#ready to go fight tiamat right now

[warlordfelwinter]

deflect missiles is so funny. the fact that if you reduce the damage to zero you can catch the arrow and immediately throw it back in their face

[house-of-the-lion-archives]

“…and her sister, gentle Ereshkigal.”

“Holy Ereškigala -- sweet is your praise.”

Ereshkigal in the world of The Flower of Tiamat´s fire

Ereshkigal was the greatest earth mage before she was trapped in Irkalla. She is the sister of Ishtar. Ereshkigal has a husband.

Centuries ago, during the fight against Tiamat, it was Ereshkigal who created Irkalla as a cage for the Anunnaki, but was trapped alongside them. She asked the others for help, but they abandoned her, because no one wanted the trapped Anunnaki to be set free. So Ereshkigal came to be the Queen of the Underworld and cared for the souls that came to her realm. Irkalla, though, does have its own mind and not even Ereshkigal can change its rules.

Her sister Ishtar once descended into the Underworld to “mock” her, but ended up trapped herself. It was only because of Enki´s tearful pleas Ereshkigal let her go. Since then Ishtar is forbidden to enter the Underworld. The gate to Irkalla is now guarded by one of Enki´s sons, the air mage and former general, Niall.

Ereshkigal in mythology

Ereshkigal, alternatively spelled Ereškigal or Ereškigala, is the Queen of the Netherworld in Mesopotamian beliefs. The Underworld has been gifted to her in the beginning when the world order was established by the gods.

Ereshkigal had little to no cult places in Mesopotamia. On inscriptions there are mentions of temples in Kutha, Assur and Umma, but other than that, there’s not many mentions of Ereškigal outside literature, like for example in Epic of Gilgamesh. There's little to no depictions of her in art either.

Possible depiction of Ereshkigal

In Inanna´s descend to the Netherworld, Inanna travels to her sister because her husband, Gugalanna, has died, but not before she advised her vizier Ninšubur to ask Enlil, Nanna and Enki for help if she doesn’t return in three days. As Inanna passed the seven gates to the Underworld, she was stripped bare, and when she stood before her sister’s throne, seven judges rendered their decision against her. They looked at her -- it was the look of death. They spoke to her -- it was the speech of anger. They shouted at her -- it was the shout of heavy guilt. Inanna was turned into a corpse. And the corpse was hung on a hook. After three days passed, Ninšubur went to Enlil and Nanna to ask for help but they turned her down, only Enki was ready to help. Enki created the sexless gala-tura and the kur-ĝara and advised them how to get Inanna out. But Inanna´s ascend wasn’t without a price: someone else had to take her place. Once Inanna saw her own husband Dumuzid, completely uncaring of what happened to his wife, she let the demons – galla - take him. She later deeply regretted it, and so Dumuzid's sister Geshtinanna came to take his place in the underworld for half a year while Dumuzid reunited with Inanna.

Ereshkigal is the sister of Inanna, which would mean she is the daughter of Nanna and Ningal, and the sister of Utu. But Ereshkigal is never outright mentioned as their daughter. She has had a few consorts. Gugalanna was her first husband, and if the scholars are right and he was the same figure as the Bull of Heaven, then he was killed by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Her second husband was Nergal, the god of war, death and diseases (though it has to be noted Nergal has had other wives too mentioned in literature). Finally there is Enlil who according to a single text begot Namtar with her. When it comes to the children of Ereshkigal, there were: the already mentioned Namtar, Ninazu (who was also associated with Ereshkigal as her husband instead of son) and Manungal.

Do you wish to know more about the Queen Ereshkigal? Please don't invade our Warden's office to go see her yourself and instead look here: link; link; link

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #147: Gorgon

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making the one goddess of the three goddess alliance who actually had some skin in the game, Gorgon! This misbegotten monstrosity of a Medusa is made of a Undead Warlock for some scary surprises and the ability to make all her enemies into statues as well as a Rune Knight Fighter for a bit of help winning at basketball.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Purrsonally I purrfurred Tamamo Cat, but ny’all can pick whichefur you want!

Race and Background

Sadly there aren’t any large player races, but we can still go Yuan Ti for all the goodies you get from there! As a snerson (snake person), you come equipped with Darkvision, Innate Spellcasting for Poison Spray and Animal Friendship (to snakes) at will. Starting at third level, you’ll also be able to use Suggestion once per long rest. All these spells use Charisma to cast. Finally, you get a defensive buff thanks to Magic Resistance and Poison Immunity. The former gives you advantage on saves against magic, while the latter makes you immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

Since you’re the only goddess in the alliance that believes in the destruction of humanity, we’ll call you the Goddess Alliance Cultist, but we’re messing with the background a bit, so instead you’ll get proficiency with Athletics and Religion.

Ability Scores

If you want monstrous Strength, you better be ready to invest a lot in it. As a walking apocalypse, you’re pretty scary-that’s Charisma. You can’t be a video game boss without plenty of Constitution either, so make that #3. Your strongest weapons are based on your eyesight, so make Wisdom next. Surprisingly enough Guda didn’t try to defeat the giant rampaging monster with a math quiz, so we’ll just have to assume your Intelligence is average. That means we’re dumping Dexterity. You are literally a giant target, it’s not that surprising. 

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: Fighters start off with a better hit die, plus you get proficiency with Strength and Constitution saves as well as Intimidation and Survival checks. Your Unarmed Fighting Style lets you punch people for 1d6 damage, or 1d8 if both your hands are empty. You’re not big on “weapons”, so that’s fine by you. You also get a Second Wind, letting you regrow some snake heads as a bonus action. I might be getting my myths mixed up.

2. Warlock 1: Quite a bit of your power is coming on loan from Tiamat, and she literally can’t die, making you an Undead warlock. This gives you Pact Magic, spells you cast with Charisma that recharge on short rests. You also gain a Form of Dread, transforming a little bit into Tiamat for 1 minute. While transformed, you gain temporary HP, can force a wisdom save (DC 8+proficiency+charisma mod) to frighten a creature you attack once per turn, and you become immune to being frightened yourself. You can transform proficiency times per long rest.

Going back to spells, you get a lot of them thanks to your background. For cantrips, you get Fire Bolt and Vicious Mockery, and for first level spells you get Burning Hands, Dissonant Whispers, and Hellish Rebuke. There’s a lot of fire in there, but we can reflavor it in a couple of levels, don’t worry. 

As far as spells we can choose, you get Blade Ward to make up for the 9 AC you’re rocking by gaining resistance on most physical attacks, Eldritch Blast to shoot snake hair at your foes, Armor of Agathys to make attacking you a losing proposition thanks to your temporary HP and counterattack, and Arms of Hadar for more snakes, turning the area within 10′ of you into a snake pit.

3. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, letting you customize your eternal servitude how you see fit. We’re swapping one next level, but use the other to get Armor of Shadows, boosting your 9 AC to an amazing 12 AC! Wow!

You also learn the spell Hex, cursing someone to deal 1d6 extra necrotic damage and giving disadvantage on one kind of ability check.

4. Fighter 2: Second level fighters get an Action Surge, letting you slap an extra action onto your turn once per short rest. Raid bosses can cheat the action economy a bit, everyone knows that.

5. Warlock 3: Gorgon did give us a bit of trouble when it came to their pact boon- she doesn’t use weapons, doesn’t rely on familiars, and she’s definitely not a bookwyrm. By process of elimination, you’ve earned the Pact of the Talisman, giving you a trinket that can add 1d4 to a failed ability check proficiency times per long rest.

That alone isn’t particularly scary, but the invocation Rebuke of the Talisman lets you deal a bit of psychic damage and push an attacking creature away from you as a reaction.

You also get the prerequisite flood of second level spells- from your background, you get Crown of Madness, Enthrall, and Flaming Sphere. Honestly I think Enthrall works for you- it’s not like there’s something out there that’s more distracting than you, right?

You also learn Hold Person for baby’s first petrification.

6. Warlock 4: If your AC’s really going to be that bad, we should at least use this Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Constitution for better HP. You also learn Infestation to summon your first Demonic Beasts (they’re just small) and Earthbind to stone up flying creatures enough to force them to land.

7. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get another invocation and third level spells! From your background you get Fear and Haste, both of which are actually in character for you! You also learn to Summon Lesser Demons for some small-fry demonic beasts. Just remember you don’t actually count as a demon yourself in D&D, so they will happily kill you as soon as anyone else.

You also get the invocation Cloak of Flies, giving you a poisonous 5′ aura that you can invoke as a bonus action once per short rest. The aura gives you advantage on intimidation checks, but disadvantage on all other checks, and deals damage to anything within it equal to your charisma modifier. Just be glad Guda didn’t summon your other sisters.

8. Warlock 6: Sixth level undeadlocks are Grave Touched, meaning you no longer need to eat, drink or breathe- the full servant experience! You can also replace the damage of any attack with necrotic damage, and while your Form of Dread is up, you add an extra die of damage to the attack as well!

You also learn how to make a Spirit Shroud, dealing extra necrotic, cold, or radiant damage on all attacks you make within 10′ of yourself. You also slow down creatures that start their turn in the shroud.

9. Fighter 3: As a Rune Knight, you become a Rune Carver, letting you stick runes on weapons, armor, jewelry, or other small objects for small bonuses-you can also invoke them once per short rest for bigger bonuses. 

The Fire rune doubles your tool proficiencies, and you can also invoke the rune add extra fire (or necrotic) damage to the attack. If it fails a strength save (dc 8+proficiency+intelligence modifier) it becomes restrained, and takes extra fire damage each turn.

The Stone rune gives advantage on insight checks, and gives you extended darkvision. You can also use your reaction to charm creatures who end their turn near you, leaving them incapacitated if they fail a wisdom save.

More importantly, you also get Giant Might, using a bonus action to grow to Large size for a minute. While transformed, you have advantage on strength checks and save, and deal an extra d6 damage per weapon attack. You can transform proficiency times per long rest.

10. Warlock 7: Seventh level warlocks get fourth level spells. From your background: Confusion and Wall of Fire. Neither are great for us, but you also get Shadow of Moil, making attacking you an even worse idea thanks to a necrotic counterattack.

You also get the invocation Protection of the Talisman, letting you add a d4 to a failed save proficiency times per long rest.

11. Warlock 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for better spells, and to make it easier to control your new spell, Summon Greater Demon. For up to an hour, you can summon a demon of CR 5 or lower. If it continually fails a charisma save each turn, it will obey you. Otherwise it’ll run wild. Honestly? Both work for you.

12. Warlock 9: Fifth level spell time! You know what? Since we’re not making a Tiamat build, we might as well have some fun with the primordial sea while we still can. Dominate Person, Danse Macabre, and Minions of Chaos will help you raise a Ushiwakamaru Alter army in whatever flavor you prefer- living, undead, or elemental!

13. Warlock 10: Our last undead goody makes you a Mortal Husk, giving you resistance to necrotic damage (or immunity while using Form of Dread). On top of that, once per 1d4 long rests you can blow up your body when you hit 0 HP, dealing necrotic damage in the area and reviving yourself with 1 HP. It’s one hell of a guts skill, but it does give you some exhaustion.

We also continue our Ushiwakamarufication tour with Negative Energy Flood, a spell that deals tons of necrotic damage and turns a target into a zombie if it kills them. It can even heal your existing zombiwakamarus! 

14. Warlock 11: Your Mystic Arcanum gives you the option to cast Flesh to Stone once per long rest. If a targeted creature fails a constitution save three times, they become stone. If they succeed three times, they escape. If you keep concentration on the spell for the full minute while they’re petrified, it lasts until dispelled. 

15. Warlock 12: Our last warlock level is another ASI, which we’re putting into Constitution for better concentration checks and more HP. You also get the invocation Sculptor of Flesh, letting you cast Polymorph once per long rest. Have you ever wanted to actually be a giant snake? Now you can! (You can also do, like, a T. Rex, if you wanna powergame.)

16. Fighter 4: Another ASI already? Bump up your Strength for better punching. That’ll be relevant soon.

17. Fighter 5: It’s soon! This level gives you an Extra Attack each attack action, for two punches per action, or four in a turn with Action Surge.

18. Fighter 6: Use this ASI to bump up your Constitution for even more HP.

19. Fighter 7: Seventh level rune knights can use their Runic Shield to force a creature to re-roll their attack when they hit an ally. You can do this proficiency times per long rest. You also get the Hill rune, which has absolutely useless passives, but you can invoke it as a bonus action to get resistance to physical attacks for a minute.

20. Fighter 8: You thought we were gonna max out our constitution this level, right? WRONG! Grab that Tough feat for an extra 40 HP!

Pros:

Thanks to your Spirit Shroud being forcibly maxed out, you have terrifying short range damage options. With an action surge, your Form of Dread, and two eldritch blasts, you can deal 16d10+24d8 Necrotic damage in a single turn, and that’s not even including any critical hits! That gives you an average damage just shy of 200, and a possible maximum of 352. Plus rolling that many dice is probably really satisfying.

Adding to that, you have plenty of other reasons for enemies to avoid melee range- your counterattack game is wild. Armor of Agathys, Hellish Rebuke, Shadow of Moil, Cloak of Flies... getting too close to you really is dangerous.

For a mostly spellcaster build, you are incredibly thick. With over 200 hp and a couple different ways to give yourself protection from most attacks, it will take a lot of hits to topple this kaiju.

Cons: 

Speaking of a lot of hits, you’ll be taking those! Your AC is only 12, 14 at best if you’re hasted. Of course this problem could be solved with some heavy armor, but I doubt they make it in your size.

You also have a heavy focus on Necrotic damage, meaning that your options will become much more limited against undead, Aasimar, and demons.

Speaking of, you summon Demons. That’s kind of a deal breaker for a lot of adventuring parties. It’s not even like you could keep a low profile for plausible deniability, people are going to notice the big snake lady hanging around the demon attacks.

[icharchivist]

I hope you don't mind but can i ask what you suggest the order of doing things is??

Like... what order should I do the Primarch weapons, Eternal recruitment and Evoker recruitment in?

heyo!

I don't mind at all but i just hope i'll be clear enough ^^"

i huh, got a little long

EDIT: OK editted what i needed to edit about character class’s weapons off you go!

The Seraphic are your first priority outside of building a grid. Easy. Those will give you a major boost in your grids and you will always keep them in your grids, so get them as soon as you can and focus on them. You will get level-gated eventually since to go further into grinding you'll need to have access to raid only unlockable after lvl 101, so take it one step at a time, but they are your main priority. (note that the story for the Light and Dark Seraphic will spoil wmtsb pt2 and 3 a bit)

Eternal recruitment is tedious but i would recommend, especially as a beginner, to maybe think about doing Threo and/or Tien (Three Tigger Axe and Ten Wolf Gun respectively) as early as you can. They're godsends for beginners, Thero with her plain damage which will basically kill any enemies in front of her making her easier for farming (especially Slim blasting), and Tien with her formidable Bounty that will allow you for more loots per fight. Both are really good early investment. It's okay to take your time with them (i personally only have 3 - Threo, Tien and Seox), especially since it gets more complicated if you take the uncapping into account.

(also note that you should keep as many of the dupes for the Revenant weapons as you can aside from the one you will need to uncap to get the Eternal. uncapping to 5* isn’t a concern to have right now but know that this process involves using 40 Revenant Weapons on top of the one you forged. It’s good to have a stash dedicated to keeping them and leave them aside until you’re ready)

Evokers.... *looks at the state of my Evokers grinding* ahah what is that ahahahahaha....

Okay so Evokers are especially tedious so it's a complicated one. I think the early steps from unlocking their respective summons should be easy and their summons bring a major boost, so it may be good to try to work onto it a little. That said the Evokers take a lot of mats and later on mats from Impossible raids, so it will take a lot of time to unlock them. BUT you should also account for the Arcarum tickets. Since you cannot keep more than 90 tickets, it means that you may be more limited in your ability to farm Arcarum-only mats. And boy will you want to farm those well because they're really hard to get and takes a lot of diligence to get. The thing i've been told is to focus on them one at the time, or do them by pair: for exemple when grinding for The Sun you will be also doing some Hanged Man's raids and get Hanged Man's loot, so you can do both The Sun and The Hanged Man at once.

Not to mention that Arcarum can drop weapons you'd else get in the Omega raids, such as lumi swords and such, which is a good investment. However you would need to have a grid that can stand on its own because you don't have access to friends' summons in there, not to mention the restriction you may find in there (ex: quests that you can only do with R characters)

Out of those three grinds, the Evokers are the most tedious ones to get and it's okay to take your time. It's good to not neglect the Arcarum (i say as i ignore my own advice), but it shouldn't be your utmost priority.

If i may, what is accessible early and that you should focus on is getting the Atma sword and the Bahamut dagger from the What makes the sky blue sidestories.

wmtsb, being anniversary events, gave out a lot of BIG rewards that are game changing. Mostly, the possibility to pick a Bahamut Weapons from wmtsb1 and an Atma weapon from wmtsb3.

Bahamut weapons give a boost on attack or health but only to characters from specific races. Dagger gives a boost in attack to human and Erune, which are the majority of characters in the game, so the best investment you can make. Note that to push the dagger to its full power you will have to forge it further in the shop. Then it will be a must have in your grids (it's also often recommanded to +99 mark on it if you can)

Atma weapons give a major boost on attack depending on the character's weapon specificity. So for exemple the Atma sword will give a boost in attack for any characters who are shown to wield a sword on their profile. Sword is the most common weapon in the game, thus it is recommanded to take an Atma Sword as a beginner and slap it in any grids in which you mostly use sword characters for (and this is where it will start to be interesting to make sure to build teams by weapon's proefficiency, ie, in this case, making sure to mostly have sword characters as your offence) As for Bahamut the Atma will ask for more forging in the shop, i don't remember if there's any nor the specific for when it's an Atma, but there is an option to turn the Atma into an Ultima but only with HL raids, so don't worry too much about that.

