#they’re undead but in a different way as an experiment by a necromancer who wanted to see if they could make corpses that were unable to

[commanderfloppy]

Oughh when you get the idea for a character but you want them to work into lore but your brain broke and the wiki isn’t enough

[tmae3114]

[singsong] I’ve got another AU to tell you guys about~

I’ve been alternating between calling this one the No Mist AU and the Kids From Krieger AU (based on my headcanon that “von Krieger” is a toponymic surname) and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it!

Basically, somewhere out there in the multiverse, there’s a timeline where a young Artix didn’t forget all basic advice about helping people who have fallen into rivers and he grabbed a tree branch to help pull Vayle out of the water. They both got home safely that afternoon and, without the misadventure of getting swept downriver and subsequently encountering the Darkness Orb, proceeded to not obtain the extremely tragic backstory of their entire village being destroyed in the night. They still live there, in fact!

However. Neither of these kids were ever going to grow up to be Perfectly Average Doomwood Citizens. It just wasn’t going to happen. So instead Doomwood have a couple of childhood friends running around being home-grown heroes!

Vayle found her way to necromancy on her own terms and is entirely self-taught. In a similar vein to post-Darkness Orb Saga canon Vayle, her focus is on helping the various undead roaming Doomwood, not enforcing her will on them. This has lead to more than a few clashes with inhabitants of the Necropolis when they run across each other. She is very tempted to try and track down the front door to that place so she can go yell at the Necro U faculty about what they’re teaching

And Artix... well, he found his way to that power that the Darkness Orb would have sensed in him, had things gone differently. He’s a very powerful darkness mage (Vayle has been trying and failing to get “nyctomancer” to stick for years) and his main focus with that power is keeping it under control. He is interested in the ideas Vayle’s suggested for ways to use darkness magic that aren’t necromantic and they experiment with things every so often but mostly he wants to just be able to not do things he didn’t mean to (there may or may not be a chest of accidentally created doom weapons buried somewhere in Doomwood. if there is, Vayle’s been sworn to secrecy on the matter for years)

Design notes:

Artix doesn’t have armour in this AU for the simple reason of He Can’t Afford It Yet. He’s saving up!

Vayle can indulge her much more dramatic fashion sense because [gestures at Kid Artix & Kid Vayle’s canon outfits] these two are obviously from different financial backgrounds

That said they both very much did scavenge those weapons from undead in the woods. Vayle’s using a Shake Spear’s spear. I have no idea what Artix got the sword from

Vayle has neither wings nor pointy ears because she never encountered the Darkness Orb. She does have those fancy red tattoos because as far as I can tell those are neither a Darkness Orb thing or a Noxus-trained-Necromancer thing, so I figure they’re just An Aesthetic Choice and thus this Vayle could go for them as well

I spent ages going back and forth on whether I wanted to give Artix fingerless gloves or bracers and then went “wait I can just do both and go asymmetrical”

I gave Artix thigh-high boots. You’re welcome.

[brawltogethernow]

Have you read Phil Jimenez’ Tempest miniseries from the mid 90s? If so, what are your thoughts?

No, but it’s four issues long. Gimme a minute.

Okay, I’m back. That was VERY stupid (compliment). Absolute camp nonsense. Unfortunately it's also kind of bad?

Obviously these aren’t finely aged takes. Plus I have picked up exactly one (1) back issue of Aquafam content prior to this in my life, usually absorbing them exclusively through team titles, and lack of preexisting attachment to the lore here definitely doesn’t do it any favors.

Okay, so. In this title, AQUALAD (Garth), who is already not going by that at this point, has decided it’s time to STAB HIMSELF IN THE CHEST WITH A MAGIC KNIFE to absorb some kind of ANCESTRAL ELEMENTAL POWERS so he can finally update his name and outfit like every single other og Titan did in the eighties. You grow up slow when you’re not very popular! Complicating the planned KNIFE RITUAL, AQUAGIRL (Tula) has SPONTANEOUSLY COME BACK FROM THE DEAD and REFUSES TO ANSWER LITERALLY ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS. This coincides exactly with Garth’s MENTOR GUY who looks like HE-MAN WISHES HE DID being kidnapped, also Tula immediately begins picking fights with Garth’s only other ally present, an EDGY SHARK MERMAID who is trying to enemies-to-lovers route their relationship and doesn’t appreciate being cuntblocked by a rude corpse. Garth decides to COMPLETELY IGNORE this BULK ORDER OF RED FLAGS because of love, which done well could be touching and tragic but in practice makes him look like a moron. He tells his SHARK GIRLFRIEND to gtfo for saying his DEAD GIRLFRIEND is going to fuck up the KNIFE MAGIC, allowing her to FUCK UP THE KNIFE MAGIC IMMEDIATELY. She’s revealed to be a pawn of Garth’s UNCLE, who is a NECROMANCER TRAPPED IN ANOTHER DIMENSION. So NECRUNCLE escapes and uses their (*communist Bugs Bunny meme*) ancestral mojo to summon a SOGGY UNDEAD ARMY. Garth is rescued by his community he thought were all dead but were actually just avoiding him. They reveal that they knew if he tried to claim his family magic his uncle would escape, so they tried to leave him for dead as a baby, and when they found out that hadn’t worked they decided to lie to him instead of telling him not to stab himself with a magic knife, also the knife was just an unnecessary bit of danger they added to the ritual at the last minute for fun. Did they mention they’re pacifists? Except for when they executed Garth’s dad for trying to fight off his necromancer brother, because they felt that was kind of over the line. They’ve been hiding out in a bunker full of COMICALLY NORMAL-LOOKING ANTI-ZOMBIE GUNS, which Garth takes to go fight his UNCLE and his DEAD GIRLFRIEND and his DEAD PET WALRUS, but he still needs to be rescued by SHARK GIRLFRIEND and her family, who she went to get instead of leaving Garth to die of his own dumbassery which he tbh deserved. So Garth yeets his uncle back into the PHANTOM ZONE BUT WET and levels up his magical abilities an unclear amount, the end.

Every single character is as dumb as a plank and deeply unsympathetic, except Letifos (edgy shark) and Atlan (He-mentor), who can get away with acting mostly normal because they are forcibly removed from the bulk of the plot. Every single thing that happens including all of the backstory could be avoided if the cast weren’t completely stocked with dumb jerks.

Great color palette choices, slightly tortured digital coloring on the version online. Nice underwater art that never forgot everything was underwater or succumbed to the urge to just put everyone in a blue void. My inner four-year-old, who is on some level still sitting at the bottom of a pool trying to manifest an uncanny lung capacity and a magical fish companion, was really vibing with it. This is approximately the age I was the last time I interacted with underwater civilization content, but it turns out I still appreciate it as an aesthetic, and this mini nails it.

It was actually slightly too good at remembering literally everything was underwater, in the sense that I had trouble turning my brain off about the logistics and kept pausing to go, “Underwater...blanket...? Why...? How does that...” I am very ready to allow the ocean zombies, however, for cool factor reasons. Although skeletons are also cool and don’t raise questions about underwater mummification.

This was my introduction to the fact that in post-Crisis DC Neptune and Poseidon are two separate dudes, one of whom is blue and has a bubble beard and one of whom is a bald white merman. And they hate each other? Alright! Okay, okay. Like did DC accidentally establish both and they just decided to roll with it?

Now, you know I love me some undead women.👍 Unfortunately Tula’s agency and interiority are lower than zero, just steeply in the negatives.👎👎👎 Tula is Charlie Brown and agency in this plot is the football. Jimenez’s entire approach to women in this gives him an extremely punchable vibe. I would not go to a bar with this man. He remembers the girls have super strength (and doesn’t keep the violence completly divvied up by gender), at least, but doesn’t seem aware that they’re people, which is unsettling. You could have turned around a LOT with like, a single scene from Tula’s POV after it’s established that she’s been bespelled to experience a completely different set of events from reality so that by the end she’s experiencing her ally losing it and attacking her, or just by working harder to convey that experience through her reactions. But lol no it’s fine that she’s basically a hand puppet, because what matters is the lead’s reaction to her! Jail. Go to jail. Also as it stands I’m confused about how her deal shook out to be that she was both not actually Tula and being mind controlled, and also her real experience of love for Garth was critical to the villain’s plan? Explainy-looking words happened but the zombie logistics absolutely went unexplained in spite of them. While we’re at it, why did Letifos come back for a big damn heroes scene at the end. Devoting a thought bubble to addressing this turn around wouldn’t have even had to break the binding contract that seems to be in place forbidding any lines from her not directly about Garth.

Right, the villain. Great design, very gross. I do kind of want to boil him and then try to crack him open and eat him like a crab. Love that Garth lampshades that Slizzath is a ridiculous evil name by saying he can’t pronounce it, right next to the reveal that Slizzath is his uncle. It doesn’t seem like he took that on as his necromancer title or anything. Garth’s grandparents just named their kids Thar and Slizzath. Really, the way that his face is a skull now is their fault.

I was surprised to see that the contentious dick towers from the Little Mermaid VHS cover have taken refuge in this version of Atlantis.

I feel like I should segue from there into something about Garth’s shrinkwrapped costume’s gratuitously pronounced crotch bulge, but like, I don’t know. Whatever. We’re just uncomfortably up close and personal with absolutely everybody’s anatomy consistently, it’s whatever.

So yeah, that was not good. I enjoyed it. I would punch Phil Jimenez in the mouth without hesitation.

[thebmatt]

FFXIV Write 2021 Prompt #17: Destruct

Destruct – cause deliberate, irreparable damage to

It was maintenance day.

Once every week, Franks had to break down all of the equipment he used as part of the Machinistry discipline and scrub it free of any grime, dirt, and other accumulated filth. Much of it had to be re-lubricated following this process.

It was a time consuming job, but he rather enjoyed it. By now he could do all the tasks while practically asleep, so he let his mind wander. It was nice just to have time to think, ponder everything going on, without much risk of disturbance.

He’d closed the door to his workshop in the Rising Stones, which most of the other Scions knew not to disturb him without important cause.

Which is why it was passing strange that someone chose to knock on said door, even more so when the voice of Y’shtola Rhul came from the other side. “Franks? Are you pressingly engaged at the moment?”

“Just doing maintenance, Y’shtola. Is everything well?”

“Yes…I just needed to speak with you in private, and I thought your workshop might serve as the best setting. Might I enter?”

Franks set his re-assembled automatic crossbow down, wiped his hands clean with a spare rag, and called back “It’s not locked, come on in.”

Y’shtola entered. pausing to close the door as she did. She turned towards him, but curiously, could not seem to bring herself to meet his eyes.

