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It was inevitable

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[Parisbre56]

Hey! People who are not on a mission and/or people who want to join!
Sorry for disappearing without a word. Any of you still around and willing to go on a mission with this stupid GM?

Campaign Recap

Ike follows the Headwater up a couple of floors and into the meeting room, a large circular chamber with benches surrounding a circular pool of clear water, its unnaturally still surface acting like a polished mirror. The Headwater takes a seat in an elevated bench and invites Ike to sit next to him. They don't have to wait long for the room to fill, as important looking men (and a few women) start arriving all at once, as if obeying some unheard signal. Many are accompanied by students or friends or assistants, but when it looks like the meeting is about to begin, those are dismissed. It is during this time that Ike notices a familiar yet disconcerting smell. While the implications of said smell are not good, he decides to keep his concerns to himself for the time being. After all, the smell disappeared after the doors were sealed and before he could identify its source.

The Headwater rises and makes a motion for the number of people around the pool (around 40 of them) to be quiet. He begins with a quick blessing, asking for the thoughts of those gathered to be as clear and free of taint as the waters of this pool, before moving on to the reason he has called for this meeting. The men and women in their colorful robes listen thoughtfully as he explains that this stranger from a foreign land has a story that is as fascinating as it is disturbing, a story that they should at least listen to, if not believe, for Ike is a man that wears the legendary armor of the First King. Already some of the members of the small crowd start showing signs of surprise and disbelief, murmuring amongst each other, unable to contain their questions. In order to quiet any doubting voices, at least for a little while, he asks them to try to listen to the entire story before asking questions and coming to conclusions.

With that, he invites Ike to take the stand and recount his story to the people of the meeting. Ike rises to stand where the Headwater previously stood, while the Headwater moves to the bench to rest his aching bones. Ike greets those gathered and states his name, testing the acoustics of the room in the process. He notices that much like when the Headwater was speaking, the water of the pool vibrates in tune with his voice, amplifying it without making it unpleasantly loud. He muses that this is a useful enchantment to have in this room where old men try to listen to other tired old men speak. Tired, but not helpless, he reminds himself, as with their powers combined it would most likely be easy for them to drown him or freeze him or maybe even pull the water straight out of his blood if they so wished. With those cheery thoughts for encouragement, he begins his story where most stories start, at the beginning.

Spoiler: Recap: Part 1: General Information (click to show/hide)

He is, of course, like most people, limited by the fact that he has only his memories and knowledge to draw on. He is limited by the amount of time and attention he spent listening to his comrades. And finally he is limited by his own particular way of speaking, the way he regards other people and how he wishes for them to regard him.

That is why he cannot tell how Nikolai was born on a post apocalyptic world, how his experiences have given him the compulsive need to cover his face with his gas mask, how he was taken from this world by a capricious young goddess that calls herself Violet to be used for her amusement (and her secret plans to find her place amongst the other gods). He knows that, like all the other "players", he was forced by those gods that abduct them to participate in the Games, but he cannot exactly say how Nikolai distinguished himself with his ingeniouity and tenacity in a fight against a possessed giant robot. However, he can say that he is a man blessed with the special ability to Tsar objects, rendering them larger, stronger, meaner and much less efficient while also repairing them. And he knows that after his drunken adventures last night, he has managed to gain the ability to Tsar two objects at the same time, though he still doesn't understand why.

He also cannot speak about how Irine's world used to look, about the caverns and the magma pools and the various creatures her god-self had created. He doesn't know who destroyed this world and why they did it anymore then she does. He doesn't know what it feels like to be the broken avatar of a dead god from a destroyed world. He doesn't know how a kind goddess called Stellar came to find Irine and rescue her from destruction or why that same goddess was forced to submit Irine to the Games. He doesn't know of the deal Irine made with Charlie (the dark god who created the Games) to help that goddess or how that deal is connected to their current mission of the Games. What he knows about her with any degree of certainty is that she can go from fox to girl and somewhere in between and can control and generate fire.

Then there is Zechariah, whose backstory he hasn't really paid much attention to. He remembers something about him leading groups of people in some sort of interdimensional war or something like that and him sacrificing himself to aid his comrades. But instead of dying or becoming hopelessly lost in that space between spaces that is somehow more and less than real space, he was taken by the goddess he named Scion, an arrogant entity who values power above all else (or so she says, anyway). He uses his staff Joma to create somewhat solid illusions out of darkness or constructions out of hardened light. He also has wings that allow him to glide but Ike hasn't seen him use them much.

Theri is similar to Zechariah in some aspects of her character, in the sense that she too has an innately good nature sometimes clouded by self-doubt, however that's where the similarities end. Unlike Zechariah, she never led any great war. She would have led a life common to most other people in her world, if it wasn't for the fact that she was born with the silver fur, ears and tail of a fox and then left on a shrine to be found and raised by humans. Though she faced the worst of human behavior due to how she looked, she also came to find good people, people who led her to the path of the healer and fighter, people who led her to be hopeful and try to see the good in others and in the world. Though Ike doesn't know many details about all that, he knows that she uses her knowledge, training and physical might to aid the party any way she can. And he also knows that she willingly follows the being known as River, the wolf-man that has led them all to this long-lasting mission.

And then there's people he might not even want to know about. Who can say what madness might lie in the memories of Alan, a man chosen by the mad and bloodthirsty god of chaos he named Rhymerer? He knows that Alan is definitely a wildcard. His less than average body makes him bad at physical activity and his behavior and carelessness might have gotten him in trouble more than once, but his raw magical power and utility along with his sudden flashes of brilliance and competence (and blind luck) tend to make up for it. His has the special ability to summon and launch common (and sometimes enlarged) household items at high speed, while keeping them supplied with whatever they need to function for a short time.

Finally, there is Ike himself, a big-eared man with powers of hearing and smell as incredible as his dexterity and reflexes, aloof and to the point. He probably wouldn't want to share much about his life before being abducted by Roger D. Drake, a god that likes to make jokes and have fun with little care about what happens to everyone else. However, D. can also be fierce and helpful to those he likes and this is never more apparent than it when it comes to Stellar. For before his vastening, before he became a god, he bonded with Stellar as only a bond-former can.

Bond-formers are a species whose members do not conform to any single shape or behaviour but are instead characterized by the powerful bond they can create between its soul and another 'worthy' soul, whatever that means. The bond can almost never be broken and lasts until the bond-former dies (and even then it does not fully disappear). Like a beneficial parasite, a symbiote, the bond-former uses the bond to strengthen both of them, with strength, advice, magical abilities, emotional support... really anything, depending on the bond-former and its bond-mate. And, as it happens, bonds are an important theme on this mission.

The being called River, the one who proposed this mission, is also a bond-former bonded to the god called Charlie. (Or, more accurately, his other-self with which they share the same soul, the being called Darkstar, he had bonded with Charlie.) Unlike Darkstar, River takes the form of a wolf or a wolf-man. But much like Darkstar, he has very specific ideas about how his species should act. His beliefs can generally be described as 'bond-formers help their bond-mates by giving them what they need', but with a very loose interpretation of the words 'help' and 'need'. And he is not content with keeping those beliefs to himself.

It somehow came to River's attention that another of his kind had done something abhorrent: he utterly devoured the one it had bonded with, completely destroying its bond-mate's soul and its bond with it. River calls that being a Severer, for it severed its nigh-unbreakable bond. This act wasn't an act of wanton murder: it was beaten in a challenge and compelled to form a bond, as is the way of bond-formers. However, rather than accept this outcome, it waited until it could preform a sneak attack and devoured its bond-mate in a desperate attempt to regain its freedom. Nevertheless, River took it upon himself to bring said bond-former to justice. His justice. And for that, he organized this mission in order to seek him out and do what must be done.

So it was that River led Ike's group from that world between worlds (and missions) called the Staging Area to the world they currently reside in, professing his desire to 'help' them and have fun together as the reason for bringing them along. He claimed it would be a quick and easy mission and that they wouldn't have to do much.

Ike takes a short break from his speech to take a drink from the cup of water next to the stand. He also uses this opportunity to appraise the state of his audience. Already Ike can see the people around the pool discussing amongst themselves in disbelief or dissent. A man with light brown robes takes this opportunity to rise from his bench and voice his objections.
"I am sorry but I simply must object! Positing the existence of multiple worlds is utterly ridiculous. It is well known that the principle of Weak Alignment prohibits the simultaneous..."
At the same time, Ike's keen sense of hearing allows him to hear a man in a red robe issue warnings to the ones surrounding him.
"Letting beast-men and half-elves take the stand? This is unbecoming of civilized men. We should keep the gates of our minds guarded and ready to rebuff the lies and deceit we will be forced to listen to."
There are murmurs of assent from all around him. A woman in yellow in particular seems quite eager to agree.
"You are right. This is more evidence of what you've been saying. The Headwater is clearly losing-"
At that point the Headwater rises to silence all those little private conversations (and the heated debate about the nature of the universe between the previously mentioned man in brown and a woman in violet). Much like children being chastised by their teacher, the gathered people stop speaking amongst themselves for a moment and then immediately resume speaking (albeit more quietly) the moment the Headwater's attention turns elsewhere. He invites Ike to continue his story, which he does.

Spoiler: Recap: Part 2: Relay Rumble (click to show/hide)

It was immediately apparent that things would not go as planned. In order to escape the notice of other gods (the ones they call Outsiders), the entities responsible for the Games relay the players through dying worlds and pocket dimensions, places that are of little value to them and wouldn't mind having anything happen to them. It was in one such dying world that the players ended up in, instead of their destination. The relay got attacked before it could forward them to their final destination, stranding them on the now malfunctioning complex. The complex was a small, bare-bones thing that was never meant to be used by the common man.

River immediately set to work, using his abilities, magic and understanding of the complex's technology to try to repair the relay. Irine acted as a buffer, merging her mind with River's in order to allow him to interface with the complex's superheated core. Meanwhile, the rest of the party  explored their surroundings, discovering the pulse reactor that provides the massive amount of power necessary for the teleporter's operation and taking a look at the barren wasteland outside of the complex.

One of the systems that failed due to the attack was the relay's defensive systems. Taking notice, the last remaining denizens of that dying world immediately converged on it. They were starved and power-hungry parasites, lusting for the nourishment they could find inside, being drawn like moths to a flame.

While River and Irine worked on repairs, the rest fought to repel the tentacled monsters. During this encounter, they discovered that the parasites could take control of people by wrapping their tentacles around them. And, astonishingly, there were fresh-looking humans under their control.

During River's repairs, he discovered something that caused him great distress. Stuck in the broken remains of the teleporter was a broken, avatar of Roger D. Drake, who had followed them due to his desire to help Stellar and the players (with Ike and Irine being his main concerns). But with this unsanctioned intervention, D. broke the rules of the Games, an act that carries severe punishment. Wanting to help and protect his friend and rival and with little time to think, River immediately broke contact with Irine and worked on absorbing the remains of Roger's avatar, consuming the unimportant parts to regain his strength so that he can compete the repairs. The only thing Irine managed to see in River's thoughts was that there was 'something like him' there. The only explanation she received was a warning not to speak about this to anyone.

With the relay's defenses restored, the group has some time to breathe and finish off the parasites, which included a woman who could use magic. River states that while he has repaired the teleporter, without the advanced calculation capabilities of his synthetic 'brother' S0, he is unable to exactly define the teleport destination. They could risk the unfocused jump but there was also another alternative. Through the relay's sensors and the knowledge gained from partially devouring the (now dead) woman the parasites had captured, he determines there is an active portal leading to the capital of a kingdom which is located relatively close to their destination. Though this route was harder, it would lead them close to an area River was somewhat familiar with as opposed to a more or less random location.

The group decided to go through the portal, both because it was more certain, quicker and out of a desire to help the people of that land by stopping the invasion (and desperate escape) of the parasites of this dying world.

There are more little private conversations cropping up, most of them about how unbelievable this all sounds, but they are interrupted before  they manage to gain momentum. The Headwater is quick to support Ike, stating that what little info they have of what happened at the capital prior to the incident confirms the invasion of those parasites and confirm their point of origin was the Fire Tower. However, as the doubtful are quick to point out: "This doesn't prove the rest of their story is true. They might have gained that information from anyone fleeing the Capital and merely embellished it with lies to serve their purpose."
The woman in violet on the other hand looks particularly smug to have evidence supporting her theories.

Spoiler: Recap: Part 3: Out of the frying pan and into friendly fire (click to show/hide)

The trek through the desolate wasteland of the relay world was uneventful, however when they reached the portal, the group discovered that its magic had attracted a large number of parasites. Many crossed the portal every minute and almost as many arrived to replace them.

It immediately became apparent that there were problems with the cohesion of the group. Alan went ahead on his own, trying to hide in a cardboard box. River would seriously injure his arm to rescue him from the parasites and bring him back to the group (but in doing so he would also demonstrate his newfound ability to make limited use of fire magic after absorbing the woman's soul). Ike, having little magic power the parasites could detect, took a circuitous route and avoided combat altogether while the rest of the group distracted the parasites with their attempt to reach the portal. Barring those two incidents, the rest of the plan went on without a hitch, with the group supporting each other and successfully fighting its way to the portal.

Once they reached the other side, River declared he was tired and would not take the lead while he tended to his wounds. However, instead of escaping as River instructed them, Nikolai run off to start looting while Irine and Zechariah tried to block the portal while they figured out a way to close it. The attacks and use of magic started attracting the attention of the parasites. Players, especially those isolated and those trying to rescue those isolated, started getting hurt.

During that time, River lost a lot of blood along with his confidence to the group's ability to survive this challenge. With the group momentarily regrouped, he ordered them to stay a safe distance away and help him absorb the portal's energy so that he could use it to help them, an act that would result in the temporary death of his already damaged body. To that end, he asked that Zechariah help remove the parasites that were sucking energy from the portal generators, since their Void magic was blocking his attempts to interface with them.