Also i'm checking but it should be from Zooey's normal raid, if you can access to The Grand Order raid (normal) you should try to peak into it until you can unlock at least the Cosmo Sword from the shop. Cosmo weapons that you will find in Zooey's raid will basically multiply weapons of the same proefficiency 's HP and Attack that are in your grid. Basically: if your grid is mostly swords, slapping a Cosmo Sword in your grid will tremendously multiply your power. Cosmo Sword are a must have for light especially, since the ideal Light Grid includes 1) The Lumi swords, 2) the Xeno Sunblade, 3) later on HL, the Sword Opus.

I have heard that it is not wise to invest in other Cosmo weapons because of the fact grids rarely benefit for it, but Light (and Fire once you unlock the Impo raids) benefit a lot from the Cosmo Sword. You won't be able to 4* it until you can unlock HL tho.

BUT only focus on Cosmic sword if you have the grid to back it up (again: a full Lumi sword set up for exemple in light)

Another thing since i mentioned it: Keep an eye out for the Xeno events.

The other must-have in a grid is the Xeno weapons, which are only available when Xeno events are up. Xeno tends to run every few months before Unit and Fight and they are limited events with limited drops that are essential to forge a Xeno weapon. Xeno influence your grid tremendously and can be accessed at early levels. Wind Xeno should get a rerun soonish since the next Unit and Fight is around the corner, so keep an eye out for it.

(Opus is HL concern so it's not something to worry about just now but that will be another must have once you unlock Lucilius's HL raid)

EDIT: Another thing you should focus on as you get close to level 101 is to forge one of the weapon linked to a character class from Special: Rank II. 

You will need to have forged any of the weapons from Rank II to later being able to unlock any class from Rank IV. Rank IV is unlockable after lvl 101, and after doing one mission per class, but it is necessary to first unlock them to forge that weapon

or so i was told at least DLKFJD With recommandation to focus either on Glorybringer, Doctor, Kengo or Rising Force, due to their specific kitset that are super useful. 

So my advice is:

1) focus on your grid by getting multiple weapons of the omega series (Respectively: Colo Cane, Levi Dagger, Yggy Sword, Tiamat Gun, Lumi Swords, Celeste Claw. Note that your Lumi Swords will still be in your grid on HL so this is the thing you must invest the most on. It's often not recommanded to uncap the starting weapons's 5* since you'll replace them the moment you get into HL bosses, but Lumi swords are where you can go ham)

2) at the same time as your grids, work on your Seraphic. Go as far as you can to unlock your Seraphic

3) Do wmtsb as soon as possible: it takes reaching chapter 44 of the main story, but it will give you 2 super important must have weapons: The Atma Sword and the Bahamut Dagger. And it's easy to get them, no tedious grinding, except for forging the Bahamut weapon further but it is something you can do on low level

4) Focus on Xeno anytime a Xeno event is up

5) For the Eternals, take them one by one, do not rush, and if you want to work on them, focus either on Threo or Tien first

6) you can think about the Cosmic Sword if you feel like it though it's not a priority

7) The Evokers take a lot, lot, lot of time and grind that is in HL only, so don't rush through it, but it is wise to not let your tickets reach its cap so you can grind efficiently.

I hope it's not too confusing, if there's anything that needs clarification don't hesitate to ask. I know gbf can be a little complicated and sometimes i can get so focused on HL content that i miss out some better ways to explain LL content

Hope it helps out!

Take care!

[ethereaiin]

Entwined | fate grand order

synopsis; there were so many things left unsaid between the two of you. one day you'd tell her she meant more to you than she ever realized. 

features; you and kyrielight mash

[au]

extra; game spoilers included!

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

       There was only a handful of times you genuinely felt helpless against the tides of fate. Much of how others thought of you, you were an optimistic person who liked to look at the brighter sides of things even when it seemed as if the whole world was against you. It was what kept you grounded during the tough fight against Tiamat in Babylonia. No matter what happened, no matter the circumstances, you always believed you’d prevail. Besides, what choice did you have?

       Giving up would mean the end of humanity and you… you weren’t ready to die just yet nor were you willing to see all the hard work from everyone back in Chaldea go to waste. You alone were the only person able to put a stop to Solomon’s madness and no matter how much you may have wished to, you couldn’t exactly turn away from it. Humanity, metaphorically, rested atop your shoulders and you weren’t that much of a fool to deny your responsibility. You had things, people, to fight for and as you stand before Solomon’s grand throne, you couldn’t help but think of them.

       The doctor, undoubtedly believed you’d return unscathed and successful in your battle against Solomon. It was his greatest hope and although he was more of the type to be rife with anxiety during a stressful mission, you thought he might have had a little more hope than you in this situation. Da Vinci, being the arguably more sensible one out of the two, even she would have at least acknowledged the difficulty of the task you and Mash were undertaking. Still, she would have given you that gentle smile that you assured you what you should have already known from the beginning.

       You knew fear like the back of your hand. You felt it when you stared at the approaching form of Tiamat when she broke through Uruk’s walls and you felt it now when you realized you had failed to stop Solomon’s noble phantasm from going off. It was a cold sensation, one that left you feeling numb and not at all like yourself. Normally you would have felt that familiar flicker of hope deep within your chest, the one that assured you that no matter what you’d succeed.

       Yet the moment that smug grin reached Solomon’s lips, you knew. There wasn’t any hope left to believe in.

       How were you meant to defeat him when it seemed as if your servants had done nothing to make even a dent in his resolve? The fear was almost painful and the hopelessness that accompanied it could have crushed you under its weight.

       “Master!”

       You flinched, your eyes meeting the violet gaze of Mash who looked to have also been slightly shaken by the outcome of things yet she held her composure far better than you.

       Her face and the bit of exposed skin on her arms were covered in scrapes. Her armor looked no better, parts were missing and it was dinged with the wear of battle. It was a testament to the amount of effort she placed in the task the both of you were assigned and it wasn’t as if you looked any better. Your uniform was torn in places and you could feel the sting of your wounds each time you moved. You both looked worse for wear, yet there was a difference between you two.

       While you looked as if you had given up, Mash still held the look of faith.

       With brows furrowed and a determined frown drawn across her lips, she protectively held her shield in front of you as if to block the sight of Solomon’s menacing figure from your line of sight if only for a moment.

       “Get ahold of yourself, senpai.” Her change in titles meant she were speaking to you as the Mash you knew to be your friend and not the Mash you knew as your servant. “All of those servants out there…” She shuttered, her one visible eye blinking rapidly as if she were holding back tears and knowing her sentimental nature, you knew she must have been. “They weren’t willing to sacrifice their lives for you to give up now! We will get through this, senpai. Just like how we got through everything else!”

       Her words, as strong as they were, reminded you of the same lines you used to recite to her when she began showing doubts in her capabilities. It was odd to find yourself dealing with such pessimistic thoughts when you were once the one doing all the encouraging. The fear and hopelessness you felt throughout your being didn’t suddenly dissipate with her words, but it did lessen.

       “But, how?” Your voice couldn’t help but convey the heavy dread you felt. Your tone was weak due to your exhaustion and you could barely look Mash in the eye as you revealed the extent of your forlorn.

       At this, Mash smiled. It was gentle and held a hint of understanding. She must have known how you felt and it was all conveyed with one mere look. You could hear Solomon beginning the start of his phantasm and though you could feel your heart pumping faster in response to it, Mash didn’t seem to lose her cool. She placed herself in front of you, shield separating the both of you and Solomon’s glowing figure.  

       “I’ll protect you, senpai.” She simply states, her smile never fading even as she turned her back towards you. “Just as you have always done for me.”

       It takes you a moment to understand just what she meant by her words and when it finally does register in your mind, its already too late. Just as you were about to reach out to her to stop her from doing whatever it was she was planning, there as blinding flash of light that emitted from where Solomon stood. It was so bright that you couldn’t help but shield your eyes away from its rays with your arm. Although you could no longer see as well, you could hear Mash shout to activate her noble phantasm and the subsequent increase in brightness as Solomon’s phantasm assumedly shot off. Your ears perked at the sound of her cries as she held against the intensity of his power and you knew it was taking all her might to hold her ground. The floor shook beneath you and your eardrums burst with the thundering sound of an explosion. It rings throughout all of the area and you're sure its loud enough even for Romani and Da Vinci to hear all the way back in Chaldea.

       You knew she wouldn’t survive this. No human could and even if she were a demi-servant, it would not exempt her from the destruction such power would do to her body.

       Your arm, that wasn’t shielding your eyes, desperately reached out towards her. Your screams of her name was buried beneath the noise of Solomon’s power and you doubted she would even turn around to acknowledge you even if she could hear. Your heart pounded painfully against your chest and the corners of your eyes pricked with tears that ran hotly down your cheeks. You already knew what was going to happen, you could already see parts of her disappearing right before your eyes and there wasn’t a thing you could do to stop it. Your eyes clenched shut as the intensity of light grew to an unbearable amount and your arms moved to shield your face completely from the bit of rays that peeked over both Mash’s form and her steady shield. There was a combination of fear and pressure from the overwhelming amount of mana being blasted towards you that kept you in place on the ground you collapsed upon. You couldn't move an inch from your position and once again you felt that feeling of sheer helplessness creep upon you.

       Without Mash by your side, what could you possibly hope to achieve?

       There was a burning smell in the air that made you scrunch your nose and once the blinding light dimmed down you snapped open your eyes to peer at what remained. Burns covered your arms and your clothes were reduced to nothing more than singed tatters. Mash’s shield still stood grounded in front of you, but there were no signs of the girl anywhere to be found, leaving only one conclusion you morbidly expected.

       You felt your heart drop and the tears which were burned away returned in tenfold. Instead of the fear you felt only moments prior, it was replaced with a fiery anger. Your eyes sharpened into a heated glare as you shot up from your place on the ground and when you gazed into the unfazed visage of Solomon, you could feel nothing but hatred. Your right hand rose from your side, the sigil marking you as a Master glowing a crimson red. Although your voice wavered with both fatigue and grief, your tone still held firmly.

       “Servants, with this command spell I order you…”

       “...pai? Senpai!”

       You awoke with a startled gasp that had you shooting into an upright position. Sleepily, you glanced around the lounge you were napping away in when you caught sight of a familiar violet haired girl kneeling beside you with a look of concern. Mash’s hands were hovering midair, due to your abrupt actions after she shook you awake. You blinked hazily at her before rubbing at your eyes with the back of your hands.

       “Mash… what’s wrong?” Your tone was still heavy with drowsiness but that still didn’t seem to ease the concern Mash gazed at you with.

       “Um, senpai, I should be asking you that… I heard you crying in your sleep.” She states with furrowed brows and sure enough you could feel a distinct dampness to your lower lids and the apples of your cheeks. “I thought you were having a nightmare so I woke you up.”

       Staring at the teardrop that strayed on the surface of your knuckle, you could just barely recall the reason for your sudden sorrow. Your dream was a memory of sorts. The final events that concluded the grand order was significant enough to be forever ingrained in your head. You could never forget the pain you felt with the loss of two of your dearest friends and although one of them returned back to you, you couldn’t exactly forget everything else that led up to that moment.

       Your eyes clenched shut for a brief moment, the flashed images of Doctor Romani’s soft smile appearing behind your lids as a sigh escaped your lips. You shook your head to dismiss both her concern and the memories that plagued you.

       “It’s nothing Mash,” In a show of assurance, you flashed her a grin as you rose up from the sofa along with her. “You were right, I was just having a bad dream.”

       Mash stared at you for a moment her gaze letting you know that she didn’t believe a word you said, yet she didn’t pry for anything more. She simply slipped her hand in yours with a slight blush that colored her pale cheeks before she began to lead you out of the room.

       “There’s something I wish to show you, senpai.” She shyly mutters though through the silence permeating the halls, you hear her clearly.

       Your curiousity is piqued and although you voice it with a variety of questions directed towards her, she never once gives into your pleas to relent a hint. You thought she was far too stubborn in that regard and although you sport a petulant pout throughout your journey through Chaldea’s halls, you still find the excitement of mystery to be riveting.

       It was only until she stopped in front of the door to her room that she dropped her hand from your own and it was then you realized she hadn’t once let it go since she awoke you from your nap. Although you never considered yourself to be the easily flustered type, your cheeks couldn’t help but burn at her bold move. While Mash could do such things in her excitement, she’s never knowingly initiated contact like that before by herself.

       “Senpai,” She calls, taking you out of your thoughts as she beckons you into her darkened room.

       With a bit of apprehension, you wander in and when you hear her footsteps near you, you glance over your shoulder at Mash as your lips part with an obvious question. “What did you wanna show me?”

       Through the dimly lit room, you see her lips turn up into a cheery smile and once she steps up besides you, she leans in a little to answer in a lowered voice. “You’ll see.”

       Your curiousity is hard to hide and with some impatience, you watch as she leaves your side to walk further into the room followed by a click of a switch a few moments after. You hear a low humming noise and then suddenly the ceiling above you is encased in an array of stars. The room immediately light up in a dim blue hue and you can’t help the awe of wonder that unconsciously escaped you. You’re so entranced by the sight of stars that you don’t even notice when Mash closes the door to her room, further shrouding her room in darkness nor do you hear her when she takes her place at your side.

       “Mash,” Your wonder is so glaringly obvious at this point you don’t even try and hid it in the tone of your voice. “Where did you get this?”

       You knew they weren’t real stars, but they looked real enough. Since coming to Chaldea, you haven’t seen stars in awhile other than the ones in singularities, but even then those always had a bit of an artificial feel to them. To you, these stars felt a lot more different from the ones before and you couldn’t exactly understand why. Maybe it was because these were the stars Mash showed you and already that made them more special than the others.

       When you didn’t get an immediate answer from Mash like you had expected, you turned your head to glance at her only to find her already staring back at you. She blinked in surprise at the sudden connection of your gaze before blushing and averting her eyes elsewhere.

       “D-Da Vinci made it…” She relents as she rose her head to stare at the same stars you did. “When I told her that I wanted to see stars, she gave me this… she also said I should show you too.”

       “Did she?”

       Even in the dim light you could see Mash’s cheeks darken as she mumbled out a confirmation to your question. Your lips widened into a cheeky grin, though you didn’t bother pressing her any further. When you dragged your eyes right back up at the twinkling stars above, you felt a sense of peace come over you. It was a refreshing feeling especially after an awful nightmare of a memory.

       “Senpai, do you feel better now?”

       Once again your gaze caught hers though she was admittedly more calmer than the last time your eyes met. She was concerned for you. You didn’t need to be a genius to know that. For the past few weeks your nightmares have run rampant to the point where you’d much rather stay awake than sleep and the effects it had on your health were becoming increasingly apparent. You had no doubts Da Vinci had probably voiced her concerns with your latest check-up to Mash.

       You exhale a quiet sigh as your lips quirk into a demure smile. When your gaze returns back to the stars, Mash’s does not. Her attention sticks on you and your wistful profile.

       “They’re just memories, Mash. The dreams I have are just memories,” You admit though your tone shakes near the end and your eyes burn with the return of tears. Just talking about the matter was enough to almost break you. “But it hurts to remember… It hurts so, so bad.”

       Although your explanation was all too vague and would have had just about anyone attempting to pry for more context, you knew Mash would understand because she was there. She experienced a majority of it save for an event you would never want her to see if she could help it. The insurmountable guilt you felt along with the grief wasn’t anything Mash deserved and in that respect you were almost glad she wasn’t there to see it.

       Your countless regrets and the what if scenarios you made up only added more to your guilt. There were numerous people who have told you nothing was your fault, yet you couldn’t accept it.

       If only you were a better master. If only you made your servants stronger. If only you had finished him off in time. If only, if only, if only.

       It was never ending and these thoughts swirled within your head during the hours you were meant to be asleep. It was no wonder you preferred to busy yourself with other things during those troubled nights.

       Your heart painfully squeezed within your chest and that bitter, empty feeling returned. You could feel bubbles of tears rolling down your cheeks though you did nothing to stop them. You just stood there, staring up at the sea of stars with only the feeling of cruel remorse.

       The feeling of warm arms wrapping around your midsection caught you off guard and it was only until you glanced down at the top of Mash’s head resting against your chest that you realized she had been there all along. Her touch had given you a sense of comfort and it was that sensation of her arms around you that you used as an anchor to bring you back up from the thoughts you were sinking into.

       After your small bout of surprise, you lowered your own arms to wrap around her form before resting your cheek against the crown of her head. Although she liked to proclaim how much you protected her, you thought of the same thing with her. She protected you in her own subtle way.

       Whether she was aware of it or not, right now she was the sole reason you kept going and without her, you weren’t sure where’d you be.

[thebladeblaster]

Rebirth of A Samurai (Part 3)

Summary: This fic is a what if scenario to SMT4 Apocalypse. I would go into more detail, but I don’t want to spoil too much of what this fic entails. If this fic gains traction I may continue the story on from this one-shot. Warning: This is a long one.

This may be the last I write for awhile with college right around the corner. I won’t stop completely, but it will become a lot slower.

“Shhh...don’t say that Flynn is supposed to be having a nice dream.”, Flynn’s mother said.

