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queenrhenpendragon · 7 years ago

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Serious Matters (In Pieces 22)

Rhen has the cutest sense of humor ever, and I had to write about it. This piece covers parts of the game from a bit before Galahad joins the party to when they have the genie's lamp and can *technically* defeat Saurva (but we all know you gotta train up for that because those lamp monsters are VICIOUS). All the jokes except the last one were actually in the game. Very sunny and silly. Happy summer!

Rhen had insisted that they bring the elf statuette to Ylisfar. It seemed to be one of her jokes, her very serious jokes, and they all smiled and went along with it. Mostly because they weren't ready to face those monsters in that lamp yet. But for Dameon, it was also because he was all tangled up in her sense of humor and he didn't know where hers ended and his started, not anymore—

But anyway, that's why they were in the meadow near Brumwich. Elini had wanted to stop for a rest before going down into Rootwell and fighting all those nippets and krackens, and nobody had the energy to argue— which was probably a good indication that they should stop. Dameon was trying to spend the time working on a new shield spell. But instead he kept looking at Rhen, who was sitting cross legged in the grass looking very enchanting and weaving a flower crown out of bright pink and yellow flowers. He wondered what sort of mischief she had planned this time.

He had begun to realize she was hilarious in Sedona, when she'd offered to exchange a stick figure drawing for a ticket to a ball— and all so she could buy a manor, which they would barely use because they would be scouring every corner of Aia for druids and daevas and who knew what else. At first he had thought she’d finally snapped under the pressure of trying to save the world, but then he had noticed something sort of cavalier in the way she stood, and it had gradually dawned on him, with all the slow solemnity of the Oracle ascending the stairs of the Sun Temple, that Rhen was making a joke.

The funniest part was, it worked. Frederick actually gave them his ticket. And watching Rhen smile and giggle and look completely delighted, Dameon had felt a strange quivering sensation in his throat. And he hadn’t known what to do with that, so he just stood in the back and tried to ignore it, hoping it wouldn’t happen again.

But it did happen again, over and over.

He remembered when she offered to pay the thieves double to tell them who had tried to assassinate the king. He had been nervous, he recalled, but again there had been that sort of offhanded, confident air about her that made the whole frightening ordeal seem— silly. It had seemed silly, and his throat shook again and he’d swallowed hard and focused on controlling his breathing.

It wasn't like he hadn't laughed before. Just, maybe, not very often. But he sometimes chuckled because Lars was so ridiculously hotheaded, or because Te'ijal was too creepy to be taken seriously, or just because Rhen was laughing, and she was charming and warm— or, she made him feel warm, and—

Anyway, he did laugh. It was just different to laugh at the sort of ironic, silly jokes that Rhen tended to make. Where he would have felt awkward, she was whimsical. She saw the humor in all that was grave and heavy. She made light of all those things that would have weighed him down, and if he laughed—

If he laughed, he knew he would never be the same.

So when she'd stood over that silly toad in the Sandstone Caves, with her shoulders thrown back and her head held high— exactly like a princess, and a rebel— and said in that same dramatic voice she had used before, "I'll warn you one more time, Toad. Let the girl go or die," Dameon hadn't laughed, even though his throat convulsed like he had swallowed a bini, or maybe a fairy—

Oh, the fairies. She had realized they needed to make peace between the Mountain King and the Snow Queen if they were going to get to the demon in the Snow Queen's basement, and of course the only logical way to do that was to bring a fairy to the king. She knew the whole situation was ridiculous and that was the part that was funny— so funny that Dameon's lungs ached, but he kept his mouth closed and his eyes down until the feeling passed.

They defeated the demon and that had definitely not been funny. But then Te'ijal had wanted to visit the Mountain King and Ice Queen, just to see. So they went to the caves behind Thornkeep, and the Mountain King looked at them very imperiously and said in a deep, rumbling voice, "Welcome, Southerners. What news have you of the world?"

Rhen had straightened so that she looked just as royal as the two rulers standing before her, and said, in that irresistible tone that was a parody of dignity, "Demons have broken loose and are now roaming the land."