Irine would not accept this sacrifice and pleaded River to stop, going as far as to threaten hurting Theri should River go ahead with it. Her plan worked, in a way. River's impulsive nature, mistrust of Irine and his desire to protect Theri drove him to attack Irine, momentarily removing her ability to use magic and causing her immense pain. Irine made no effort to make good on her threats or resist as River ravaged her soul using the darkness he had once put inside her. There's no telling how far this would had gone if Alan hadn't accidentally knocked River unconscious.

With River unconscious, Zechariah and Nikolai combined their abilities to make an attack that temporarily shut down the portal and prevented a predator (a massive floating creature that fed on other creatures) from crossing into this world. However, the shockwave of the attack triggered a chain reaction of explosions spreading across the Fire Stones that stored energy in the room's walls (though this was not entirely their fault, as they had already been weakened by one of Alan's attacks that missed its target).

Their strength sapped by constant hardship and lacking coordination, information and time, the party was unable to stop the destruction that followed. The explosions continued to spread until they reached the core of the tower, a massive magical device resonating with the trapped energy of all the fire magic of the heart of Stodir, the magical volcano on which the tower was built. With explosions spreading across it, it detonated in a massive blast. The nuclear-like fireball severely damaged the city and vaporized the entire party in an instant.

"This is preposterous!" the man in red shouts, interrupting Ike's story once more.
"This man stands there claiming to be responsible for the deaths of thousands, possibly the destruction of an entire kingdom, and yet we allow him to continue?"
"You must remember that they were motivated out of a desire to help their fellow man-" the Headwater begins.
"So they say, but-"
"-AND that they had no knowledge of what they were doing AND that it was an accident. They are not to blame for this. If anyone is to blame for this disaster it is the mages of the Fire Tower. They were the ones that recklessly opened a portal to an unknown world. It is they who didn't take precautions against the destruction of the tower from such an event. It-"
"No. I refuse to believe they could be so reckless. For one, I know for a fact that since ancient times, ever since the great Augus began the construction of the first levels of the Tower, there were powerful enchantments holding the walls in place. And those have only been strengthened over the years to support every new level added. Even the Night Knights were unable to fully destroy the Tower. They must have been using similar protective enchantments throughout the tower."
"Well, if those parasites were of Void magic, then it could be that their mere presence weakened the Tower's defenses. It could be that every drop of their blood that was spilled weakened the very Earth and Order magic that was keeping the Tower standing."
"You are right. There must be something more to the Tower's destruction. It could had even been that the tower's defenses were lowered due to an unrelated attempt for a controlled detonation. After all, we can't deny that while the loss of the Tower is regrettable, its destruction also prevented the invasion from spreading here, possibly saving countless other lives."
"Or it could had been the result of the actions of someone wishing to destroy the Capital and kill everyone there. Someone like our friend here. How convenient that anyone who could corroborate his story is dead."
While the Headwater enters into a heated debate with the man in red, the woman in violet takes this opportunity to probe Ike on a less political subject.
[color=violevioletyou claim that you all died? And how is it that you are standing before us today then, looking very much alive? Do you claim to be a ghost or a wraith?"[/color] she asks with interest in her eyes, all the disturbing interest shown by a scientist about to vivisect a frog.
"It will become apparent, if you'll allow me to continue..." Ike says before he resumes his story, his magically enhanced voice forcing the arguments to silence.

[Parisbre56]

Spoiler: Recap: Part 4: Picking up the pieces (click to show/hide)

Ike was the first player to wake up a couple of weeks after the explosion, finding himself in the company of River, but not as he knew him. Ike deduced (correctly) that the only reason he was alive to witness this was because he was somehow restored from his Soulsphere.

You see, the entities are not so willing to lose their investments. They knew the tendency of players to die and they knew that they would be unable to directly monitor the players in this mission. Without the ability to interfere, they would be unable to resurrect them in the Staging Area upon their death (making said death permanent, as per their rules).

That is why they gave the 'blessing' of the Soulsphere to them. That means that upon a player's death, all their being will be compressed into a Soulsphere, a representation of all their selfness that can be used to reconstruct their bodies and minds. From information Ike received later, he was able to piece together how he came to be revived and how River came to be the way he was.

Nobody really knows why their Soulspheres survived, if it was merely luck combined with the delay between death and the formation of the Soulsphere or if there was the intervention of some other power. When River's soulsphere stabilised (not easy to do with the violent energies left over from the Tower's destruction) and had gathered enough power, he was able to possess a weak nearby creature, some sort of small insect as luck would have it. Even in this diminished form, with nothing but a primitive brain and the most basic urges coming from deep within his soul, he was able to start working towards restoring himself and the others, a testament to the endurance and abilities of Darkstar's soul and the truly amazing work S0 had done to create River, the durability and flexibility of the design.

River searched for nurishment (both mundane and magical) as he worked on gradually transforming his possessed body to a form that could support him, while at the same time gathering the Soulspheres of the other players and hiding them until he could restore them. However, as he searched for greater sources of power, he also risked encounters with the other beings that fed on them.

For his final transformation, he sought the most powerful magic source he could find. However, while the transformation was in progress, during this vulnerable time when his body and soul are left exposed and unprotected, he got attacked by a creature that would later be named Discoball. Attracted by the magical energies released by the explosion, these flying creatures made out of magic took the form of a ball of frozen lightning, hunted other magical beings and consumed them. River, in no position to fight or run, barely managed to escape with his life. But he was not unscathed, for his body was left damaged and disfigured, his mind incomplete and his soul missing pieces.

Like most things in his story, Ike isn't certain what drove River to wake him up, whether it was logic or instinct. In truth, it was mostly instinct, the need to no longer be alone combined with an echo of his last memories of Ike, the feeling that Ike was capable and trustworthy. There was also the fact that both River and the avatar of Roger inside him liked Ike.

But as it turned out it was also the most logical choice. In this world where everything is magic and its flow, it is the most mundane, the most lacking in magical power would be easiest to reconstruct. Not to mention that Ike's physical abilities also made him ideal as a guardian for River.

Ike never felt River drag the necessary materials to his den, he didn't feel River transform them or transfer Ike's consciousness to them. To Ike it felt more like waking up from a dream after a long sleep. But he remembered his dream. In truth, it was no dream at all, but rather his experience of one of River's memories. As River flows through and changes and rebuilds Ike, he uses pieces of himself to recreate what is missing and fill in the gaps, devouring the necessary materials and making them part of himself (or simply giving up pieces of himself) before changing them according to the Soulspheres's blueprints and giving them back to Ike. In doing so, there is always the danger of giving up too much, of taking more than he can afford. That is why during the process of revival, he also implants keystone memories, memories that make him who he is, memories he can't afford to lose and memories he is most likely to lose as he mutilates himself, so that he is later able to recover them and reduce the risk that he accidentally destroys them.

And so it was so that Ike woke up in River's dark den. Ike at first could not recognize River's beetle-like form nor was River able to speak and explain to him what happened. The only form of communication he could manage was feeding Ike a half cooked human corpse, the easiest food source to find in the destroyed city. It was Roger D. Drake who gave Ike what little information he had. With River's mind scrambled and soul weakened, D. took the chance to reach out of his 'cage' and contact Ike, though he didn't dare do more, for he wasn't sure how much he could push his boundaries before River pushed back. Unlike River, his mind was mostly undamaged. Furthermore, the mind of D. was fully magical, so while simpler it was sturdier and could function fully even with no body.

After looting some clothes, Ike set out to explore the burnt post-apocalyptic wasteland that were his surroundings. During the trip, he saw a camp of survivors outside the city and caught glimpses of some of the city's new residents. While exploring, he used the commwire River had provided him with to telepathically transmit what he was experiencing to Roger while Roger gave him some exposition. The most important bit of information was Roger D. Drake's claim that the attack that damaged the Relay Complex and broke his body did not originate on this world, but from the same direction he came, from the territory of the entities of the games. He said he warned River of that and asked him to cancel the mission and go back, but River decided to go on. During the trip D. also asked Ike to try to get River to allow D. to keep talking to Ike after River had regenerated.

After conversing with each other, they decided that the best course of action was to convince River to revive Irine. Ike feared that it might not be an easy thing to do, as even in this state River retained his anger towards Irine, damaging the walls around her Soulsphere to vent his frustration. And yet it took nothing more than some firm prodding (via body language, since he couldn't understand speech).

River took off towards the most powerful source of magical energy he could access, towards Ground Zero, the partially lava-filled crater where the Fire Tower once resided. There, Fire magic was so powerful that spontaneous magical fires lit the sky and tiny magical creatures that fed on that magic that Roger would name Baubles (continuing his theme of magic balls). River entered the crater, wordlessly giving Ike to understand that he should remain outside the crater. Ike could not see River work on rebuilding Irine out of Fire and magic, but he could see the effects as the remains of the Resonance between the volcano and the tower came alive with light.

The light show attracted many of the Baubles towards it. And in doing so, it also attracted one of the Discoballs feeding on them. Without knowing it, Ike acted as a perfect distraction, his continuous broadcasting of his senses to Roger resulting in a continuous stream of Mind energy that was like blood in the water for the magical predator. Ike dodged the floating sphere of death as it dived towards him, trying to consume him. Once again displaying that he is not only incredibly capable but also very lucky, Ike happened to be equipped with just the right thing to deal with the Discoball: a skull filled with rocks and a bone with which he had tried to construct a mace. Every time it dived towards him and Ike felt his hair stand, he hugged the ground and used the bone to keep the ball away. Every time he got some space to breathe, he threw the skull at it. Hurt by the unappetizing Earth and Death energy, the Discoball retreated, deciding Ike wasn't worth the trouble. Ike was unhurt but the components of his makeshift mace were turned to ash.

As the sun set, River finished the restoration of himself and Irine. Still angry at her and afraid of what she might do, he made no effort to communicate with her. He also once again muted Roger before Irine could realise that he is there and instructed Ike not to speak about him being there. He immediately started making his way back towards his den so he could eat, rest and check on the rest of the Soulspheres. The others followed.

On the way back, Ike brought Irine up to speed with the situation. Using his masterful skills in psychology, Ike was able to help Irine, speeding up the process of overcoming her self-pity and other negative emotions. He might not always be nice, but he is certainly effective.

Back at the den, Irine and River had a long conversation, talking about their past and their motivation. They gave each other to understand that each had good intentions, Irine being motivated by a desire to protect River from himself stemming from her most painful memories and fears while River wanted to help them and did not consider his life as important as the life of Theri and the others but mistrusted Irine for her willingness to hurt people close to her in order to do what is right. Irine also asked River to try to provide her with information about who destroyed her world. River promised to investigate but made no promises on the results of said investigation. They ended the night sleeping next to each other, the tension between them resolved for now.

The next morning River spoke to Ike before Irine woke up, explaining why he told Ike not to speak about Roger to anyone: if any entity were to find out about this after analyzing their player's memories, they could blackmail him and Roger and try to get them to do things in exchange for not exposing their violation of the rules. Worse, if such violation were ever made public, Roger would pay a heavy fine, sure, but it would be River who would have it worst: as he was not a god and had nothing of value the others could take, they would simply kill him utterly, without any chance of him being revived. He consented that perhaps he could share this information with Irine (since her entity, Stellar, is the one Roger's bonded with and thus she was less likely to use that information to harm them) but only if he thought she could be trusted not to spread this info and only if he thought it was necessary, because you never knew who might be watching.

The morning continued in good spirits, with Irine and River playfully chasing each other around their den. After the play session concluded, the group made its way deeper into the city, looking to investigate the possibility of using Baubles to revive Zechariah. During the trip, River explained what little he had learned about this world's elemental magic, about the different elements he could see and about how all magic was connected with flows, about how the cause of magic blends with the effect, creating feedback loops. He also informed Irene about how in her first mission of the games, he (or more accurately Darkstar) used part of his soul to fill in the gaps left by Stellar in her transformation system while repairing her. Those gaps required a connection with her universe and could have unravelled her soul if he hadn't replaced it with his (partially incompatible) transformation system at Charlie's orders after Stellar pleaded him to help. That incompatibility combined with the fact that he is bad with magic and had to work quickly was the reason her transformation worked differently and why she felt sick and in pain every time she used it.

After coming up with a plan about reviving Zechariah, Ike went back to the den to fetch his Soulsphere while Irine and River made a stop to get some water from the remains of an underground water pump feeding into a reservoir. There Irine and River encountered three men sent from the refugee camp to get some water. Though tense, their encounter was peaceful. Irine gave her name to them and explained that she didn't want any trouble. However it appeared that they were not fully convinced, as magical creature attacks and beastmen raids were common in the remains of the post-apocalyptic city.

The three living members of the group regrouped and made their way deeper into the city, where they found a suitable building for the procedure. There Irine used her abilities to lure several Baubles, as the small magical beings were of the same element as Zechariah's primary. With their powers combined, they were able to trap the Baubles long enough for River to begin working on Zechariah. Irine opted to stay and help River during the procedure, remaining unconscious as River drained her strength in order to speed up the process.

Ike, in the meantime, stood watch. From his vantage point, he saw the arrival of the military group called Torch of Omens, mighty warriors of the kingdom led by their commander Pragmatus Ignales, though Ike did not know that at the time. He watched as the first contact between the military and the refugees turned sour as the people of the city realised that the soldiers hadn't been sent there to help them and protect them against famine and hostile creatures, a fact that understandably made them angry. The soldiers were instead tasked with attempting to retake control of the remains of the Fire Tower and attempt to repair what they could of the magical network on which the kingdom depended on. The military had to resort to intimidation and a show of magical force to keep the peace and make sure there would be no rioting.