“Y’shtola? What’s wrong?”

She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath, then slowly releasing. She finally met his eyes when she opened hers again. “I have a problem. It is….personal. Understand, I would not ask for your aid with this had I not exhausted all possible options first.”

Franks furrowed his brow. Something was off in her voice. Was…was that a hint of fear? “I….don’t understand, Y’shtola. What makes you think I’m the one who can help you?”

“It…has always been my life’s ambition to uncover the mysteries that lie on this star. But now I face a mystery of a…closer nature, and I can neither put it aside nor solve it on my own.” she replied, crossing her arms.

“So what might this mystery be?”

Y’shtola looked away. “It is you.”

Shock overcame his face. “Me?”

“Yes, you!” she said, whirling on him. “You have never been entirely forthcoming about your past, and many things that you have let slip are not adding up! You are hiding something, and until now, I have been content to let your past be merely that, but I….I cannot any longer.”

Franks cocked a single eyebrow. “And why’s that?”

She wrapped her arms around herself, unable to take her eyes off the ground. “Because I….I find myself drawn to you. And I cannot answer honestly to myself if it is because I am attracted to you…or if it is a compulsion to solve a puzzle that lies before me.”

She looks up, a frown on her face. “It would be fair to neither of us for me to act on an assumption either way, and so I must beg for your assistance, my friend. Tell me the full story of where you come from, of what roads led you to this point of your story.”

Franks stood, glaring down at her sternly. “And what if neither option is all right with me, Y’shtola? What if I both don’t want to tell you my history AND don’t return your ‘possible’ affections?”

She hugged herself. “Then I will accept your wishes and…and find a way to move on, if that is what you would prefer.”

He nodded and sat back down on the work table. “All right. Just wonderin’. Come on, sit down. I’ll tell ya everything, but it’s a long story. “

“You…you will?” She sat on the bench as well.

“Yeah, figured you’d want to know at some point. Like you said, you’re not one to leave a mystery unsolved, so I figured you’d be the first one of the Scions to come askin’. “

He looked over at her. “And I’ll be honest, recent events have had me wondering about decisions I’ve made up to this point. I know….I know my late wife wouldn’t want me mournin’ her forever. And….well, there’s more than a few women I’ve met that I could see maybe getting to know better, if they’d be interested. You included, if that’s not obvious.”

She smiled at him.

“But that’s gettin’ ahead of m’self. You wanna know the tale of the Old Man, so here it goes. Before we do start though, I just wanna make something clear: no one except the other Warriors knows this stuff. I told em all a long time ago, when we were recuperatin’ after Rhalgr’s Reach. I’ll ask you the same thing I ask them: keep this to yourself. I do not want this becoming widespread knowledge. You agree to that?”

She simply nodded.

“All right then. Where to begin…” he paused.

“Well, I suppose I should start with one of the big revelations. I’m not from this world. And before you ask, no, I don’t think I come from one of the remaining shards either. When we first heard about them, I wondered if that was the case, but based on our experiences on the First, I don’t think that’s the case.”

He points a finger to her. “Now, I know what you’re gonna say about ‘drawing a conclusion based on a single point of data’ but you gotta admit it’s a pretty good size of one, so I figured it was worth rethinking my hypothesis. Norvrandt, on the whole, bears a very strong resemblance geographically speaking to Eorzea. There’s very similar biomes in the same locations. And while the locations of civilizations and even the names of the species might be different, if one was to bring a Mithra to the Source, it wouldn’t be immediately obvious to anyone. He’d look like any other Miqo’te to most folks. And what’s more, from the two survivors of the Thirteenth I’ve been able to talk to, it seems that their home was much the same, at least as far as they remember.”

“My world….was nothin’ like the Source. None of the continents ever looked anything like this place, and the people, well, there’s a lot of different kinds, none of which look anything like folks here. Sure, we had folks that called themselves ‘elves’ or ‘dwarves’ but if you put an elf of my world next to say…Urianger or Alphinaud, it’d be pretty obvious they’re not the same kind of folk.”

“So, based on all that, I figured that my home’s got to be a completely different world. And that world has been embroiled in a large scale war of some kind for as long as I can remember”

He holds up two fingers. “There’s these two factions, divided along racial lines. What races are a part of said faction has changed a bit over time, but the point is, they’ve been at war for as long as I could remember. Ain’t either one of em somethin’ simple as ‘good’ or ‘evil’, they both have good and bad sides to ’em, but for whatever reason, they can’t ever come to a long standing peace. Fighting might break off for a time, but it’s never long before it starts up again in earnest.”

Franks places the tips of his fingers together, looking down at them. “My wife and I….we had a farm in one of the northern kingdoms. My people were called ‘humans’. Pretty similar to Hyurs here, for the most part. Our farm was pretty far out from any of our nation’s cities, so we were always far away from any of the fighting. We always heard news about it though. Cities that fell or got retaken, reports of casualties, that kinda thing.”

“We, ah….we decided we couldn’t bring children into that kind of a world. Our neighbors were always proud of their sons and daughters that shipped off, but we witnessed a lot of sorrow, of hopes for the future get destroyed when someone came to tell em their children had died. We couldn’t do that to someone we brought into this world and raised. It seemed…cruel.”

He let his hands fall to his lap as he looked back over to her. “Anyway, we worked that farm for decades. We were in our….must’ve been somewhere in the seventy summers range when everything changed. “

Y’shtola raised a finger to interrupt. “And here we come to my first problem, there is no way you’ve seen seventy summers! Your white hair aside, your physical condition is nowhere close to the state of a man of that advanced age! Or did these ‘humans’ age more slowly?”

Franks smiled, his head shaking. “No, the lifespans are comparable. And I know, it’s nothin’ I ain’t heard before from Rheika. I promise, I’ll get to that. Just trust me”

She smiled slyly “Very well. Please, continue.”

“Anyway, that year, a plague hit our kingdom. No one knew much of anything about it, but it seemed innocuous enough at first. People would get sick, most would recover, some died. Everyone figured it was like any other disease, until it got more deadly. And then the dead…they started walking again. Mindless, slavering beasts that killed anything they could reach until they were put down. Soon it got out of control, and they were rampaging across the land. The army put up a good fight, lead by the King’s Son, a holy warrior. But he grew…desperate. He did terrible things to stop the spread. Purged entire cities of people. Finally, he uncovered evidence that a necromancer had concocted the plague, and that his hidden lair was far away in the northern ice-covered continent. He led a force there to end him for good.”

“He…didn’t make it back. Or, he did, but not as he was. He came back as that being’s servant. He murdered his own father and commanded the full force of the undead to lay waste to the kingdom.”

Franks closed his eyes, covering his lower jaw with his hands. “It wasn’t long before they made their way to our farm. We….were slaughtered. And like everyone else they killed, our corpses joined their army.”

Y’shtola inhaled sharply. “You….you died?“

He nodded

“I….Twelve, I cannot…I’m so sorry, Franks.”

He laughed ruefully. “Well, if you can believe it, things get worse from there.”

“How??”

“Well, I can thankfully say that I remember absolutely none of the time that I was a walking corpse in service to the traitor prince and his necromancer master. One moment I’m trying to fend off an attacking zombie that opens up my throat….and the next I find myself in the middle of a ruined battlefield, but I’m still a walking corpse. My mind, however, is….mostly intact. I think it was, anyway. Impossible to tell really. Anyway, I’m surrounded now by a whole bunch of other people in the same situation. Folks who were once living humans, citizens of our kingdom, and now we’re all dead.”

“Turns out the traitor prince had attacked another nation, one that had something his master needed, and he’d killed one of their generals and raised her in his service. Somehow, she’d gotten free of his control though, and with a few allies she’d managed to free, she’d attacked the price and driven him back north. As he got further away, his hold over us weakened, and now we’re free. The general announced her intention to build a new nation of us ‘undead’, as no other race in the world would ever accept us. We were cursed, plagued. Most people swore fealty to her then and there, and it wasn’t long before we’d taken the ruins of our former kingdom and built a nation for what she called “those forsaken by all others for the crimes done to them”.

Franks stopped talking for a moment, standing to get some water from a nearby cup. His voice had become a bit raspy, but it still took him a bit to continue the tale.

“I….never found my wife during this time. Our farm was gone, the land blighted and unrecoverable. Our new queen had more farmers than viable land, so I had nothing. I….well, despite being dead, we still somehow required food, so I resorted to begging for work. It was…rough for a long time, sleeping in what corners I could find, scrounging for scraps or whatever rats I could catch.”

“I don’t know exactly how long I lived like this, but eventually, my luck changed. Another undead took me on as an apprentice. He practiced a form of magic that weaponized the forces of chaos, entropy, decay, and destruction. He promised me much power and prestige if I was to learn from him. I…I knew in life that this magic was vile, punishable by execution if one was found practicing it, but our queen placed no such restrictions on us. And I was…tired of living like I had been. So I accepted. And I got very strong in that magic, indeed.”

“Our queen eventually allied us with one of the two factions I mentioned earlier. We needed allies to survive as a people, and while our new allies were disgusted by us, they recognized that we were strong additions, and our home was in a strategically sound area, so they accepted us. And so I became embroiled in that neverending cycle of warfare. We’d declare a truce for a time to focus on some greater external threat neither side could defeat alone, but then once that was over? Back to killing each other.”

He chuckled a little. “It wasn’t ALL bad, at least. I made friends and allies, both within our faction and on the other side. We all worked together, in secret, to try to bring a final end to the race war. Wasn’t exactly an easy thing, as you can imagine. I even found my wife again, but she was herself a walking dead woman. I didn’t care though, I still loved her every bit as much as I always had. She’d actually become a powerful mage herself, though she practiced the more traditional arcane magics.

He smiled, staring up into the ceiling. “She always was a smart one. Smarter than I ever was back then. Sometimes I wonder what might’ve been if she hadn’t married a farmer and gone to one of the mage schools instead. Never once told me she ever regretted it though.”

Franks shook himself our of his reverie and looked back to Y’shtola, who was still paying close attention. “Anway, like I said, we both were workin in secret with our friends to try to stop this fighting. And we thought we had pulled it off. Our group encompassed some of the strongest warriors and spellcasters in the world, and we either joined or built orders of like minded people that were designed to rise above the faction conflict and combat the greatest threat our world had seen to that point, a vast and endless legion of beings similar to what we’d call voidsent. And we succeeded. We actually defeated a force many believed unbeatable once they’d begun their invasion in earnest.”

He slumped. “And then it all fell apart”

Y’shtola looked shocked. “How so?”