Dameon wasn't made out of stone or ice, or even out of the same noble stuff that allowed Lars and Elini and Galahad to watch this exchange with straight faces, and when the Mountain King spluttered "WHAT?!" his lungs burned, and his throat trembled, and before he could stop himself he was laughing—

And Rhen had blushed and didn't look half so solemn anymore, especially not as she stammered, "Er, just kidding. Ha. Ha. Ha," or as she took Dameon's elbow and pulled him out of the cave, murmuring something about what had come over him, he should really try to be a bit more respectful—

"But Rhen, it was your joke," he'd reminded her, and even though she was raising her eyebrows at him he couldn't take her seriously, he couldn't take himself seriously, so he'd kissed her pink little nose, twice, and he hadn't been able feel dignified again until she smiled and laughed too, which made no sense at all but he didn't mind because she was very charming, and it wasn't so bad, to never be the same again, as long as she was with him to guide him through this new way of feeling, of being—

So he'd lost, in the end, and he'd ended up laughing with Rhen about the genie in the lamp, and about having to fight the Veldt queen's favorite husband, and he'd laughed when she bought the pirate sails, too. Lars had not found it amusing, but Elini had seemed to like the idea, and Rhen had shrugged and spent 1300 gold on them.

Then Galahad reminded them, very loudly, that the citizens of Sedona would not tolerate pirate sails in their docks, so the party had dropped their anchor near the lowlands instead. And that was when Rhen decided they were going to bring the elf statuette to Ylisfar, and now—

She was looking up at him and blushing, and he realized he'd been staring at her, and smiling very stupidly.

"Hi, Dameon," she said, looking back down at the flower crown she was making.

"Hi, Rhen," is what he said, but what he thought was that the pastel colors of the flowers brought out the deep violetness of her eyes and the blue lowlights in her hair, and that she was completely radiant—

"What are you smiling at?"

He laughed— again— just because she was lovely. "Those flowers go very nicely with your eyes," he said, and crouched next to her to pick one and tuck it behind her little ear. "See? Now you look just like a fairy."

She blushed again and then grinned. "No, Dameon, you look just like a fairy." And she plopped that silly flower crown onto his head, and made him wear it while they visited the elves, which was very immature, and undignified, and—

Hilarious.

#aveyond #rhenxdameon #rhen darzon #rhen pendragon #dameon maurva #in pieces 22 #fanfiction #wildflowers #my sunshine children #and their flower crowns #fluffyaveyond #do not reblog if you support character bashing or have anything remotely resembling it on your blog

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strangeonerpg · 7 years ago

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Tales from the "Forgotten Kickstarter," I'm running Thornkeep for my group and I promised them a cool dungeon. WIP. It's a great module anyway. Thanks Pathfinder!

#pathfinder #dnd 5e #rpg #terrain #also ran out of ink on some of the walls

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years ago

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Challenge of the Five Realms: River and Phoenix

Ah, the glamor of adventuring.

As we wrapped up the last session, the party had emerged from the undersea kingdom of Thalassy with the emperor’s crown and the emperor himself. That was the second crown out of five that we need to retrieve before confronting Grimnoth.

This session began with the party moving on to Thornkeep. Despite its name, it wasn’t so much as “keep” as a collection of houses. The residents belong to an odd cult called the Children of Shamar. They believe that the return of the ancient Emperor Shamar is at hand. The populace seemed divided as to whether I am an obstacle to his return or the vessel of it. This is a good place to note something that I have forgotten to highlight in previous entries: In any given village, about half the NPCs are indoors, where they’re relatively easy to find, but another half wander fixed territories in the outdoor map. Sometimes, their territories seem boundless, and if you’re looking for a specific NPC, it can be hard to track him down. This was a “feature” of MegaTraveller 2 as well.

Ultimately, in Shamar’s Temple, we found a priest named Malocchius. He was the grandson of the Malocchius who had cursed the knights of Commington Forest, turning them into trees. He gladly gave us the Ring of Transformation to undo the curse.

Damn it. This would have been the perfect closing screenshot for my previous entry (“Sins of the Father”). If only I’d played 15 more minutes.

The head of the cult asked us to retrieve the sacred Scrolls of Shamar in return for the Spell of Restoration, which ages ago Cagliostra said I would need to defeat Grimnoth. The scrolls are supposedly hidden on the grounds of Castle Thiris (which I already visited and found empty), but a descendant of one of the builders of the castle might know where they’re hidden. He is north, in Arinor.

It was time to go back to Commington Forest. As I transitioned between the two locations, Duke Gormond’s knights attacked me but weren’t very hard. After their defeat, a quick screen showed Gormond “seething in anger.” I can’t wait to deal with him.