It was around that time that Ike's luck decided to run out, if only for a moment. In his mind, what he saw was himself being approached by a normal-looking woman. But in reality, what he was approached by was an Anomaly borne out of the destruction of the city, a tangle of Mind energy barely held together by Fire magic, Death magic and sheer willpower. It appeared as a vaguely humanoid gathering of ash particles, floating in the air. It was created by the dying wish of a woman for revenge, every ounce of hatred that was in her dying thoughts before she was vaporized by the explosion that destroyed the city. She began using Ike's commwire, every word he spoke towards her, every bit of mental energy she could use to build a more advanced thought centre, a mockery of a human mind wrapped around her core. Hungry for more, she managed to possess Ike after a protracted psychic struggle. Believing herself to be the dead woman whose wish created her (and in a way, she was) she set out towards the refugee camp in order to find the target of her revenge, draining Ike's body and mind along the way. Luckily, she did not manage to go far.

When the revival process was finished, the group came out of the building to find Ike missing, only a pile of ash left in his place. Sensing that something was not quite right, the group set out after Ike's trail. River was the first to reach Ike. At first the ashwraith tried to convince him Ike was just going out to explore on his own. However, sensing that something was wrong, River used his Sight to confirm his suspicion. His Sight, one of his two bond-former 'gifts', this 'vision' that lets him make the world part of himself and 'see' it as close to what it truly is as he can bear, allowed him to plainly see what was going on. Fearing that the ashwraith could use their commwires to invade their minds, he instructed the rest of the team to remove them before focusing on shielding his mind. While the rest managed to remove theirs in time, in his wolf-form he had no hands with which to do so and thus the ashwraith managed to obtain a foothold in his mind.

River couldn't attack her without also attacking Ike and the ashwraith knew that. By looking into River's mind, she had learnt of his drives and fears. Perhaps she could had escaped then, using that knowledge. But by looking into Ike's mind she had learnt of who they were, what they intended and what they had done. And with that knowledge grew the desire to take revenge upon them too, for what they had done to her city. And so she came up with a much riskier plan to turn them against each other. What she didn't know was that the words of last night's conversation still echoed in Irine's head and that River had already began mastering the Dark magic of this world. And so Irine chose to let River maul Ike instead of defending him.

River's Dark magic restraining the ashwraith combined with the pain of the attack waking his mind was enough to tip the balance of the mental battle between Ike and ashwraith and allow him to exorcize her from his body. With their powers combined, the group easily managed to disperse her, though they weren't sure if she was truly destroyed or merely waiting for another opportunity.

"To think that such creatures could be borne merely out of the right arrangement of magic at the right time... Truly, despite all our knowledge, it appears that we have still much to learn."
"Well, technically, that is not entirely true in this case. In his book 'On the effects of Curses on Kings and other political personalities' Grazo Ignales posits that a strong enough emotion could generate..."
As the two begin to argue some theory or other, the woman in violet edges closer to Ike and speaks more quietly to him, her voice taking on a conspiratorial tone.
"Interesting. So that is how you cheated death. I would love to get my hands on this sort of magic. It could save me years of research. Would you be willing to submit yourself to some tests? I promise they won't hurt... probably."
"Nope. No offense lady, but you sound just like Kassiver and things didn't turn out that well for him." Ike says. While that wasn't his intention, his magically enhanced voice silences the other conversations.
"Who's this... Kassiver?"
"Some mage from the Tower."
"Ah, so he survived the explosion?"
"It appears so. He said he wasn't at the Tower at the time. You two knew each other?"
"Yes, I remember him. He was always going on and on about how his little trinket was going to change the world. I dreaded our meetings. He always bored me to death with his self-important ramblings."
"Eh, you probably won't have to worry about that anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"Well..."

Spoiler: Recap: Part 5: Making friends wherever we go (click to show/hide)

After speaking about what had occurred, the group split up for a moment as River went back to the den with Ike to heal Ike and also to get the rest of the Soulspheres. River was afraid that the ashwraith might had survived after all and could use the knowledge she had stolen from his mind to hurt the others. Even if she hadn't survived, he still felt like it was too dangerous to remain in the city. While taking everything useful from their den before leaving, River gave Ike some half-destroyed Void Stone fragments he had found. Though the dark magic that was holding them together was gone and they would quickly fade into nothingness in a few days, they were still unpleasent to magical creatures, which was why River had placed them close to the entrance of their den. Having little magic in him, Ike could more safely hang on to them and even touch them with his bare hands without much pain.

On their way back towards Ground Zero, Ike caught the faintest wisp of the smell of food. Following it, he came up to a hidden vault at the basement of a burnt our manor. However, he wasn't able to discover how to open it. With the vault having triggered some sort of alarm and River being unwilling to use his magic on it for fear of activating some sort of security device, Ike decided it wasn't worth the trouble and so they went on their way.

Meanwhile Irine and Zechariah took care of some basic needs like food and water before they too made their way towards the crater. They regrouped briefly in order to talk about what they were going to do. River was going to stay with Zechariah in order to revive the others while Irine and Ike we're going to the refugee camp to meet the locals and hopefully get something to eat from them. River and Zechariah found some common ground in their love for literal worldbuilding and their desire to protect those they care from a seemingly inescapable death in the hands of the Shadow, even sacrificing themselves if they had to. However River's lack of social skills, his rather bleak worldview and his misunderstanding of Zechariah's relationship with his alter ego Artemis did not help improve Zechariahs' mood. It only made Zechariah angry when he misunderstood and thought that Zechariah wanted to give up on life and his friends. In the end River had to resort to Dark magic to allow Zechariah to remain focused on maintaining a solid light platform close to a Chaos anomaly for most of the rest of the night.

Irine and Ike made their way through the broken walls of the city, over an empty moat, through a small suburb and then through the empty piece of land separating them from the camp. As night fell, magical lamps were lit up along the camp's perimeter, transparent jars that held a magical Fire creature. Combined with its stone cap that held a simple enchantment, the jar could provide hours of light and heat with only a small seed flame necessary to get it going. With those magical light sources the guards of the little encampment stood watch, either for magical creatures attracted by the magic released by the explosion or for the beastmen raids that had claimed many lives these past few days.

Most of the guards stationed at the perimeter were City Guardsmen, most often veterans. The Guardsmen were the kingdom's police force. While they didn't face magical creatures, cursed magical items and rogue mages as often as mundane criminals, they tended to face them often enough that they had some experience hunting and fighting them. For that reason, those that survived tended to be or become paranoid, focusing on every little detail that could be off, checking every corner and every shadow and, of course, mistrusting any stranger. So it was quite lucky for them that the perimeter guard that came to intercept them was Rovan Istam, a young Fire Tower Guard in training that couldn't had been over 16. Despite his age, he was still a good choice for a guard, as he had basic swordsmanship training and knew a few spells that could help against an attack from a magical creature. Due to Irine's and Ike's appearance, he thought Irine was some traveling noble and Ike was her slave. It was his nature to be kind and trusting, so when he saw Ike try his best to appear like a poor starving slave, he allowed them to enter and escorted them to the centre of the camp.

While making their way through the camp, they caught a glimpse of the misery that had fallen over these people. Sensitive supplies had been destroyed and no more could be produced. Food shortages had only gotten worse after the destruction of the city. Famished and injured, angry and without hope, things could only get worse for them. Rovan's instincts told him Irine was some sort of mage, so he tried to get her to stay there and help the people in the camp. He couldn't believe it when Irine alluded to her true nature. And he had no time to inquire her further, for Kassiver immediately ordered him to return to his post.

Kassiver was a mage of the Fire Tower, the one responsible for Rovan's education before the explosion. Though he was not a charismatic man, his power, his usefulness and his arrogance had granted him the position of the defacto leader of the camp. He had become the man who had the final say about who got healed, who got fed, who got a place to sleep, who stood guard and who went out to search for supplies. And, like most of the people of the Kingdom, he was immediately mistrustful of anything 'strange', anything foreign and unfamiliar and especially non-humans and magical creatures. So when Irine introduced herself to him while he was in the middle of helping the recovery process of the injured in a makeshift medical tent, his first course of action was to get ready for a fight and try to get her away from the tent. He recognized Irine's unfamiliar name (though not her form) from the stories told by the humans she and River had encountered on their effort to obtain water. When he saw Irine was not outright hostile, he invited her and Ike into his makeshift office in a supply tent, both so that they could talk in private and so that he could be close to his magical Focusing Crystal.

While Ike ate a meager meal provided by Kassiver, Irine and Kassiver exchanged information. However it was clear that Kassiver did not fully trust Irine, which did not help make their conversation any less tense. Still, she got some useful information from their conversation. Some of it was common knowledge to the inhabitants of the kingdom, like the recent war against the beastmen raider tribes of Drutrir to the Northwest (with some of those captured in the conflict still fighting in gladiatorial combat in the Arenas), how the fanatical elves had taken over parts of the kingdom to the West, the embargo imposed to the Sovereignty in the east, beyond the Gugol mountain range, the barren desert in the North that only the nomad traders dared to go through, the general geography of the kingdom and the name of the Capital City: Ineth, in the shadow of the volcano Stodir, spring of the river of liquid fire called Phlegethon that disappears inside the Void Scar in the South, in the place called Firefall, beyond which lie the swamplands and coasts and cities of the Confederate Southern States, a kingdom famed for its navy and the great port city Ialurw'ath. Others were less common, like the way magic worked, how the Fire Tower used a number of Spines (essentially mini Fire Towers) to extend its magical network and supply Fire power to all of the kingdom, how the mages used words and rituals to focus their will and desire and thus change the flow of magic to achieve what they wish. And, of course, he also gave a brief explanation about all the various elements that make up the world.

Elements were not exactly what their name implied, Fire was not just Fire but everything related to it, which is why some of them have many names. There are the Primary Material elements (Fire vs Water, Wind vs Earth) that are further divided to Positive (Fire, Wind) and Negative (Water, Earth). Then there are the Secondary Material elements (Life vs Death, also known as Growth vs Motion). There are also the four Primary Conceptual elements (Order vs Chaos, Light vs Dark) that are further divided to Positive (Chaos, Dark) and Negative (Order, Light). The elusive Secondary Conceptual elements (Time and Space) were so rare that few knew about them, as were the two Combined elements. Not quite Material, not quite Conceptual but a mix of the two, volatile and malleable and resistant to change at the same time, there was little known about them except for their ability to be used to emulate other elements. That is how magical beings like Baubles were able to feed on multiple elements and camouflage themselves to fit their surroundings, though few understood how they did that. In fact, there was so little definitively known about the Combined Elements that they went by many names (Mind vs Soul, Potential vs Energy, Balance vs Imbalance, Drive vs Imagination). And finally, there were the two Primordial Elements that again went by many names (Creation vs Destruction, Existence vs Nonexistence, Essence vs Void), those at the center of creation and the ones from which all elements, all creation and destruction sprung from, the most powerful and the most rare. It was unheard of (except perhaps in myths) for someone to have a Primordial Element as their Primary element, that one element that was most prominent in their being, the one that most closely describes them and the one that is easiest for them to understand. Instead, the only manipulation of those energies the mages of the Fire Tower could achieve was through Light and Dark magic, since Light was directly connected with Essence while Dark was directly connected with Void. At least that's what they thought, until examination of the Parasites coming through the Portal revealed that they were actually creatures of Void magic.

Kassiver explained how using more magic than available combined with powerful emotions can on rare occasions summon Dark and Void energies, which can combine to form a catastrophic and unpredictabe chain reaction. Such Void energies were quite dangerous, since they literally ate magic, destroying everything they touched. That is why the Tower did its best to find potential magic users and educate them in the proper use of magic, so that they don't cause such destruction by accident. That is also half of the reason why every kingdom has laws against the unauthorized use of Dark magic, the other half being its tendency to be used for evil deeds. He also explained that Creation magic could be used to boost a mage's abilities, especially when in the form of Focusing Crystals.

Focusing Crystals were one of the two basest magical items, the other being Power Stones. Power stones was the most common of the two. Like magical batteries, they were able to store magical energy and then release it for a certain purpose (overtime to power a device, for example, or all at once to power an explosion of magical energy). They could also be recharged, but that could cause them to become unstable (or change to a lesser element in the case of Essence Power Stones). Focusing Crystals on the other hand were like magic multipliers, able to increase the Flow available to a mage or magical device, thus making the casting of more powerful spells easier. It was this flow that allowed casters to affect the world and allowed the world to affect them in turn, what gave you that feeling in the back of your head that something was wrong even if you couldn't possibly know it with your senses and that is why boosting it was so important. Though both materials were naturally occurring, Power Stones could be recharged and Focusing Crystals could slowly grow larger. Focusing Crystals and Power Stones of Void and Creation energy were special in that they could affect all elements and even transform one element to another, whereas Focusing Crystals and Power Stones of other elements could only affect those specific elements.

Perhaps the conversation would had ended differently had Irine lied or at least been more frugal with the truth, if she hadn't revealed who she truly was or how she was related to the destruction of the tower or about all the people she had killed and would be willing to kill. Perhaps it would had gone better if she had something valuable to give to Kassiver so that he wouldn't feel like he was wasting his time. Perhaps it would had gone better if she didn't insult Kassiver by accusing him of being a dishonorable xenophobe (which, while true, was still an insult). Perhaps it would had gone better if she trusted Kassiver enough to allow him to cast his divinations on her or if she had allowed him to hold her there against her will. But even then it was not certain if this conflict could had been avoided, for Kassiver was not a nice man by any standard and he was certainly not above dishonorable tricks. There's no telling what he could had done if she had tried to appease him.

As it happened the camp fell victim to a beastman raid that night, as it had many nights before. Kassiver asked Irine and Ike to remain confined in the tent while he dealt with it, however Irine was not willing to trust him. He had already shown his cowardice and disdain for non-humans, his readiness to attack her. So it was only natural that she did not obey his orders. Fearing Irine might be in league with them and fearing the people would blame him if they found out about her, he decided to try and capture her and disable her abilities before dealing with the raid. His anger towards her certainly didn't help. His attack came out of the blue while she was showing Irine a Signaler line in the sky (a magical signal that notified him of the attack) allowing him to catch her by surprise and bind her arms with Order magic. But he had underestimated Ike.