“Who the fuck are you? Your not my mother she might have been controlling and overbearing, but she had a good heart. She was never a colossal bitch even to Issachar.”, Walter questioned.

“Your mother? Are you Flynn’s…? No he’s not he’s...we’re...I-I’m not Issachar!”, Issachar said.

“What are you saying of course your Issachar!”, Not-Flynn’s mother said.

“No, I’m not Issachar! And their not Jonathan, Walter, and Isabeau! We’re the fifth son, Flynn Alexander!”, Not-Issachar rebuked.

The prentices eyes widened.

“I’m not…? I’m not Jonathan?”, not-Jonathan questioned.

“Think! Do you know your parents' names? What’s the first thing that springs to your mind? How about where you live?”, not-Issachar questioned.

“I-I...Why am I imagining…? Wait, I don’t know where Jonathan lives. I've never been there. Not even before or after he became Merkabah I just never had time to.”, not-Jonathan said.

“Merkabah? Why does that…? That’s right Jonathan became Merkabah and Walter became Lucifer! I fought them!”, not-Isabeau said as her eyes widened.

“Hoy?! What are you guys...Wait I fought Merkabah too but I didn’t fight Lucifer I helped him!”, not-Walter said.

“That’s right, we're the fifth son. You who looks like Jonathan you chose preservation. You who looks like Walter you chose upheaval. You who looks like Isabeau you chose neutrality. And I who looks like Issachar...I chose to unmake the world. I chose nihilism.”, not-Issachar revealed, after he did there was an audible crack in seemingly reality.

“Hoy, that means there’s a version of me that chose law? Ah gross…”, Not-Walter said.

“The feeling is mutual.”, Not-Jonathan said with disgust in his eyes looking at not-Walter.

“No wonder I thought you guys really were Jonathan and Walter. You sure butt heads like they eventually did.”, Not-Isabeau responded with a light chuckle.

Not-Flynn’s mom’s eyes were shadowed as the world around them went silent. Everyone around them froze in place before turning on them.

“You shouldn’t be here, interlopers.”, Not-Flynn’s mom said.

“I know we shouldn’t normally. Our memories of the previous cycle’s are usually mostly dormant in our subconscious, but you’re tampering with the current Flynn’s mind has called us here, Krishina!”, Not-Issachar explained.

A demonic smile identical to the one on Flynn’s face when he was possessed appeared on not-Flynn’s mom’s face. He dropped the disguise revealing himself as Krishina.

“Get away from us! I mean Flynn! I mean stop!”, Not-Issachar said as he pulled a samurai said as he pulled out a samurai sword from thin air and the others drew theirs.

Flynn's past lives memories were normally kept in his subconscious to prevent them from driving him insane. They are basically the embodiment of his memories of those past lives. He remembers they awakened when Krishna started messing with the current Flynn’s mind. They were awakened to stop him from turning him into a mindless puppet. However, when then entered the illusion their minds were tampered with like the current Flynn’s made to believe they were other people so Flynn didn’t instantly realize something was wrong. He could tell by looking in Flynn’s eyes those times. He was slowly losing his own will. He could feel he was dangerously close to losing what’s left of it. That’s why Krishna had so much power in his mind now. He created this illusion after his fellow Divine Powers tortured him for days to break him.

“My kalki is almost ready for our fight with YHVH and I’m afraid I don’t have much time for you since I’m dealing with another interloper right now. Let’s see if you can defeat your own mind. Well I won’t but...well see you later kalkis.”, Krishna said before disappearing.

“Pfft! Is this the best you can do Krishna? You should know better than to underestimate the king of Tokyo! I can beat this entire village alone!”, Not-Walter boasted.

As if Krishna heard him, demons, angels , gods, and even humans appeared from all around them. Every single person or creature they had ever fought throughout the cycles was here, even the likes of Lucifer, Merkabah, Ancient of Days, Sanat, and Masakado.

“You just had to say that didn’t you?”, Not-Jonathan questioned, with a priceless look on his face.

“Aww man...this is gonna be awesome!”, Not-Walter said.

Not-Jonathan’s eyebrow twitched incredulously.

“How in YHVH’s name did I become you?”, Not-Jonathan questioned in complete disgust.

“You probably got sick of that pole up your ass and decided to actually live a little in your next life.”, Not-Walter replied.

“Simmer down guys, we gotta work together for now. Even if it’s just a temporary truce.”, Not-Isabeau said getting between the two.

“For now, after all it would be a tragedy if I was forced to fight my lord.”, Not-Jonathan replied.

“Your lord is the reason we’re in this freaky time loop. But, I guess I’ll tolerate your high strungness for a bit longer. I’d hate to lose my free will.”, Not-Walter replied.

“Just uh wow…”, Not-Issachar said, amazed to see how extreme some of his other selves were.

“I guess this is what we would have been like had we fallen into ‘monolithic extremes’ as Isabeau called it. But, now is not the time for that, the people need us.”, Not-Isabeau said.

“Uh yeah…!”, Not-Issachar replied, feeling awkward since he chose nihilism.

Even now not-Issachar regretted his cowardice in choosing that choice. Unlike the other Flynn’s he did fervently believe in the path he chose.

They called upon their own demons from their respective cycles. Not-Walter rushed into a horde of demons with reckless abandon, slicing them into bits. Not-Jonathan swiftly beheaded Hope without any emotion. He then stayed back observing their enemies and exploiting their weaknesses. Not-Isabeau used Antichthon which was effective against basically everything, vaporizing low to mid and even some lower high tier demons instantly. For those it didn’t it lowered their overall performance crippling their offense and defense. Not-Issachar rushed to Flynn now that Krishna was nowhere in sight. However as he did he was stopped by his dad.

Not-Issachar froze facing his father still remembering finding his mangled form on that fateful day.

“Sorry dad.”, Not-Issachar apologized, before instantly vaporizing him with Antichthon.

He looked all over for Flynn before finding him unconscious. He ran over to him, shaking him awake. Not-Issachar looked relieved as he started to stir.

“Issachar?”, Flynn questioned sleepily.

That relief faded when he felt a sword get thrust through his chest. He knew that was a bit too easy. What he did expect was for him to transform into a giant fiery snake.

“I-I don’t remember that happening?! It must have been Krishna. You're a decoy.”, Not-Issachar said.

“I am Shesha. I fooled you like I fooled your little dim witted Tokyo.”, Not-Flynn said.

“You did what…”, Shesha nearly flinched when he heard the low angered tone of Not-Isabeau.

He could practically feel the anger radiating off her umm...him? Well he was Isabeau right now kinda. Anyway, Not-Isabeau practically launched herself at Shesha. They flew through the building creating a massive hole in the house.

“Then where’s Flynn?”, Not-Issachar questioned.

He looked around the remains of the house and ran through the battlefield making sure to punch Tayama when he saw him. Throughout the carnage he noticed a calm spot like the eye of a storm. That was it he rush through to see an unconscious Flynn guarded by Odin, Maitreya, and Great Innana. They haven’t personally fought them like Shesha so this was more of Krishna’s manipulation. His demons came to his side Quetzalcoatl, Tiamat, and Orochi. He was having a tougher time than the others due to having weaker demons since his cycle ended prematurely. He was able to defeat Innanna and greatly wound Matrieya, but he was tiring and Odin killed off his demons.

“Heh, despite not being the first, you're definitely the weakest incarnation of our godslayer.”, Odin taunted as he prepared to finish him off.

He closed his eyes as Odin thrust his spear forward and a loud crackle of lightning rippled through the air.

“Odin! You bastard, you embarrassed my current self by knocking him out and kidnapping him! I’m going to tear your head off like I did to the Odin of my cycle!”, Not-Walter yelled as he jumped out from a horde of dead demons and launched himself at Odin like a madman.

Odin was too low to turn his attention to not-Walter as he was nailed in the gut by Deadly Wind. He gasped in pain, flinching and dropping his spear as not-Walter smiled devilishly. Matrieya tried to attack but not-Walter grabbed his face and vaporized him with Antichthon.

“Hoy, get up Flynn!”, Not-Walter said as he kicked the unconscious Flynn much to not-Issachar’s horror.

He cringed as he heard Flynn wince.

“Argh!!! Walter stop! Wait Walter? How do I know your name?”, Flynn questioned.

“Because none of this is real and you’ve gotta get your ass up and kick the shit out of that fedora wearing god!”, Not-Walter explained poorly.

“I-I what?!”, Flynn questioned, reasonably confused.

Not-Issachar tried to explain the situation to Flynn properly, leaving out anything about his past lives letting him believe they were just versions of his friends created by his mind. Reasonably Flynn looked shocked and skeptical, but he also saw Kiccigiori was now a massive battleground full of demons, angels, gods, and humans.

“T-there’s no way it c-can’t…”, Flynn mumbled, tears forming in his eyes looking around at the battle.

“Tough shit! That’s the truth Flynn! Our family is dead, Issachar’s dead, Jonathan’s dead, Walter’s dead and now Isabeau!”, Not-Walter said harshly.

Flynn stepped back looking incredibly shaken to his core.

“Have some tact!”, Not-Issachar yelled at not-Walter.

“We don’t have time for tact! He has to man up and wake the fuck up now or we’re done for good!”, Not-Walter yelled back angrily.

Flynn’s head hung low, covered by his bangs. Not-Issachar put a reassuring hand on Flynn’s shoulder.

“It may seem all dark now, but don’t give into despair like I did.”, Not-Issachar told him.

“You can’t go Flynn! You have to stay here with us! That’s what you want right Flynn? That’s what you always wanted! You never wanted to make the tough decisions! You just wanted to be a follower!”, another Not-Flynn’s mom said with another fake version of his dad by her side.

Tears fell from Flynn's face as he met his fake mom’s gaze. She opened up her arms to welcome him. Flynn shook, walking over to their side.

“You can’t be serious! You're even weaker than that quitter over there!”, Not-Walter roared in rage.

“I’m sorry…”, Flynn apologized quietly.

“Flynn…”, Not-Issachar murmured, sinking his head in defeat.

“...Mom...Dad...But there's nothing left for me here. You guys are dead, so is Issachar, and the village is in tatters. I let myself fall victim to this illusion because I wanted it to be real. I wanted your deaths to all be a horrible nightmare, but it’s not. It’s real and because I bought into this illusion more people...people I was supposed to protect are dead. I have to go back.”, Flynn said, with a steely resolve turning from his fake parents.

“No! Don’t abandon us again! I didn’t raise you to be heartless man who would walk out on his own family!”, his fake father yelled.

“Kiss our ass Krishna!”, Not-Walter yelled back smugly, flaunting Odin’s decapitated head as a trophy as Flynn walked towards them slowly picking up speed.

His clothes started to flicker out from his peasant garb to his samurai garb. Suddenly everything went white.

“Haha! He has spoken! You have now regained your right to create a world messiah Flynn! Let’s see if you fight to keep that right!”, the voice from his dream at the beginning of his adventure said.

When he reopened his eyes he saw a familiar teen with a half shaved head of brown hair and eerie glowing green eyes. He wore a green jumpsuit and had glowing green celtic tattoos, Nanashi. By his side were his own demons Anubis, Shiva, and his own Odin. It seemed he was in the middle of battle with him. He felt the weight of a pink lotus in his hands making him realize he was transformed like before. He was doubled over as Nanashi prepared to strike him down.

“Isabeau...what happened to Isabeau?”, he asked.

“Huh? Why are you asking, didn't I tell you, Krishna?”, Nanashi asked.

Vishnu-Flynn’s eyes were shadowed as he asked and Dadga’s eyes widened in realization.

“Wait there kid!”, Dadga tried to warn in his odd accent.

“I killed her like I did to the others before facing you. Heh, she called out Flynn’s name till the end. She was just another useless bitch like Asahi.”, Nanashi taunted, thinking he’d won.

He didn’t fully mean that he felt a bit bad about killing the others after everything, especially after actually carrying out their deaths, but it was far too late to turn back now.

“Heh, he’s shaking. Krishna must be scared now knowing I beat the others.”, Nanashi thought.

Honestly the whole point of telling him of his betrayal was meant to intimidate him. After all, he knew his former friends weren’t complete slouches. To be fair he died a few times fighting them. He killed them because he knew they would oppose the path he took.

However, Vishnu-Flynn was not shaking from fear...it was unbridled rage. The entire area around them was filled with a powerful aura of bloodlust. Nanashi was going to swing down at him with Masakado’s katana, but he couldn’t feel his arm. He looked over only to gaping in horror when he saw his hand had been severed without him even noticing. His hand still holding the katana stabbed into the ground behind him. Nanashi’s eyes widened in absolute shock.

“You fucked up there kid. That’s not Krishna.”, Dadga said.

Before he could even react his body his head was cut clean off by Vishnu-Flynn’s next strike. Nanashi tried to bite back the intense pain circulating throughout him. Normally no one would know the pain of their head being severed due to dying instantly, but since Nanashi was immortal he felt all of it and he howled in pain.

“You!!! How dare you! I saved you! I trusted you! And you killed one of the only people I had left!”, Vishnu-Flynn roared full of venom.

He stood up to his full towering height with two new detached arms and four new red laser swords.

“Ah, Flynn! He’s Flynn. Did he have to go for my head?”, Nanashi thought as his body started to regrow itself.

Nanashi gasped in pain as he was torn apart by Vishnu-Flynn’s blades again before he could regrow his body fully. A loud crackle of thunder slammed down at Vishnu-Flynn which he blocked with his swords. Which hummed only powered up by the lightning. He turned his attention to Nanashi’s demons. He dodged a Mamudoon launched by Anubis. He swiped his arms not releasing his full magical power which was dormant while under Krishna’s control and used Antichthon on Anubis nearly vaporizing him on the spot and severely crippling him. He finished off the god with a single strike to his blade. Shiva launched himself at him and the two were locked in a dangerous dance of blades. Shiva was skilled certainly, known as the destroyer in the polytheistic religion he was technically apart of right now as Vishnu-Flynn. However, Flynn was very very pissed off. When he was pissed off he didn’t slip up no...he became more skilled and more merciless in combat. Besides he’s already fought Shiva before and he knows the way he fights. Vishnu-Flynn turned the tide against Shiva putting him on the back burner as Odin tried to shoot lightning at him.

Dadga gaped genuinely impressed as Vishnu-Flynn danced around Odin’s lightning and fought Shiva at the same time. The difference between Flynn and Krishna fighting was like the difference between Heaven and Earth. Krishna certainly wasn’t a slouch, but he was primarily a schemer who used what most would consider more underhanded tactics and trickery to win fights. Flynn however was a godslayer in every meaning of the world. Dadga felt he truly understood what exactly made someone a godslayer when he saw Flynn fight. Flynn reacted to and attacked on pure instinct like a demon. However, he attacked with the skill and precision of a human. His skill in question was truly staggering on the level of no...even surpassing the best warrior gods as he was completely overpowering and nearly toying with Nanashi’s demons.

He finished healing up his godslayer who took a deep inhale as his body finally reformed after being mangled badly by Vishnu-Flynn. Nanashi tried to regain his bearings and prepared to attack Vishnu-Flynn. It took much longer and was much more draining for Dadga than usual because usually not as much of Nanashi had to be healed when he revived him. Usually the kid might get stabbed in the heart, decapitated, or even instant killed, but those weren’t as hard for him to fix.

“That man is a real monster.”, Dadga thought, feeling nervous for the first time he started his campaign to kill all the gods and recreate the universe.

This man didn’t have the ability to revive as he pleased and he was merely a human. Well...he wasn’t right now, but he usually was. At least Krishna had good taste that’s exactly why he planned to steal his godslayer from him.

Vishnu-Flynn dodged Odin’s spear strike causing him to pierce Shiva. With a swipe of his hands Vishu-Flynn obliterated the two with Shine More like Anubis not even leaving a trace behind for Nanashi to revive. Nanashi concentrated and launched a Deadly Wind at Vishnu-Flynn. More demons had replaced his fallen ones: Great Innanna, Isanami, and Xi Wangmu.

Vishnu-Flynn dodged his attack shot forward faster than Nanashi could comprehend and sliced him into bits again this time using Dark Nandaka on his bits. His demons turned to Vishnu-Flynn completely stunned at his speed. Before Great Innanna could even act she was decapitated. Xi Wangmu shot a Ziodyne at him which he easily dodged before cleaving both her and Izanami into bits. With a swipe on his hands he vaporized their remains with Shine More.

Fear grew within Dagda as Nanashi hadn’t even fully regrown himself before Flynn slashed him into bits mercilessly. He knew Nanashi didn’t have many demons left to use and Flynn was killing all of them permanently. His slashes grew so fast all Dagda saw was a storm of blades. Before that he could count about 10000 strikes per millisecond, but now all he saw was a blur. He was killing Nanashi faster than he could revive him. Dadga had a hard time keeping track of if Nanashi was dead or alive since he died so fast.

Krishna was extremely pleased. While his kalki had broken free of his contract he was now completely embarrassing Nanashi and his forces which gave him no small amount of satisfaction. As well as having a front row seat to the true magnificence of his kalki. He was content to sit back and let his godslayer do the work in killing Nanashi. Of course, there was the obvious problem that he was no longer in control of Flynn, but he could fix that in time. For all he knows Flynn can go ahead and kill YHVH while he’s at it, then he can swoop in at the right time, steal control, and achieve salvation. So, yeah Krishna was pretty content sitting back and munching on imaginary popcorn while his kalki went berserk.

