished in a puff of shadowy motes, “That was close… yeah, guys, don’t fuck with them.” she warned, “Annulus figured out what she’s sensing, their weapons are…” she began to explain, then there was a sudden flash of crimson behind her, the ren’dorei’s eyes going wide.

Galdia was a blur, the mag’har tackling the elf out of the way as the others dove to the side as a blast of dark red energy shot between them and slammed into the wall of a building… and melted a hole through it!

The third hobgoblin, the one that Galdia had punched, was sitting up and holding a gun of his own. He growled and tried to take aim again but before he could there was a loud BANG and the hobgoblin froze, his eyes crossing as he tried to see the gaping hole between them, his jaw falling open, then slowly his body accepted ‘welp, I guess I’m dead’ as he fell backwards. Grimo blew smoke from the barrel of his rifle, then nodded.

Galdia stood up and helped Samantha to her feet, the orc grunting in annoyance at the sneak attack. “Forgot how thick those thing’s skulls are. Anyway, weapons are bad?” she asked.

Samantha took a deep breath, then shook her head, “Worse… look close at the ammo cartridge on that gun.” she nodded to Grimo.

The goblin holstered his gun and walked forward, then leaned in and swore as he suddenly jumped back. “Fuckin’ fel! That thing is full of black blood!” he shouted.

There was a groan from nearby and the others tensed, then relaxed as they saw the goblins who had been attacked by the trio of hobgoblins huddled in the corner.

“Zhan-min?” asked Nelen.

“On it.” nodded the shaman as he holstered his weapons and took out a small totem that swirled with the pure clean energy of water. Zhan-min stepped forward, then began channeling it into the goblins, focusing on healing the worst of their injuries… but it was slow. He was more of a fighter, nowhere near as good at healing as Sekhi or Nitika.

“You shouldn’ta helped us…” muttered the goblin who had been arguing with the hobgoblins when they arrived. “It’ll be worse next time. We’ll be lucky if they don’t kill us…” he grumbled miserably.

Grimo frowned, stepping forward, “If who don’t kill ya?” he asked, “What th’ fuck was all that? Darkfuse Cartel? Black blood weapons?” he asked.

The goblin stared at Grimo, his eyes darting over his face as if wondering if he was screwing with him, “… shit… shit you’re serious. You had no idea…” he gasped, “Oh fuck you guys should go to Slam Central ‘n get th’ fuck outta the Undermine before their boss finds out.”

Grimo snorted, “Buddy, me ‘n my crew are veterans of a lotta bullshit. Who’s their boss?” he asked.

The goblin glanced at the wall of the building behind them, then pointed up at a poster on it. Grimo’s gaze followed his finger, then his eyes bulged as the remaining cigar fell from his mouth onto the pavement below.

On the wall was a poster showing a large heavyset goblin man in a vest and tophat with several chins, pointing at the viewer. Under it was the following: “Join the Darkfuse Cartel today! Great benefits! Cutting Edge weapons! We won’t kill you!”

Below that, in large bold print, were the words: “Trade Prince Gallywix wants YOU!”

“… Jastor…” whispered Grimo in shock.

Jastor Gallywix, former leader of the Bilgewater Cartel. The goblin who had revealed the secret of Azurite to Sylvannas Windrunner which had led to the Blood War, who had vanished from his home in Azshara when Sylvannas had abandoned the Horde to flee to the Shadowlands.

Grimo snarled in fury, then pulled out his gun, leveled it at the poster, and with a loud BANG the face of the goblin on it was replaced with a scorch mark surrounding a bullet hole in the wall behind it.

Jastor Gallywix had also attempted to enslave the majority of the Bilgewater Cartel when they fled Kezan as Mount Karajo erupted during the Cataclysm, including Grimo. It was only by blind luck, sheer nerve, and the intervention of Thrall himself that they had wound up joining the Horde instead, the orcish shaman intimidating Gallywix into abandoning his plans.

Grimo gritted his teeth, all excitement at returning to the Undermine gone in an instant. The Darkfuse Cartel had power, they had the black blood, and their leader… he’d overheard from Gazlowe and some of the other goblins that the Undermine had changed for the worse, but he didn’t want to believe it.

But he couldn’t deny this.

If Jastor Gallywix was in charge down here, then all the stories he’d heard about the Undermine going rotten were true…

#warcraft #warcraft fanfiction #adventures in azeroth #world of warcraft #the war within

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