“The people who’d pledged their loyalty to us first and foremost, a vast majority of them abandoned their respective orders to return to their original factions. As if everyone in the world just acknowledged the conflict was a natural way of life. Our Queen actually gained total control of our faction, and began purging those she referred to as ‘traitors’ from our ranks. Somewhere along the way, she’d gone from being our savior from thralldom to the traitor prince to being just as controlling and insane as he’d ever been.”

Franks paused, Sorrow overtook his features. “I….found out that my wife had been one of the victims of her inquisition. We had feigned allegiance to her when she came to power, but somehow she found out that we’d been part of the rise of the orders, and I was going to be next.”

“I paused only to bid my friends farewell, and then I fled, deep into the jungles of the southernmost reaches of the continent. It was a primal place, mostly untouched by civilization, and I eventually found a well hidden cave there.”

I went as deep inside as I could, wanting to explore what was likely my new home, when I stumbled and fell towards a wall….and then through it.”

“I….saw things. Things I couldn’t explain then, and can’t remember now, but eventually I passed out. And when I came to, I woke in another gave, but overwhelmed by my senses. This new place was inside a cliff face where the tide constantly dashed against it. The sound was one of the loudest things I’d ever heard. The sunlight breaching the cave was blinding. And no matter where I turned or how much I covered my ears, I could not escape a constant whooshing sound. My body ached from lying on the rocks. I hadn’t felt anything like that in years.”

“It was because you were alive again. The sound you couldn’t escape was your own breathing, wasn’t it?”

He smiled. “And the lady wins a prize. Yes, I was alive again. And much as you see me right now. That cave is a grotto on the northwestern end of Vylbrand. I spent bells in that cave, weeping with joy at the sensation of having a body back, one that seemed to be at my old physical prime. I looked mostly like my living self, but with features adjusted, more like hyurs of this star.”

“But once that overwhelming feeling of joy passed, I noticed that I no longer had any inkling of how to wield my old destructive magic that I’d become a great master of. Instead it was replaced with knowledge and concepts at the same time unfamiliar to me, yet at the same time I knew I comprehended it on some level. That was what got me to leave the cave and explore this new land I’d found.”

Franks raised a hand, waving it in a circular motion. “And the rest, you know. I spent time in libraries, learning the name of the magic in my head, arcanima. I then learned of Limsa Lominsa and it’s Arcanist’s Guild and went there to study. I might have enrolled in one of their formal degree programs, but I had no paperwork for my identity or previous schooling, as you might have guessed, so the less stringent requirements on the Adventurer’s track was my only option. From there, I started my career as an adventurer, which brought me here to this day.”

Y’shtola rested her head on her fist, processing his tale. “Were this from anyone else, I’d have spun it as one of Rheika’s tall tales, but….I absolutely believe it, coming from you. Have you ever returned to that grotto to see if the portal is still intact? Have you…ever returned to your world?”

“Yes to the former, although not in some time. As to the latter….no. I can’t step through that portal. I can’t….be a corpse again, Y’shtola. I definitely can’t risk being found by the queen again, or leading her to any of my friends if I were to check on them. Worst case scenario is that I escape through, back to Hydaelyn….and she finds it and comes here. No…no I won’t risk that. And I know you, you’ll want to examine this place for yourself. I want you to swear to me, Y’shtola, give me your word you will not step through there, please!”

She nods. “I give you my word, as an Archon and a Scion, I will not take any risks that will bring further dangers to this world.”

He sighs in relief. “Thank you.” He looks to her, a half teasing smile on his face. “So, now you know my story. Does it clarify anything for you? I’ve lost count, and I haven’t quite managed to work out the differences in years between this world and my old one, but you think you might still be attracted to me knowing I’ve seen probably over a hundred summers at this point?”

Y’shtola smiles. “I…think I will need time to process that, my friend. I will need time to process everything you’ve told me.” She makes her way to the workshop door and opens it, lingering by the door briefly before turning back to look at him. “But in fairness….it does not immediately change how I feel, either.”

He laughs “Well, good night, Y’shtola. Let me know what you find out…on both fronts, aye?”

“I will. Good night, Franks.”

“Aleister.”

She had almost made it past the doorway when he replied to her. She stopped and turned her head back to him. “Pardon?”

“My given name. It’s Aleister. Figured you should know it along with the story. Prefer you stick with ‘Franks’ or ‘Old Man’ in front of others, but I wanted you to know. And if you decide you do want to move forward with….us…..well, I’d like hearing it from ya.”

She smiled again. “Thank you, Aleister. I’ll see you soon, with answers. Good night”. She left the room, closing the door behind him.

Franks stared at the door for a couple of minutes, then chuckled and resumed cleaning his equipment again. It was getting late, after all.

[curechocolattymilk]

TES V OC Thingie

[Got tagged by @jessaryss​ ! ]

Pause your game! Wherever your OC is in their game currently, tell me about their story so far.

✧✧✧ General

Current Level: 56

Name: Jeer-Tei Perdes

Name Meaning: Literally got it from a name generator lol. But lore wise it was a name gifted to them in honor of an Argonian who served beside Tei’s mother during the Great War

Pronouns: They/Them

Age: Early 30s where they are story wise???

Race(s): Argonian

Place of Origin: Hammerfell

Pick A Theme Song For Them: oof that's tough... From a Crowded Wound or maybe even Firstwake? If you really played around w personal interpretation/the lyrics that is haha

✧✧✧ Locations

Where Did You Begin Their Game?: Argonian Assemblage, Windhelm (Alternative Start)

Where Are They Currently In Your Game?: Whiterun

What Are They Doing There?: Just finished attending a party held in their honor (Post Blood of Kings)

Homes?: Breezehome, Proudspire, Lakeview & Autmnwatch

# of Locations Discovered?: 274

Dungeons Cleared: 104

Misc. Quests Completed: 87

Favorite Areas and/or Locations: Falkreath / Lakewview Manor. Both areas are where Tei heads off to in order to collect their thoughts/feel some sense of calm.

✧✧✧ Main Quest

Are They Dragonborn / Do They Know It At This Point?: Yes & yes

How Do They Feel About Being Dragonborn: It's...complicated, being thrust into the role of savior by gods of the Cult, which in turn are followed by the folk who see you lesser than them. Tei already has a dislike towards the Divines, this doesn't really help lol

Main Quests Completed: 21

Where Are They In The Main Story Line: Alduin's dead, currently trying to ignore the Civil War as long as they can before the Empire forces its hand into forcing them to join their ranks

Dragon Souls Absorbed: In total overall? 147. The amount currently stored in Tei? 45

Words of Power Learned: 64

Shouts Mastered: 21

Favorite Shout: Firebreath / Dragonrend

✧✧✧ Combat

Most Used Weapon(s): Daedric war axe OR Dragonbone battle axe. Tei technically has both on them at all times during adventuring, alongside a shield, so which they used depends on the situation/which they grab fastest.

Combat Style: Two/One-handed tank. Main tactic is to rush in, cause as much damage/chaos as possible to shake up the opponent, & clean up what the ranged attackers of the party (usually Rumarin, Inigo and/or Lucien) weren't able to deal with.

Armor Type / Level In It: HEAVY ARMOR BABYYYYY (Level 100 + 35 extra points via enchantments)

# of Training Sessions: 99 in-game, lore wise its a lot of self-teaching/keeping their skills learned from Hammerfell sharp. Some of these are magic but lore-wise this doesn't happen cus Tei is not a magic user, save for shouts. I just did those in-game for exp OR so I can help Lucien raise his magic skills :'D

Who Taught Them?: In-game?? Fuuuck so many npcs. Lore-wise? They learned this from their schooling in Hammerfell, going off the canon-lore that it's p much expected for everyone to have a grasp on combat & weaponry! Though they did learn a few things from Kaidan & Anum-La.

Favorite Enemy Type: Dragons! Despite the fact Tei does not have the best magic resistance, it's one hell of a challenge they love to meet.

Least Favorite Enemy Type: Automatons, because of a bad experience with them as a child. Also Undead, because they were raised not to disturb them & it just feels so wrong having to fight them/go into tombs.

People Killed: 945

Animals Killed: 749 (Hunterborn makes hunting fun lol)

Undead Killed: 766

Automatons Killed: 105

Daedra Killed: 136

✧✧✧ Magic

Favorite School(s): None, actually. Destruction is okay though....they guess

Most Used Spell(s): Firebreath or Dragon Aspect. Tei doesn't consider shouts spells though. It's totally different guys shut up they ain't no smelly mage gods

Spells Learned: 9 in-game, mainly due to the spells you're kinda forced to learn for some quests/the ones you automatically know

Items Enchanted: 19 (Tei technically doesn't enchant, and wont next playthrough for sure I wont give in this time >:[ )

College of Winterhold Quests Completed: 8

Where Are They At In The Questline?: Main quest is done bcus i dont like seeing unfinished quests in my journal lmao. Tei's involvement is completely different from canon though in my take. Moreso was hired as a guard for the expedition & was, unwillingly, dragged into the rest of the mess. Is not offered the Archmage position, that went straight to Tolfdir.

Opinions on Magical Guilds (Arcane University, Winterhold, Psijics, Synod, Radiant Dark, etc.): As they get older, they tolerate the guild & magic users more n more, BUT, Tei grew up in an environment that frowns upon the practice of magic, & it shows. They mainly mistrust necromancers/illusionists & still hold onto that belief that reliance on magic, especially for combat, is a weakness.

Bold words for someone with shit magic resistance.

✧✧✧ Crime

Current Gold: 10,640

How Did They Acquire Their Gold?: Odd jobs, selling a lot of the items they made/harvested from smithing & hunting (jewelers are their go-to hirers bcus Tei is great at getting things like ivory), Dwemer ruin diving (they refuse to loot the tombs), also yknow....being part of the Dark Brotherhood helps

Largest Bounty On Their Head: 11,240

For...?: Unfortunately they did not stand down when they were being falsely accused of murder in Markarth. First time Tei called down dragons (Sahrotaar, specifically, Tei managed to get command of Miraak's dragons post-Dragonborn) to absolutely smite some fools.

Current Bounty: None! They're good at not getting caught/threatening and/or bribing guards. :)

Locks Picked: 15 i think?

Jail Time: 1, Cidhna Mine

Jail Escapes: 1, teamed up w the Forsworn lol

Murders: 28

Assaults: 307....In their defense people keep getting in their way during dragon attacks

Items Stolen: 37, most of them from the nobles of Windhelm

Thieves Guild Quests Completed: N/A (wont be doing this storyline unless i cant find a mod that'll let me get the shouts locked behind it)

Dark Brotherhood Quests Completed: 20

Where Are They At In Those Questlines?: DB is completed main arc wise!