Dadga was sweating now as he was greatly drained by how many times he had to revive Nanashi in this fight alone. When he told his godslayer he could die as many times as he wanted he was joking. He never thought he would actually have to revive him this much consecutively against anyone besides YHVH. Dagda was a god, but even he had his limits. A limit he was dangerously close to hitting. Even his reserves weren’t infinite.

Nanashi hardly had a second to think before he was continuously violently torn apart by the man his more naive self once idolized. He had time to feel though. Absolute horror and terror. He had honestly thought he was up to Flynn’s level by now after all he’s killed many gods, demons, and angels at this point. Confident he could beat him if Krishna happened to seduce him to his cause like Dadga to him. Defeating his former friends and beating down Vishnu-Flynn only further bolstered his confidence that he was truly unbeatable. However, he now realized how completely wrong he was. He had never been anywhere near Flynn’s level. He was beating down Vishnu-Flynn because that fop with a flute was in control, not the true Flynn. He had his power no...not even all of that he swore when he sensed his magic power earlier it had nearly doubled. Though, that may be because how enraged Flynn currently was. His intense rage may be boosting his magic to ridiculous heights. Finally, his skill...was absolutely monstrous. He thought Isabeau and Gaston were pretty good, but this man was on a completely different dimension of skill from the both of them. He wasn’t exactly educated in such things, honestly he relied more on magic than anything, but he understood that he was kicking his ass worse than anything has in his whole life with freaking swords alone. He shuttered from deep within his soul with unparalleled fear. He wasn’t sure he could get out of this especially since he didn’t look like he was tiring. Tiring was an easy thing for someone like him to exploit. He was basically a zombie so he never got exhausted and Dadga healed his wounds upon death. Stamina and his immortality was his overwhelming advantage against everyone he faced. However, now he was honestly cursing it. This is what he imagined hell was like continuously dying infinitely and instantly with absolutely nothing he could do to get out of it. For an immortal like him this is exactly what hell was like. This was one of the best arguments against having immortality, endless suffering.

A deeper part of him...Akira shuttered in horror at the sight...no the very idea of Flynn’s rampage. What had he done to Ryou? He wasn’t like this. Ryou was always a kind, gentle soul. He was skilled, yes, but not to this...to such an inhuman degree. He remembered how Ryou would feel bad about even killing demons. He was a complete wreck after killing Kiyoharu and Kenji to stop their insane plans. He most certainly wasn’t ever the type to anger. He was more often than not a mediator between the more hot-headed members of the Counter-Demon Force. For such a kind, loving soul to be reduced to this blind bloodlusted demonic rage...It broke Akira’s heart to see his dear friend like this. Any sense of mercy and kindness was gone from the eyes of his incarnation replaced with anger and bloodlust. He still remembered the day he lost him. The day he sacrificed himself not unlike his current incarnation did to save Asahi. He knew then that he was truly his old friend reborn. But now that was all gone...Because of his own actions he turned Ryou into this monster before him. He unsealed Krishna who stole him away and merged with him. He made him completely snap by killing that girl Isabeau. He felt the worst chill down his spine when he heard Vishnu-Flynn start to chuckle. He was enjoying this?! The pure hearted self sacrificing idiot Ryou was enjoying this?!

“What the fuck have I done?”, Akira thought in complete horror from deep within Nanashi.

“Ryou! Ryou! Stop, please! Snap out of this! This isn’t you!”, Akira begged his voice cracking as he did so, knowing full well he couldn’t hear his begging.

No no someone had to stop him before he completely lost his humanity.

Flynn was beyond being enraged that word hardly encapsulated the fire he felt from within his soul. Even before all of this he had lost so many people close to him, his parents and Issachar. He still remembered the deep horror he felt when he realized...he killed his own mother without even realizing it. Once that guy apologized about not being able to help his parents his mind went completely blank. He killed every demon in his way without an ounce of mercy as he desperately searched for them. He didn’t know that one of the camazotzs was his mother. He didn’t know any of the demons in the forest were his fellow villagers at that point. When he found out he completely broke down. It was difficult to hide from the others he had to put on his own iron mask so they didn’t see him completely break down. He realized it when he finally found his father. He was still human, a bit mangled and in serious need of medical attention, but he was alive. But, then his hopes were completely dashed…

Flashback

It was after their first encounter with the black samurai, Lilith. Extreme relief entered his eyes when he saw one of the medics had his father. His fellows were off to themselves right now. He practically ran over to him when he saw him hope that his mother may be alive too bubbled up inside him. He didn’t expect his father. His strong, loving father to look absolutely terrified when he saw him. He was extremely confused when his father jumped back squirming away from the doctor when he saw him. That’s when he knew something was horribly wrong. He looked over his uniform checking for blood which may have spooked him. He gasped when he realized he had quite a lot on him. How did he not notice? He was just so focused he completely blotted out everything else.

“W-wait dad I can explain-“, He stuttered.

“S-stay away from me! Y-you turned into a-a m-monster like your mother did didn’t y-you?! Y-you here to finish me off!”, his father accused completely hysterical.

“M-my mother?! Mom...she….”, He muttered before he completely froze.

He pulled out a wooden sword guard shaped not unlike a flower from his pocket. It was badly worn, cracked, and had blood spattered on it. He recognized it as the one from the toy sword his mother made from him which he used to use to spar with Issachar. His mother may have disliked his friend, but she acknowledged that Flynn as a kid needed a friend to play with. Despite her distaste she made that toy sword full of love hoping he’d have lots of fun with it. He found it after he killed a demon which at the time confused him. He remembered the demon rushing up to him, but it wasn’t attacking strangely. He was too out of it though...when he fought he entered this state where he completely lost control over himself...He was just fighting blindly not thinking of anything else. He had no idea how it happened...it just did. He remembers coldly cutting down the demon that approached him without remorse. Thinking about it now he felt deeply sickened and revulsed by himself. Especially after realizing only now he was covered in blood. This feeling only worsened when he put two and two together.

That demon was his mother. He killed his mother.

He felt extremely lightheaded and nauseous now. His breathing became extremely heavy. His eyes widened at the realization.

“Ah! Ah!”, he gasped in complete horror.

He felt like he was about to have a panic attack as he clutched chest. He shook uncontrollably, hardly able to form coherent words as he imagined his mother’s warm smile. The doctor looked alarmed hearing the incoherent distressed noises he was making. For the first time he felt his soul wail. He completely collapsed on the ground. His father was right, he was a monster. He killed his own mother!

Flashback end

His father was deemed to be under demonic possession and had an exorcism performed on him which killed him. He wasn’t possessed, he was driven insane by seeing the woman he loved turn into a demon and thought the same thing happened to his son when he came over to him covered in blood! He killed Issachar too; he begged him to do so, but he didn’t want to lead his best friend to only suffer more. Then, Jonathan and Walter he knew they were dead from his illusionary Walter’s words. He still wishes he could have done something like awaken them from inside the beings that stole their bodies. However, he couldn’t they died as Lucifer and Merkabah twisted embodiments of their ideals. Isabeau...He didn’t kill her directly, but it was his fault she died. If he had woken up sooner rather than letting himself fall prey to Krishna’s illusion he could have saved her. No he should have never let himself be captured by the Divine Powers! He should have found another way to save Asahi and escape...Everything that has happened over these past few days, everyone who died because of the Divine Powers and Nanashi, they were all on his hands. H-he felt like he was close to snapping a morbid chuckle was coming from his lips as he tore Nanashi apart. Surely he didn’t deserve this even with the horrible things he’s done. He was just a kid, for all he knew that being that made him like this manipulated him into doing all this.

A deep part of Flynn...Ryou didn’t want to believe Akira would do something so horrible. Surely not? It had to be a mistake. Akira would never do something so heartless…right? But...Kiyoharu and Kenji did. They were his best friends since childhood he knew them so well yet they changed into something unrecognizable from their former selves. Then, they committed horrible atrocities for what they believed in before he struck them down himself. He personally saw through Flynn’s eyes the horrible words he would have created if he sided with them. Even that deep part of him didn’t seem sure of anything anymore. Nothing seemed to work. He remembers more than Flynn does. He remembers his past lives where he followed four different paths. He despised most of them except the third path, the neutral path which for some odd reason was going very differently in this cycle. He chose that third path again, but it seems like everything has only gotten worse for some reason. If Flynn didn’t wake up sooner then everything...everything he had fought for, sacrificed himself for would be gone. He knew more than Flynn, he could see Krishna’s memories; he knew the depravity of Dadga’s selfish plan. It was...Childish. He understood defeating YHVH, but that’s where it ended. Destroying the entire world, the world people had out there heart and soul into bettering and protecting just because you wanted the world to be ‘your’ ideal it was...beyond selfish. That plan spat on all the hard work and sacrifices humanity has made to better their world. Krishna wasn’t a saint either; he was nearly just as bad with his forced salvation plan. At least he had some love for humanity...even if it was twisted. But, Dadga’s plan was undoubtedly worse. This foolish god seriously believed that all a person needed was themselves. That’s completely wrong for a god of knowledge he sure didn’t know much. Humans were social creatures by nature; they needed each other to survive. No one is perfect and his world would be undoubtedly polluted by his own biases and cruel beliefs. Besides how was Ryou supposed to honestly believe that someone willing to sacrifice their allies and even the whole universe was going to be a more benevolent ruler than YHVH? He already was like YHVH, manipulating and sacrificing people for his own ends. They were exactly the same...It would be the same cruel world YHVH created just with a new face in control. It completely tore him up that Akira was actually a part of this depraved plan. He wanted to cling onto the idea he was manipulated and controlled but...He remembers destroying Tokyo he sacrificed himself for with his own hands alongside the angels. He remembers filling the world with demons and ruling over the hell on Earth he created. He remembers unmaking the world in a moment of weakness. He made these same horrible mistakes and he did those same horrible atrocities as the others. He had become the same if not worse than them.

Ryou still wanted to forgive, but he could hardly forgive even himself anymore. He felt bad for his current self; he was just as distressed and confused as he was, except he didn’t fully understand why. Despite his past lives memories being locked up he still had feelings and echoes of those lives within himself. From his law cycle he had obtained the ability to completely shut everything else out and focus on a singular goal no matter how depraved. His magic power had carried over and growled continuously stronger with every cycle. His inhuman level of sword skill was also for that life mostly from strangely after his death. After his death he became an angel for a confusing amount of time not even he was sure how long. Something that still deeply revulsed him. He remembers having a divine sword then YHVH gave him. Honestly, he didn’t remember the name, but honestly he just wanted to forget any of that happened. He became YHVH’s sword, cutting down anything that opposed him, even fellow messiahs for other worlds. He understood it was a long time, but he wasn’t sure how long than his ‘forgiving’ god shoved him back into the cycle he decided on as his punishment for saving Tokyo from his wrath as soon as he was done with him. Unbelievable...If there’s one being he truly hated it was YHVH. From his chaos cycle he gained the ability to completely give into his instincts and battle using instinct alone. Along with that rage he didn’t remember having. That alone has caused many troubles for the current Flynn especially what’s...currently transpiring. It even affected him. Making him go completely berserk at times if he felt really angry or got too into a battle. Without that cycle he would have never...Not even in his law cycle enjoyed hurting others. The king of Tokyo enjoyed a lot of things he disagreed with because he didn’t care. His heart had been turned rotten by Lucifer and he stopped caring about anyone, but himself. Honestly, his nihilism cycle didn’t contribute much, but his revulsion with his previous cycles unknowingly affected Flynn’s decision in that cycle to unmake the world. From his neutral cycle he combined his law cycle’s skill with his chaos cycle’s instinct to create a deadly combination in battle. He didn’t have as much time to refine his combat as his law cycle, but he still did improve it in the lifetime he had along with his magic like his other cycles. That first time he chose neutral was the happiest one that he hoped would stick; however, that hope was dashed when after a long and fulfilled life he woke back up at Lake Mikado again. However , that life influenced this Flynn to choose neutral again. He guessed he was still trapped because YHVH wasn’t done with him yet. He suspects YHVH wasn’t happy with him having an enjoyable cycle even if it wasn’t perfect. So, this time things changed he was prevented from removing the firmament and he was captured by the Divine Powers. Now, Akira was trying to destroy the world he once defended like he did. He could practically imagine YHVH laughing in his face while they killed each other.

“Please stop this Akira! We shouldn’t be fighting each other! Please forgive him Flynn! I know you’re hurting I can feel your pain! Please!”, Ryou begged, sobbing uncontrollably.

A less forgiving part of him couldn’t help but take pleasure in tearing Nanashi to shreds. He is the one who killed Isabeau, the last of his original prentice group. His heart hurt more than he expected when she was killed. He was the one who released Krishna and put him into this whole mess. He...He!

“Kill him! Kill him! Make him regret ruining things for us!”, that angered voice in his mind said which reminded him of the illusionary Walter.

[hrodvitnon]

Heh, yeah, he probably didn't think Goji being that small would be a problem.

Alright, moving on-I have another little scenario cooked up: it regards Godzilla and his family needing to deal with all of the incarnations (minus Earth) that I mentioned in previous posts suddenly being teleported (along with those they cherish) to the Abraxasverse, and how they need to coexist with one another lest it ends up like this fic:

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12783256/1/Godzilla-Battle-of-the-Ten-Kings (Ignore the outcome that Heisei won)

I also have a pretty good idea how this might affect the routes (don't worry, I won't let you describe how you can't speculate yourself yet-I'll do it myself for this.)

In the Coexistence Route, there's going to be a lot of chaotic confusion regarding around 10 or so versions of Godzilla running around and possibly starting to rampage in response to being taken from their home dimensions; MV!Goji and his family have their hands full trying to stop/talk with the other Gojis to stop rampaging & explain where they are now. Showa might be the most reasonable and will likely help them out, especially with the likes of Kiryu Saga!Goji & GMK!Goji who will resist and try to fight back against those who they see as impostors until Showa & MonsterVerse Godzilla put them in their place and get them to listen. The 2000 twins might accept since they do have equal levels of sapience to Showa!Goji, it's the bigger Godzillas that might pose a problem-with Heisei & Final Wars probably getting into a large & intense fight if they ever met & cause massive collateral damage in the process-not to mention another version of Shin who wouldn't have the same personality or empathy as his Abraxasverse counterpart and will be hostile to anything and everyone around him-including his counterpart because he sees Abraxas!Shin as weak due to his empathy. The Titans & humanity will need to work together to corral and get Heisei, Final Wars, and 2016!Shin to stop and listen to reason (though 2016!Shin possibly will need to be frozen again)-and it might end with all Godzillas agreeing to stop fighting (on certain conditions) , but they need a place to live that is isolated enough to be at peace (GMK will be left out and probably be either killed or vanquished to the Hollow Earth for Kong to finish him off with his axe); with a version of Monster Island to be used as a new home for the Godzillas (with Minilla, Minya, & Godzilla Jr to accompany their respective fathers there). It would end with a wobbly, but peaceful Coexistence.

In the Genocide Route however, things will not go so well....

Because here-the Godzilla incarnations are teleported while MV!Goji is in the process of wiping out humanity-the Titans start to become frustrated & very wary of these other Gojis as they start to pick fights with each other and, whether accidently or not, kill more humans in the process. Of course, MV!Goji will quickly sense the presence of these other Godzillas and immediately try to attack them as a result of his hallucinations blinding his judgement and common sense-resulting in some of the Gojis (Heisei especially) having a bone to pick with him after the fact. It might all culminate in a final showdown after some warmup battles in (very ironically) Tokyo-where all the Gojis show up, destroy the city to get themselves ready-and start to battle one another for the right to be the one true King of the Monsters!(of course, this is actually just to get rid of the competition)

The Titans & MV!Goji's family then watch with bated breath as the 10 Kings duke it out and slowly start to permanently kill each other as the fighting and stakes get higher and higher-with Kiryu Saga!Goji being the first one to die before the others, 2016!Shin does some creepy stuff that might disturb his counterpart, the original 1954 Goji is also in the fight and gets beaten up a lot, and all the smaller Gojis are killed off before the night ends. The larger Godzillas start to unleash their true power as the fighting gets even more intense, a great many beam-lock wars are had-& then the slaughter begins-Shin ends up being the first to die as the other 3 Gojis gang up on him after he potshots them too much, and then, you will likely be surprised-Heisei is then offed. How so? Let me describe:

• Despite their respective powers-Final Wars and MV!Goji (if the hallucinations briefly go away) will recognize Heisei!Goji as having a lot of potential to kill either of them (my interpretation) and team up to take him down-resulting in a complete decapitation to permanently kill him (heh, how's that for irony?).

The former two are the last ones standing-and fight the last fight for their lives. Everyone watches in anxiety and Godzilla's family, despite what he has recently done, pray that he wins this last fight. At first, MV!Goji has the upper hand, having gone feral & finally stopped holding back, and is seemingly very close to killing his counterpart-only for him to reveal he was also holding back and turns the tables on the natural Godzilla, tossing him around-beating him senseless & utterly wrecking him. Everyone watches in understandable horror as Final Wars!Goji then begins to charge up his spines....and they flash crimson red as he then impossibly throws MV!Goji high up into the sky.

Having had enough, Godzilla's family rush to stop what was about to happen....but it's too late.

Final Wars!Goji unleashes his Burning G Spark Heat Ray into his counterpart (here he doesn't need Ozaki's boost to gain the ability), who initially tanks the attack-but it slowly becomes too much for his body to handle....and after a few seconds, he lets out one, final agonized roar before exploding into a fiery ball of light & chuncks of flesh. His family, and the Titans can only watch in silenced shock as their Godzilla bit the dust and was now gone forever......