Ike, who during all this time did an excellent job pretending to be a docile dim-witted slave, playing on their preconceptions, was actually highly capable in physical combat and had spent the time Irine was conversing observing his environment and his potential foes. He surprised everyone with his quick thinking and quicker actions, stabbing Kassiver through the eyes with his Void Stone fragments while Irine was using her ability to manipulate the fire inside him and cause him discomfort, much like River had done to her in the recent past. Irine also used her abilities to call all nearby flames towards her and use them to attack Kassiver and the guards, setting several of the dwellings of the refugee camp on fire in the process of drawing fire out of them. With Kassiver writhing in pain and no longer a threat, the two focused on dealing with the guards that were attacking them, unwilling to surrender. Wanting to escape her bindings and fearing that Kassiver's still spreading binding spell would slowly paralyze her until she died and with a guard holding her close to his chest with a sword on her neck, Irine attempted to transform into her fox form. However, Kassiver's spell was more than a mere rope tied around her wrists. It froze and binded her very being to a certain configuration. So when she tried to transform, those parts that were binded... didn't, a fact that left her with no front legs and bleeding profusely. Displaying both his skill and his combat pragmatism (he bit a man's throat off while he was trying to restrain him), Ike (with the help of Irine) managed to kill all 3 guards and loot them for their weapons

While the fight was going on, Kassiver had managed to crawl away and escape, still blind, half burnt and with Void energies coursing through him. Ike was faced with a dilemma. Although he knew it might be best to take care of Kassiver to make sure he wouldn't be coming back for revenge, Ike also knew that if Irine wasn't healed immediately, she would die. Deciding saving Irine was more important, Ike grabbed her, applied some bandages to help slow the bleeding and ran towards River as fast as he could.

"I can't believe we are just sitting around listening to this!"
"Arrest this monster! Get him out of here!"
"He sullies our great hall with his stories of murder!"
"ENOUGH!" the headwater shouts, his voice magically enhanced by the water in the pool. The loud noise immediately silences the rabble raised by Ike's story.
"This man is a guest and he is under my protection. People of this land have been treating him and his allies badly since the moment he came here merely because of the way he looks and he still aided us-"
"Only because it was in his interest to-"
"That in my eyes makes him noble. Furthermore, his actions were clearly not malicious. He acted in self defense and in defense of his allies."
"And you can't deny that Kassiver fella was being kind of an ass."
"And, finally, the water temple is a place where people can be forgiven of their past sins and work for atonement. Even if what he did was wrong, he deserves a second chance."
Ike sure is glad he did not mention the part where he mutilated a guard to get his guts.
"While I don't condone his methods, Ike was just trying to defend himself in a bad situation. And again, while I don't condone his methods, Kassiver was also trying his best to ensure the safety of the survivors, even though in the end his anger led to much unnecessary suffering."
"C'mon, the guy was just abusing his power. He had no official capacity to restrain them."
"He was fighting for the good of the people of Ineth and this half-elf bastard-"
"Perhaps we should let the young man continue his story before we pass any sort of judgment on him?"
"Yeah, shut up, I wanna know if the fox girl manages to survive."
"Please, there is no need for rash action. We should be as calm as a comforting pool and meditate on the nature of this mystery before..."
Ike notices that the men and women speaking appear to be the vocal minority acting as beacons to the rest, most of the other people either remaining mostly silent and attentive or agreeing with small nods and gestures to what the others are saying. He continues to watch their reactions as he goes on with his story.

[Parisbre56]

Spoiler: Recap: Part 6: Everybody Lies (click to show/hide)

As the night drew to an end, the revival process was finished successfully. Nikolai and Zechariah were revived and River was ready to come down from the Chaos anomaly. However, Zechariah was tired and hungry, the strain of maintaining the light platform for several hours sapping his health and vitality to the point were he was starving and could barely stand. As he lowered the platform towards the ground, his concentration faltered, leading to River, Alan and Nikolai getting injured. Nikolai and Alan woke up soon after. Zechariah managed to stay conscious long enough to give them some information before falling asleep. Nikolai fixed his dislocated arm and Alan's dislocated leg while River relied on his enhanced healing to take care of his broken leg.

Alan wasted no time using his special ability to begin summoning supplies. His power was as unreliable and volatile as always and made worse by this world causing some of the objects he summoned to disappear soon after and by the fact that he had been recently revived. After summoning some clothes and food, he managed to summon a frigging truck. Luckily, almost everyone knows to be ready to dodge when Alan summons, except for Alan himself. Nikolai dragged River to safety and Zechriah remained hidden in his sleeping hole while Alan got smacked in the face and rendered unconscious with a bit of brain damage as an added bonus.

Even this early in the morning, it looked like it was not going to be a good day for River. After reviving two people at the same time and barely getting any sleep or chance to recover, he heard Ike approaching. Even with his bandages, Irine was bleeding too much and was probably not going to make it. Ike made a truly superhuman effort and displayed amazing skill to run all the way to the centre of the city in such a sort timespan and could do nothing but wheeze by the time he got there. It was a good thing that he and Irine could explain what had happened with their commwires because it would had been impossible to coherently use their mouths.

River made his way towards Ike and Irine so that he could meet them halfway. Though tired and injured and reluctant to make the sacrifice required to heal Irine, in the end he opted to heal her, knowing that it would require much more time and energy to revive her if she died. His frustration and hunger and sleep deprivation and anger towards the humans that had hurt Irine and frustration with Alan hurting himself right after he had revived him and everything that had happened led him to snap at the others, threatening to kill anyone who got in his way and refusing to help anyone too weak to help themselves. He felt like they were slowing him down at a time when he felt like leaving the city was very important. After healing Irine and Alan he would leave and the next night he would leave the city for good and he would wait for no one.

The group found a hole in the ground and slept while River healed Irine and Alan of their respective injuries. Nikolai was the first to wake the next morning, followed by the rest of the team. River was still angry at Alan and Irine, not for any logical reason but merely out of frustration and because he felt like their actions had hurt him (which was technically true). He left the group and went to the outskirts of the city to hunt for what was needed to revive Theri, knowing full well how hard working with his opposite element on his own would be.

Although Irine wanted to go with River to help calm him and make up with him, the group convinced her to stay with them and rest and partake of the supplies Alan had summoned. After gorging themselves they continued to sleep and replenish their strength, hoping to wait there safely until it was time to go meet River in the outskirts of the city. And they did manage to get some sleep, relax and catch up before something interrupted them. Two scouts from the military camp were approaching the crater and would pass next to their hiding place. The group got ready to fight, but it turned out that they weren't looking for them, they merely passed by their hiding spot without detecting them. However the group was not the only one that detected the scouts. A Discoball sensed the magical items they were carrying and swooped down to attack them. The two scouts used a Signaler to call for help while they tried to hold the Discoball off. But unlike Ike, they did not have super-reflexes and only had short swords with which to defend themselves. The Discoball's strikes sapped their strength and it was looking like it was all going to be over soon until Alan decided it was time to act. However, Alan did not know exactly what he should do, so he decided to attack the Scouts... and then missed and hit the Discoball instead, killing it... which caused the giant basketball he had launched to burst and hit the Scouts as the air escaping from it changed its path. Ike is careful to leave Alan's intentions out of his story.

The large number of Soldiers coming to assist their Scout brothers witnessed this event from afar. Alan came out to greet them and, suddenly displaying amazing competence, not only managed to convince them that he was trying to help the Scouts, but also convinced them to let the group leave unhindered. Not that it took much convincing. Pragmatus Ignales, the commander leading the group of soldiers called the Torch of Omens, was more interested in the health of his scouts and completing his objective of restoring whatever he could of the Fire Tower's network. Still, a conflict came close to erupting, a conflict that the group had little hope of winning, for not only were there many well trained soldiers there but their commander Pragmatus was an expert magic user with powerful armour enchantments, wielding his famous interlocking wing-shields. Pragmatus wanted to send some of his Medics to take care of the injured Scouts, but Nikolai insisted that they leave their weapons behind, something Pragmatus would not accept.

Luckily, in all their death and destruction, the events of last night did have a positive side effect. With Kassiver severely injured and his mind suffering from the effects of Dark and Void magic, he was in no state to act as a guide for the Torch of Omens. Though not as capable with his magic or with maintaining order as Kassiver, his student, Rovan Istam, was able to prove himself to the refugees by defending against the beastmen raid and helping extinguish the fires that had erupted from Irine's actions. With much of their already meager supplies burnt and shaken from recent events, it was hard to keep the peace. His inherently timid and good nature (somewhat diminished by the events of last night, for which he would blame himself) made for a stark contrast to Kassiver's controlling and intimidating attitude and while that made it hard to exert control, he did earn the respect of many people despite his young age. So while not fully in control, he was still the closest thing the refugee camp had to a leader and the only person related to the Fire Tower left, so Pragmatus ordered him to leave the camp and escort him to Ground Zero. Though he loathed to leave the people that depended on him, he had no choice but to obey. Which turned out for the best, because Rovan, not wanting to see another conflict erupt and more people get injured, volunteered to lay down his weapons and approach the two Scouts, thus defusing the tension between the two groups somewhat. The group left their hiding spot soon after, Ike and Irine trying to make sure they would not be recognized by Rovan.

Meanwhile, River had managed to successfully revive Theri. Though he had to sacrifice more of himself, it was still the happiest moment he had in this entire mission when he was reunited with his friend after missing her so much and being away from her for so long. He had stayed awake until she woke up to make sure she was OK and was not angry at him, but now his tiredness and leg injury and sacrifices were catching up to him. He lied to her, telling her all he needed was a bit of rest and he would be fine. Theri helped him walk out of the basement and to the ground floor of the small tavern they were taking refuge in, a small building beyond the city walls. Theri and River wore the armour of two Scouts he had devoured earlier. The two talked for a while before River rested, with Theri watching over him and exploring the surrounding area.

Ike's group arrived sometime later, following River's trail and instructions he sent them via commwire. They had managed to make their way out of the city without further incidents and regroup at the abandoned tavern. They talked for a while, exchanging information and trying to decide where to go. They talked again about their mission and why River had brought them there and people argued whether or not River's goal of having them explore and have fun made any sense seeing as how he had basically dragged them there against their will, whether they should be focused on their mission or if they could take their time to get sidetracked. Ike and Irine also discussed the nuances of human speech. Irine defended her words and actions during the refugee camp incident and stated her dislike of lies, which was how she saw what Ike was suggesting she should had done. Ike explained why it might not be very polite to mention how easily you can kill someone when you are trying to be friendly, how lying is sometimes a necessary evil in polite human communication and generally tried to make sure the group understood what went wrong and how to do better next time, instead of thinking they did nothing wrong and that it was all the evil humans' fault. As the conversation turned to lies and how useful lying to one's enemies or allies was, Irine implied River was lying. River, feeling the need to defend himself, said he tried to avoid lying if he could and that there was only one thing he did not share with them in order to protect those he cared about, meaning the incident with Roger D. Drake in the Relay Complex. Looking to challenge that statement, Irine asked him to explain just that, what had happened in the Relay.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, River is not the most quick witted when it comes to social situations. He made up some hastily constructed lie to try to deny what Irine said before trying to drag Irine away so he could speak with her in private. Of course, everyone misunderstood that as River either suffering from some sort of illness or mind-control effect or attempting to kill or otherwise harm Irine. Panicking as Irine continued to speak about things that could get him killed and feeling betrayed by her betraying his trust and speaking about things he had asked her not to speak about, River attacked her to get her to stop speaking and continued trying to drag her away. After a brief scuffle during which Irine burnt him severely, he managed to isolate Irine in the basement. He tried to use his abilities on her so they could escape to someplace away from the group, but Irine misunderstood that as an attempt to consume her and resisted, causing River further harm. Knowing that if he stayed there things would most likely go even worse for him, River escaped, leaving Irine behind, but not before threatening her yet again. He told her to speak to Ike because he could explain and that if he spoke to anyone else about this, he would kill them before killing her.

And Irine did just that, finding a private spot where she could speak with Ike and learn all that had transpired before she was revived. (Not that Ike mentions any of those things during his narration to Headwater and Co. of course, since as he had previously established, lies and omissions are sometimes necessary.) During the short conflict, Nikolai discovered a neat psychic attack he could use to incapacitate others by Tsaring his commwire. He experimented with this concept with some very interesting results that the rest of the team has yet to discover.

Irine and Ike tried to contact River, but despite his threats towards them, he had opted to heal himself instead and could not hear them. While the others got ready to leave (and tried to prevent Alan from accidentally killing himself), Irine got some new clothes (her old ones burnt during the fight) and sought out River. He found him in an abandoned house, still working on healing himself. River once again explained the situation with D and said that the reason he did not tell Irine outright was because he did not trust her entity, Stellar, not to look into her memories and cause trouble for him. And most of all he did not trust Irine, her way of thinking scaring and confusing him. The two once again came to an understanding and reconciled. Irine also got to talk with D. and get his view on the whole situation as well as whatever info he could give her. She convinced River to bind D's soul to hers so that she could talk with him and hear his advice (and inappropriate jokes) all the time.

With Alan having used a giant speaker to attract everyone's attention for miles, the group quickly made their way towards the east, the general direction River remembered their target being. Though there was a sandstorm approaching and they knew that since this morning, they had no choice but to move out if they wanted to avoid further conflict.

"Ah, yes, I remember the sandstorm. Quite an unusual phenomena. One of that magnitude hasn't been recorded in many years."
"It is possible that the fall of the Tower made it easier for Wind Energy to find its way in the kingdom."
"But the Earth magic of the Gugol mountains has always acted as an insulator-..."
While the two argue, the Headwater asks Ike about the City.
"So Pragmatus said he would restore the Fire Tower network?"
"He said he would try."
"And you do not know if he succeeded?"
"No, we left before we saw anything."
"Pity. I was hoping this would help explain the recent... anomalies."
Ike is about to ask for clarification when he is asked to continue his story.
"...-through the void."
"Hmmm... Yes, that is possible. Though I suppose without direct observations we can never know for sure."
"What about Ike? He went through the sandstorm. He looks like a perceptive man. Maybe he figured out something?" she says and turns to look at Ike expectantly.