✧✧✧ Relationships

Relationship Status: Married to two lovely fellas

Current Companions: atm? none

Housecarls: Lydia & Rayya

Friends (outside of party): Zora Fair-Child, Inigo, Lucien, Anum-La, Morndas, Aela the Huntress, Nazir, Babette, Scouts-Many-Marshes, Isobel, Madesi

Children: Khash, Chases-Starlight, Ram-Ku. (going of where Tei is now - Otero & Mei come around later on in Tei's story!)

Romantic Interest(s): Kaidan & Rumarin.

Sexual Orientation:

GAY

✧✧✧ Religion

Pantheon: Yokudan, with a hint of Hircine worship in there

Patron Deity(ies): From the Yokudan pantheon: Tei mainly views HoonDing as their main patron, but also prays to/pays respect to Satakal.

They are also Hircine's champion.

Daedric Quests Completed: 3 (Hircine, Vile, Dagon - the last Tei didn't really help, moreso pissed off)

Aedric Quests Completed: 1 if you count the whole Alduin thing I guess?

How Devout Are They?: Tei is rather devout, esp to their Yokudan patrons, praying or making offerings daily. They aren't the type to really push it in your face though, but have no issues answering questions one might have.

How Do They Feel About Talos Worship?: Deep down they acknowledge & admit trying to ban worship is terrible, but....Tei also lets their bias/experience with Windhelm, the Stormcloaks & especially Ulfric kinda cloud over this. If the Nords want their old ways so damn much, why fight for a divine from the Imperial Cult? Why not go back to the actual old ways? No, this isn't about worship, not to the men leading this so-called rebellion, they just needed something other than their racist bullshit to fool the common man into throwing their lives away for the nobles sitting comfortable in their thrones.

Also during their whole thing of getting into their role of dragonborn, they get a bonus 'fuck this dude actually' towards Talos, Ysmir, whatever the fuck he calls himself. (tldr; it sucks but good luck hearing Tei say that fully)

✧✧✧ Politics

Gray-Mane or Battle-Born?: Neither, ask them again they will punch you for the love of Ruptga they get asked that every time they enter Whiterun.

Stormcloaks or Imperials?: Also neither, Tei hates em both n think they can all choke. Unfortunately they were forced to join the latter due to, yknow, calling dragons & causing massive damage in Imperial territories during isolated fits of rage and the group being more aggressive in wanting something in return for "letting it slide"....oops

Opinion on the Thalmor?: Oh absolutely despises them, they loudly complained having to work with them during the CW & would go out their way to disrupt their plans/piss them off. Sneaking was an option they did not take during the Embassy quest, if it helps paint the picture.

Opinion Of Ulfric Stormcloak?: Tei doens't say they hate people often...but they sure as hell hate Ulfric. Again, their experience in Windhelm added to this heavily, how both the Dunmer & Argonians were treated like shit, with no help whatsoever from the Jarl or guards when the local Nords targeted them. It's still up in the air if I keep this for Tei's story, but I have it where they knew Chases-Starlight's parents, who were killed. When Tei went up & demanded justice/an investigation, only to be brushed off because it "wasn't a priority," it completely destroyed what little empathy or hope they had left for Windhelm as a whole.

Opinion of The Empire?: Cowards too weak to continue fighting back against the Thalmor, in their opinion, & holds these views they grew up with even when being strong-armed into aiding them. If anything they're at least attempting to use their influence to hint towards a rebellion against the Thalmor, but the Empire could also full-on dissolve & they could give less of a shit.

Civil War Quests Completed: 0

✧✧✧ Personal

How Are They Doing? Need Some Juice? A Nap? A Hug?: The whole event of Blood of Kings has fucked with their head, to say the least. It's the starting point of Tei's eventual spiral. So uh...yeah they're not sure how they're doing everything they knew about reality was kinda challenged & they don't rlly have anyone to talk to about it so its cool, its fine, its all good.

A nap is probably needed, not sure about a hug theough they're super flinchy rn

Days Past In Game: 196

Hours of Sleep: 846

Food Items Consumed: 1833

How Many Playthroughs Have You Done With This Character: Tei actually is an older character from the 360 days so uh...maybe 5 at most? This playthrough & their S:EC one coming up when the mod releases being the main ones focusing on their story

Overall How's Your Level Of Fun: Alright I would say! I just been stepping away from Skyrim more often lately to avoid burning out from it

Must Have Mods To Play This Character (for story or other reasons): Ordinator, Wintersun Faiths, Immersive Armors, Sarcastic Player Dialogue, 3DNPC, Inigo, Lucien Flavius, Kaidan 2, Khash the Argonian, Alternative Start, Leviathan Animations, Beast Race Body Paints, Beast HHBB, Apocalypse Magic, Deadly Dragons, Growl: Werewolf Overhaul, Pronouns, uhhh....idk what else without actually listing my current modlist lmao

----

And that's it for Tei! Anyone who wants to do this go on ahead!

[ladyherenya]

Books read in October

I read a paperback book for the first time in over three months months and was sharply aware that I couldn’t change anything about the way the text was displayed to make it more comfortable to read. I wondered, sadly, if I no longer like reading physical books.

Then I became engrossed in the story, and there were long stretches of time when I didn’t think about how I was reading a brick of printed paper. I turned pages as automatically and effortlessly as breathing. I think I was just out of practice.

This month’s Unintentional Colour Scheme: pink, purple and light blue.

Favourite covers: The Time-Traveling Popcorn Ball and The Other Side of the Sky. 

Also read: “Good Neighbors” by Stephanie Burgis and Tiny House, Big Love by Olivia Dade. (And half a romance novel which I disliked and have no interest in remembering or reviewing.) 

Reread: The last section of The Beckoning Hills by Ruth Elwin Harris. The middle section of Hunting by Andrea K. Höst.

Still reading: Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks, and Angel Mage by Garth Nix.

Next up: The Switch  by Beth O’Leary, and Hamster Princess: Little Red Rodent Hood by Ursula Vernon.

*

The Time-Traveling Popcorn Ball by Aster Glenn Gray: A magical story of time-travel and of friendship between eleven year old Piper, who has just moved into a new house, and Rosie, who lived in the same house fifty years earlier. It’s totally charming, and exactly the sort of story I adored growing up. Sometimes that makes me wish I could send a book back in time to my younger self, but I appreciated this book’s references to things that my younger self didn’t know about. I also appreciated how, even though I’ve read similar stories, I couldn’t predict how this one would end. That was very satisfying.

The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett: In 1547, Francis Crawford, the Master of Lymond, wanted by the Scottish government for treason, is back in Edinburgh. The audiobook was the perfect way to experience this! The voices the narrator uses highlights clues in the text, about who’s speaking or the subtext and emotional tones of a conversation, which helped me to follow the story even when I felt confused about exactly what was going on. I enjoyed the Scottish accents, the clever wit, the ambiguity about Lymond’s plans and motives, and the way many characters are very intelligent, perceptive people. I was interested in the historical political intrigue. I loved the twists and revelations, which are brilliant -- incredibly clever and satisfying.

“Good Neighbors” by Stephanie Burgis:  The first “fantasy rom-com” about a grumpy inventor who, along with her father, moves into a cottage nextdoor to a notorious necromancer in his big black castle. I wasn’t expecting to read about Mia stitching up undead minions, but appreciate that Burgis doesn’t take this opportunity to give glory details. This short story was fun and satisfying, and I am looking forward to when the rest of this series becomes (easily) available.

Lake of Sorrows by Erin Hart: After Haunted Ground, Dr Nora Gavin heads to the midlands west of Dublin to oversee the evacuation of another body discovered in a peat bog. The setting is fascinating and I like the atmosphere -- this has a strong sense of both place and mystery. However the multiple murders meant there’s more unpleasantness than I’d prefer. But it’s probably not enough to deter me from reading the next book.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams: Engrossing -- a poignant story of childhood during the late 19th century and womanhood in the early 20th century, and an absolutely fascinating insight into the decades-long process behind the first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s father is one of the lexicographers collecting and defining words for the Dictionary. Esme grows up with a fascination for words and begins to collect words that the Dictionary leaves out. I liked that Esme has people in her life who love and support her, but the ending is intensely sad. I’m not sure why that disappointed me. As an ending, it fits this story.

Taking Down Evelyn Tait by Poppy Nwosu: Australian YA. Lottie is furious that no one else seems to realise what Evelyn Tait, her nemesis (and stepsister) is like. Her best friend Grace is in love with Evelyn. Her teachers and her father tell Lottie she should emulate Evelyn. So Lottie decides that she’s going to do just that -- she’s going to be better than Miss Perfect. I thought this was a very realistic portrayal of a teenager’s relationships -- with family, with friends, with school and with herself. It’s amusing and, ultimately, believably positive. It captures Lottie’s perspective and her experiences in-the-moment so effectively and intensely.

Wired Love: a romance of dots and dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer (1888): Nattie, a telegraph operator who chats whenever she can “over the wire” with C., another telegraph operator miles down the line. I love stories where characters fall in love through exchanged messages. And the experiences of telegraph operators is absolutely fascinating -- simultaneously a product of the past and yet incredibly relatable from a contemporary perspective, because the internet and mobile phones mean we communicate so much through text. After Nattie and Clem meet, the focus shifts away from the telegraph office to antics at their boardinghouse, but the story continues to be fun and delightful. 

Once Upon a Con series by Ashley Poston:

Geekerella: When Elle discovers her late parents’ cosplay costumes in a box in the attic, she hatches a plan to enter a cosplay competition and use the prize to escape her step-family. This contemporary Cinderella retelling about two teenage fans of a SF series Starfield is a romance-through-messages story. Elle uses her father’s old phone, so sometimes she gets messages from people about ExcelsiCon, the convention her father founded. One message sparks a conversation -- but neither she nor Darien realise just who they’re texting. As expected, this is fun and fandom-y, and it makes the coincidences and Cinderella moments feel believable.

The Princess and the Fangirl: At ExcelsiCon, Starfield actress Jessica Stone swaps places with a fan, Imogen. Jess needs to find a mislaid script before she’s accused of leaking it, and Imogen hopes for an opportunity to promote the #Save Amara initiative. I enjoyed how they both experience a different side of fandom. Imogen discovers the pressures of being a star, when con appearances are your job, and, away from the spotlight, Jess discovers how cons allow people to come together and celebrate things they love.  My only disappointment was the way they both deceive Imogen’s fandom friend, Harper. I wish that had been handled differently.