Meanwhile, Final Wars Goji roars in victory before immediately going to the sea to rest after winning. The only ones happy with MV!Goji's demise is humanity, who sort-of praise Final Wars!Goji as a hero of sorts and slowly start to rebuild what Godzilla destroyed. On the Titan perspective, the other Titans are initially very hesitant to accept Final Wars Godzilla as their new Alpha/King, but after he demonstrates his abilities and power-they submit and look to him as the new ruler of Earth, the only ones who outright rejected his rule were Kong, Tiamat, Barbra, Dagon, Scylla, and Rodan-with the now deceased MV!Goji's family going into hiding in the Hollow Earth to grieve the death of their Godzilla.

Mothra is in complete anguish and despair after the death of her mate, Shin & Junior are in similar states and become depressed, Leo, Manda, & Keeta are mostly unaware of what's happening but do their best to comfort their peers since they can easily detect their sadness, but the one who was affected the most was Monster X, with Viv trying to deny the fact that Godzilla was gone, and San trying anything to comfort her. Kong visits every now and then with Jia to act as emotional support to the grieving family and generously lets them stay in the Hollow Earth as a temporary home until they recover enough to head to the surface.

Mothra heads to an isolated island to be alone after she justifiably rejects FW!Goji as her king, Shin & Junior go with her along with Leo and Manda, Keeta is taken back to his adoptive father, and Monster X starts to develop a bitter grudge against FW!Goji and wants revenge for MV!Goji's death; but even Viv'n'San know that trying to take on the one who killed the other Gojis wouldn't end well for them-so they teeth-clenchingly 'coexist' with FW!Goji until they find a way to get their revenge.....even if they themselves die or it would be for nothing.....

Just to inform you, I can understand if you don't like the Genocide branch-off scenario, so you can simply react to the Coexistence one if you like.

But overall, what do you think of the second long post that I wrote?

Yeaaaaaah, not a fan of the Genocide branch-off... plus I wasn't a fan of the whole Everyone Beats Up MV!Goji thing from previous asks, it's all kinda, well, sus.

...though I'd like to bring up something that Monster X themselves state in Abraxas Chapter 17: They can be good, but can also be a terrible (if necessary) evil, true to their namesake. In this instance, I'd picture them flatly rejecting FW!Goji out of rage and hate because he basically killed what Vivienne saw as a mentor/god, and this cat-faced bastard expects submission from them? Fuck that. He'll get in their face about it like, "I'm your king now. Kneel."

But Monster X just stares at him with the same cold hate they gave to MaNi before mauling and killing him. "KNEEL!" FW!Goji demands. Monster X doesn't even blink. "Even kings kneel before the executioner." FW!Goji scowls at them with fire in his eyes. "You better not be threatening me, you little freak. You saw how I put down that rabid animal you're being such a whiny bitch about."

"Oh no," Monster X says with thinly-veiled contempt, "Certainly not. Just making a historical observation. I'm the Executioner... and no king's reign lasts forever, Usurper." Then they have the balls to turn their back on him and move to the Hollow Earth, knowing that even if FW!Goji wants to throw hands he has no real reason to (unless he wants to be an asshole) and FW!Goji has some measure of reason. Implied Death Threat aside, they never explicitly challenged him and attacking them just for disagreeing with him (when MV!Goji left Kong alone after he refused to submit) will only make him look like a tyrant.

---

For the Coexistence Chaos, I wouldn't consider 2016!Shin to be actively hostile to everything around him; in his home film it's noted that "behaviorally it just moves," he's basically a confused animal that doesn't know what's going on and simply reacts (see also the lyrics to Who Will Know), and he only explicitly reacts with violence once he's met with violence (namely gaining his atomic breath after GBU-57s were dropped on him), so he'll be hostile purely out of self-defense.

Also, regarding the Genocide branch off, let's not forget 2016!Shin's 5th form (the army of small humanoid Shin Godzilla's literal seconds away from branching off from his tail); because 2016!Shin is constantly evolving in a way to combat the threats he faces, it's not out of the question that he'd just spawn the 5th forms so they can scurry off and go into hiding while the other 9 Gojis are ripping each other apart.

[notyourfathersdungeonmaster]

How to Make Powerful NPCs Interesting Again

We all know the trope: the powerful wizard hires the party to go run some minor errand, which inevitably leads to them stumbling onto the World-Ending Plot, which they have to solve, alone, with only the occasional advice from their wizened mentor. It's a trope as old as time; even Hercules got occasional boons from godly beings to help him on his quests. It's a great narrative device, until some player stops and asks, "If this wizard is able to stop time with a snap of his fingers, why doesn't he just stride into the field and shove a ninth-level fireball into the Lich's cranial cavity?"

This simple bit of cognitive dissonance can really ruin the fun and undermine the urgency of an otherwise great adventure. If the party knows that the only reason they're on this quest is because Randalf the Off-White can't be bothered to deal with the horde of undead outside his tower, it can make them feel like chumps or patsies, and undermine any sense of gratitude that comes later during the campaign's denouement.

There's a few simple ways to fix this, though: tricks that can help you, the DM, keep your high level NPCs while also explaining why the great powers of the world are relying on this band of scrappy adventurers to solve all their problems. Below are just a few.

The Balance of Powers

This principle is a great one, but is often sadly overlooked in many campaigns. Simply put, in the above example, the wizard mentor doesn't get involved not because he can't, but because doing so would bring in a whole host of other powerful beings that would complicate the conflict. Perhaps there's a council of archmages who have all agreed, for the sake of maintaining the fabric of reality, that they should keep their Ninth-level spells in their pockets unless they all agree it's necessary. Perhaps the BBEG has a patron on the Council, and the mentor can't interfere on his own without dragging his evil opposite into the campaign. This can actually make for a great part of the climactic battle: the mentor decides he can't stay on the sidelines anymore, and joins the fray, participating in an epic wizard's duel.

This can also be used with deities bestowing boons on the party: they can act indirectly by helping the party, perhaps because one of their rival deities is already helping the BBEG. Thus, the conflict of the campaign turns into a proxy war for a larger divine conflict that can't be fought, because it would annihilate all of existence. If you do take this path, make sure your NPC stresses to the party how essential it is that they solve this issue, because if the major players themselves join the fight, no one will survive.

The Protector of Reality

Similar to the Balance of Powers, this rationale places the Epic NPC in a conflict from which they cannot afford to divert their attention or resources, even for a moment. Perhaps there is a constant threat of otherworldly incursion for which they need all (or almost all) of their capabilities; after all, you don't want to be caught with your pants down and your spell slots expended when Tiamat bursts through the material plane like an alien parasite from a man's stomach. Even the threat of such an apocalyptic event would mean that, like a missile in a silo, an epic level NPC would have to sit dormant, never expending his magical capabilities because he never knows when they may be required. This is actually a great archetype to use for the Wizard in the Tower trope; they may have built themselves a convenient magical retreat at great cost because they couldn't afford the spell slot to cast Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion everyday, not while that same spell slot may be needed to banish an archduke of the Nine Hells. So, they sit in the tower, separated from the affairs of the world by necessity - but, still caring about the world and wanting to make sure it's not a shit place to live, they can find and recruit adventurers to handle the more mundane threats that don't shake the foundations of the universe. This is also a great twist finale to use on the party: perhaps the Wizard in the Tower joins them in the final boss battle, expending all his magical power -- only for, at that moment, the threat he's been guarding against for centuries to finally arrive, and now it's up to the party to stand against them where he cannot.

The Otherworldly Being

This works especially well with warlock patrons, but it can work similarly well with questgivers and friendly NPCs that have an otherworldly or spiritual bent. The key idea is that the force recruiting, motivating, and rewarding the players is not located on the material plane itself and is therefore unable to act on it; they need to find a local agent to handle the problem. There is plenty of inspiration throughout myth and folklore; dream visitations, whether by angels, fiends, fey, or Lovecraftian horrors, are particularly common as an impetus to get an uncooperative character to fall into line. There are more tangible methods of communication as well; perhaps they are a being of immense power that is trapped in every mirror in the world and needs an agent to eventually get them free, or perhaps they can only manifest through signs and omens that require interpretation. If you want to pull from Greek mythology, there's also the possibility of a dedicated oracle who acts as the voice of the gods, but gives only vague, ominous prophecies that won't reveal their true weight until later. In all cases, a clear distinction is established between the power of the questgiver and the limitations of their abilities to influence the mortal realm, making the party the ones with agency in the situation.

The Hidden BBEG

You'll want to be careful how you use this one, because you only get one shot to pull it off with a given group, and once the players suspect something it is really, really hard to recover from it. The basic premise is that the powerful NPC who recruited them, who sent them off to fight against the Big Bad Evil Guy, was secretly a villain themselves, trying to bring down their rival or clear the way for their own scheme. Think of Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, sending the Jedi across the galaxy to deal with the Sith and the CIS, only to betray them all. Unfortunately this has become a major trope, and given how paranoid players typically are, it's very hard to pull off. There's a couple of tricks to making it work, and some of them may seem counterintuitive.

Do not make the Hidden BBEG perfect or flawless. Establish a set of motives for their actions, ones that may seem prosaic but also have a selfish bent. The high priest wants to rid the land of the evil king who is oppressing the population, but who is also stifling the priest's ability to build his church. The noble ruler wants to defeat the opposing empire that threatens the peace and stability of his lands, but also is motivated by revenge for the war crimes committed in the past. Create a pretext that puts them on the same side as the party, but a subtext that leaves the party slightly uneasy. If the party is concerned about their ally having selfish motives, they'll be expecting selfishness, even recklessness, but not duplicity and betrayal.

Do not reveal the full capabilities of the Hidden BBEG. If anything, they should appear to be about mid-level; capable, but not able to handle world-shaking threats. Most often they are hiding their capabilities until some final piece is brought into their grasp. One excellent example would be Fraz-Urb'luu, one of the demon princes of the Abyss, who is obsessed with recovering his staff of power; as a Hidden BBEG, he might pose as a friend to the party, waiting until they recover all the pieces and bring them to him before he strikes, showing his true might. Another excellent example is the Heirophant from the classic geek movie The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.

Show genuine conflict in the Hidden BBEG. Let them display passion and inner conflict, moments where they are troubled by the methods the party uses and the methods they and their followers are forced to use. There's an old adage that every villain is the hero of their own story; if you can make that ring true for your Hidden BBEG, to make the party invested in not just their cause but in maintaining their moral character, then the betrayal will hurt even more.

The Common Crowd

This might seem counterintuitive, but sometimes the best Epic NPC isn't epic at all, but just a collection of ordinary folk. If your campaign originates in a specific village or town, especially one full of colorful, memorable NPCs with personal ties to the party, then the collective needs and will of that settlement can become a questgiver NPC in its own right. The town is suffering from an unnatural drought? Send the party to seek out aid or a magical cure. The town is displaced following an invasion? Keeping the town safe and finding them a new home becomes a priority. This can also become a source of individualized side quests for the PCs; they're likely to be far more concerned about seeking out the rare medicine required to save the orphan girl who the rogue took under wing than they are about exploring a random tomb for loot drops. Plus, if the PCs invest their time and effort into protecting the town, it can make for an amazing final battle when the townsfolk come to support the party in battle, armed with everything they can get their hands on, ready to die for their heroes (a.k.a. The 'Mass Effect' Effect).

I hope these provide some good inspiration for your campaign! Let me know if there's any tricks you've used on your campaigns that worked particularly well, or any that you think should be added.

[cupcakecoterie]

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard/sorcerer

@miaaoi - Froseth, dragonborn monk

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin/warlock

@lindira - Clarity, tiefling rogue/wizard

Marion - Ava, human ranger

We were absent a Barnabus this session because of scheduling conflicts, but we absented him for some of it and had him stay largely quiet for others and it worked out more or less okay.

After the Horrible Sweater Incident, Flitty perked up and dragged Barnabus, with Hazel as translator, out into the hallway. After that, Barnabus stuck his head back in, went, “I’m really sorry about the sweater, I’mma go make it right” and then left with Flitty as a guide. He came back rather a lot later with a rather fantastic dress for Alisaie.

From Ava: Froseth got a sketch of him and Farideh in a folder, the inside cover of which read: “To second chances”. Darvin got a viol maintenance kit. Hazel got a bright green ribbon with “Hearthheart” embroidered on it in gold thread and the names of Twilly, Miranda, and all the Hearthheart kids done in very tiny halfling runes along the outer edge. Barnabus got a new notebook for all the new things he’s going to be taking notes about. Clarity got a new quill - fancy blue elegant quill that never runs out of regular ink (which she will still need to use magical ink for in order to copy new spells). Remi got a belt picked to match a dress Alisaie got Remi during their date-day-out thing. Alisaie got an anklet of angel wings. Alisaie is made of bling now.

From Hazel: Darvin got vignettes about the Hearthheart kids so he could write songs about them. Froseth got an extendable quarterstaff. Clarity got a book of pranks, jokes and riddles, and a reminder to reclaim the Deck of Illusions from Froseth’s Bag of Holding (also a kiss). Barnabus got a new pencil case with a pencil sharpener of the sort that we in our world have, and a coupon booklet of “One meal of ‘you tell me how to cook and I will cook it for you’ so you can have food from your home”. Ava got boots in the style of the People of the northern wastes (with help from Alisaie - they decided they wanted Ava to have a token of Alisaie claiming Ava as her ‘Rikka’, or clan-sister). Alisaie got this weird hair-goo elixir thing to get her hair back to its original length. Remi got an in-depth book about Pelor which also contained some information about his right-hand Solar, Ziriel - thus, Remi’s patron ... and the source of Alisaie’s being-aasimar.

After that, and Froseth happening to notice Alisaie glancing at the clock, the doorbell rang. Alisaie suggested that Hazel get it. Hazel did so, hearing a group of kids start singing Aurilmas hymns when she switched the hall light on. Those kids were seven of the Hearthheart kids, along with Twilly and Miranda. See, Hazel had asked Alisaie to let Twilly know what was going on, since Alisaie had Sending, and Alisaie kind of kept in touch enough to let them know that she was suggesting they celebrate Aurilmas a little early. So Twilly grabbed Miranda and seven of the kids (since eight plus her is all she can manage in a teleport) and thus brought Skylar, Farideh, Candor, Lissi, Oskar, Zanna, and Dawn - and the traditional Hearthhome Aurilmas cake, and presents - to join their celebrations so that Hazel didn’t have to spend an Aurilmas without her family. There was much squee.

Skylar underlined that if Froseth gets hurt or killed fighting the Big Bads, she’s taking the Oath of Vengeance and hunting down everything connected to that which took him away from her. Farideh added that she hadn’t been planning on focusing on attack magics but if bad happens to her big little brother, she’s learning attack magics to back Skylar up. No one told them that Froseth volunteered to be taken to be tainted with black shit or tortured by Tiamat rather than letting that happen to Alisaie. No one wanted to deal with that.

Present exchanges, and some news - apparently the Hearthhearts are coming back to Hearthhome soon and they may take the Cathays with them because scout-readable signs indicate that the wood elves and half-elves are evacuating the Elvenwild and given what they saw at the palace before they left (the corpses and everything), they have concerns. But they’ve decided to deal with the blue denying the deployed mercenaries reinforcements, then deal with Blackcrown, and then sort out the Elvenwild.

Alisaie fixed her hair and tried on the dress. With the wings and halo. She got stares.

After that, and saying good-byes to the family (who were going to be staying at a Honeycomb and taking a day to meet Quickflight cousins and shop), Hazel pulled Alisaie aside and apologised for yanking that much of her saved-up “rebuild my life” money on that resurrection diamond without even thinking that was a party fund item. They reached an understanding. It was sweet.

The next morning, they got ready for a big day heading underground. First, though, they had to go up - back to where they first went for the bottled lightning. Alisaie offered Ava a ten-minute flight around the city, saying that she’d wanted to offer before but knew Ava was afraid of heights, and then thought that maybe she was underestimating Ava so she’d at least make the offer. Ava, currently determined to face her fears, accepted the offer and got the Deluxe Air Tour in the just-coming-sunrise light from the city ... and also the sight of a gigantic copper dragon waking up, realising that people were awake and needed to get back into their humanoid shape again, but stretching his wings in a greeting display for the two flying women first.

After landing, they had to go down - as in, below ground level down. They had a corridor to navigate when they finally got to the level they needed and Hazel decided to knock on a door behind which she’d heard explosives. The door got answered by a little gnome woman who got them to agree to test some explosives (which seemed relatively safe, surprisingly enough; just she wanted to prove that they had the explosive yield she claimed they did).

Which was about where we stopped so we can have Barnabus involved in meeting people who actually will help progress the main quest.

[brilliantpride]

The infinity of the universe stands before her. Offering her a pleasant dream. A respite from the exhaustion of existence. The ‘human’ pauses, for what is she in the face of the universe, in the ‘nothing’ and ‘everything’ contained within it? 

...She’s Yako, that’s what.  It’s what she’s always been. Who she’ll continue to be. 

What is one human in the face of infinity? Herself, and nothing else. 

I don’t need a bigger meaning. I don’t need to think about things that go way over my head. I’m just me, and that will always be true. 

So don’t you dare try to take my name from me---!