Spoiler: Recap: Part 7: General Store (click to show/hide)

The party walked away from the city, following the eastern road. Though some soldiers followed them for a while, they eventually gave up and made their way back to their camp. As night fell, the party saw a clear view of the night sky of this alien world for the first time. It was empty, too empty, with too few stars concentrated in small clusters. And the moon was too perfect, too pristine, too uniform. But they did not have too much time to appreciate the view. Soon the sandstorm was upon them and they were forced to seek shelter.

Ike found a path leading away from the main road. Theri led the way, following the path until they reached an area sheltered from the wind, the bottom of a cliff of a large hill. There Nikolai combined various materials he had gathered to make a small tent and then Tsared it to make it large enough for everyone and sturdy enough to handle the approaching storm. He also fumbled and managed to break his hand in the process.

A quick exploration of the surrounding area revealed a large decapitated statue carved out of the rock of the cliff, its head resting on the ground nearby. Ike and Zechariah also noticed that there was a strange periodicity to the storm, in the rise and fall of its wind, in the infrasounds barely heard in its depths, like a heart was beating somewhere at its core, emitting an energy that invigorated them and made them restless. It was the powerful Wind energy flow of the storm, affecting their souls.

The team slept while the storm raged outside, occasionally woken up by the sounds of the storm and the things the wind picked up and threw or by their comrades to change shifts or by tense prophetic dreams. The next day, they awoke with the storm gone and their tent half-buried in the dirt. Zechariah had the pleasant surprise of waking up with his staff Joma, recently reconstructed out of what little had remained by River. However his inability to recreate it with the necessary purity and balance combined with Zechariah's own unbalanced state of mind made it much more powerful when manipulating shadows (though the illusions it created tended to have a rather nightmarish tint) and outright harmful when creating solid light constructs.

The team made sure everyone was well, ate some marshmallows (roasted on the tent which Irine accidentally set on fire while transforming) and then took off towards a structure Theri had spotted last night at the top of the hill. During the trip D. gave to Irine some general info about his bond-former gifts of Flare and Fun (or Friendship, as Stellar preferred calling it) and how they contrasted with River's gifts of Sight and Silence. He also gave her some more general information about bond-formers.

When they reached their destination, they found a farm constructed around an old 3-storey-high stone tower. Though they did not know it at the time, the hill was called Godstone and the tower was the entrance of the ancient underground fortress called Godstone Fortress, now completely abandoned since it had no military value. The plot of land had been granted to now-retired General Linus Lokitor as a reward for his successes in the campaign against the Northern Beastmen Tribes. The General lived there with his wife, his two children and his elf servant and friend Terrevieve. When not helping take care of the plants and livestock, he spent his time painting, studying, crafting and working on improvements (both mundane and magical) to his home so that he could one day be proud to leave it to his children.

They found the General working on repairing the fence of his Nuca pen, as the pen had been damaged by the storm and some of the Nucas had escaped. (Nucas are cow-like furless creatures that can feed on Fire energies to supplement their diet and the males can spit small amounts of fire as a defense.) Though ready to defend himself (as was prudent, one could never know when a bandit raid could occur) he was friendly towards the group and greeted them as weary travellers should be greeted: with politeness and curiosity and a desire to help. He didn't seem to mind that not all of them were human. At first this perplexed the party, thinking that no sane man would trust a group like them without some ulterior motive, but they soon had their answer as the general demonstrated the power of his magic. With Alan attempting to summon some giant corn to thank him, the General was able to cancel his summoning with a mere flick of his hand. With years of training and combat experience and with all the power of Godstone Fortress flowing through him, he was more than capable of defending himself.

While the general was friendly, the same could not be said about his wife. She was furious to learn of the deal her husband had struck with the party: the party would help repair the damage caused by the storm and help around the farm in exchange for food, rest and a simple map. The general was also very interested in Irine's ability to transform, using her as inspiration for his paintings.

During the next couple of days, the team worked hard, ate well and rested in proper beds for the first time since they arrived to this world. They exchanged stories, learning about the world and its history: the great dragon Grazisti the Grey lurking in Dragon's Hole, the story of the sibling Reaper Gods, Time and Death, and how their conflict resulted in the creation of Godstone and its fortress, how the General got injured by beastmen and lost his arm and how it was replaced by a prosthetic that he had to recharge from time to time... During that time, River got a good look at that map. Though his memory was damaged and he couldn't say for sure, something guided him towards Nether Pass, a pass leading through the Gugol mountains and into the Sovereignty. The passage had a bad reputation and was barely used, as the powerful Death magic there animated many dangerous monsters. There were old fortresses carved out of the mountain there, ancient underground labyrinths leftover from the time of the Necromancer-Emperor. The General recommended they go to Kodromota (a city resting on the side of the mountain range) and use the underground passage there instead if they wanted to cross into the Sovereignty.

Because it was damaging him, because he was still somewhat angry and frustrated and because he believed their reliance on him made them reckless, River was reluctant to heal Nikolai and Alan of their injuries, however he was convinced by Theri to work together with her in order to heal them with more mundane means. Alan, for those keeping track, had injured his throat when trying to summon a can of a certain caffeinated beverage with crimson bovines on it in order to feed it to the General's wufas. (Wufas are round woolly three-legged egg-laying cute little creatures with giant eyes that feed on seeds and magic and go "meep".) Alan did not give up on said beverage for the duration of their stay. In fact, it was one of those giant cans that Nikolai used (with help from Zechariah and some of the General's tools) to craft a suit of armor. While weak and fragile, his ability allowed him to turn it into a formidable layer of protection.

Unfortunately Terrevieve was not there to help them with their chores, having been sent to the nearby town of Arellogez to trade for goods. He came back a day later, bringing bad news about a food riot that had erupted between refugees of the city and the local inhabitants. The conflict had claimed many lives, especially when the Guardsmen intervened to quell the uprising with lethal force. More bad news followed, though Irine considered them good at the time. The disorientation and pain she felt while transforming suddenly vanished one morning. And the bad news continued. As their stay with the General was nearing its end, River informed the party that he had spotted a group of soldiers approaching, spread out as if they were searching for something. Though he believed the general had betrayed them, using his servant to call for this ambush, the others were not so sure, for why would a man planning to betray them let them play with his only son?

The General himself denied River's accusations when confronted with them. Though not very happy that his home was in danger, he was still willing to hide the group underground until the danger had passed. Ike and Nikolai preferred to run away towards the Northeast instead while River left to watch the Tower from afar,. However, unlike Ike, Nikolai stopped running after a couple of minutes. And unlike Ike, he was also wearing an extra shiny armour made out of a giant tin can. Even so, he still might had managed to escape notice if he didn't have such bad luck that a Scout walked right by his hiding place. Though he managed to kill many soldiers and last an impressive amount of time, using his power intelligently and in diverse ways, in the end he was only one man against twenty and his luck was bound to run out eventually. And so it was so that Nikolai died again. Ike wanted to help Nikolai but also wanted to be smart about it, so he circled around the soldiers to strike at the two mages, taking out the Water mage and then setting his sights on the Fire mage. His aid came too late however, so he had no choice but change his objective to retrieving Nikolai's Soulsphere, so that he could be revived later.

While Ike is perhaps the best in physical combat in the entire team, it was still not certain if he could succeed against such odds. But it appeared that luck was once more on his side, for as the scared Fire mage desperately tried to cast a spell to defend himself from Ike's attack, something went wrong. His spell exploded into a dark tar-like substance that engulfed him and turned him into a mad, murderous, hungry abomination. The creature attacked everything living in sight and attempted to consume them, adding them to its body. Ike used this opportunity to regroup with Alan (who had come out of the tower to aid him) and obtain Nikolai's Soulsphere before escaping. Though Alan attacked the creature and for a moment it looked like it had an excellent effect, it turned out it didn't finish the job. While Ike and Alan were running away, the abomination resurfaced and continued attacking the soldiers.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team used an underground tunnel to escape towards the east. The general was not happy to see combat erupt near his home, but he didn't do anything to the team beyond saying some angry words.

"The anomaly. That is what I was talking about."
"So you know about those things?"
"Not with certainty, but I think so, yes. There's a disturbance in the land, weakening and distorting all Fire magic. It started out quite weak several days ago but has been growing stronger ever since. We have no idea what's causing it."
"Oh, but we do. This man said that that beastman used Dark magic on Stodir, the heart of Fire. It is obvious he is responsible for yet another evil that befell us!"
"Or it could just as easily be a mere side effect of the collapse of the Fire Network, with Void energy springing up to cover the gap created by the Fire network receding."
"But wouldn't that had happened the moment the tower fell? Because the time the anomaly started roughly fits the time they were revived..."
"We cannot know with certainty."
"It is true. An event of this magnitude has only been recorded once before and only in myth, with the fall of the Necromancer-Emperor."
"We need to seek enlightenment on this matter through meditation. The inner circle would surely provide us with more insight."
"We got to witness the effects of the collapse first-hand..."

Spoiler: Recap: Part 8: Skyward Fire (click to show/hide)

The team, minus River, regrouped close to Arellogez with nothing bad happening along the way. Irine and co. encountered some giant spiders in their underground tunnel but they were not hostile, merely curious, keeping their distance from them.

After waiting for River for a while, the team decided to move on. Irine continued talking with Roger along the way, learning more about the entities and the games. Roger also tried to get her to discover something on her own, something pertaining to Charlie and Stellar that he couldn't speak about, but Irine isn't certain about what he really meant.

The group reached the crash site of Skyward Fire that night, the remains of one of the kingdom's massive flying fortresses. It had crashed while on its way towards the City after the Fire Tower exploded. With the remains of the fortress blocking the road and the debris making it hard to walk, the team decided to wait until morning before continuing.

When morning came, they spent some time exploring the ruins, making sure to keep their distance from the men that had taken up residence in the area. Ike found an inactive military Golem but had no idea what to do with it. Alan found that besides humans, there were also great vulture-like creatures making their nest there. Though the creatures were fearful, Alan managed to entice one of the creatures with the promise of food. Believing this to be a UFO crash site and the bird to be an alien, he started talking to it. And after a while, they somehow began to understand each other. Alan named the bird Rickman and had it follow him around by occasionally giving it more food. The team questioned the bird about the surrounding area but its rather limited vocabulary wasn't very helpful.

Theri worried about River. She tried contacting him again but once more couldn't reach him. She felt like something was wrong. Irine and Roger meanwhile dived deep into Irine's soul, trying to determine why her shapeshifting sickness was gone. What Roger found there terrified him. Following his subconscious desires to help Irine and his soul's desire to reach its normal state, he had unconsciously started taking over parts of Irine's being. Though beneficial at the moment, he dreaded accidentally taking over, changing or otherwise hurting his friend, so he vowed to try extra hard to keep his distance, not use his abilities and keep their bond from expanding further.

The group continued towards the east, making their way towards the village of Road's End. They talked about their homes and what it means to be a god along the way. Rickman flew after Alan for a while but she turned back before going too far from her nest.

"I'm sorry. You say you can speak with Blood Vultures?"
"You mean Aliens? Yeah, sure."
"Next question: How?"
"Idunno." *shrugs*
"That's so frustrating. What I wouldn't give to have your body alone in my lab for a couple of hours."
"I have a feeling my entity would be unnaturally happy to hear that."
Unfortunately, D. could not giggity at this, for he was gone from this world for good. And by that I mean this specific world, for he was still having fun in the Staging Area.

Spoiler: Recap: Part 9: Big Damn Heroes (click to show/hide)

When the team reached Road's End, they found the village taken over by creatures possessed by shadows, humans and animals with unnatural strength and endurance attacking and consuming everything in sight that wasn't them. From the few coherent words the possessed humans spoke, it appeared that they were hungry and though remorseful, they had no control over their lust for flesh. At the centre of it all was a greater shadow that had taken over the temple at the centre of the village, a being that killed the head priest in one blow despite his protective wards, a being that sounded very much like the one they had faced while running away from the general's home. While the shadows were dangerous and hard to kill, they didn't appear to be concerned with chasing the villagers outside the walls of the village, instead opting to stay close to the lead creature. So those villagers that had managed to escape (a good fraction of the population of the village) gathered close to a nearby farm and tried to decide what to do, if they should try to cleanse the town or try to rescue those still trapped in their homes or simply run away and try to find help.

And help did arrive, in the form of Alan forcing the group to go help the villagers. The mayor tried to convince the group to go in alone while the more eager amongst the villagers (led by a young man called Mios), those with loved ones still trapped inside, almost begged to be taken along to help. In the end the group decided to split the party. Irine would take an old hunter called Vind with her as a guide and then make her way towards the centre of the town to try and kill the lead creature on her own and rescue anyone trapped in the temple before Ike's group got there and was slaughtered. Theri would stay back to apply first aid to those injured and help organize the villagers so that they would be ready to defend themselves. And Ike would lead the rest of the party as well as a group of volunteers to try to systematically clear the village and rescue survivors.

The Dark energies over the area made shadows denser and created an oppressive feeling, a coldness. They also supercharged Zechariah's shadow manipulation abilities, allowing him to execute powerful attacks and defensive fields. This came in handy as the group attacked the village's front gate. The villagers proved their worth by keeping any monsters that got through occupied and even killing a few by mobbing them and hurting them with everything they got. Which is saying something, given the fact that the shadows displayed the ability to survive strikes that would normally be lethal and reconnect severed body parts. Alan also displayed the power he had gained by shooting a giant vegetable and creating a Chaos anomaly in the process.

In order to demonstrate why it would be a bad idea to approach the anomaly, Ike inserted his sword in it. Infused with Chaos energy, the sword's blade rapidly shifted through possibilities whenever the sword moved, allowing it to evade blocks and strike like a magical blender. Once more thanking his good luck Ike, along with the rest, proceeded to find and rescue many villagers. Some joined his group of volunteers, further strengthening the ranks of Ike's 'army', while the rest were sent out of the village, where they would be safe. With his ability to smell even those too shocked and afraid to respond to his calls, he was able to rescue everyone from everywhere he went through.