The Little Bookshop at Herring Cove by Kellie Hailes: Unlike other books I’ve borrowed because they had “bookshop” in the title, this didn’t focus very much on books, nor did it describe its bookshop vividly. Sophie could have easily owned a different sort of shop without changing the plot, the setting or the atmosphere. This is a light-hearted romance about nice people in a generic seaside town -- not what I was looking for. I wanted more about books and a stronger sense of place.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (narrated by Cassandra Campbell, Kathleen Gati and Kathrin Kana): This begins with three different women at the start of WWII -- a teenager in Poland, a newly-graduated doctor in Germany and a wealthy consulate worker in New York -- and  becomes about the Ravensbruck Rabbits, Polish political prisoners subjected to medical experimentation. Not what I expected or wanted to be reading (which is not its fault. I switched to the ebook, because I'm irrationally squeamish about some medical things and cope better when reading to myself). This story is compelling and does a good job of showing how the pain and trauma didn’t just end with the war. And it’s incredibly important to keep telling stories about distressing parts of history. 

The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner: More or less the sort of story I expected from these two. Nimh is the Divine One in a world of magic and prophecy. North is a prince in a floating city of science and engineering. Nimh believes the gods fled into the sky thousands of years ago, and North believes no one still lives down on the surface… until he crashes his glider. I enjoyed this but don’t feel any emotional investment -- yet. I will read the sequel.

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade: April and Marcus keep fandom separate from their professional lives -- April to avoid negative comments, Marcus (an actor) to avoid violating his contract. So when Marcus sees a cosplay photo of April online, he doesn’t recognise his friend, he just sees a gorgeous woman getting nasty comments and invites her to dinner. I was hooked. As a romance, this didn’t always focus on the things I most wanted it to, but I understood why it made those narrative choices and liked how the characters resolved their mistakes. And I really liked it as a story about fanfiction and the way we tell stories in response to other stories.

Big Love, Tiny House by Olivia Dade: Lucy goes on a Tiny House Hunting show and drags along her best friend Sebastian. I’ve watched countless tiny house videos on Youtube, so it was fun to see tiny houses depicted in fiction -- although I was disappointed that all the houses are so disastrously bad. Beyond that, I have no strong feelings one way or another about this romance novella.

Memento: an Illuminae Files novella by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (narrated by a full cast): A bonus prequel, set aboard the Alexander prior to the events of Illuminae. The audiobook is so well done! Even though this is a short story/novella, I cared about the new characters it introduces -- I really like the epistolary format and how it requires the reader to fill in some of the gaps for themselves. (I think that’s part of why I love The Illuminae Files but so far have no strong feelings about Kaufman and Kristoff’s latest series.) And it’s always interesting to see more of AIDAN.

[gimmeyoon]

Iron World: 4

✰ pairing: Yoongi x Reader

✰ au: Cyberpunk

✰ word count: 2.9k

✰ warnings: explicit language, major angst, mentions of death and violence

✰ summary: ❝Welcome to Iron World, the latest virtual reality online game. Choose your class, join a guild, and explore the depths of this planet. As one of the first 20,000 people to explore this brave frontier, how you enjoy this immersive experience is up to you. There is so much to do and see, you’ll never want to leave.❞

Prev | Next

   It's not easy. Not that anything had been since Namjoon got trapped in the game. But this, having his friends do this. This was hard.

    He knew Bangtan would do anything to get out, and he was pretty sure the owner of Babylon was just a computer generated character, so his life had essentially no meaning. Unless there was the chance that the game had created sentient characters, but that was a rabbit hole Namjoon had already gone down and he had not found any answers down there. It was the computer's life or his friends’, and he was positive he would always choose his friends.

    But sitting in a car outside the bar, while watching them do the work was harder. Sure he had made the call to go ahead with the next mission, but his own skill set didn't really work into the plan. He was on standby in case they needed someone to hack into something later, but assassination was not in his wheel house.

    So he was to watch the feed V was sending from his own eye-surge to Jugeum. Most of the feed was Chimmy, as he and Taehyung sat at the bar and talked as if they weren't waiting for the owner to enter the building.

    Agust D and J-Hope sat next to Namjoon, watching the feed with critical eyes, despite the lack of progress in the last hour or so. If anything had progressed it Chimmy's blood alcohol content.

    Thankfully, that was what Phoenix and Worldwide were preparing for. Chimmy's job was to get sloshed like he usually did at Babylon. Once he saw the owner, Taehyung would get eyes on him, and then the two across from Namjoon would head in. Cooky would stay outside with J-Hope and Namjoon incase any guards were waiting outside the building for them. Worldwide would use his crowd control skills as an enchanter to keep the other players and computer generated whoevers distracted while Phoenix took the owner out. They would pretend to be a couple interested in business as to try and throw off any signs of danger they might present by approaching the owner. 

    She had offered to kill him before Namjoon could even ask if anyone felt comfortable. He wondered how she did it. How she was able distinguish between what was real and what was not after all this time.

    For a moment he wondered if she could. He wondered if maybe it didn't matter to her whether the owner was real or not. He was an obstacle and Phoenix was the kind of person who removed obstacles. He didn't think he could be like her. He spent too much time thinking about the consequences. He supposed that was why he was the leader. He worried all of the time so no one else had to.

     Worldwide was the obvious choice for the plan, they needed crowd work, but he had come up to Namjoon after the meeting to make sure he was okay with everything. Namjoon asked if he looked as anxious as he felt. Worldwide laughed as he confirmed the leader's fears, but then Namjoon didn't feel so worried anymore. Worldwide and J-Hope constantly made Namjoon feel at peace. They had a way of making him think that everything would be okay. They took care of him, which he was not used to at all, but he appreciated it.

    V also had a way of making Namjoon feel calm, but in a much different way than the older two boys. Where Worldwide and J-Hope made Namjoon feel calm by reminding him that everything was going to be okay, or making sure that he went to sleep or ate a meal, V made Namjoon feel calm just because the former was. V always seemed so well adjusted. Whenever Namjoon felt like it was game over, V was somewhere in the base laughing as if to remind Namjoon that there was no need to worry, that he could do this.

    Chimmy made sure to watch after V which gave Namjoon a sense of relief. Occasionally the cleric would walk up and hug Namjoon unprompted, which was strange at first because Namjoon was not big on physical affection, but Namjoon realized it was more about what Chimmy needed than what he did. Recently, it seemed like Chimmy needed to hug Namjoon whenever Namjoon needed a hug, so he figured it was a mutually beneficial act.

    The tanks weren't as big on playing the "cheer up" game as the rest. Cooky was the strongest member, definitely physically and probably emotionally as well. He's like Phoenix in that way, both of them willing to do whatever it takes to get out of here. Namjoon always feels guilty asking them to do things because he knows they'll say yes no matter what the consequence. He genuinely can't believe they aren't falling apart with the things he's asked them to do.

    Agust D is that way too, but Namjoon can't bring himself to ask him to do anything. He always volunteers though, and Namjoon can't bring himself to ask him not to either. He acts like everything is okay, but he's changed. Namjoon didn't notice it at first, but Worldwide and J-Hope knew right away.

    Namjoon hears Chimmy say that the owner is here, and he gives Worldwide and Phoenix the nod to head inside, as Taehyung turns to reveal a man in a purple suit, counting money in a booth at the back of the bar.

    Agust D snorts beside him, and Namjoon can't hold back the laugh that falls from his lips at the theatrics of the game. It feels so morbid, because he still feels bad for killing this probable illusion, but the game never ceases to surprise him with the sheer level of absurdness it's willing to go to.

    Phoenix and Worldwide pass through V's line of sight a few moments later, prompting him and Chimmy to pretend they're playing pool so that the Beast Lord is close enough to pick up the conversation.

   “May I help you?” the owner asks, bringing his money closer to him, as if robbery is the worst of what Phoenix and Worldwide are there to do.

   “That depends,” Worldwide asks, his voice charming, “are you the owner?”

   “Who’s asking?”

   “My girl and I would like to talk business," Worldwide replied, pulling Phoenix into his side.

   “I think your girl isn’t very interested in talking the owner said, eyeing the slit on her leg, and causing a curse to fall from Yoongi’s mouth.

   “What?” Namjoon asked turning towards the necromancer, ready to scold him for the jealousy he assumes he must be feeling in this moment. If Agust D is trying to keep his feelings for Phoenix a secret he's doing a terrible job.

   “He knows,” he said, moving towards the door of the car.

   “Agust D,” Namjoon warned, grabbing his arm. “We don’t know that yet, don’t blow the operation.”

    “Let go,” the necromancer said, just as V cursed, and began moving towards Worldwide and Phoenix.

    Namjoon watched as the owner pulled a gun on Phoenix. “Who sent you?” he demanded.

    Namjoon turned to follow Agust D just as the necromancer entered the bar. J-Hope grabbed his arm, keeping the Wizard in his place.

    "Let's see what he has planned."

   As he crashed into the bar, Yoongi was momentarily distracted by Worldwide’s power. The rest of the room remained frozen, as the enchanter did his crowd work. The only threat was the owner as long as Worldwide was able to sustain this. Yoongi almost let himself feel relief at that.

   “Please,” Phoenix said as Yoongi neared the table, her hands up by her head. Too far away from her concealed knife for Yoongi’s liking.

   “Well, how polite,” the owner said, pressing the barrel of his gun to Phoenix’s chest. “Tell your friends to leave,” he said.

   “Worldwide, Chimmy and V, leave,” she said motioning with her head towards the door.

   “And the new one,” he said, looking right at Yoongi.

   Phoenix looked over her shoulder, offering Yoongi a small smile to try and comfort him. “I’m okay,” she said. “Leave.”

    Yoongi almost scoffed. If anyone really believed he ran in here just for the computer generated purple suit man to tell him to leave, they really hadn't been paying attention to how Yoongi was playing this game.

   “Take me instead,” Yoongi spoke up, raising his hands over his head. “Get everyone else out of here and just the two of us can talk.”

    “Stop,” Phoenix said. “You can’t keep doing this.”

    “Why not?” Yoongi asked, slowly taking steps towards Worldwide and Phoenix. “Worldwide, get everyone out, and I’ll do whatever this nice man wants, yeah?”

    The owner shrugged. “I don’t give a shit who leaves, as long as they take all their weapons with them.”

    “Okay,” Yoongi said. “Frisk me, and hand whatever you find to Phoenix.”

    “Nice try,” the owner replied. “but I think I’ll be keeping whatever I find.”