Keep sending them, though. They’re good practice.

Back in Commington, the Ring of Transformation did its job and the trees became knights again. They immediately offered to join my party. I can’t remember who I dismissed (one of the Monteplai prisoners, I think), but I was surprised to see that the result was a group of five knights in my party, sharing a single character portrait and inventory screen. Although they show up as a collective, you must individually place them on the battle screen. You also have to amass a stack of five of whatever you want them to equip before they can equip weapons, armor, shields, and other items. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it in an RPG.

A collective “NPC.”

With the trees gone, we were able to pierce further into Commington Forest, until we found a portal in one of its clearings. It took us to the elven kingdom of Fraywood, a realm “filled with mischief and magic,” as Cagliostra reported from her mirror. She said that in addition to the crown, we would need a symbol of “the innocence and goodness of this realm”–perhaps the horn of a unicorn. Unfortunately, unicorns will only appear to virgins.

Everyone uncomfortably avoids looking at Chesotor.

In conversation with NPCs, it transpired that power in the elven kingdom is based on one’s ability to tell jokes and pull pranks. Some wit recently pulled a good one on the new king, Wilric, by slipping a laxative into the food served at his father’s wake. (Grimnoth apparently killed him, too.) King Wilric was still stewing over this humiliation when we met him, plus he was concerned about the men burning sections of Commington Forest. (We had met them in the last session; they all claimed my father hired them.) The elves’ souls are apparently linked to the trees in the forest. For his help, he wanted me to identify the prankster who had embarrassed him and to stop the destruction of the forest. I had to return to the surface to deal with the forest burners. One made me kill him, another wouldn’t leave unless I bribed him, and a third (who said he had always felt guilty about the job) agreed to stop based on a moral argument alone.

This one was not long for this world.

Finding the prankster took several steps. We had to first find the alchemist that sold him the Dyell Root (the laxative). I had to threaten him to reveal the buyer: the king’s cousin, Brodo. Upon hearing this information, King Wilric concocted his revenge. He had me go to a different apothecary and purchase a large amount of Broche powder, which causes uncontrolled urination.

Brodo confessed to the entire plot when I confronted him, but he was still dumb enough to take a tankard of ale from me. Soon, he was wetting his pants and unable to control it. Despite the fact that his “revenge prank” was both derivative of and less impressive than the original, King Wilric was overjoyed and joined the party, contributing the third crown.

Bathroom humor wins the day.

During these adventures, we encountered a female elf named Gwin whose father had locked her in a chastity belt before getting killed in a prank gone bad. She asked my help finding its key. Her father’s friend, Tyrnoth, agreed to help us for 27 gold pieces. But when we followed his directions by entering a particular house north of the castle, we accidentally freed a “shaggy beast” that we then had to kill. Embarrassingly, I spent a lot of time afterwards digging up the floor before I realized the entire thing had been a prank.

One for you, Tyrnoth.

I eventually resorted to casting “Truth” spells to figure out who could help me. It turned out to be Rianen, Gwin’s sister, who had been jealous of Gwin’s beauty. Rianen found the directions to the key among her father’s effects, but she couldn’t read it because it was written in an ancient elven language. My Ring of Translation did the trick, although as you’ll see below, it’s unclear exactly how.

What part of this was “written in an ancient elven language”?

I dug up the key at the indicated location and returned it to Gwin, who joined the party in gratitude. Assuming she was the virgin needed to lure a unicorn, I wondered how we were going to find a unicorn, but it turned out that I didn’t need to worry: one showed up the moment we left Gwin’s hut. The beast sacrificed itself to allow us to gather it’s horn, an act that I hadn’t imagined was necessary until that moment. I’m reminded of how I didn’t realize that the bull was killed at the end of a bullfight until I was well past the age of 30.

This doesn’t feel good at all.

I also met an elf named Turry Startide who described himself as a “muse.” “Before the portal closed,” he said, “I frequently appeared to human creators and aided their imaginations.” Recalling the novelist’s request in Silvermoor, I added Turry to my party and took him with me when I went back to the surface to deal with the forest-burners. The author, Dorian Schick, was delighted to have a muse and gave me a diamond in return. This went into my spell components and allowed me access to a few new spells, including “Resurrection.”