Still, maybe Ike's assault wouldn't had gone so well if it wasn't for Irine distracting and killing many of the most dangerous shadow creatures. She was closer to the temple at the centre of the village and thus most of the creatures appeared to be focusing on her. The most dangerous were the cacolopes, pack predators with powerful jaws and sharp teeth that liked to lay ambushes and could quickly cover large distances by jumping. Already dangerous, their possession by the shadow made them even deadlier and harder to kill. Even with her power, it would had been a tough fight for Irine if Theri hadn't arrived to help her using her superior close quarters combat skills.

With the surrounding area clear, Irine's next target was the temple. Everyone felt the evil energy flowing from it. Even Irine's fires were facing resistance, like a constant wind was blowing from it. Roger pleaded Irine to just leave or retreat to a safe distance and just burn the temple down. But Irine could not retreat now, for she was concerned that there might be people trapped inside the temple. And she was right, there were people trapped in there, however saving them wouldn't be easy.

The moment Theri broke down the temple doors, the dark energy inside assaulted their minds, overwhelming their resistance and destroying their ability to think and understand reality. Like the rest of the people in the temple, they were transfixed, staring into the naked form of the monster as it tried to reach its ultimate goal. And there they would had remained, if Irine hadn't managed to use her fires to block the entrance and if Theri hadn't managed to summon enough willpower to activate her orb, an artifact of great emotional value to her that she always carried with her. The Light energies released were enough to break the monster's influence on them, at the same time forcing it to assume a more corporeal form.

The two tried fighting the creature and they fought well, but they were simply not strong enough. After incapacitating Theri, it focused all its anger on Irine, aiming to destroy her by any means necessary, launching attack after powerful attack at her. With Irine close to death and about to lose consciousness, Roger made the only choice he could: he merged himself with Irine, using his gift of Flare to keep the monster away. Knowing that there was no going back and with the monster about to launch a devastating attack called Vortex Detonation, he used his Final Flare to completely obliterate the Vortex, the creature and a good chunk of the village for good measure.

"Oh, the temple of Road's End was destroyed? What a shame. That building had some beautiful architecture and several rare scrolls..."
"There were also people there."
"Yes, yes, the people are important too of course. But the temple..."
"That still doesn't explain his armour. Or how he got here."
"I have to agree, this is becoming a rather long story. Perhaps we should take a break? _{I've been dying to go to the toilet for like the last 10 minutes.}"
"We shall take a break once our guest finishes his speech."
"There's no reason to worry ladies and gentlemen. I am almost done. You see, when the dust settled..."

[Parisbre56]

Spoiler: Recap: Part 10: Winds of War (click to show/hide)

With the master creature destroyed, the village was finally free. It was easy for Ike and his militia to mop up the rest of the creatures now that they had been weakened. The villagers returned, trying to rebuild their lives. They were beyond grateful to Ike and the rest for having saved as many people as they did and they did anything they could to help the party be comfortable and recover from their injuries. (Ike had thankfully evacuated most of the people that would had been in the way of Roger's attack and immediately set to work rescuing anyone he could find after the attack, his enhanced senses being quite useful for that.) They were also thankful for the party destroying the monsters, even though they didn't know exactly how they did it. Frankly, neither did Ike. He had managed to retrieve Theri (she was recovering under the care of the healer Ghios Oftaia and his assistant Alba Varden), but she had been rendered unconscious before the fight ended and could offer no explanation. Irine was nowhere to be found.

The root cause for this was the way Roger's gift of Flare works. It allows him to burn pieces of his soul (or the souls of those he has devoured) to grant him immense strength. Normally it burnt non-essential parts, like fat in a human body. But in his present state, he had nothing left to burn but his entire being. After the attack he was like a burnt corpse, ready to collapse into ash at any moment. So with his final strength he moved Irine somewhere she could recover and left a memory of him saying goodbye and explaining what had happened to Irine. He also left her with a choice: the death of the monster was followed by the appearance of River's Soulsphere, a fact that didn't surprise Roger, since bond-formers we're quite capable of sensing each other when close. He left the sphere with Irine, for her to decide what to do with it. She could destroy it, thus giving her the ability to end this mission and return to the Staging Area, or she could allow River to revive himself once more. His final act was to send a signal to Stellar, giving her some information and asking from her to be ready to support Irine once she's out of this world.

As it happened, the place Roger chose to leave Irine was an underground chamber deep beneath the temple, the same chamber the monster was trying to reach. The reason for that was the immense power contained there in the form of the Sword of the First King. The mayor had ordered the hole to be sealed because he did not know what the sword was and did not want to risk more magical destruction. So Irine was on her own when she finally woke up. First she explored her body, seeing how Roger's merging with her had changed her appearance, made her more fiery and more noticable. Then she explored the tomb of the First King, finding a mural next to the First King's sarcophagus depicting the creation of the Sword, its creator and the three beings used to create it, beings that were depicted as three women, one old, one young. The mural also depicted the First King using the sword and a prophecy for the coming of the chosen one and how she will fulfill the Sword's destiny.

After a bit of exploring, Ike finally managed to find Irine. She had touched the sword and begun talking with it, though she was facing some difficulty due to Roger's traits sometimes surfacing in her speech. Irine tried to understand it but it didn't seem to be interested in becoming friends or telling its story, only in impressing her and judging if she was worthy to wield it. Irine agreed with being judged, claiming the sword. And for that it asked her to tell it her ultimate goal. After Irine talked about her desire to rebuild her home universe and her goal of finding and dealing with whoever destroyed it, as well as her reasons for wanting that, the Sword agreed to become bonded with her and accompany her until it was time to leave this world. It only asked from her that she return the Sword to the tomb or another place of power when she no longer wanted it.

Ike left Irine with the sword and went on to explore the rest of the tomb and find something worth looting. It is there he found the First King's armor, a suit that offered as much coverage as heavy armor but was lightweight and flexible and unbelievably sturdy. It also had the First King's emblem on it, leaving no doubt about what it was. With the Sword's permission and help, Ike deactivated the trap protecting the armor and claimed it for himself. The Sword said there were several enchantments on the armor, though it didn't reveal exactly what they do. The only one Ike managed to find so far was a shield that sometimes appeared on his arms when he made a certain motion and something was speeding towards him.

Meanwhile, Alan had been healed up enough to be able to move around unaided. While he was still a danger to be around, people understood that and were careful. They also appreciated having someone who can summon food at a time when it was scarce. Alan had also been reunited with Rickman who had also brought her nest with her. And he had made some new friends in the form of two potted plants he had named Rick and Ted.

Theri on the other hand had sustained heavy injuries and was still recuperating when a boy called San Fjurrsson was brought to her room, one of the few private rooms available. There the mayor and his trusted few (minus Ike, who was occupied with looting) debriefed the kid. Apparently he was from one of the villages close to Kodromota, the easternmost city of the Kingdom. And he brought news of war.

With the army weakened by the recent war in the north and then further weakened by the loss of the network of Fire magic that was created by the Fire Tower, the Sovereignty saw this as an opportunity to strike. Though the Kingdom and the Sovereignty were long time trading partners, this was a relationship borne out of necessity rather than desire. It was an uneasy peace. Differences in culture, the desire of the Kingdom to expand, raids from bandits and slavers originating in the Sovereignty as well as the resource shortages both nations were facing made sure of that. Conflicts (verbal or even armed) were not uncommon.

In the past, these conflicts didn't extend beyond the borders. They couldn't, both nations were too well defended. But with the kingdom defenseless, the Sovereign, Lord Bofort, saw he could decisively end any future conflict before it could begin and double the size of his kingdom overnight. Of course, even without the Fire Tower and most of the military in ruins, taking over another kingdom is no easy task. One of the biggest reasons the borders of the various kingdoms had remained more or less the same over the past hundreds of years was that most of the magical machines used to wage war depended on a primary element, giving the defender a significant advantage, for in his home territory his machines and his mages would be the most powerful. As had been shown in the past, a resistance led by capable mages with enough power could give an occupational army a lot of trouble. Even without the Fire Tower, this still held true.

The Wind magic employed by the Sovereingty would be no match for the Fire mages. Their Gliders would fall from the sky and their Storm Cannons would create nothing more than a harmless breeze soon after leaving their kingdom, leaving them open to hit and run raids that burned their supplies and left them to starve. It took time and resources to extend such a magical network or resupply the army with recharged Power Stones, time that made any expansion slow to a crawl. But, as the party would soon find out, the Sovereignty had found a way to overcome such problems. So now it waged all out war on the Kingdom, swiftly pushing its troops towards the other end of the kingdom, killing and capturing civilians and soldiers alike whenever they got in their way.

It was these raids that San and others like him were seeking to escape when they left their village and started making their way across the deserted center of the kingdom, towards the West. Though there were a few that found the invasion to be a good thing, wanting a strong empire to protect them, most were afraid of being under the Sovereignty's rule. The Sovereignty was targeting anyone who could be a threat and even random people, using them as slaves or arresting them and taking them away, never to be seen again. That is why San's father Fjur, an old soldier that had fought in the war in the North, sent San to the village of Giant's Wall, where he had relatives that could take care of him. However San had no family to accompany him on this journey, only people he knew from his village. His mother was long gone and his father decided to join the resistance when the opportunity presented itself, leaving San to continue in his own. With the fall of Kodromota what was left of the army was gathering close to the hills and desert in the North and Fjurr, like other volunteers, intended to join them.

In a way, that might have just saved Fjurr's life. It was night and the group of refugees San was in had stopped somewhere in the middle of the deserted land in the centre of the kingdom, near a place called the Field of Statues. That is when they were attacked. But it was not soldiers or raiders that attacked them. Dozens of monstrous avian creatures descended upon them, killing or taking anyone they got their claws on. Through luck and the sacrifice of his close friend Praeus and Praeus' dad Aelven, San managed to escape. He kept moving West for what felt like a long time. Already injured in the attack, walking in the heat with no food or water did his health no good. He was near death when he was found by Reinn, a hunter operating out of Road's End, and brought to the village to be healed, thus ending up in Theri's room.

Though San was afraid of Theri at first due to her non-human characteristics, through talking he became more at ease with her and eventually started to like her. San was looking for someone to hold on to, since everyone he knew was dead or far away. So when Theri offered to take him with her in her journey towards the east, he accepted, holding on to the childish hope that he could find his father along the way.

"How can you claim that the Sword of the First King could choose to-"
"Can we please just let him finish his story?"
"Well, uh, yes, certainly, but-"
"Thank you!"

Spoiler: Recap: Part 11: Shady Characters (click to show/hide)

The Sword used many fancy names to describe itself (its exact wording was "Inira Milu Nimu-Kor, the Sword of Kings and Forger of Kingdoms, Aquiya Tin, the Moonblade, protector of the innocent, slayer of armies, bane of Stodir" with "the power of might, of right and of light") but the villagers knew it from legends as the Sword of the First King. They had never imagined that it could be under their feet all these years. Some saw the Sword's and the party's arrival as a sign. Others merely wanted to do their duty to their nation. And many simply admired Ike and the rest for having saved them. Whatever the reason, with the news of war spreading, many men came to Ike, asking to accompany him on his trip towards the east, in the hopes of uniting with the local resistance. Ike saw no problem with that, so he allowed them to come along, becoming their impromptu leader in the process.

As a first demonstration of its power, the Sword revived Nikolai, though it strained it to do so. It was not omnipotent, its power depended on the power of its wielder. And even if it was at its full power, it would still hesitate to try to revive River, for his soul was too damaged by the Void, barely held together and his elements were too different from the Sword, resistant to finer manipulations.

Ike decided to expedite their leaving after Alan force fed a kid leaves from his plant and some kind of liquid he summoned, his volatile alchemical mix causing the child to disappear. Not wanting to get into trouble, Ike loaded up the various animal-drawn carts he had gathered with supplies and whatever weapons he could gather, got his teammates and their followers and left towards the east. He made extra sure to have his 'minions' equip Nikolai with the best armor and weapons they could find, an old monster hunter set with enchantments against fire and poison.

It was an emotional moment when the villagers gathered to say farewell to those brave or stupid enough to leave with Ike, to wish them well and give them gifts for their journey, to plead them not to go or to return safe, to curse them for leaving. For many enthusiastic young men this would be the first time away from the village they were born in. The people of the Kingdom liked to consider themselves brave and fun-loving, so their journey was accompanied with songs about battle and the greatness of their nation, hymns to gods and heroes of old, as well as drinking and dirty bar songs.

And so it was so that the group continued its journey until it reached the Field of Statues. The Field of Statues, as its name implied, was a large area filled with statues of all sorts and sizes, some of them enchanted with protections against vandalism. It was there that they witnessed the site of the carnage San had described. But strangely, while there was a lot of blood, there were very few bodies to be found.

As they journeyed, the Sword became more and more aware of a dark influence spreading across the land, a wide field of dark magic being felt, mostly during the night. It informed Irine of its findings and stated that it would protect her should the dark energy wish to cause her harm.

During their journey, the group tried to improve the status of their little personal army. Ike took care of getting to know the men, watching their morale, teaching them some basic strategy and formations, getting them to follow orders and giving them some simple training exercises and sword training. He also took care to strengthen the bonds between them, make sure that any animosity forming between them would be quelled and that they would also be able to teach each other what they know. Nikolai took care of ranged combat training. Alan took care of procuring supplies and improving morale through said supplies and various forms of entertainment. Alan also learned more about Rickman, her past and the dangers she had faced, the ones that killed her NestMate. (Strangely, the soldiers couldn't understand Rickman, unlike the rest of the party.) And Theri took care of training those interested in hand-to-hand combat, field medicine and foraging, though there were some who did not appreciate receiving instructions from a non-human. This training was not only for the benefit of their would-be soldiers, for it also helped the party become stronger.