    “Okay,” Yoongi said, as the owner pressed his gun closer to Phoenix’s chest.

    “Run,” the owner said, to which Phoenix nodded, before shooting Yoongi a look that said if he survived this, he would die.

    He wasn’t certain he would live, though he liked his chances considering he might already be undead. His plan wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t really even good, but he figured it was better than whatever sitting-duck plan the rest of them had.

    He kept running through the night in his head. Phoenix should have killed the owner automatically. Worldwide never should have spoken to the owner. It was careless. Or actually, Yoongi thought, it was Mono caring too much. Yoongi was pretty sure the wizard wanted to give the owner a chance to prove his humanity. A chance to confirm Mono's greatest fear, that Bangtan was becoming a monster. But that wasn't the case. All of this was a sick game made by the creator, and the owner was just another way to torture them. He wasn't real.

    And he wasn't going to get a chance to walk out of here and hurt the rest of the guild. Yoongi was going to make sure of that. He just wasn't so sure he was going to get to walk out of here himself.

     Here goes nothing.

    "Fuck," you cursed as you joined the rest of Bangtan outside of the bar. "What's his fucking problem?" you asked, running your hands through your hair, a look of disbelief on your face.

    “What’s his plan?” Namjoon practically shouted, the change in events clearly stressing him out.

    “I don’t know that he has one,” Worldwide responded calmly. “He just saved us, because that’s what he does.”

    Namjoon nodded his head, though he still looked as stressed as before. You all were blind now, unable to see what was happening. It killed you.

    You hated him for this. He should have let you die, he had already saved your life once. Now you owed him twice-over. You'd never be able to make it up to him now.

    But what was worse was the way your heart ached at the thought of never seeing him again. You were starting to think he had a death wish, and you would kill him for that, the irony be damned.

   You didn't have time to register what was happening, as you were knocked from your feet and thrown a meter from the building. You only realize he's in trouble, when J-Hope curses beside you, a scream tearing from your mouth as the whole building in front of you is ablaze. It's like a bomb has gone off, and you feel anger consume your heart as you realize that means the creator led you in there to shoot the guild like fish in a barrel.

    You're on your feet, as tears begin to fall from your eyes, your throat raw and aching as you raise an arm to cover your face from the heat of the fire. You fall to your knees once you realize that there's no way he could have survived it, the flames are everywhere.

    You should have fought him harder. You should have insisted he leave. You were strong enough to take the owner on, though the gun was a problem you hadn't quite figured out how to fix yet. You just needed a few more moments to think, but Agust D had to be a fucking hero like he always was.

    You fucking hate him for that. You hated that he didn't think about how much this would hurt you. You hated how much this hurt. Mostly you hated that of all the people in this game, he was the one you liked the most, and again you let yourself feel close to someone, just for this hell of a game to rip them away from you forever.

    You're crying so hard you can barely make him out, when Agust D emerged from the entrance, the flames not even making him flinch. Your mouth falls open as you try to form words, but you're feeling too many things for any human language to express. You realize two things at once: you're gaping at him like a fish out of water and he is completely naked in front of you. You turn away, a heat on your cheeks as you look at Chimmy, who has the audacity to wink, before removing his jacket and walking towards Agust D.

    Two jackets tied around his hips, and one covering his torso later, Agust D holds a key up to the group as you turn back around to face him.

    "He lives a few blocks from here,” he coughed, smoke coming out as if he was a dragon.

    You wonder if maybe he is now. That would explain a few things, namely the walking through fire part.

    “Agust D,” you started, your voice cracking a little. You take the few steps between the two of you and pull him into a hug. It was so unlike you, and you could tell the rest of the group realized this as the air grew thick around you. “Don’t fucking sacrifice yourself for me again,” you said as you pulled back, your watery eyes meeting his.

   “But it worked out so well,” he said, just as Chimmy cleared his throat behind them.

   “I just want to make sure you’re okay,” the cleric said.

   “Right,” you said, quickly taking the key from Yoongi’s hand and stepping away.

    “You two head back,” Namjoon said to Chimmy and Agust D. "We'll get the tech for Mr. Moon."

    The ramen he made after finally getting back to his apartment just isn't hitting the spot the way it used to. As he sits alone at the small table J-Hope brought him after insisting he should make his apartment more homey, he can't help replay how everyone looked at him. He knew Chimmy wanted to ask how he survived it, his eyes keep meeting Yoongi as he ran through all of the tests he had learned as a cleric, but just like before Yoongi didn’t know. Apparently he was one of those fireproof zombies.

    He thinks the worst part of it all was Phoenix. She looked so sad, an emotion he had never seen from her. She was many things, but a crier was not one of them, yet she shed tears for him. He knew he should have felt sad himself, but his heart practically fluttered at the thought that Phoenix liked him. That maybe she liked him as much as he liked her.

    A knock at his door brings him back to reality, his ramen having grown cold as he replayed the night in his head over and over.

    When he opens the door, he has to work hard to maintain his composure at the sight of Phoenix. He's just about to ask her if she wanted to come in, when she closes the distance between the two of them, and places her hand lightly on the back of his neck, encouraging his lips to hers.

    And then they're kissing, and Yoongi is using every fiber of his body to try not to cause another explosion, but she feels so soft under his hands and so sweet against his lips. He holds her tightly against him for fear that this is all a dream and she'll disappear at any moment.

    When she pulls away, all Yoongi can do is stare back in disbelief. He’s thought about this moment so many times since the game change, it almost doesn’t feel real now.

    “Thank you,” she said as she looked up at him. “You really have to stop saving me though.”

    “I can’t,” he said. “Not unless you stop putting yourself in danger.”

    “I can take care of myself.”

    “I know,” he replied, his thumb running over her cheek as he studied her face. “but if you die, we all do. There’s no way we make it out without you.”

    “Well,” she said, a tinge of blush on her cheeks. “if you die, then I won’t make it out. So, no more hero shit.”

    “You think I’m a hero?” he asked, smirking.

    “No, you think you’re a hero. I think you’re an idiot that’s trying to get himself killed.”

    “So far that doesn’t seem possible,” he said, looking down at his feet, as she unraveled herself from him.

    “Yeah,” Phoenix said. “I’m glad the game’s keeping you around.”

    “Yeah?”

    “Yeah,” she smiled. “Good night, Agust D.” she said with a small wave.

    “You could stay,” he offered, a little embarrassed with how quickly it fell from his lips.

    “In your dreams,” she said with a wink, before turning and walking away.

     She was right he thought. She’d be in his dreams tonight; just as she had been every other night.

© gimmeyoon — all rights reserved. reposting, modifying, or translation onto other sites even with proper credit given is not permitted.

[vincedeangelo]

At a glance he may look like Grant Gustin but in reality they’re just 213 year old Vince De’Angelo, a witch here in Barton Hallow. They are a lone witch. They work as a professor of Horticulture and Biological Sciences here in town and are known for being energetic and distracted. I’d watch my back if I were you..

[History]

Saying that life has been complicated for Vince is a bit of an understatement. It didn’t start that way, but it didn’t start easily either. Being born at the middle of the 18th century in Europe to a distinctly Bohemian traveling family, his parents were already well aware of a long vein of magic running through the family tree, his several siblings and half siblings could attest to that much, but most of that magic was rooted into nature. Vince grew up in comfortable chaos, happy enough for the most part, within the shelter of a large family who looked after each other and, while facing a great deal of downward glances from the rest of society, were themselves excellent at thriving and enjoying life with very little in hand.

It was what, in later times, might be compared more to the lifestyle of a hippie commune once the family did finally settle in an area of Britain and became, more or less, the farming, earth-worshiping sorts. Which was all well and good, that slow pace wasn’t as appealing to Vince’s teenage self though and he sort of laments that he did take off when he had to see more of the world; the things he saw weren’t exactly pleasant. It did very little to unsettle his excitable, eager personality but more than a few times he made a mess of his efforts out in the world.

It wasn’t until his twenties that he began to test his magic more, at that point much of his time was spend engrossed in the the developing underbelly of London and how strangely different it was than his own upbringing. It was there that he met the person, or rather the vampire, who became his best friend in very short order. Unconventional, yes, but the two spent more than their fair share of time discussing philosophy, life and the world around them. They were inseparable. At such a pivotal point in his life Vince directed his studies towards darker magic, seeing no fear in exploring the limits of them at the urging of the vampire. It was the start of his studies as a necromancer, and one of the point of his life he still looks back very fondly on.

It seemed almost impossible to imagine but as close as they were, as much adoration Vince had for his dearest friend and companion, but that bond became strained when the prospects of relocating became as necessity. The world, again, was changing drastically, and becoming less kind to those who were not human but especially the undead in London. A few murders in the area had suspicions heavy and Vince saw it as the chance to finally leave Europe to see the States, but his friend wanted nothing to do with the idea. The xenophobia of walking into a seemingly new and hostile place was too much, the arguments spiked and eventually they split paths; Vince hopeful to change their mind later but left the argument unresolved.

Always far too trusting a soul, and lonely, Vince became involved shortly after in a particularly determined coven under the name of the Children of the Silent Voice; a group of witches who were mostly like himself and held necromantic or otherwise ‘dark’ magic as their most honed abilities. He believed that magic wasn’t evil in any form, that like anything it held a place in the balance. They recruited him under the guise of crafting a safe haven for those like themselves and Vince devoted years to helping them find other witches via communication with spirits. The breaking point came when the coven was attacked by Hunters, forcing Vince’s hand with the situation, giving him little choice but to step outside the realms of peace and right into bloodshed. He thought his intentions were good, thought his efforts held purpose in helping those like himself who suffered the cruelty of humans' fear of magic.

Something was deeply wrong though, and it began his reign as second to the High Priestess of the coven; the bloodiest time in his life. It built around him a reputation that still lingers now; he was a destructive force, the constant tip of power. After all, winning was easy when the fallen were your’s to reanimate and command against your enemies. He existed as a figure of terror, caught up in the fog that was those confusing years.

It was all for nothing, in the end. During one of his attacks on a village that had, supposedly, destroyed several witches, Vince picked up a particularly stubborn spirit that wouldn’t leave him alone. She persisted, a nightmare that haunted him in ways that others hadn’t managed, a lost child who perished before her time. Her misery broke that daze, finally, and forced him to take a step back and view what he had been doing, the horrible things that had left stains on his hands. His mind had been twisted by those he followed, and he finally saw that truth. When he approached the Priestess with his doubts she dismissed him as a traitor, banished him from their ranks and he was almost relieved to flee. His last act before leaving Europe behind was to urge the spirit who had followed him to move on, and once she had he decided it was time for him to do the same.