Another NPC elf was named “Woody,” had the portrait of Woody Allen, and spoken in Allen-esque quips about his inability to attract women. After a few pages of one-liners (ex: “She hates jokes. I asked her to go for a walk with me in the woods and she said, ‘Don’t make me laugh'”), he gave me his collected Comedic Works. I remembered some gnome back in Alveola who wanted a book of jokes, but upon revisiting the gnome kingdom, I couldn’t find whoever it was.

This was a little too on-the-nose.

We returned to Alonia through the portal and moved on to the next stop in our exploration pattern: the Cathedral of Equus. Our trip was short. The cathedral was completely deserted, and I could find no sign of the monks and nothing to do. Later, in Havenshire, the mother of one of the monks told me of rumors that the monks had turned to sorcery and it was they who had summoned Grimnoth.

It was a nice graphic, though.

Thus, we continued on to the harbor village of Galraven, across a narrow channel from Gormond’s castle of Vinazia. I found some shops and spent some time selling amassed equipment and getting some better items for a few of my characters. NPCs told me that Gormond had threatened ship captains against bringing my party to Vinazia. A broke tavern denizen sold me a treasure map for 50 gold pieces; it refers to a bank of a river in a mountain village.

Gormond has apparently never heard of “Teleport.”

I couldn’t find much else to do in Galraven, so I teleported clear across the map, and slightly north, to the island of Jupiles and its castle, Ventrax. I hadn’t heard much about the location in previous encounters, but it transpired that the island is “ruled” by Emperor Kuvey Lyter. Lyter used to be a friend of my father’s, but the two had a falling out, and Lyter retreated to Jupiles, declaring it an independent state and allowing the practice of magic. The island successfully repelled the first few attempts to take it back, and it appears that Clesodor simply decided to let the matter go.

It turns out that Lyter uses the title “emperor” ironically, so it’s okay.

The kingdom was a weird cross between Oz and a Montessori School, with meandering colorful walkways and a happy populace of “artists, free thinkers, fun seekers, wanderers, and outcasts” allowed “the freedom to grow and learn.” Everyone loved Lyter and no one was unhappy to hear that Clesodor had died except Lyter himself.

The only thing Lyter wanted was knighthood, so he asked me to bring him my father’s knighting sword, which I had fortunately picked up in Castle Duras. In exchange, he gave me two more “group companions”–a set of knights and a set of archers. I had to get rid of Queen Neika and Sir Valakor to accept them. This means that while I have 10 character portraits, I functionally have 22 people with me–more of a “company” than a “party.” These individuals make combat easier but longer, since they’re placed and act individually despite sharing a single portrait.

Lyter has been building a wall to keep out the encroaching darkness, so he asked me to find a supplier for stone and mortar. The game didn’t give me an option to tell him that such a plan was both foolish and futile.

“Together, we might come up with less silly names for our two kingdoms.”

I consulted the map. The final sequence of visits seemed destined to go as follows: the village of Ragmar, the village of Havenshire, Castle Vinazia, Mount Shaska, and finally the northernmost village of Arinor. I knew I would have to return to Castle Thiris to find the Scrolls of Shamar and bring them to Thornkeep before returning to Thiris again for the endgame, and I suspected there would be some other secondary “return visits” in the meantime. Also, somewhere in that sequence, I’m going to need to find the passage to Aerieus, the final realm.

Ragmar, a dilapidated, vandalized, and suspicious village, turned out to the source of the thieves’ guild who has been raiding surrounding villages. The mayor begged me to find the guild and recover the village’s treasury, which they stole.

As we’re about to see, I apparently had trouble finding the guild, too.

One of the NPCs was the wife of Felron, one of the prisoners I released from Monteplai. She begged me to release her husband, but the game gave me no option to tell her that I’d already done so, and I had dismissed him from my party some time ago. This reminded me to remark that a game with this many NPCs needs some central place to organize them. They just disappear when you dismiss them; they don’t return to their original locations.

While I was in Ragmar, the gnome King Amarcam piped up that he had joined my party to help fight Grimnoth, not to solve all the problems of my realm. I thought it was a particularly realistic bit of NPC dialogue. I started to wonder whether I really needed the kings of the other four realms in my party, or whether their crowns were enough.

I’ll remember that next time I waste hours on a gnomish murder mystery.