They went on until they reached a fork in the road marked by a well. One path led towards the north, to the water monastery of Chizra (the same one Ike was now in) and then to the desert that marked the Kingdom's northern borders. The other path led on towards the east, towards the Hills of Midnight and ultimately to Kodromota, on the border with the Sovereignty. Irine and Ike disagreed on which direction they should go, for Ike wished to explore Chizra before moving on while Irine wanted to make their way to their final destination as soon as possible. In the end, they came to a compromise: Irine and Theri would scout ahead while Ike and the rest would go to Chizra.

As the first stop of the Nomad Traders when entering the Kingdom (and those traders wishing to deal with them first), Chizra was no stranger to strangers. Many visited the monastery merely in order to drink its holy water or watch one of the purification ceremonies. Chizra also received its fair amount of people wishing to stay there, but doing so was not easy. The monks required hard work from those who stayed, making sure they could carry their weight by farming or other work. Though some found that acceptable, others thought of it comparable to slavery. Despite that, people still made their way there, either to disappear and start anew, to receive training in Water magic from a source other than the Tower or simply because they wanted something to believe in and devote themselves to. The temple had recently received an influx of refugees, so it had set many of them working on expanding its farms, converting many of its water gardens into farmlands.

It was said that the inner circle was located at the top of the foggy hill from which the water of Chizra originated. The inner circle held the most devoted followers of the Flowing Way, those that spent most of their time meditating on the nature of water, many of them powerful mages. Judging by the stories told about them, they were powerful enough to defeat a dragon. Then there was the monastery itself (the building Ike was in) that held the various masters and high ranking members of the temple. Then there were the gardens, farmlands and places of worship and meditation surrounding the temple, themselves surrounded by a newly constructed wall, put there to prevent the theft of food. After the wall had been erected and people were forbidden from entering during the night, the inhabitants of the monastery had taken up to calling this area 'The Walled Garden'. Then there were the newly expanded residential areas, along with a few stores and inns. And finally there were the high walls of Chizra that made it look more like a fortress than a monastery, decorated with various engravings and statues. The land around Chizra had recently been flooded by the mages of the temple, knowing that it was very likely for them to be attacked in such dark times and wishing to impede anyone approaching and give them the advantage.

Ike's group entered the monastery as night fell. They were forced to leave their weapons (but not their other equipment) behind, as the temple professed to maintain peace and neutrality. It was supposed to be a place where everyone, humans of every kingdom and all non-humans, would be welcome, as long as they did not became a problem and followed the rules of the monastery. And one of those rules (one that had become harder to maintain with the rise in its population) was 'no violence'. So Ike left a few of his men to watch the wagons and supplies while he and the rest entered the monastery.

His first night in town was spent gathering information. First he had a discussion with the gatekeeper, asking about the monastery and the situation there. He also got the gatekeeper to arrange a meeting with the Headwater, some sort of leader of the monks. (The gatekeeper said he himself was merely a Water Carrier, some sort of assistant from what he understood, though Ike still wasn't sure what exactly those ranks meant.) Then, Ike, the party and his soldiers made their way to a tavern/inn. There he proceeded to search for information as well as secure financial or material support for his little army, talking to a group of down-on-their-luck merchants from Kodromota. Many of them felt that they had little hope of continuing their prosperous existence with the recent disasters and the war unfolding as it was, so they had gathered whatever wares they could find and awaited for an opportunity to leave for the Confederate Southern States or for the Nomad Traders, hoping to follow them through the northern desert and into more peaceful (and profitable) lands. Having little to do with their spare time except try to con refugees out of their valuables or futilely try to strike a deal with the temple, they had ample time to listen to any rumor that came their way. From what the traders had heard, the Sovereignty had also attacked the Confederate Southern States, but the war was going much better for them, their superior navy allowing them to hold their own and even perform some counterattacks. However said rumors were already more than a week old, so there was no telling how the war had progressed in that time. The traders had also heard (though not seen) about the various means the Sovereignty used to conduct war. There were soldiers and mages of course and also Gliders and other flying war machines and siege engines and those monstrous birds. There was also a beastman in their employment called Sword-tusks, one they had liberated from Kodromota's Arena. Sword-tusks was roaming the land leading a group of slavers, capturing people in the name of the Sovereignty. He also got some rumors about Nether Pass, but nothing concrete. And he also got some general information about Kodromota and its surroundings and a possible looting target in the Hills of Midnight, some old estate.

Having gained the information he required for now, he focused on gaining resources. He managed to persuade an 'expert at acquiring rare items' to travel with him. The man had what he claimed to be the fastest horse in the kingdom and he also claimed to have useful contacts in several places. He agreed to join Ike's army in its quest to join the resistance, hoping to be reunited with his half-brother in the military and aid the resistence with his knowledge. He also got a stone figurine from one of the traders that would indicate he is a friend of the Denion Trading Guild. If Guildmaster Skacren-Ett was still in Kodromota, the traders said it would be worth his time to seek him out.

The soldiers acted much like one would expect when given the opportunity to drink and have fun: they did just that. And joining them was Nikolai, impressing everyone with his ability to not only hold his liqueur but also to Tsar it into amazing size and potency. Nikolai and the men did a good job drinking, having fun, making noise and telling stories. Stories that, as it happened, attracted the attention of parts of the local population. Hearing about their desire to join the resistance and with little left to lose, many of them asked to join Ike's group. Ike had no problem with adding more men to his little army, so he easily accepted, increasing the size of his platoon. Unfortunately, Nikolai was still a man, so in the end he reached his limit and blacked out, his memories after that point being beyond his recollection.

It was (in part) due to his drunken state that he missed Ike's meeting with a certain shady character. The man got Ike to a secluded spot and made his offer: Ike was to get into a secret vault of the temple (a feat that would be easy for him, since he could use his dexterity and reflexes to climb through a secret passage), detonate a Hex (essentially a bomb made out of Dark and Void energies that severely disrupted magic) to disable all magical security devices and then steal a staff with a blue glass dome on its top (and any other magical artifact Ike wanted). He was supposed to bring the staff to the man early in the morning of the day after tomorrow. As Ike would later learn, the staff was a powerful and specially constructed artifact with a Water Focusing Crystal that helped the mages of the temple to form a powerful magical shield around Chizra. The man suggested stealing it either during the morning, after his meeting with the Headwater or during next night, when he would cause some sort of distraction. With their business for the night concluded, Ike, Alan and Zechariah found a place to sleep and retired for the night.

Nikolai woke up the next morning naked, in an unknown bed and with a terrible hangover. Apparently a young woman called Isan had helped him by allowing him to rest in her (rather spartan) room. Nikolai helped the owner of the house clean up the mess he had created last night. He also learned that he had displayed extraordinary power with his abilities in his drunken state, Tsaring an entire building and displaying the ability to Tsar two different objects at the same time. After having some breakfast and apologizing to the man yet again, he regrouped with Ike and Zechariah. But he could not help but notice that people were looking him strangely along the way, as if there was something different about him...

Alan woke up with his usual hyperactive energy. After cooking a lavish breakfast for everyone, he went out in search of a friend. And he found it, in the face of a drunkard and a thief. The two of them got in a few adventures, got an angry mob to chase them and flew a water-hose-powered tricycle over Chizra's walls. It is there, outside Chizra's walls, that his new friend would make an interesting proposition to him...

Ike, Zechariah and Nikolai made it to the meeting with the Headwater. The Headwater seemed to recognize them. After hearing a good chunk of Ike's story and after Ike revealed his encounter with that shady individual last night, he was more than happy to help (after he got past his initial surprise), providing them information and offering them some mid-level magical artifacts. Apparently, if they had done as the shady man asked, they would had crippled Chizra's defenses against outside attacks. However, while he was quite grateful for what they had done, he could not offer them Ike and his army the official support of Chizra. Chizra was obliged to remain neutral. For that to change, he needed to call a meeting and inform the other masters of his findings. The meeting that Ike was now in...

Irine, Theri and San meanwhile kept heading East after splitting up with Ike. They saw signs of refugees moving through the barren land but encountered nothing. During the night, River chose to attempt to resurrect himself. The Sword detected this and woke Irine up, however she chose to not intervene, partly because she did not know what he was doing and whether or not it would be safe to do so. Not that anyone could blame her for not thinking that, his soulsphere showed extensive damage. It certainly wouldn't had been able to survive in this state if it wasn't for Darkstar's mastery of Memory Folding and S0's mastery of Holographic Consciousness. So River found a compatible being he could posses, took it over and then simply disappeared, the Sword unable to track his movements.

The next day they continued on. This day they happened to encounter one such group of refugees that had managed to escape the Sovereignty-occupied territories. Though the humans were afraid of them at first, as luck would have it, one of them had seen San before, when he was passing through First Green. San vouched for Theri and Irine, which led to the humans being less afraid and more open to conversation. Theri managed to have a conversation with them, learning more about the situation in the East and the potential dangers they could face, gaining slightly better and more up-to-date information than Ike had the previous night. The soldiers of the Sovereignty had apparently set up checkpoints and were arresting and enslaving anyone for the slightest offense, like not liking their face. The soldiers were equipped with some sort of magical stun grenade in order to handle angry mobs, a bottle of trapped Wind magic that could stun or even kill people around it when it broke. San also tried to gain any info about the whereabouts of the secret resistence base, but the refugees didn't know much more than he did. They also told Theri about the time they hid from a group of people that was behaving strangely, slowly walking around the deserted landscape with no apparent purpose, like zombies. After conversing for a while, Theri wished them good luck on their journey and they each went their separate ways, the refugees moving on towards the West while Theri and Irine moved on towards the East.

Irine and Theri kept moving on, getting past an abandoned building and almost reaching the place where the road crossed through the Hills of Midnight. That is when River projected a single thought to them: hide. Theri immediately did so, hiding Irine, San and herself under the dirt, using a blanket to obscure their footprints beforehand. That's when the corrupted avian war-monsters of the Sovereignty came. They circled above them for some time, probably sensing their magic. However they were unable to spot the party, so they went on towards the west. Having escaped combat (to the slight disappointment of the Sword), Theri and Irine decided it would be best to continue on their journey...

"...and that's about it."
The Headwater steps up and takes the stand.
"Thank you Ike, you may take a seat if you'd like. I know this couldn't have been easy for you." he says to Ike before addressing the room.
Ike didn't particularity mind speaking, but sure, whatever. He sits down and watches as the Headwater unleashes his political attack.
"It is my opinion that, after what we've heard, we can no longer afford to idly stand by. It is clear in my mind that this Hex-"
The Headwater presents the glass orb containing the bubbling mass of darkness, producing quite a few gasps from the audience.
"-shows that the Sovereignty has no intention of allowing our continued independent existence."
"You have no evidence-"
"Any logical man would conclude that this is the case. Furthermore, it is clear from this story and from the stories we hear from every man that arrives at our gates seeking assistance that things are not well in the world. The Sovereignty is treating the people of this land with barbarous cruelty and shows no signs of stopping. Not until it has attained complete domination. If you need further proof of this, then look no further than our brothers in the Southern States, who are even now fighting to protect their livelihoods, their freedom and their very lives from this unprovoked attack. We need to take action! While there is still time left to act!"
He turns and points a finger at Ike while still facing his audience.
"That is why I propose that we grant our full support to Ike and the resistance!" he shouts, his loud voice overshadowing the number of protests that have erupted.
"His arrival at this crucial time, wearing the armour of the First King no less, a herald of the chosen wielder of the Sword of the First King, is a sign we cannot ignore. It is a sign that, like the First King, we should do all we can for the good of others. This is the only way that we may see peace return to our kingdom. We cannot sit here, claiming to be good while everyone else suffers. For that reason, we should send with him any mages we can spare capable of healing, combat or fortification along with any material help we can provide. It is the only way!"
"This is preposterous! Our neutrality-" the man in red is shouting now, his face starting to become as red as his clothes, but he is overshadowed by the Headwater's magically enhanced voice.
"Furthermore! Furthermore! Furthermore, we should send our craftsmen and historians to Road's End to assess and repair the damage to the tomb of the First King. We cannot let such a monument and the treasures inside it exposed. With our people there, we will also be able to provide any help we can to the villagers that have now been left without any magic users and thus without any protection from the dangers of magic. This should only be the first step, the first village we help and prove what we can do! Our disciples will be sent to every corner of the Kingdom, to find the source of this corruption, to help wherever they are needed. This should bring the invigorating truth of the Flowing Way to every man that needs it, along with our help and blessings. No longer will men starve-"
"How can you speak such things?!" the man in red shouts again, this time his voice amplified by magic.
"What are you doing? Be seated!"
"No! This is insane!"
"Be seated at once! You have not been given-"
"No! I will not! This is preposterous! This is beyond belief! That the one who is supposed to be the best of us can say such horrible things. This goes against our traditions, our morals, our way, everything our order stands for! Chizra has always been neutral in the conflicts of all beings, always standing ready to defend itself but never attacking, always ready to accept all who wish to follow the Way. We are supposed to be a place where all men who seek enlightenment may enter freely, not a seat of power, not an overlord imposing our will, even if we're to be a benevolent overlord. And, if anything, trying to keep the old Kingdom alive would only prolong its death and bring more suffering. We should be hoping that the Sovereignty wins this conflict as soon as possible. They have always shown that they are tolerant of different people and beliefs while the King has tried numerous times to put us under his control. Even if that weren't the case, we cannot make ourselves an enemy of the Sovereignty, not when they have taken no action against us."
"Please! Please brothers, let us all be calm like clear waters." the man in blue says, trying to stop the debate from escalating further.
Ike notices there are many murmurs of assent with the man in red. Even with his testimony and the Hex, it looks like the Masters are not convinced.
"Yes. This young man has given us a lot to think about. We should take the time to consider it carefully before reaching any sort of decision."
"We have been considering these matters for far too long. All these days we've done nothing but talk and now we have little time left until a decision is made for us. It is important not to confuse care with fear and indecision."
The Headwater looks around with an accusatory look, while at the same time gauging his audience's reactions. It doesn't look like many agree with the Headwater trying to force a decision, so like a man of Water should, he immediately goes with the flow, continuing like this was his intention all along.
"However, I agree that some time to consider this may be necessary. So I propose we take a break for an hour and then continue this discussion."
There are nods and affirmations from all around the room, though it looks clear that some of them would very much like this meeting to be over for good.
"Very well then. The gates shall open. Be sure to consider the importance of what has been discussed here and of the importance of the lives of others."