-

Yako blinks, finding herself floating in the cold reaches of space, still, somehow, breathing, although air is difficult to come by. How did she get here? ...It’s not important. She turns her gaze to see the stars surrounding a comet. No... those aren’t stars, that’s not a comet. The light is blinding, but she can just make out... a cold flame, horns, the forms of Servants running through space as though on flat ground. A chill runs through her body. Like Tiamat. That thing is like Tiamat. Those stars are ‘her’, but not-her; they swarm to her aid, only to get cut down before they can reach her. Yako pulls the fabric around her shoulders closer as this vast space leaves her a complete absence of warmth. 

That’s Ritsu. She can see them. Shining like a light... it’s beautiful. 

I am Kasuga-no-Tsubone! a booming voice calls. As long as I am here, so is the Ooku!

It’s a voice with a stern warmth. Like her mother. It brings her back to her senses. ---That’s right. They’re at the Ooku. She’s a visitor here. No, she came here for a reason. And that reason was...

“Ritsu---!” 

Yako yells with the faint breath she has left, and sucks in another deep breath, though she’s dizzy, though the air is thin. Even if they can’t hear her, she has to get her voice across, before whatever happened to her happens again, before her name disappears---

“YOU BETTER WIN!”

It feels like her breath is being sucked out of her throat. Her voice hurts. Her chest heaves, and she coughs, unable to get enough air in her body. Her vision is dim... it’s like being on the peak of a mountain. Her head hurts. It feels scrambled. Name, what name matters, other than Tokugawa? That’s her name, no, it isn’t, it’s Yako, yes, Yako Tokugawa, no, just Yako--- please, no, don’t let her forget again! 

Her magic circuits whir back to life. The fire inside her burns away the chill eating at her skin. It hurts. It feels like she’s burning up again. Her body can’t handle more of this. But even so, she can’t just sit this one out...! 

If she could just aim. No slingshot. No runestones. Nothing to carve onto that could reach that far away.

She raises her hand in a point like a gun. 

Gandr.

Energy crackles at her fingertips. Kamas swarm to intercept her. “Just accept my love,” they chant in unison, and the pressure on her head feels intolerable. She shoves them away, building magic inside her body, a storm ready to burst. Although it’s a long shot, at least let this one connect; let her just stun the Beast a bit; she can do this much!

Who needs your kind of love anyway---!

A fireball explodes from her fingertips, propelled across space until it digs into the Beast’s side. She can’t see if it connected. She can’t see if it hurt. No, it probably didn’t. But she feels the pressure of a god’s gaze on her... and she grins. 

How’s that!

She suddenly feels her senses falter. Her vision. Her hearing. Her touch. Is she dying? No, absolutely not. ‘Just stay there like that’, is the feeling she gets. That Beast... so it can control other people’s minds like this, too? Or is it their bodies? There’s too much to figure out. ...But why not just brainwash her again? ---Because they’re too occupied. They can’t be bothered with exerting that will---it’s what let her snap out of it in the first place, right? They’re too distracted, they need to keep all resources pointed at Ritsu, and so...

...you’ve as good as won, Ritsu!

-

...She floats, senseless, in a void for who knows how long. Does her body still exist? Time stretches into a horrible infinity. She makes the best of it by playing music in her mind to count the minutes. She gets about four songs in before her vision abruptly returns, and she’s back inside the Ooku. Her hearing is next to come back. Finally, she crumples with the pain in her body hitting her all at once. Mata Hari catches her, holding her up, kindly folding her kimono back together for her. The voice from before brings in a windstorm: No strange women allowed inside the Ooku! it calls, and Kama is forcefully ejected from the premises, screaming something incoherently as she’s flung into the far beyond. 

...Phew.

It’s over, right? 

It’s not a trick again, right?

So--- she can take a break... 

...now...

“I knew you could do it,” she mumbles, as Mata Hari scoops her up into a carry. She rests her head on her shoulder. She had so many things to ask about... things to talk about... they’ll have to wait. Right now, she’s just... really tired. 

-

It will be several hours before Yako wakes up in the medical ward, tubes running through her and towels on top of her trying to keep her temperature down while she slowly replenishes her mana. A classic case of mana sickness taken to the extreme: constant, high-stress magic use without an opportunity to recharge will take anyone out, even someone with an abnormally high tolerance. She’ll look at her hands and see her fingertips red and tender, as if she burned them; and she’ll look up to see Mash dozing in a visitation chair. (Where’s Ritsu? she’ll think, before remembering they’ve just fought a Beast, and might have been injured, themself.)

Nothing to do for her fever, it seems, but wait it out and make sure she doesn’t dehydrate or have heat stroke. She’ll tough it out eventually, even if it takes her a few days. Cu will make a few visits, with Connla in tow, and they’ll be courteous enough not to start a fight in the medical ward. When Ritsu wakes up, they’ll visit, too, although she’ll be asleep at the time. 

A few days thence, while unobserved, the summoning room will glow. Someone will step into the medical ward, whispering of love and hatred. They will find their Command Seals inscribed on the back of Yako’s neck and feel their lips curl into a grimace as disgust boils up in their body. 

Their eyes will meet in the dim light:

“...Oh, fuck no.” “I was just about to say the same thing.” “Get out... I don’t have the energy for this.” “Don’t worry, I was just on my way... Master.” “...W-Wait, what?”

The door will slam shut and Yako will be left alone in the dark, wondering if she’s far gone enough to hallucinate. 

“Wait, come back--- urgh... still sick...” 

[mittensmorgul]

DEAN opens the bedroom door. TEDDY is watching the news on the TV. A building is on fire. TEDDY: Look at this. You believe this crap? DEAN: Not really. TEDDY: It is a terrible world. Why am I here?! AUDREY: For tea parties! TEDDY: Tea parties? Is that all there is? [Guns firing on TV]

Inanimate thing comes to life and has existential crisis.

Sort of like... regular human discovers the truth of reality and has existential crisis.

Why am I here? What’s the purpose of any of this?

What would they wish for, if they could? If the wishes didn’t go bad?

Dean’s wish, simple-- a nice sandwich (that gives him mild food poisoning, because that’s the nature of the curse)

Sam’s stated wish in 4.08 was “Lilith’s head on a plate,” and hooooboy... Dean assumed Sam would wish for the “normal” life he’d been forced to leave behind, but even back in 4.08, Sam had come to the realization that he couldn’t go back to that anymore. Partly because he had this other mission, that he was convinced was necessary to SAVE the world, when killing Lilith was what he was being pushed toward all along to break the world.

Lol, after 15.10, Dean puking up a sandwich back here as he explains Tiamat-- a goddess of Chaos-- is practically a 1:1 parallel to Dean getting sick from sandwiches and overcompensating for the “curse.”

Sam: Dude, if Garth was right, if we're really normal now, we can't just charge in their guns blazing. We need to be ready for anything. Dean: Well, I guess we need a grenade launcher. Hey, sweetheart.

And in 4.08, Wes who tossed the coin in the fountain and made the first wish, thinking that he knew exactly what he wanted-- for Hope to love him more than anything-- until he actually got literally and very specifically what he asked for.

He’d never had Hope (lol, can we discuss her on the nose name here? after 15.09 and the fact Chuck had been trying to crush Sam’s hope? okay). Wes just wanted Hope, had been pining for her for years, and despite his obvious discomfort with the fakeness of their relationship, the fact he’d stripped her of her own free will in order to keep her for himself, even as a mindless automaton of a person literally willing to KILL for him, he still initially refused to give her up, to take back his wish, even if it broke the fabric of reality as the town around him spun into chaos. Everything was put to “rights” when Wes, quite literally, lost Hope again.

Just the opposite happened in 15.10. Because metaphorically, Chuck’s the one who dropped the chaos coin in the wishing fountain this time... Chuck is the only one profiting from this wish. I can almost hear Chuck delivering all the side characters’ lines in this episode:

WES: [Mockingly] "Careful what you wish for." [Normal voice] You know who says that? Good-looking jerks like you guys, the ones who've got it so easy because you happen to be handsome. SAM: Easy? DEAN: Easy? WES: Yeah. Women – women look at you, right? They notice you. SAM: Believe us, we do not have it easy. DEAN: We are miserable. We never get what we want. In fact, we have to fight tooth and nail just to keep whatever it is we got. SAM: But you know what? Maybe that's the whole point, Wes. DEAN: Yeah, people are people 'cause they're miserable bastards, 'cause they never get what they really want. SAM: Right, yeah, you get what you want, you get crazy. DEAN: Take a look at Michael Jackson, hmm? Or Hasselhoff. WES: You know what? Hope loves me now – completely. And it's awesome. Besides, look around. Where's all this, uh, insanity you guys were talking about? [The bully boys are inside a large four-wheel-drive.] BULLY BOY #1: Just hit the button! [TODD lifts the vehicle up. DEAN stops the Impala.] DEAN: Well, that should cover it. [TODD tips the vehicle over.] TODD: Kneel before Todd! Kneel before Todd!

Lol Dean even punches the kid in the face and only hurts his own hand. Todd is effectively God here.

Wes laments that he can’t just get what he wants. Hope is willing to kill to stop him from “wishing their love away,” when it was never real to begin with. And when he pulls the coin, Hope doesn’t even RECOGNIZE him, let alone love him anymore. He hands the coin to Sam, and just... gives up. He doesn’t attempt to introduce himself to Hope, or get to know her for real, or invite her out or ANYTHING. He just... resigns from the game and lets her walk away, refusing to do anything on his own behalf to woo her again. Like he’s convinced that he could never win her on his own.

Because that’s how Chuck’s story works. In 15.10, he successfully convinced Sam and Dean that they had no hope on their own, that they truly had no power against him, by actively manipulating the situation to his own favor. And round and round the spiral narrative goes...

(heck, 15.10 even had a beaten and broken version of a teddy bear lying up in despair in a little girl’s bedroom-- sure he was a werewolf and not a sentient stuffed bear, but same result, right?)

[disegnidipizzo]

finally some decent refs for these two messes on legs/fins

the whole story under the cut, prepare bc i got carried away and i am not sorry about anything, at all, ever, in any circumstance.

SALVIA NUNARI

Salvia Nunari would rather tend for their forbidden plants garden than the troll grubs and would sneak out a lot to do her thing in the very dilapidated greenhouse their ancestor left behind, along with all the books on plants, herbal medicine and poisons (and some interesting things about jades). They know that jades Shouldn’t stray from their path but if their lusus taught them something, it’s that sometimes, you need to do things in the dark. 

Considering that they’re a racoon, they also say a lot of things about finding solace in what one has left behind. It wasn’t about trash, but you got the gist. And they have a pope hat, but you don’t know what a pope is. Still, they look funny with it on. Like a monarch or a ruler of All Things Unwanted and Abandoned.

As they got more experienced, they started making new breeds of plants and crossbreeding some relatively harmless carnivores to create a poisonous/venomous strain, in the very faint hope that MAYBE they could be somewhat employed by the Empire. It wasn’t that much of a plan but. It worked. Sort of. When the baby plant opened its trap, Salvia got poisoned to death thanks to a bite to the neck. Turns out that the new strain can move rather effortlessly and quickly and that it consider food most things that move. 

The first death allows em to ascend to rainbow drinker. 

Follows a minor freak out due to “HOLY FUCK IM GLOWING HOW DO I TURN THIS OFF” and “I’m dead. I’m so dead im still alive.” 

Conveniently, their ancestor’s Very Interesting Things About Jades handbook does contain info on rainbow drinkers and how to turn off the glow. Salvia doesn’t die twice for another day! Good thing it was all in the next chapter.

They had to hide the deathly wound lest being found out (and most likely culled in .5 seconds) before going back to the caverns, hence why they wear the neckpiece. It wasn’t really theirs in the first place, it was one of their ancestor’s ones that had gotten too small for them (but was kinda part of their uniform). 

TIAMAT KIITCH

Tiamat Kiitch enjoyes being eccentric. When you rank so up high, it’s only fair to flaunt your taste, even if it’s not the most accepted by you signclassmates. Sucks to be them, not everybody can understand what it means to Really be a patron of the arts. Or of the artists. Maybe this is why everybody sees you as unfit for the imperial army and would rather shove you on a planet so that they can get some sensory relief. Because a Violet that supports so many painters, sculptors and even musicians of all classes, even below cerulean? Sacrilegious. Or maybe they really just don’t like it. Violets aren’t exactly social with one another. Call that a competitive environment, ay.

As her Departure Day to said planet of Thank God Sound Can’t Travel In The Void of Space, she has to make preparations. A whole sweep ahead is not too early. She’s going out with a bang, mofos.

Also, it’s only fair she would pick the best trolls to be part of her new, off planet hive estate staff. And she is NOT going to cheap out on the good stuff. Going full crew over here, from the doctors to cleaning staff and doctors for the cleaning stuff. Don’t worry, she can afford it.

And she goes to Personally pick the heads of each branch of people who work for her. Since jades make for the best doctors and caretakers, she pays a visit to a few caverns that have great reputation. Which is a good amount of them.

Among the (very few but very capable) jades that have been picked, she just had to have an eye for the one that has that something of mystery and secret but also that knows how to make medicine out of most plants (how did they learn?? Who cares, they can do that and i want them. Get in, we’re going off planet.). Also the one that looks like they’re up to Trouble.

And that’s where the problems begin.

The Actual Plot

Rainbow drinkers need blood, which is easy enough to get on Alternia, since trolls are canonically very violent as a species and all that. Just using dead bodies lying around is easy, there’s also the culled grubs in the caves that need disposing. Yes it sounds bad because feeding babies to carnivorous plants is objectively bad. Also, soil which contains troll blood/ is watered with troll blood is very good for most plants, but leads to fun mutations. Some of them are learning how to “talk” by opening their petals, leaves or traps. Not great conversation partners but you’ll take anything.

Life with Tiamat would mean increasing the chances of being found as a drinker and being culled, blood harder to find and less chances to experiment with herbology independently.

BUT staying wouldn't be better, as once they are cloistering age, they won't be able to even see their garden anymore.

You start to wonder if this is how your ancestor felt. 

You also start to wonder how long has the violetblood been staring at yo-AFJDGN

When Tiamat has an eye out for something/someone, she gets super into observing them. From a distance at first, to understand how they work their magic. Not that she needs to, but she feels like a documentary worker. If she knew what those were.

During the picking process she was surprised by Salvia: despite being rather small, even for a midblood, they had fast reflexes and overall sharp senses, which kind of doesn’t sound right. The hivemaster and some hivemates described them as more aloof and not particularly outstanding outside of average efficiency.

Im realising this could be a disney channel vampire movie plot minus the violence.

They aren't scheduled for leaving for around a sweep, as the colony tiamat is gonna be overseeing will need time before its declared operative and ready for aristocracy to live in. This gives Salvia ample time to transfer books, notes and plant seeds/stems into more easy to carry media. Paper does take up a lot of space. It’s easy enough as books can be digitalised quickly. Technology is great.

More importantly, they need the SOIL. Which needs to be fertilised with special sauce. Which is blood. You decide to get a snack.

Now, you imagine being a fish lady that is following one of your most brilliant but most mysterious doctors around, only to find out they are a vampire and that they water the soil of their plants with troll blood. And that feeds dead grubs to the carnivores. (And that they look kinda cute while glowing in the dark and with a splorch of blood dripping down their lip wait what)

Now imagine hearing a gasp mixed with a glub and seeing your employer which could have you killed on the spot or kill you herself while you are in the middle of getting a snack with your plant and glow on.

Remember that Tiamat is a good 40 cms / one foot and a few inches taller (minus shoes). So you do the math that, even if you run, you won't have much and also run Where? If you fight? Might die. Neither? Also probably die.

So what happens is a very intense stare off. And i mean neither blink for a solid 2 minutes. 

And then Tiamat, slightly intrigued of having a rainbow drinker (super rare and so unjustly or maybe not so unjustly feared) just goes. "So.. that’s your special sauce."

And Salvia just confesses, accepting a death that was gonna come anyways. This was a stupid plan. 

But that death doesn't arrive, Tiamat could never kill or let die something so unique, so completely unruly and also potentially deadly that is by her side die on her. That is the embodiment of what she wishes to keep alive with her patronage, you think having a forbidden vampire scientist is out of the question? Nuh-uh. They are Gucci. So Gucci they’re Supreme.

With time the bond strengthens and they slowly go quadrant

Well, its a sometimes sorta vacillating quadrant but they are into each other.  

They share half a brain cell each

That Gay Shit (tm)

The love part is mainly on Tiamat because hey, its intimate yknow? Being the only one knowing about something so personal. It escalates into giving salvia special treatment/privileges such as better meals, a small lab of their own, a supply of dead trolls to get the blood from (executed political dissidents or criminals but thats another story). Eventually it grows more to being about their personality and their knowledge but also a bit about how they can make an amputation go clean as a bottle of disinfectant, but they will forget to eat a bunch of times in a row.

Salvia does sorta reciprocate the red feelings, but at the same time they lean more on the blackrom side. Constantly making subtle remarks they havent tasted violet blood before. Sorta leaving thankful notes with a lipstick/bloodstain and a small caption of "wish this was yours <3<"

Also salvia purposelly red flirting in front of tiamat with other staff ("But i just thought they look cute :(( cant you see they look like a snacc ")

But theres also days in which the roles are reversed bc thats how fluctuating quadrants work! 

During those days, Tiamat will be taking up a good chunk of extra space around Salvia, just as a reminder that she is not only above them on the hemospectrum, but also a whole lot taller and stronger. Also that she can take away those privileges. Temporarily. Unless they can earn them back.

On the other hand, Salvia in red is super affectionate, loves doing Tiamat's hair and makeup and letting her do the same. They leave occasional small kisses which are more like pecks or "hey feel my fangs".