I took a break of a few days after my visit to Ragmar, and when I reloaded, the party was in Havenshire. I can’t remember why I decided to move on from Ragmar, but I know I didn’t solve the thieves’ guild quest. Maybe I couldn’t find them. I have vague plans to return later, I guess.

A sheep gives me a new quest.

In Havenshire, NPC dialogue indicated that their phoenix, normally a protector, has recently gone crazy and started killing the town’s livestock. It is apparently immune to regular weapons. Sure enough, every time we engaged it, it killed my party members one-by-one without suffering any damage.

This was a good way to remind myself who’s in the party. I keep losing track.

One villager told of an ancient hero named Tyro who defeated the beast with the Armor of Valor, the Sword of Malokor, and the Shield of Blotgar. A farmer named Silverfox Tenderfoot said that all the talk of magic items was nonsense, and that the phoenix could be defeated by a giant who lives on Mount Shaska, “the greatest warrior ever.” However, I learned from one NPC that the sword and shield were buried and the map to them entrusted to a “family of sailors that lived in a harbor village,” which sounds a lot like the map I received in Galraven.

An NPC lays out the problem.

The Armor of Valor, meanwhile, was in the museum in the center of the town. The curator had hidden the artifact but agreed to give it to me if I could provide “proof that the phoenix can be stopped.” I’m not sure what proof he was looking for, but I didn’t have it. I thought it might be the sword and shield.

The king bargains for stuff he should just be able to take.

“South of the watersprings on the bank of the river,” the map had directed. I soon found a pool alongside the bank of the river and dug to the south of it. Oddly, I found not a sword and shield by a diary of someone named Sir Creyar, who discovered that when the phoenix goes mad, it must be killed “in order for it to regenerate into a greater form.” Fortunately, I kept trying and ultimately found the sword and shield more to the southeast than to the south of the fountain.

Does that shovel look “south” of the fountain to you?

Nearby, we talked to an NPC and found ourselves in conversation with the Avatar from the Ultima series, who complained of his lot in life. It ended with Chesotor telling him, “You probably have an adventure or two left in you. Rest up. Maybe we’ll meet again someday.” I don’t know exactly what the creators were going for in this encounter. It seems too silly to be serious, too grim to be parody, too detailed to be a simple homage. Maybe they were hoping to get jobs at Origin.

The poor Avatar has no idea what’s coming for him.

With the artifacts in hand, I returned to the curator, who gave me the Armor of Valor. I briefly thought of investigating the rumors of the giant, but I realized that to accept him in my party, I’d have to get rid of one of the group “characters,” one of the kings, Felrid (who Cagliostra said I’d need), or one of my powerful spellcasters. I decided to deal with the phoenix myself, but I don’t know what I’m going to do when I meet the King or Queen of Aerieus.

I found and attacked the Phoenix, who died in a single blow.

Chesotor fights the phoenix in the upper left, while the rest of the party mills around in the lower-right.

The curator told me to keep the magic items until I had defeated Grimnoth, then return them so the bird could be killed again when the time came. Other NPC dialogue change to reflect the fact that I had killed the creature, which is a nice touch in this game.

I’m not sure I’d call the battle “epic.”

Unfortunately, this session highlighted the exact problem I outlined at the end of the last session: it’s becoming much more an adventure game than an RPG. These seven hours featured no character development and only three combats, two of them against single enemies who died almost instantly. Nonetheless, perhaps more than any other game I’ve played this year, I’m excited to see how the plot resolves for the young King of Alonia. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time to kill my cousin.

Time so far: 29 hours

Note: I started Realms of Arkania far too early. It was irresponsible to begin it with two games already active and my time so limited by end-of-semester activities. So it’s going to sit on the back burner while I wrap up Challenge and hopefully Camelot. I hope to get to the second entry on the game late next week.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/challenge-of-the-five-realms-river-and-phoenix/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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golariontoday · 15 days ago

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Rumor: That ol’ weaver, Hap Thistledown—they say he come from Druma, where the sun don’t shine for the…

#Thornkeep #4712AR #HapThistledown

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deliciousninjareview-blog · 8 years ago

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tadajackshi · 10 years ago

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Not to be too pessimistic, I enjoyed my game of Pathfinder tonight. We crawled our way through the Enigma Vaults and my god... I'm SO glad I played a level 5 for this one, Bryagh would have died in the first encounter otherwise. Gorebash nearly died twice, and we were chased out by the ever so nasty boss. It was so bad, members of the society came dressed for a funeral anticipating a TPK. Got a long day of project work tomorrow, boo. Let's hope something good comes of it.