[Parisbre56]

Later, that very same turn...

Harry Baldman, NAV

With the Headwater officially declaring the meeting to be over for now, the doors are unsealed, allowing people to enter and the Masters gathered inside to slowly (and in the case of a certain violet-wearing woman, rather quickly) make their way out. Most of them stay in the chamber for now, discussing what has happened. From what Ike understands, it usually doesn't get this exciting around here.
"I am sorry for the baseless accusations made by Griman and his supporters. You must understand, he is not doing this because he hates you. We have been debating this matter for a long time and discussion tends to get a bit... heated at times." the Headwater says, trying to be diplomatic, but Ike isn't paying much attention.
That's because he has noticed that that familiar smell has returned. The man that gave him the Hex is somewhere in here, he is one of the men that entered when the gates opened. How convenient. If Ike could find out who he is and point him out to the Headwater, then that would surely help tip the scared to his favor.
"But do not worry. I'm certain that the decision that must be taken, will be taken, even if it takes a bit longer. It is as things should happen. 'All Water returns to the sea eventually', as they say."

((Was sick over the weekend.))

While the others were talking, Zechariah examined the room. He found the atmosphere of the Temple to be comforting and harmonic - at least, when nobody was shouting or being frustrated. A few words in the conversation stuck out to Zechariah - in particular, the mention of Dark, Light, and Order magics and magic practitioners. Those words sounded a little too close to what Zechariah had known before in the Medium; however, it could very well be coincidence. After all, it's not like Dark energies that kill and Light energies that protect are rare concepts. Still, many of these coincidences were lining up. At the very least, the two multiverses were more similar than he had imagined. It was too early to make inferences still, but what if there was a deeper association than he had thought earlier?

He put it out of his mind for now, however, considering that the inhabitants of the Water Temple were getting ready to meet. He believed he had little in the way of personal insight to contribute to the conversation, however, so he decided to take after another task.

"I doubt I'll have much valuable information for the meeting. I'll... see what I can do elsewhere. I'll be back here in, say, thirty minutes or so - earlier if something blows up," he said, half-jokingly.

Go visit the meditating monk. I believe that I might be able to learn something from him. Meditate, if he will allow me, with him.

While Ike and Nikolai are attending the meeting, you go sit next to the monk and try to relax. He doesn't seem to mind you. He merely smiles in your direction without even opening his eyes, you're not even sure if he has really noticed you.

The atmosphere of the room is certainly conductive to relaxation. The grassy floor is soft and easy to sit on, there is a pleasent smell of flowers in the air and the constant sound of flowing water helps calm and still your thoughts. After a whie, a smile creeps to your face and you let go, diving deeper inside yourself. And by letting go it is as if you've gained a greater awareness, an ability to sense the world around you. You can feel the water flowing in front of you, you can feel a fish playfully swimming in it, you can feel the monk slowly breathing next to you, you can feel the trees and blades of grass growing ever so slightly each moment, you can even feel the heart of this plae, beating somewhere far above you...

But not everything is good, not everything is balanced, not everything is flowing well. There are dark things moving in the edge of your vision, unstable energies, things you can't quite sense flowing from places both near and far. That's not quite true, there is one dark energy you can sense. It's coming from your staff and then trailing off and disappearing. It hungers too much. That's what makes it unbalanced. There's something it's missing. A hunger, you realise, that resonates within yourself.

Alan takes an exaggerated bow. "I do what I can, my bud! Though we gotta get back in the temple before we can do that again. Or just find a big hill, but I think the temple's closer. C'mon, let's go!"

Walk back to the temple wall with my new buddy - ask him his name and stuff on the way.

If I'm misinterpreting it somehow and it's right there, then ask him his name anyway and then make a big trampoline so we can jump over the walls.

Your new pal identifies himself as Brad Korr, rogue extraordinaire.

"Back to the temple, eh? Normally the monks don't let anyone in there, but I know just the thing for that. Some pal informed me there's going to be a raid tonight. You can bet that's going to cause a big distraction. Normally I was just going to storm the place with the rest and get some food, but with you as my pal, there are some new possibilities for enjoyment."
He opens his cloak, removes another bottle of alcohol and takes a swig before continuing.
"If we prepare, we could sneak in and have all sorts of fun. Who knows what secrets they keep in there? We could get all sorts of stuff. Maybe even climb all the way to the top!"
He offers the bottle of alcohol to you.
"What do you say, partner?"

After calming down San, Theri spoke. "Find a way to hide our magic then. I'll do the tracking. San, find some stuff nearby that we can use for hiding ourselves or creating a fire. Dry wood of this sort and look for-"

Theri began iterating utility and useful survival tips that she had learned way back--before she even met River or was somehow transported out of her world. Several trees of a sort, and their respecting physical qualities were mentioned, alongside other plant life and substances that could be used to generate cover.

"I'll be helping you with the rest, but I'd also like to see you better off than when we first met. It's okay to cry; you're a strong young person. We can talk about any concerns on the way."

Train San in survival skills.
And TRACK that murder! [if possible, gather supplies alongside]

((realized I hadn't explicitly said I'd go along with Theri's plan so:))
Theri's plan is a good one - lets do that.

Theri and Irine continue moving on after Theri helps San calm down, reassuring him that the monsters are gone and he is safe now. Along the way she gives San various wilderness survival tips. The two of them stop from time to time whenever they encounter a dead shrub or similar in order to break it down for firewood.

It's less than a couple of hours before the sun has disappeared behind the horizon and they stop for the night. Theri finds a small rocky outcrop rising out of the dirt, not much taller than she is but good enough to give them some cover from the wind and prying eyes. She sets up camp and tries to show San how to start a fire, but he is proud to demonstrate that he already knows how to do that. (Irine suppresses the urge to show off just how easily she can light a fire.) They eat some of their dwindling rations and lie down to sleep.

You haven't been sleeping for long when you are woken by a burst of light and a yelp.
<Ha! Got you!> the Sword exclaims.
There is a black-furred puppy dangling from a grey thread. The grey thread is simply woven into existence somewhere above him.
<We caught him sneaking up on you.> the Sword explains.
The struggling puppy barks angrily.
<No doubt with ill intent.> it adds.
He appears wounded, like someone lashed him, but along with blood there is small amounts of shadow escaping from the cuts.
<It looks like the dark one could not escape our sight forever.> the Sword continues, sounding proud of itself.

OOC
I did not cover some of the exposition given to Ike in his talks with the Headwater and all the offers of magical items in the last 5-10 pages, since it was a bit too much I think.

Photobucket is now asking me to pay to host my images on other websites. Guess I'll have to look for a new image host...

Spoiler: Small OOC rambling (click to show/hide)

Hey guys. Sorry for disappearing. I've had some problems, some things happened and was feeling both physically and emotionally like crap and I just kinda focused on my job and stopped doing much else, intentionally getting long shifts so that I wouldn't have to think about other stuff. I started reading books again a while back and I've slowly lost that constant anxiety that was chasing me all the time. I'm trying to get back on things now.

If you're wondering what happened to me, then some idiot with an SUV rammed my car on the national highway and I had my arm injured for about a month (thankfully nothing else, though it still hurts sometimes), then I was sent abroad to install some new systems and because we were rushing the project I had to work day and night and listen to people blaming me for things beyond my control and some days things were so bad the only sleep I got was on the plane and then I was informed that a relative close to me which I loved was dying only to find out later that it was actually a scam to con me and the rest of my family out of money.

But hey, what can you do? Life goes on. You learn and do better.

Once again, I am sorry for disappearing without a word.

[Failbird105]

I would certainly like to try and participate, though I'm worried that my interest in my old character may have passed as it was created by interest in Resident Evil 7, and the fascination with that is over.

[Lenglon]

PARIS IS BAAAAAACCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yay.
"River? You came back! Yay!"
I gently hug River, avoiding his injuries, and see how he reacts to me. I do not tell the sword to release him yet, but I don't want him harmed either. I still don't know if this is River or The Thing That Once Was River, but I THINK River has control of himself again, else he wouldn't have come back. That being the case, I'll be seeing about how to handle his injuries shortly. I'm not sure if they should be covered up or not though, that shadowstuff might need to be able to get out of his system.
((EDIT: I had forgotten that Irine is in fox-form.))
<River? You came back! Yay!>
I run over to River and nuzzle him, looking him over and looking at his injuries while greeting his return. I don't ask for the sword to release him yet, but I don't want him harmed either. I still don't know if this is River or The Thing That Once Was River, but I THINK River has control of himself again, else he wouldn't have come back. That being the case, I'll be seeing about how to handle his injuries shortly. I'm not sure if they should be covered up or not though, that shadowstuff might need to be able to get out of his system.

[Beirus]

((Glad to see you back, Paris. There's a new mission? I want in. Can't pass up the chance to see new things...and then explode and destroy those new things.))

[Xantalos]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I'm dimma-damned glad to see this back again, and to hear that you're doing alright compared to previously. My sympathies about the stress pileup that happened, though the fact that it seems to be at least momentarily subsiding is good to hear.

And holy crap that's a damn fine recap. I actually know what's going on now!

I'll Alanify myself to post in character tomorrow. Might take some time to draw his thought processes out of the back of my head.

[Coolrune206]

I'm in for a new mission. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to make a new character; I have other abilities I'd like to try out, and I've definitely lost interest in my old one.

[OceanSoul]

...Wow. That's one censor'd word of a recap. And I'm just going off length here. I mean, 12 parts over 3 posts? Simply ludicrous. That fact alone makes me want to finish reading the thread from whatever early point I'd left off, and even make a character, too. How does a character that can randomly generate all sorts of objects sound?

[Toaster]

PARIS IS BAAAAAACCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yay.

I agree.



Also I'm still totally in for any mission; can't actually read the recap at this moment but I will soon.

[Sir Elventide]

First of all, I'd like to say that I hope that everything is alright in your life, Paris. Real life is such a pain sometimes, even when we want it to leave us alone for even a moment.

Anyway, I'd never thought that this thread will still be this active after all this time, especially since I'd inadvertently necro'd it last month. However, now that there's still a possibility that it will start up again, I was wondering if I can still join in or if it's too late. Thanks.

[Parisbre56]

((EDIT: I had forgotten that Irine is in fox-form.))
<River? You came back! Yay!>
I run over to River and nuzzle him, looking him over and looking at his injuries while greeting his return. I don't ask for the sword to release him yet, but I don't want him harmed either. I still don't know if this is River or The Thing That Once Was River, but I THINK River has control of himself again, else he wouldn't have come back. That being the case, I'll be seeing about how to handle his injuries shortly. I'm not sure if they should be covered up or not though, that shadowstuff might need to be able to get out of his system.

You nuzzle River, causing him to sway back and forth a bit like a pendulum from the threads hanging above him. He stops struggling and licks you a bit with a small whine. The fact that he's trying to keep his snout on you while swaying back and forth makes this a bit comical.

I would certainly like to try and participate, though I'm worried that my interest in my old character may have passed as it was created by interest in Resident Evil 7, and the fascination with that is over.

Make a new one if you want. I won't force you to keep your old char.

I'm in for a new mission. I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to make a new character; I have other abilities I'd like to try out, and I've definitely lost interest in my old one.

Sure, make a new one. I'll even throw in some extra points, since you had quite a few in your old char.

...Wow. That's one censor'd word of a recap. And I'm just going off length here. I mean, 12 parts over 3 posts? Simply ludicrous. That fact alone makes me want to finish reading the thread from whatever early point I'd left off, and even make a character, too. How does a character that can randomly generate all sorts of objects sound?

I once pitched a character like that to... Beirus, I think? I called him Pockets, he was wearing pants and a trenchcoat that were full of pockets and his special ability was basically Adventure Game Inventory Syndrome, the kind of thing that can lead to an extended disarming scene. He could reach into his pockets and attempt to pull out anything, with varying results. The downside was that this was always active, so the moment he put something in his pockets he wouldn't be certain he could pull it out again. If you're interested I could give a more detailed description.

First of all, I'd like to say that I hope that everything is alright in your life, Paris. Real life is such a pain sometimes, even when we want it to leave us alone for even a moment.

Anyway, I'd never thought that this thread will still be this active after all this time, especially since I'd inadvertently necro'd it last month. However, now that there's still a possibility that it will start up again, I was wondering if I can still join in or if it's too late. Thanks.

Sure, give me a char (here or in PM) and we'll figure something out.

PARIS IS BAAAAAACCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yay.

I agree.



Also I'm still totally in for any mission; can't actually read the recap at this moment but I will soon.

Eh, it's only for the campaign. You won't be missing too much.

((Glad to see you back, Paris. There's a new mission? I want in. Can't pass up the chance to see new things...and then explode and destroy those new things.))

Sure. Wanna go with a new mission? Wanna go with the haunted spaceship exploration we were setting up to do before I disappeared? Whatever you want, I'm good.

[Harry Baldman]

((Oh man, I didn't know half of the shit that was in that recap. So convenient to have everything consistently named and in the same place like that.

Also, welcome back! And don't worry about being gone, taking time off for mental and physical health is good all-around.))

Campaign, Ike!

Ike coughs and maybe has a glass of water. Being a key witness was somehow worse than jury duty, who knew?

"Don't look now, but I can smell the shady dude who gave me that hex-thing," he whispers to the Headwater. "He or maybe someone who has his stuff just came in, so when I make him out I'll point him out to ya discreet-like, and then you decide what to do with that information."

Time to sniff out a would-be criminal mastermind! Carefully scan the crowd and mingle until I've found the offending scent. If found, quietly describe/point out the chief suspect to the Headwater.