So in short: 

Red Salvia: the datemate that gives you a makeover in the morning, calls you "princess" and spoils you with gestures and cuddles.

Black Salvia: little shit, messes with your stuff, reminds you that you look delicious when alive.

Red Tiamat: spoils materially, gives plenty of time, shares meals and listens carefully to all that you have to say.

Black Tiamat: would keep you with the hanmibal mask on if she could, keeps you on your toes, stay in your place and be good.

[fraink5-writes]

Blue Ceiling - Tablet VI

Things are heating up in the training room...

Thank you @leio13​ for editing!!

Summary: Expecting to become king of the merpeople as son of Tiamat, Kingu is suddenly forced to give up his tail and to go the surface to restore humanity’s disregarded respect for the Goddess of the Sea. However, he severely underestimates the Uruks’ willpower, especially that of their stubborn king, Gilgamesh.

This chapter can also be found on Ao3 here. Without further ado, please enjoy!

"I've got you now," Kingu whispered, his heavy breaths so close to Gilgamesh's skin. He held his wrist, pressing it against the brick wall.

In Kingu's firm hold, Gilgamesh's heart was exposed. He stared into Kingu's face with deep, red eyes. "Oh?' His lips curled. "Are you going to kill me?"

Kingu tightened his grip on the spear prodding Gilgamesh's chest. Gilgamesh continued, "You've gotten better, more aggressive. Fighting viciously, not unlike a beast—perhaps a lion?"

The spear in Kingu's right hand wavered. "You knew about that?"

"Did you think I wouldn't see your scars?" Gilgamesh's gaze drifted from Kingu's face to his chest, to his left arm, which Kingu instinctively yanked back. "Don't be embarrassed. You should be proud. Most people would not live long enough to worry about their scars."

With a sigh, Gilgamesh swatted away Kingu's spear and side stepped out of Kingu's reach. As though it were just a toy, he nonchalantly picked up his sword and fiddled with it in his hands. "You know, when we first met, if you had the skills, you would have killed me without hesitation. I miss that."

"Oh, do you want me to kill you now?" Kingu pivoted, swinging his spear by Gilgamesh’s face.

The weapons clashed and repelled each other. "You can't do it. You've grown soft. Helping farmers and such..." Gilgamesh thrust his blade towards Kingu's abdomen.

"That's a good thing." Kingu jumped out of reach before jabbing at Gilgamesh's side. "You could learn from it."

"What are you now, a philosopher?" Gilgamesh jerked around, sliding the blade under Kingu's chin. "Trying to lecture me?"

"No—" Kingu jumped back—"Even a child knows to help others. You're the only one who's idiotic enough not to know."

"Isn't the idiot the one who regularly puts his fate in the hands of savage beasts?" Gilgamesh lunged forward, driving the point of his blade towards Kingu's heart.

"If that’s the case—" Kingu swiped at Gilgamesh's legs—"You and I are the same." He shoved Gilgamesh's chest with his hand, then knocked away the sword as Gilgamesh stumbled and fell. "Since you decided to challenge me."

Kingu threw his weight over Gilgamesh, pinning his arms to the floor under his body. He tucked the spear under Gilgamesh's chin. In one small stroke, he could skewer Gilgamesh's throat—and kill him.

In that moment, Gilgamesh was the world, and Kingu held in his hands the power to destroy it. It was exhilarating.

Kingu’s heart raced between excitement and anxiety, and, despite their desperate grip, his fingers trembled incessantly. His breath skipped the stage of shallow, rapid futility straight to near non-existence; it waited in the crevices of his throat, ready to jump out only when Gilgamesh drew his last.

Gilgamesh’s chest undulated weakly underneath Kingu, each movement more precious than the last. But his eyes were unwavering. They did not surrender, but they did not resist either. Their steadiness anchored Kingu, and as they had time and time again, they welcomed his attacks: his victories, his failures, his near misses, they were all the same before those blood-red targets.

But this time, Kingu had undeniably won. He had beaten Gilgamesh, and he had beaten himself, for whom this task had previously seemed impossible. He pointed his stance. This victory had been his goal all along, long-wished-for and long-forgotten. 

The sound of footsteps flooded Kingu’s mind with thoughts of Uruk. The people of Uruk needed Gilgamesh. And Kingu also—

"Is everything going al—Ki-King Gilgamesh!" Siduri shrieked in the doorway.

Kingu’s victory fell from his panicked hands to the floor.

"It's not what it seems." Taking advantage of Kingu’s shaken composure, Gilgamesh slid out from underneath him and strolled towards Siduri. "What do you need?"

"Well, it's not very urgent..." Siduri’s darting eyes suggested at least some urgency in her mind.

"It's okay. We are wrapping up now." Although he put his hand calmly on Siduri’s shoulder, Gilgamesh threw his gaze back at Kingu.

With a single nod, Siduri ducked away from Gilgamesh and hustled to another room.

Finally, Kingu’s voice returned. "Um, Gil, ah, uh, Ki—"

"It's fine. No need to be so formal."

The words lifted Kingu off his feet in a wave of relief and joy. Once again, Kingu found himself in a position that he never imagined possible, and the feeling of satisfaction was even stronger than the last. "Okay—” Kingu inhaled—“Gil.” He savored the small word which had for so long waited at the edge of his lips. “Were you really going to let me kill you back there?"

Gilgamesh’s eyebrows shot up before furrowing deeply. "Idiot! There's no way I'd ever let that happen!" His indignation melted into a mellow grin. "But if you defeat me, then you can do what you want. I can't stop you, can I?" For a short eternity, he continued to hold Kingu in his gaze before he turned and left the room with a wave.

Even after he was released, Kingu could not move—neither his body nor his brain. Gilgamesh’s words coursed through him faster than his own blood, fortifying every muscle in his body, especially his heart. Kingu had not killed Gilgamesh this time, but he had won. Such a sweet victory it was that any further fighting seemed meaningless. But Kingu needed to keep fighting, to keep winning, each time more decisively, more impressively than the last. So long as Gilgamesh was still breathing, Kingu needed to keep winning over him.

[homebrewcatalog]

Being a dungeon master can be intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before.  However, it can also be an incredibly rewarding experience that boosts self confidence.  Running a session (let alone a campaign) is a lot different than being a player, but there are only a few things you need to know in order to be labeled a great DM.

Plot Line

Develop a main goal

Have purpose

Come prepared... but not too prepared

MAIN GOAL - When it comes to developing a plot line for an entire campaign, I see two ways of doing it: having a complicated main plot where 90% of the time is dedicated to solving/working through the main plot, or, having a simple main plot with lots of room for sub-plots. I’ve seen the first done really well, but I am personally a fan of the latter.  It leaves so much more room for player character development as they navigate through the NPCs and the diverse set of problems thrown at them. On the contrary, I find that running complex campaigns without subplots is more focused than the other type.  

An example of a complicated campaign plot would be a political scheme plotted between all of Faerun to rise Tiamat from her slumber.  The party knows this, and they travel around the land in search of answers.  They have the same goal in every town they visit, and everything they do is centered around stopping (or aiding) the rise the primordial goddess.  

An example of a general plot with many subplots would be that the party has to light the hearths of a multitude of villages to prevent a celestial attack.  They have time before this attack happens, and they run into other villages that need their help along the way.  Maybe a woman’s daughter was taken? Or there is a cursed well that spits out an undead creature every once in a while that needs to be taken care of?

There is a difference between the two styles, and deciding what kind you want to run before you go into running your session is crucial.  If you change midway, things can get confusing, or feel rushed.  

This page is for novel writers, but it is extremely useful for developing a plot and taking your PCs into consideration when planning.

This video is centered around RPGs and goes through plotting step by step.

HAVE PURPOSE - Know how you want your campaign to go before you sit down in the DM’s chair.  Understand your main goal, and where you want your players to be at the end of the campaign.  Do you want them fighting an all powerful fiend? Maybe competing to be the rulers of an all new nation? Are they going to try and save the world? Once you have that, you can build the stepping stone to get them there: sessions.  

Each session should bring them closer to the end goal. So, have a plan for each session. Make each session have a purpose, and make sure it relates somehow to the end goal.  Do they need to be here to meet an NPC who will give them information? Is there a magical item that will help them on their journey? Is there an enemy or an ally to be made?

COME PREPARED - Walk in knowing the environment you will present like the back of your hand. Know (or have notes) on everything your players could potentially have access to in the area you drop them in. 

Have NPCs ready to go with their stats in case they need to fight, have the map of the location so vividly in your mind that you could draw it half asleep. Place the NPCs in their proper locations.  Many people think when they’re just starting off that they need to have a plan for anything their players will throw at them. I thought that too. But turns out, that’s not true.  You just need a plan for every place your players could possibly go.  Understanding this is a lot less stressful and will take a lot less time.  You probably didn’t have a plan for your friend’s dwarf running headfirst into the chimney.  But you know the location, the building, and the attitude of the NPC. That is efficient enough to figure out on the spot what happens to the PC.  Was the building of sound structure? Maybe in your mind it wasn’t, so the whole thing comes crumbling down and everyone needs to make a dex save. Maybe it was of sound structure in your mind, and the PC bursts right through. But you’d decided that these woods are infested with elementals. So, time for the party to roll initiative.

Come prepared when it comes to the location and setting, but don’t try and prepare for what your PCs are going to do once they’re in it.  Players do weird things sometimes, and sometimes subliminal messages aren’t received.  So there was a murder in town and you mentioned a sketchy looking character with blood on his clothes walking around the tavern??? Well, your players want to investigate the victim’s husband instead because you described his mustache for a suspicious amount of time. I cannot stress this enough, this happens all the time. It can be frustrating, but you just have to follow them through what they want to do and adjust what you imagined to fit their decisions. If you have your NPCs and locations fleshed out, then that won’t be hard at all.  

People think the DM is the one who controls the game, but not really.  And in my opinion that’s the way it should be.

Quick and easy NPC stat maker.

Encounters

Balance

Making enemies

Distributing XP

BALANCE - Encounters need to be balanced. You don’t want them too easy, but at the same time you don’t want to have a TPK. I personally use the CR system. In general, the way to use the CR system is that you take the average level of players in the party should equal the CR of the creature/added total of the creatures.  So, if you have level three creatures, it’s okay to have them fight a boss CR 3 insect. It would also be fine if they fought two CR 1 quadrones and two CR 1/2 Ambush Drakes. Fighting one CR 1 quadrone would be far too easy, but fighting a CR 5 Hulking Crab would wipe them out.

This system is built for 4-5 players, so aim a little less if you have 2-3 players, or a little more if you have 6+.

D&D Beyond has a great selection of official monsters as well as other people’s homebrew monsters.

MAKING ENEMIES - Whatever idea you have for a creature, especially if it is something out of other folklore, has probably been made into a 5e creature by someone somewhere. A lot of the time though, it isn’t balanced for your party level. So, you have to adjust it.

When it comes to adjusting official or other homebrew enemies, I always recommend looking at other creatures of the proper CR and adjusting the values. Maybe make that 4d8 damage just 1d8 damage? Or take away the fact that this creature can make 3 attacks.  It’s all what you make it.

If you decide to create something entirely from scratch, draw inspiration from other creatures of the same CR needed for you party.  Make sure you take into account the party composition to see what the party can handle.

Matt Mercer explains this really well in this short video.

DISTRIBUTING XP - This point is a bit controversial, but it can be used for the sake of realism (even if it is a fantasy game). Experience is relative, and shouldn’t be limited to fight scenes.  Think about how experience goes in real life? What makes people grow? For most people, the answer isn’t anything physical.  Give experience points for trying to learn a new trade or making a connection with another character.

Take their backstory into account too. Maybe there is a PC who has never killed before. The first time they kill someone would be a big deal and a major life event for them, as opposed to someone who is an assassin who has been killing since they were a teenager. And maybe that assassin has never had a true friend, so forming a bond with someone would be major character development.

This also accounts for enemies. The ranger who specializes in killing the undead should earn less XP than the monk who is encountering them for the first time. It is an eye opening and probably terrifying experience for the monk, but for the ranger it’s just another day at the office forest.

Attitude

Be confident

Listen to your players

BE CONFIDENT - Being a DM is a performance. You are playing different characters and creating a story for the rest of your group to enjoy.  Not to put anyone under pressure, but if you’re going to be the DM, you’re going to be the star of the show.  People’s entertainment depends on you.

Now, with that being said, there are an infinite amount of ways to DM. You can speak mainly in descriptions and simply summarize the main point of what the NPSc are trying to say as an indirect type of DMing. Or, you can take on the voice of the NPC and have full fledged conversations with the PCs, a more direct approach. One is not better than the other; it’s all a matter of personal preference. Me? I like the indirect way since I suck at doing voices, and two people in my group like playing that way while the other two prefer the more direct approach.  It’s a toss up really. You just have to decide what you want to do and own it. Whether you decide on the direct or indirect way, the choice isn’t going to make a huge difference on how much fun the party has.  The deal breaker is how well you sell it.

Have a strong voice. Be confident in what you’re doing. If you seem confused or nervous, your players are going to sense that and absorb it.  So, just fake it til’ you make it.  You may have no idea what is going on or why, but neither do they. If you throw a dragon at them just to keep them busy so you can plot something really fast, they’ll have no idea as long as you make it seem like it was intentional. Remember, they don’t know what is supposed to come next. They don’t know what’s inside that boarded up cottage, so how can they tell you that that they find wasn’t supposed to be there?

Here is an excellent link that describes the different types of playing and DMing.

LISTEN - This is the most important part of being a DM in my opinion. The whole reason you’re able to put on this story is because of the people playing with you. They are who you do it for, so make them matter. 

Incorporate the PCs’ backstories into the sub-plots or the main campaign.  Maybe something in their background is the reason why only they can defeat the Big Bad™? Or, what I find to be more thoughtful, take obscure details about each character and make them a central part of a session without the player even knowing it.

In my campaign I took the party deep within the woods, where they stayed in a small, flourishing village. The village was a sanctuary in the middle of a dry and dying forest. Turns out, the main villains had captured a celestial and was draining it’s power in order to feed the land. The three villains (A wizard, a sorcerer, and a warlock) bound the celestial and locked it underground in a cell that could only be opened by dropping three objects that contained the blood of the binders in the ditch above the cell. The celestial was able to send mind controlling insects into the town so they could possess civilians and have them look for the three objects that could set the celestial free. 

The party knew what was going on with the possession, and they noticed since the beginning that the possessed people were drawn to one PC in particular. In the end, the necklace that specified PC had (and had since childhood) was the object that contained the binding sorcerer’s blood, and that was the final piece to release the trapped celestial.

That whole session was centered around one PC without them even knowing it until they end.  They played a huge part in a session because I used a minor detail in their character backstory to my advantage. The whole party loved it and talked about it for weeks.  People create characters and write backstories because they care about them, and the best thing you can do as a DM is to acknowledge and respect that character and your player’s work as much as they do.

You’re creating a world for your PCs to react to; you’re not writing a novel. Make their choices mean something. Even if you want them to go right, let them go left. Don’t let them go left and give them the same scenario they would have had if they’d gone right. Players can see when you’re railroading them into doing what you want them to do, and it is disheartening and discouraging. Why would they care what their character did if it didn’t matter anyway? Why should they think about the outcomes, or try and figure out the riddle?  From what I’ve observed, this is the biggest in-game issue that tends to make groups dissolve.

That was a really long post, and I thank you for reading it until the end. I hope everyone took something away from this guide and that those just starting to DM or who are thinking about it feel more comfortable going into it.  

[dmsden]

A Little Disagreement – Trying to head off conflict within the party

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Time for another Question from a Denizen, brought to us by an anonymous reader. They ask, “So I am very new. I will play dnd (and dm) for my 2nd time tomorrow and my players character's really have clashing values and motivations so they argued for quite a while last time and came to no real conclusion because neither was ready to give up their side or compromise and then they looked to me to resolve it somehow and asked if they could roll anything? I did not really know what to do and let them roll a persuasion check against each other.

 It worked out fine, no one was upset about it back then but I researched and charisma checks on players are not allowed? And also their persuasion modifiers are pretty different so it's not really fair. I could maybe just make a straight roll against roll? But since persuasion is not mind control it shouldn't have worked out back then anyway. What do I do when the PCs really can't agree? And how do I stop a fight between players when the argument is about something really critical for the plot?”

 So, first, you didn’t do anything wrong. If the players asked you to find a solution, and you offered a solution, and it resolved things for that moment with no hurt feelings, then you did it right. While a player can’t force another player to act through a Charisma-check, I don’t think it’s fair to suggest that this can never be a useful tool. In my own campaign, people regularly make Deception checks against each other and the like. My players are pretty good at discussing and coming to compromises, so Persuasion checks have never been necessary, but, if the two players agreed, I don’t think I’d have a big complaint. After all, it’s unlikely anyone you play with has an 18 Charisma in real life, so it’s not a terrible idea to remember that someone’s character might be better at debate than they are.

 Now, having put that aside, you want a solution for going forward, of course. And this will shock longtime readers, but I recommend that you talk to your players.

 While I think that a healthy debate about the course of action the party will take is a good thing, you don’t want it to devolve into a brawl that will tear your game apart. Make sure that everyone is cool with the disagreements that’re happening and that there are no ill feelings leaking out into real life. This is, after all, a game, and the object is to have fun. It’s not worth real life friendships getting damaged due to an ongoing in-game feud.