#personal #pathfinder society #thornkeep #the enigma vaults

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satohqbanana · 3 years ago

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Aveyond Divergent Fate P7

A/N: The actual adventure begins, finally! Let’s go to the Northern Isle with Talia! Also, some characters from the first part of this story appear again.

Warning: Mildly douche Lars

Thanks to Empress Telin, Harald learns about (part of) what happened in the palace. He agrees to put Rhen and Lars on leave of absence for the moment, and makes them promise to come back for their graduation rites.

“Master Harald, did you ever really mean it when you said you were letting me go before?” Rhen asks.

Harald smiles. “Of course, but I’m merely doing this on the Empress’ orders. Formally becoming a sword singer adds to your credentials, after all... and it makes for a fun story when you go back home, doesn’t it?”

Rhen shakes her head as she chuckles. “You’re impossible!”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to do it, Miss Darzon.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Harald turns to Lars. “And you, Mister Tenobor.”

Lars acknowledges the headmaster with a curt nod.

“Bring glory to our Empire and her Imperial Majesty.”

“I will, Sir.”

With Harald’s blessings and a hefty allowance from the Empress to fund their journey, Rhen and Lars pack for the journey, and they meet up with Talia by the gate.

“Are you sure about this, honey?” Talia asks Rhen.

Rhen smiles. “Yes, Ma. It’s... it’s for the greater good. A-and, I’m pretty good at using a sword! I’ll defend us both, Ma!”

“Thank you, darling. ...and this boy who’s coming along--” Talia motions to Lars. “--who is he?”

Lars just about manages to at least sound polite. “Cousin to the Empress, this generation’s best sorcerer, the young Lord Tenobor, Lars at your service.”

“That’s all you need to know about him,” Rhen quickly adds.

Lars and Rhen hold a tense glaring contest, before Talia clears her throat to discuss their plans. Their goal for now is to reclaim the Sun Temple in Aveyond, as there are very important treasures inside... and also to find clues as to where the other druids might be now, as their powers are needed to unseal the Sword of Shadows, a mighty weapon that can be used to defeat Ahriman. Talia also hopes to at least meet with one of the boys (Devin, Dameon, Danny) as that would help with their fight to reclaim the temple.

“You sound really confident of your plans, Madam,” Lars idly comments.

Talia winks. “I’ve been on an adventure myself, Young Master.”

Talia and the kids proceed to the North Isle in search of the portal to Aveyond. Unfortunately, the North Isle is experiencing very tumultuous weather, and the party has to seek shelter at Thornkeep.

Talia asks Rhen on why she and Lars don't get along. Rhen decides against telling her mother about being enslaved. Not yet, at least. Rhen simply introduces Lars as someone who she doesn’t get along with but is her most competent sparring buddy, whose words might’ve inspired her to take up the quest despite her initial hesitance due to the circumstances. She then goes to promise that no matter what, she and Talia will always be family. Touched by Rhen's affections, Talia promises she’ll be strong to one day tell Rhen about Alicia.

Meanwhile, Lars goes to figure out what the whole earthquake and ice storm fuss is about - it's the Mountain King, having an argument with his wife. Something about fairies. While he and Rhen are far from being spouses, Lars somehow feels embarrassed seeing another pair of people arguing over such little things and causing way too much collateral damage. Maybe, just maybe, things needed to change between him and Rhen. Just maybe.

After their short stay in Thornkeep, the party fights their way through the frozen forests of the Northern Isle. As a former magic wielder, Talia gets to mentor both Rhen and Lars on their use of magic. She also tries to make them get along better. The two are still a bit stubborn about mending their relationship, though their performance in battle is rather commendable... even when most of their strategy is to not support each other, beyond passing necessary supplies to regain mana or heal themselves.

They reach the Snow Queen's castle in no time.

The Snow Queen - the nymph Ishtar - reveals she's just sealed a daeva underneath the caverns of her castle, which is why she's rather "prickly". Talia offers to get rid of the daeva, but the Snow Queen shakes her head as there are other more important matters to tend to. She then informs the party that the portal to Aveyond that’s right next to her castle is still stable, but there is a dark miasma surrounding the Sun Temple.