Living through the 19th century in the States was certainly an experience, one he absolutely would not have traded for anything else. Seeing both the best and the worst of what people were capable of was an eye-opening view of the world, and he naturally developed a certain fondness for the eighties and its’ flower-child mentality that reminded him so much at home. He bounced around, joined a cult or two out of curiosity, wandered off when he grew tired of it, even played a few lighthearted attempts at using his power to help people communicate with their lost loved ones but mostly maintained a human image as the growing uneasiness with the supernatural turned from tension to a sudden war.

One Vince wanted no part in, purposely avoiding to take sides on the matter and acting under the ideal that it was never going to solve anything. Having known real horror and being the cause of it before, he was approached time and again to join the ranks of various covens and groups but refused each time, no longer willing to be a part of such things. He expected it to settle down in a few years but they never did and the battles just kept hitting too close for comfort and sending him darting off to the next spot in search in peace. It never lasted long enough, but he just kept trying, looking for the silver lining and the end of that conflict that never seemed to come.

When rumors of Barton Hollow stirred up they caught his interest, the possibility of a new start in a place where he wouldn’t be constantly accosted for involvement in the bloodshed sounded wonderful. It was an easy choice and he quickly set off to what he hoped would be his new home for a while; in short order setting himself up as a professor at the college thanks to his handful of degrees earned over time and making himself useful to the local magic using community with his flair for cultivating wickedly dangerous plants and herbs.

Vince can be a bit much at times. He’s excitable, not at all reserved, and tends to ramble. That rambling may turn a million different directions in one conversation; he’s quite a mess about it. But he adores people; living, dead, human or otherwise. He’s very quickly becoming a relatively well known figure around the Hollow for his cheerful presence and willingness to engage people around him. It’s a sharp contrast to the history written in such bloody terms, but he doesn’t hide it. He’s open enough about his mistakes, but he certainly hopes that people understand that the past isn’t the measure of what a person is but who they were before they knew better.

As for that past, by all accounts Vince is considered one of the stronger necromancers left in the world, and one who has practiced dark magic for a very long time. Plenty of people seek him out for those skills and he does lend them to causes he thinks are going to do some positive change, but by the large his power is only used in small ways anymore. He can reanimate the dead but has learned the agony of what it costs to both himself and the poor soul, can communicate with the dead and does so when he needs information, and he knows an unsettling but rather effective way of stealing the last sights and few moments of death from a corpse's eyes. Not something to witness if you have a weak stomach. Of course he can also destroy life with a shocking amount of ease. But as someone who values life a great deal and knows the worth of it, he is far more careful in his practices these days.

While it really has very little to do with his abilities as a witch, he is known around town by the covens and the lone witches alike as the person who has an impressive garden of plants and herbs that are fairly lethal. He carefully tends to plants that are highly toxic, have properties that are considered dangerous and drug-like, and those that other witches use in spell craft but cannot access very easily because of their dangerous nature. He willingly offers this rare and deadly flora to those in need of it regardless of coven association, if he’s sure their intentions aren’t to use them in a malicious way. Just don’t try to steal his plants, that hits a nerve you don’t want to rub too thin.

Much of his gift for, and interest in, gardening and plants comes from growing up helping his mother and grandmother raise their garden in his earliest years. Those fond memories fuel his care in that work, but of course his magic influences much of his life so it seems like his real talent in the area is with those deadly species more than their mundane counterparts.

He has a pet cactus named Jared that makes the trek between his classroom on campus and his home in the downtown region of the Hollow daily; Jared is very well looked after and is a standard sort of his species. Nothing all too extraordinary to Jared, but Vince does enjoy putting little hats and costumes on him for various holidays and events the same way most people would dress up a pet. Jared has the distinction of being carried to and from home every day, Vince insists it would be cruel to just leave the poor thing all alone in the classroom at night.

Vince is demisexual, polyamorous; he's fairly unbiased to the gender of his partners though he tends to favor men a bit more, it certainly doesn't sway his interests too much from the rest of the gender spectrum. He’s had an interesting go with relationships in life but nothing ever stuck for long. His list of ex’s run the range but for the most part the breakups were civil, if awkward on his part, ones. He still maintains friendships with a few of them without much drama, still the occasional night spent in their company, but for the most part he’s been solitary for a good twenty or so years by his own choice. Having spent that time burying himself in education and the fascinating scientific world that has surged in the 20th century that took up most of his time. He’s very friendly but painfully awkward at the basic ability to recognize that people are interested in him, and equally bad at making his own interests known because by the large he doesn’t view intimate situations as solely outside the lines of friendships and his tendency to blur the two has made for some amusingly skewed situations in the past.

He is intensely afraid of small spaces; graves absolutely terrify him and any enclosed space causes him to panic. The reasoning lies in some of his conditioning early on in his necromatic practices when he accidentally managed to get himself trapped during the exploration of an older graveyard; the underground tunnels beneath it at one point collapsed and he was unable to escape. He was lucky that another witch who was mentoring him at the time found him but it instilled lifelong terror in him.

Vince loves to read, he’s been around a long while, he absolutely is enamored with knowledge and the creativity of people. It doesn’t matter what; from the most coveted early century tome to the most hilariously badly written new trashy romance novel; he reads with the sort of determined fervor that keeps him constantly hunting for new books. The internet, for that reason, is something else he loves; there’s always endless distraction on there.

He’s not the typical image for a necromancer but he hardly thinks that’s a bad thing. His students in particular he has a soft spot for, generally willing to go out of his way to do what he can if they need help. But really that extends to most people; he’s just a cheerful, upbeat sort who tries not to dwell too much on the bad. He’s also horribly clumsy at it though, but he’s good at laughing at his mistakes.

Vince misses being part of a coven, but even with the urging of those in the Hollow he hasn’t agree to join any of them. The past has made him wary of the intentions of leaders, and he doesn’t want to be a pawn once more. He’s toyed with the idea of starting his own but dismissed the possibility with the certainty that even as acting as second to someone he trusted as fully as he would have to another Priestess it’s unlikely anyone would be comfortable with someone with his power in that role, especially not with the shape the world in in with the ongoing war.

[Wanted Connections] To be vastly expanded on later, but to give a jumping off point for plotting: 

Vampire he used to be best friends with. 

Someone older than himself (213), was in Europe/London in those early years, and would have had a very close friendship with Vince. Basically the person he considered his companion and other half of sorts; he misses them very much but hasn’t seen them in a long time. They had a bit of a falling out over Vince’s involvement in the Silent Voice Coven back in the day and after the dust settled with all of that Vince went to the states and lost all contact with his friend.  This person would know a great deal about Vince, would have been about as close as anyone could be, and very much needs to be back in Vince’s life again. 

Siblings/Half Siblings

Vince had a large family, several of whom were witches themselves. He may have younger or older siblings or half siblings around, or could have werewolf or vampire siblings now depending on if they were human to begin with and were turned. He’s lost track of family over time but would remember them, this is very open to ideas and different sorts of sibling relationships. He was always an odd one in the family. 

Witches looking to recruit him for various reasons. 

The war, past or present tense, the covens, just in general. Vince has a lot of power, an unsettling amount in fact, but he’s actively avoided involvement with the covens aside from his supplying them with various plants and herbs since he’s moved to Barton when it first was established. Good intentions or bad; people who put that pressure on him to join them. 

Someone human he can ‘adopt’. 

Really Vince has a soft spot for humans, he finds them fascinating really and admires their drive in what amounts to such short lives. Someone he’s grown fond of in a brotherly sort of way and keeps an eye on, helps, and basically just tries to keep out of trouble. Bonus points if they are in fact a lot of trouble to deal with. 

People who know his past too well. 

There’s nothing all that hidden about Vince’s past and how bloody it was, but he’s put it mostly behind him. Some people haven’t, and some people like to give him grief over the idea that people can’t change. This person is an ongoing source of exhaustion for him but he’s toughing it out, trying to make them see the good; but it’s not easy. 

Someone who knows his worst secret

Lots of witches use magic to lengthen their lives, but for those with necromanic abilities the spells are particularity gruesome. Vince did something a long time past that he isn’t too eager for others to know, for the sake of keeping his own life thriving well past his mortal years, but this person, somehow, has managed to get that knowledge. With that comes a degree of power over him, for the sake of keeping that secret. A dark fae he traded a favor to ensure his life never ended naturally, another witch he sought out for a spell that he never should have; I'm open to ideas on this one.

Hunters 

Vince is a necromancer, a rather well known one. Over time he's come across people who have wanted to destroy him but has managed to evade them well enough. But this one is out for blood, maybe because of a contract, maybe his actions in the past did something to harm their family line, maybe they just really can't stand dark magic. Whatever the case it's a hard situation for Vince, not wanting to kill again but also very resolute on the idea of not dying. 

[paperanddice]

Mordant Snare

Mordant snares are, to put it mildly, nightmarish. Artificially created war machines designed to empty towns and cities of people, they are exceptionally difficult to even confront directly. They burrow underground and use the corpses of their previous victims as a distraction, puppeting them to act confused, helpless. These puppets are filled with the snare’s acid and long filaments that allow it to move, but their movement is clumsy and awkward. While the snare would prefer to have new prey approach peacefully, they are just as eager for their puppets to be mistaken for zombies, as many of the normal zombie destruction strategies are ineffective against the snare. Attempting to turn the puppets just empowers the snare with temporary hit points, and those who come close and try to cut the puppets down are sprayed with acid. Technically it can control up to 44 puppets at a time, 4 for each of its 11 tentacles, but as they’re limited to the 36 spaces centered directly above where the snare hides underground it’s very unlikely that one would ever animate that full number unless it had a very specific reason. Smaller numbers more easily allow the snare to move without a pileup of bodies, and having some space between the puppets may lure prey deeper in.

Of course, the puppets are merely the bait to set the trap. The mordant snare is 15th level, and even a maximum compliment of zombies won’t be a threat to parties of that level. Rather, they simply lure its foes in close before it attacks itself, bursting out from directly under to slam with tentacles, fire piercing spikes, or use its filaments to burn away at a creature until it can animate them just like it did to its previous victims. One small error within the stat block that hasn’t been fixed by the errata yet is that its multiattack specifies that it makes four melee attacks, but the spike ranged attack is listed as an option. I would personally just remove the word “melee” from the action, I don’t think hindering the number of 60 foot maximum range attacks it can make in a round would have an impact on its level. It’s so slow and its attacks are so short range that if a group wants to kite it, they absolutely will.