 Hopefully an out-of-game conversation can prevent an in-game explosion. If not, you may find yourself faced with the unenviable position of having to decide what kind of game you want to run. As an example, let’s pretend that the fight your players are having is whether to kill non-combatant prisoners or not. This is a fairly common argument that comes up in games where the group finds themselves invading the lair of something like kobolds. In addition to all the warriors, there are going to be some kobolds who won’t fight, for example, the very young. What does your party do in this situation? Do they spare the young ones and abandon them? Do they take them into human society, hoping they can be raised to be good? Do they kill creatures that are inherently innocent?

 As DM, you can make a declaration like, “Kobolds are inherently evil as a creation of Tiamat, the goddess of evil dragons. They are irredeemable.” If you do this, then the party’s course is clear. If they encounter kobolds, they must be slaughtered, no matter what the age. This prevents this thorny philosophical issue. If you don’t make a call like this, then the party is likely to debate when placed in such a situation, unless they’ve discussed this ahead of time. If they can’t agree, then one side is likely to take action, whether the party likes it or not. This could eventually lead to a schism in the party which may cause one or more characters (and perhaps their players) to leave the group.

 Luckily, you happen to be the DM. If you’re appalled by the idea of your players murder-hoboing their way through an entire colony of kobolds, make sure you never put them in that position. Make sure they only ever encounter kobolds that’re not in their home lair. The kobolds may be an advanced guard, scouting a possible new lair, or hired by the dungeons’ true masters and not willing to risk their young. If you never put non-combatant kobold young into an adventure, then you’ll never have to worry about your PCs slaughtering them.

 I hope that your party managed to resolve its issues, Anonymous, and that your game is going well. Definitely let us know.

[mdelpin]

To Kill A Dragon - Chapter 3

Previously: Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Next: Ch 4

Chapter 3: The Red Dragon Pt 1

Natsu entered the Fairy Tail guild hall early in the morning. He was in good spirits, the team had just returned from a successful mission, earning enough jewel to allow them to rest for a few days. He was in the mood for a fight.

He looked around for either Gray or Gajeel, but neither of them had arrived yet. It was just as well, his stomach had started rumbling so he decided he might as well eat while he waited. He got Mira's attention and ordered some breakfast.

Natsu wandered over to the table where Lucy was sitting with Levy and sat down to wait for his food. They were talking about Lucy's novel again, and though he tried to join in the conversation, Natsu soon found himself losing interest. He couldn't be bothered with complicated plots about romance, he much preferred action and adventure. He slumped down on the table, bored out of his mind and wondered where Gray could be.

"What's the matter, Natsu?" Lucy asked, unused to seeing him sit quietly.

"I'm bored," He whined, "When's Gray gonna get here?"

"You're looking for Gray?" Lucy asked in disbelief. Considering how often the two of them were at each other's throats she'd think Gray was the last person he'd be waiting for.

"Well yeah," Natsu replied absently, his mind already full of the fight he was eagerly anticipating. "There's a couple of moves I want to try on him."

He'd been working on one move in particular for weeks now which combined with his magic should wipe the smirk off Gray's arrogant face. The last time they'd fought, Erza had interrupted before he'd had a chance to use it, but she wasn't here now. He grinned, anticipating his victory.

Both girls stared at him in surprise before bursting into giggles.

"What's so funny?" Natsu glanced at them, his eyes narrowing in confusion.

"Natsu's going to put the moooooooves on Gray!" An excited Happy exclaimed, "He liiiiiikes him!"

Natsu knew better than to give any importance to Happy's teasing, all it would do was encourage his Exceed, so he pretended not to hear him and glanced towards the kitchen instead as his stomach gave another loud rumble.

Happy quickly lost interest in the conversation when Natsu didn't react to his teasing and made his way back to Carla.

Lucy and Levy laughed even harder. Mira finally brought his food to the table, and he ignored the two girls in favor of eating his breakfast. He shrugged to himself.

Girls are weird. What's so funny about wanting to fight Gray?

Gray and Gajeel had yet to arrive by the time he'd finished eating. Now that he had even more energy, there was no way he could sit still for much longer. Natsu tried to think of other options. He considered going fishing, but one look at Happy's infatuated face as he talked to Carla was enough for him to realize he was out of luck.

Since there was nothing for him to do at the guild, Natsu decided to walk around the city, there was bound to be something exciting going on.

It was then Natsu remembered Romeo mentioning he was taking magic lessons from Totomaru. With no other plan in mind, he decided to seek him out. It was always fun to fight against another fire mage, and Totomaru's flames were more interesting than most. He headed out in the direction of Totomaru's school, conveniently ignoring that the Rainbow Mage hated his guts.

xxx

Tiamat couldn't believe her luck, the dragon slayer was finally alone. She seized the opportunity, swiftly walking into a dark alley and transforming into a perfect replica of Erza Scarlet.

She was confident she could get what she wanted quickly, after all, it had taken almost no effort to seduce the White Dragon Slayer. Even though it was risky to approach Natsu in broad daylight, she felt they were far enough away from the guild hall for it to be a problem.

She approached her target with confidence, already looking forward to the pleasure she was sure to experience before absorbing his magic.

Natsu felt a hand touch his shoulder roughly and tensed, ready for a fight. He turned to look at his would-be opponent and relaxed when he saw it was only Erza, wearing her usual Heart Kreuz armor.

"Oh, hey Erza. What do you want?" Natsu ran his hand through his hair awkwardly. As much as he admired his older sister figure, he didn't always know how to talk to her without others around.

"You," Erza spoke in a tone of voice Natsu had never heard before. It was oddly throaty, making him wonder if maybe she wasn't feeling well.

"I'm so hungry," Erza stared at him intently, as though he were the only thing on the menu.

"Oh," Natsu smiled at her in understanding. Well, that explained it, Mavis knew he could act oddly when he was hungry. He checked his pockets, relieved when he found some jewels. "Come on, I can help you with that."

The dragon slayer grabbed her by the arm and started leading her away.

"You can?" Tiamat licked her lips in anticipation, "I know a place nearby we can go to."

She was thrilled, she'd known this would be easy. She ogled the dragon slayer's body shamelessly, as Natsu dragged her along with him, already thinking of some of the things she planned to do to it.

"No need to wait, there's a place right here!" Natsu smiled at her happily, utterly unaware of her intentions. He led her inside a building and walked up to the counter.

"Can I have a large piece of strawberry cake for my friend?" Natsu ordered for Erza, eagerly paying for her dessert, something he was seldom able to do since he was almost always broke. A dragon slayer's appetite was not cheap.

Tiamat could only stare at him in bewilderment. Why the hell is the fool buying me cake, doesn't he get that I'm trying to seduce him?

They sat down at a table in the busy bakery, and she ate her cake, watching him warily as they sat in uncomfortable silence.

"Feeling better?" Natsu asked her once she'd finished eating.

She nodded at him slowly.

"Well then, it was nice bumping into you. I'll see you later," Natsu got up, waved and left the bakery. Tiamat ran after him.

"Wait!" She exclaimed, hurrying to catch up to her prey. Natsu stopped and looked at her expectantly. She led him to a nearby alley.

"I want you," She told him, placing emphasis on you and once again trying to insinuate her intentions with her voice.

"What do you want me for?" Natsu couldn't for the life of him figure out what the hell was up with Erza, but he was growing weary of it. "Are we going on a job or something?"

Tiamat peered at him with no understanding as to why her plan wasn't working. What was wrong with this guy? Clearly, it was time to change her approach, maybe the girl's usual violence would be the answer. She punched him in the jaw and waited for him to react.

"Hey, what the hell?" Natsu complained, "What's wrong with you?"

"Aren't you going to hit me back?" she asked, perplexed when Natsu didn't immediately retaliate. This wasn't going at all the way she'd expected.

"Why would I?"

Tiamat punched him again, this time harder.

"Seriously Erza, quit it," Natsu snapped, getting fed up with Erza's strange antics, "You're starting to piss me off."

This was clearly not working, Tiamat bit her lip in frustration and decided to change tactics once again. The dragon slayer seemed a bit dense, perhaps she needed to be bolder to get him to understand what she wanted.

She started to move her hand slowly up his right arm, squeezing his bulging bicep and tracing his guild mark with her fingers. She moved her body close enough to touch his.

"Don't you want to show me how strong you are?" She whispered in his ear in that same husky voice.

Natsu raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Unknown to them, Gray had noticed Natsu leaving the guild just as he was arriving and had decided to follow him. He was in the mood for a brawl, and he could see from the way Natsu was walking that the fire mage had a lot of excess energy.

Gray was anticipating a good fight when he noticed Erza walk up to Natsu. He was a little disappointed. This probably meant they wouldn't get their brawl, but maybe they were going on a job instead.

He hurried to catch up to his friends but lost them in the crowd. He finally spotted them leaving a bakery, and when he witnessed Erza feeling up Natsu's arm muscles and practically throwing herself at his friend he rubbed his eyes to make sure he didn't imagine it.

'What the hell?' Gray thought as the circumstances in front of him remained the same.

Nothing was making sense, so Gray decided to hold back and watch for a bit longer, ignoring the ache he felt as he watched what was transpiring between his two friends.

Tiamat snuck one of her hands inside Natsu's black waistcoat and started running her fingers over his bare chest suggestively while tracing the bulge in his pants with the other.

"You know," She purred as she squeezed the bulge in his pants lightly, "I could make you feel incredible, why don't we go somewhere more private and I'll show you."

Natsu grabbed both of her hands in his and held them away from his body. "Okay, that's enough. I don't know what's gotten into you, but this is seriously weirding me out," Natsu declared, brow furrowed in concern.

"Let's get you back to the guild, you're not acting like yourself."

Gray was following all this, his mouth gaped open in utter disbelief. What the hell was Erza doing? Did Erza like Natsu? Even if she did, this wasn't like her at all. A voice behind him made him startle.

"What are you doing standing there like that?" Erza asked him curiously.

"I'm watching Erza try to get into Natsu's pants," Gray muttered absently. "I can't decide what's stranger, her coming on to him, or him not being interested."

He was so perplexed by the whole situation happening in front of him, he couldn't be bothered to even notice who he was talking to.

"WHAT?! That's impossible!" Erza screeched indignantly. Her face had turned a bright red and in no time at all she had requipped, one sword in each hand.

"Erza?" Gray immediately recognized Erza's distressed voice and turned to look at her.

"How can you be here?" Gray turned back to the scene so quickly he almost gave himself whiplash as he desperately tried to make sense of the situation.

"Where are they?" Erza yelled, eyes darting around the area as she searched for what Gray had seen.

Gray pointed to where Natsu had been only moments before, but he was no longer there. Erza and Gray ran to the alley, but neither could find any sign of Natsu or Erza's doppelganger.

"Tell me everything you saw," Erza demanded as they rushed back to the guild.

xxx

Natsu looked around, hoping to spot someone that could help him get Erza back to the guild while she was in this state. Finding no one, he started moving them in the direction of the guild, dragging her behind him.

Natsu was worried about his friend, he knew she'd never act like this towards him. Erza had always been more like a sister to him.

He was also furious. Someone had done this to Erza, and once he'd gotten her to safety, he intended to find out who and make them pay.

Tiamat struggled to free herself from the dragon slayer's firm grip. She was furious but even more humiliated. Tiamat wasn't used to being refused.

The dragon slayer's reactions confused her, he wasn't acting as a red dragon would, and this left her in a definite quandary. Nothing had gone according to her plan, and she was at a loss as to how to get at his magic, given the constraints inherent in the transfer.

Why was it always the damn red dragons that gave her trouble?

Tiamat thought with irritation as she focused on Natsu in a last ditch effort to figure out how she could salvage this situation. That's when she felt it, there was another presence inside of the dragon slayer.

It reminded her of what she'd sensed inside of the White Dragon Slayer. Tiamat focused on that presence, realizing it felt familiar. She cackled evilly, not quite believing her luck.

Igneel. Fucking Igneel was inside of the Fire Dragon Slayer.

Almost giddy with delight, Tiamat disregarded her original plan of taking the dragon slayer's magic and letting him go as she'd done with the Sabertooth Master. She was being given a chance to exact her revenge on the so-called Dragon King for all his transgressions, and she was not about to waste it.

With her White Dragon magic, she formed small lances of light that shot out through her eyes. She carefully aimed them at Natsu's skull rendering him unconscious, quietly and painlessly.

'Your pain will come later,' Tiamat thought with malice.

Natsu's world faded to black, and he collapsed.

xxx

Erza and Gray called out to Natsu as they ran back to the guild, but there was no response from the dragon slayer. They slammed through the doors of the guild hall, forcing them open as they ran inside. The guild watched in silence as everyone took notice of the pair's troubled expressions.

"Has anyone seen Natsu?" Erza yelled urgently, placing her hands on her knees as she caught her breath from the run.

"He was here for breakfast earlier," Lucy responded, immediately concerned, as she noticed the obvious distress on her teammates' expressions. "What's wrong?"

"Master!" Erza called out, ignoring Lucy for the moment.

"Gray, go check outside. Happy fly home and see if he's there. Max Speed!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy knew better than to ask questions, he immediately flew out of the guild and headed home, going as fast as his magic would allow.

Gray nodded and ran outside, followed by Lisanna who kept watching his face, as if she could figure out what was wrong just by looking at him.

"Gray, what is going on?" Lisanna entreated after a few moments of silence, "Is Natsu okay?"

Gray ignored her questions in favor of searching all around the guild building, it's not like he really had any answers to give anyway. He had no idea what was going on, and his search came up empty, just as he'd expected.

Lisanna continued to look at him with her big earnest blue eyes, obviously wanting to do something to help and it gave him an idea.

"Lisanna, can you fly around the town and see if you can spot him?"

Lisanna nodded, she was worried, but she would save her questions for later. She changed into her Animal Soul: Wings takeover and flew away in search of Natsu.

Gray went back inside, meeting Erza's eyes and shaking his head. They were both baffled as to how they could have lost the fire mage when he'd been so close.

"I asked Lisanna to fly around Magnolia."

"Good thinking, Gray." Erza praised the ice mage, but her voice lacked any enthusiasm.

Happy returned at that moment. They looked at him expectantly, but he shook his head.

Makarov finally came out of his office, drawn by the uproar that seemed different from the general rowdiness of the guild. "What's all the commotion about?"

"We think Natsu has been taken," Erza announced, finally giving voice to her and Gray's biggest fear. "I'm sorry Master, we lost him."

"What happened?" Makarov demanded, Natsu was not exactly the easiest person to get a drop on, none of the dragon slayers were.

Gray recounted what he had seen, much to everyone's amusement and Erza's embarrassment.

"I lost sight of him for a moment when Erza showed up, and then they were gone," Gray finished, he still couldn't get those images out of his head. The woman had been a perfect replica of Erza, good enough to fool even a dragon slayer's enhanced senses.

"There are a lot of hotels in that area, maybe they just checked into one," Makarov suggested evenly. It sounded unlikely, based on what Gray had recounted but they should investigate every possibility and time was of the essence.

"Gramps, I'm telling you, he wasn't interested. I heard him tell her he was bringing her back here," Gray pointed out stubbornly.

"Wendy, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but Laxus and Gajeel aren't here. Do you think you can track Natsu?" Makarov asked, "At least that way we can rule out the hotel angle. Gray and Lucy will go with you."

"Hai! I'll do my best, Master, " Wendy agreed nervously.

"Take communication lacrimas with you and keep me up to date," Makarov ordered as he tried to think of what else they could do.

Wendy, Gray, and Lucy hurried out of the guild, communication lacrimas in hand.

The guild was quiet and tense. Everyone waited for the search parties to return. After some hours had passed everyone returned to the guild. Lisanna had seen no trace of Natsu anywhere in Magnolia. Wendy and the others hadn't been able to pick up his scent past where Gray had last seen him.

Natsu had simply disappeared.

It was official, their beloved dragon slayer had been taken. Makarov went to his office to call Sabertooth.

xxx

Tiamat had changed back to her regular appearance after Natsu lost consciousness. She was quickly joined by a cloaked member of the Penta Dragons who teleported them back to Margaret Town. He was pretty sure that taking the dragon slayer hadn't been part of the plan, but he wasn't about to argue with the deity. He placed Natsu inside of a magic sealing stone, it was the same kind used by the Magic Council to incarcerate mages. Natsu wouldn't be able to use his magic while contained. He hurried to inform his Master of their return.

The Penta Dragon's Master stormed out of his office in search of the Dragon Goddess.

"What were you thinking?" The Master snarled, "This was never part of our plan.

"You need to absorb his magic and return him to his guild," He demanded.

"I will do no such thing," Tiamat replied haughtily, "I have my own plans for the Fire Dragon Slayer."

"We can't risk the wrath of the Fairy Tail Guild just because you want to keep a pet."

"Pet? Oh, no, nothing like that." Tiamat laughed, and the sound sent shivers of fear down the Penta Dragon's Master's back.

"Don't worry, they have no way to connect me to you," She told him, in an attempt to alleviate the man's fear.

The Master wasn't convinced, he seemed unsettled, and Tiamat allowed him to place her back into her own magic sealing stone. She needed time to plot her revenge properly. She was going to take her time with Natsu, by the time she was through with him, Igneel was going to suffer dearly.

She'd already come to a decision, after she'd absorbed Natsu's magic she would no longer need her "caretakers". She would burn everything to the ground and go forth on her own. This world would soon be hers.

A/N: Ok so this is the first big difference, I cringe at how much work this chapter needed. All action is the same, it should just flow smoother and there is a bit more description. About 909 words were added, I hope you enjoy the changes.