Upon seeing Rhen, the Snow Queen's smile softens, and she offers her chosen's party a place to stay for the night, in preparation of their fight against... whatever's in the Sun Temple.

The kids get to rest first while the women proceed to talk about Aveyond and the Oracle. Lars then reveals to Rhen what he heard from the Mountain King, and she just laughs about it.

"Then let's just find a fairy to prove to him they're real!"

"Err, yeah. I guess."

"I know Ma’s part fairy or something. I guess she can help."

"Uh-huh." Lars looks away. "Your mother's... too nice to me."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. The... slavery thing."

Rhen grimaces. "...it's not like you can just up and tell everybody you became a slave. And, Ma's too nice for this. She doesn't deserve to know that."

But things get awkward again. They haven’t even had a proper conversation since their last argument in the Empress’ palace. So, Rhen uses the chance to call for a truce, even if only temporary.

"Alright. You don't like me, and I don't like you. But I'm going to do this quest, and, you can tag along; I don't know why you’re even here, but you can tag along as long as you pull your weight and take care of yourself. Also, we don't have to talk if that makes it all the more awkward.”

Lars rolls his eyes.

“And like with me, you, and your mom, we don’t have to explain anything to Ma if she doesn’t ask about it. Actually, we don’t have to explain anything to anyone if they don’t ask about it. And if they do, we don’t have to say anything about our history. It would be enough to just say we’re students in Shadwood, sparring partners, whatever. End of story. Truce?"

Rhen extends a hand, and Lars reluctantly takes it.

"...fine. Truce. But only for this journey, you get me?"

“And for the record, I am NOT a murderer.”

“Oh, so am I, Peta. So am I.”

“Tenobrat.”

If it makes everything better, even by a little, Lars would agree to this little truce. Even when things have been spiraling out of his control really, really madly and wildly, ever since the day Cousin Telin had revealed Rhen’s true identity.

Oh well, all he ever really has to do during this journey are to make sure Rhen fulfills her prophecy and survive to tell the tale. That’s it. Besides, this journey has given him an opportunity to hone his skills in magic and make a name for himself, so if there’s anything he’s gaining out of this, it’s that.

Meanwhile, Ishtar tells Talia that her sisters have been very busy trying to fill in the role that the Oracle AND the druids had vacated. The nymphs have been working quintuple time to make sure the order of the world is still in place despite their missing goddess and the patron druids. However, there are only so many things they can affect, as there are laws they must obey as nymphs. Talia thanks Ishtar for her work, and Ishtar only smiles - it’s enough for her to see that her chosen has survived all her trials so far!

Talia hopes, though, that one day the Oracle will be back...

And in a pocket realm between time and space, the Miracle Worker struggles to adjust Aia’s dogma of fate. She is repeatedly slashed by the shards and fragments of Aia’s future, as the shards and fragments do not recognize her as their master. The Time Lord can only sufficiently heal her to keep her alive, but not to shield her permanently from the attacks. He supposes it’s because the Goddess of “the world called Aia” is still alive.

The Miracle Worker muses that perhaps, their efforts would eventually be futile, if the Goddess does indeed come back for her world.

“But that is why I’m the Miracle Worker. I will create miracles for this world. If to give them a little piece of happiness. If to give them... the power to control their fate.”

“In due time, they will, Milady. In due time.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not strong enough to give anything too substantial to them now. All I can do is set off the many butterfly effects.”

“No. I should be the one who’s sorry. Time only goes forward for us.”

“In the end, we both are still bound by rules, are we not?”

“Mm.”

Notes:

Some of my previous works involve arguments between people too, but they keep bringing up the same points, or using trivial coincidences to support their opinions, and they never get to resolve ANYTHING.

So when I write Lars and Rhen's arguments, I was surprised because wow, I like them and I like their arguments. With every new fight between them, I see something new out of them. For Lars, it's him slowly revealing his real thoughts. For Rhen, it's her finding/discovering new, awesome things about herself.

The more I write their arguments, the more I actually root for BOTH Lars and Rhen. XD Their reasoning grows along with them. I look forward to their future interactions.

Also, Aia is a world way too obsessed about prophecies and the visions of the future. That is all.

#aveyond divergent fate #av1 #aveyond #anne's av1 au #annelaurant writing

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