Technically, it doesn’t have any actions that outline the time it takes to turn a body into a puppet, but some aspects of it can be left up to the GM. Given that the process requires melting all the target’s interior minus bones and tendons, I’d probably say it takes place over a minute, though the snare can process one body per tentacle at a time.

An adventuring party arrives in a small town to find the streets deserted, the roads broken and churned up, and buildings collapsed. Torn apart shells of bodies lie scattered about, and signs of battle are everywhere, but no remnants of whatever the attacker was. Reaching the center of town, a small group of ragged looking people stand and sit on the hill there. Upon spotting the party, they begin gesturing aggressively and one holds up a sign saying “IT CAN HEAR YOU. DON’T SPEAK. HIDE HERE.”

The wasteland that was left behind in the war between several ancient nations is filled with the results of their weapons. Open portals to different planes, fields of statues from mass petrification spells, hidden bunkers almost radiating deadly magic, powerful construct or undead weapons made and left behind in sealed containers where they never even got used. Among the most active of these threats however are the mordant snares. They stalk the safer paths, collecting travelers seeking to repair damage or cross to nations on the other side, but even worse one will occasionally find its way to “safe” territory, devouring villages and settlements before retreating underground and returning back to the wasteland where it cannot be tracked.

A powerful necromancer, sick of clerics simply turning her minions, teams up with a skilled flesh shaper to create a weapon that will not only avoid this issue, but be empowered by it. At first the experiment seemed like a success, as the medium sized mordant snare was easily controlled and supplemented the necromancer’s undead. The aberration grew, however, and by the time the necromancer realized she was no longer the one in control, it was too late. How her own corpse wanders as a puppet to lure in more prey for the massive creature.

[powerborntouch]

“The Altered Adventure: Luck of the Guardians (Chp 2)” reaction

I’M SO PUMPED.

This post has been written on April 7. But you’ll see this after my hiatus.

Time to post about Luck of the Guardians. Now, if you don’t want spoilers, stop scrolling down and blacklist “altered adventure spoilers” or “luck of the guardians”

Again, too much telling than showing. I want to see Brayden be bullied by the guards, not be told that it happened “off screen.” How else is the audience going to feel sympathy for Brayden?

“power-hungry guardians” Narrator, what have the guardians done to you?! Who hurt you, narrator?

...Tayren and Gypsy met. ...why would you bomb that info on us like that? Now I’m just confused. Again, I would like to see this in a flashback, not told to us.

OK. We get character dialogue and behavior now. Good. Much better.

Dang...now I’m intrigued by what Divine (or Voice) is like in the novels. Nevermind, read a few pages ahead. Cyborg Dad is confirmed.

Anyways, I really like the character interactions.

I’m so confused. Who are the beings roaming around after Alpha’s death? The power-borns? The book explains later that it’s because the powerborns are the ones who are wreaking havoc after his death and the Guardians are just like *shrug* I’m glad this is answered. But this just brings up more questions.

Why do powerborns become more active after the King’s death. Did the king oppress them? Did his presence somehow “zap” the powerborns’ energy (supported by the origins of Brayden’s powers, debunked by Witch’s family having powers during Alpha’s lifetime)? And the guardians really didn’t do anything? I would like to get their side of the story.

The foreshadowing is getting a little bit too obvious now.

I think the novel just confirmed that the Package was the pack that slaughtered Tayren. So if you were a roleplay fan who theorized this, congratulations! Theory confirmed!

I have a question...why didn’t the Package kill Tayren? Did Tayren escape before they could experiment on him?

...HOLY SHIZ. THAT’S SOME PLOT CHANGE WITH ROBIN’S DEATH.

omg, these purple fireflies. WHAT DO THEY MEAN?!?

Why is Brayden suddenly not clumsy?

PURPLE FIREFLIES. WHAT ARE YOUR MOTIVES? I NEED TO KNOW.

GARRICK. NOOOO. AAAAAH, THAT’S JUST A WASTE. GIVING HIM SO MUCH CHARACTERIZATION ONLY FOR HIM TO DIE.

NOOOOOO.

Seriously, now I feel like Garrick’s life or death situation dragged on for nothing.

So, if Garrick’s characterization wasn’t for a possible redemption story, since he’s now dead, then I guess Garrick’s characterization was just to exemplify a theme. Brayden did get pretty preachy to Garrick. So one message of the novel is that “no one’s evil. Just angry and needs some kindness and serenity.”

...maybe that message is a key to a potential redemption arc for Witch...please???? pllleeee-e-e-ease?

...Who is this cloaked stranger.

BOI, IT’S ALPHA

So the protectors of the Air Kingdom are sci-fi undead ghosts...I think Air Kingdom is a bit far from modern times.

So...Stand Down City was Alpha’s home and now Voice’s home (nice choice, Voice).

Voice, man, are you a hot mess? Is this metropolis abandoned because of you? Or is this metropolis abandoned after Alpha died and you tried to rebuild it because you’re Voice? Anyways, Voice, you suck at rebuilding areas. You shouldn’t play Minecraft or SimCity. You’ll suck at those games.

And Voice, are you a necromancer now?

Voice, you’re not gonna ask Alpha who the heck he is alive?

The guardians: We like how things are now. Altered: *is a hot mess* Me: ... *laughs*

Now I can see why the Guardians suck. But they suck because they don’t know how to rule. That’s a believable reason and I can see that the Guardians are not truly evil. They’re just a hot mess. I need to stop using that word.

omg, the book just confirms that the metropolis is  abandoned because of Voice. WOW VOICE. WOW. GOOD JOB VOICE. NO WONDER THE REBELLION DOESN’T LIKE GUARDIANS. GOOD THINKING VOICE. YOU REALLY ARE A HOT MESS. TM. I’M SURPRISED YOU’RE THE MOST POPULAR GUARDIAN. It makes me curious of what the other guardians do, if Voice’s reputation is the best.

I like seeing Voice’s perspective more. I like seeing how he’s just an idealistic guy who’s got the wrong direction.

OH SHIZ. ANOTHER PLOT CHANGE. HOW IS THIS GOING TO AFFECT THE DILEMMA BETWEEN VOICE AND INFERNO. AAAAAAH

BUT I LOVE THIS. I WANT MORE VILLAINOUS VOICE. I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE HIS REDEMPTION ARC AND HIS LATER INTERACTIONS WITH WITCH TOO.

AAAAAHHH.

The evil beings in Nether are called Trumperts. Trump-erts. Gizzy, you’re getting political now with writing, eh? I know that feeling, my man. I got way too personal with the stories I write too.

The city of the Nether though. *does that finger/kiss gesture* Mwah. Beautiful world-building. Voice, take notes from Inferno. This is how you manage a city/kingdom. Will, Inferno is still a terrible leader, but at least he’s functional.

Yaaaaay, Inferno backstory. I’m loving this. And I’m glad there’s a given reason why Inferno is hated.

Dang, Inferno. Take a chill pill.

Inferno’s received a lot of characterization. I’ll try to analyze him in a different post.

...Hmm. One problem I have is that Brayden is just revealed to be the king’s son. But the book just glossed that over. I think that wasn’t handled very well.

[necroarchy]

So, the Culling of Stratholme. Boring question, but there's something that interests me from a writer's perspective. Many see it as the fall of Arthas's humanity and the start of darkness, would you agree with that? Was there really no choice? How do you think would the general populace react to that (aside for what we're presented), what is the direct aftermath?

The thought came, brief and bright and sharp: Was she right?

No. No, she couldn’t be. Because if she was right, then he was about to become a mass murderer, and he knew that wasn’t who he was. He knew it.

                              - Arthas: Rise of the Lich King

     I do, yeah, because this is the precise moment in which we see Arthas consciously, deliberately choose to commit an atrocity. Prior to this scenario, he:

fought against orcs who were kidnapping townsfolk and sacrificing them to demons

hunted down a black dragon who was terrorizing the countryside

killed zombies and necromancers

     Nothing bad so far! Standard RPG thwarting of evil! We do worse in Northshire. ( those poor, poor wolves. ) It leaves him tired, stressed, snappy, and in a Very Bad Way, but he’s still reachable. Much as I absolutely hate his position in the narrative of Warcraft III, Medivh came to Arthas at a good point. He hadn’t done anything by this point, he had no real sins to his name and nothing which may toe the edge of the moral event horizon. He could still be reached, because he hadn’t actually gone anywhere yet.

     And then he looks down upon the city of Stratholme. And he kills them all.

     The beauty of Stratholme is in how monstrously ugly a situation it is. What do you do here? How do you save a population which has been infected with a sickness that will not stop at simply destroying their physical selves, but go so far as to warp and ruin their actual souls? Can you cure them of the illness? Ha. It’s been something in the ballpark of fifteen years in-game since the Scourge entered the scene, and there is still no viable cure AT ALL for the Plague of Undeath. Quarantine them? There appear to be no symptoms to look out for, and the transformation for this strain takes place within hours. 

     Fifteen years in-game, seventeen years in the real world, and I still have no idea what a better choice would have been. I don’t know what else Arthas could have done with the knowledge and experience he had at that moment with the undead. I don’t know what else he could have done with the knowledge and experience we have now! I don’t think any other avenue would have led to a different outcome. The city would always be destroyed and all its people are killed and defiled.

     That absolutely does not mean Arthas was right, though.

     Makani explained it well here. He didn’t make the decision to purge the city due to cold analytical logic, he did it because he was exhausted and traumatized and he was faced with the most nightmarish manifestation of all his insecurities to ever exist. Arthas, the prince who constantly feared that he would fail everyone whom he was responsible for ( like he failed Invincible ), was now faced with Raccoon City. He was in full-blown panic mode, and rather than step back and calm down as a better leader ought to have, rather than pay heed to the advice of those around him who were not so compromised physiologically and psychologically, he allowed himself to be swept up in his terror and immediately pick this shotgun blast of an option rather than even considering a more surgical, compassionate response.

     Look at the other heroes present. Uther never suggests a solution to Stratholme which fits his character so well because Uther SUCKS and in this essay I will -. Jaina worries about what the lethal dose of tainted grain is, whether the grain can affect children, and wants to go speak with Antonidas and get his advice. She wants time to think of magic that could combat this problem, because she’s been taught that “magic can combat magic.” She’s trying to find the solution that minimizes collateral damage as much as possible. I don’t think her idea was practically any better than Arthas’ ( in the sense that she would not have been able to reduce the casualties or destruction to any significant degree ) but that’s not actually all that relevant. 

     The solution to Stratholme isn’t really the point. There is no solution. There are only different ways to fail. The point of Stratholme is how you respond to it. The avenue of failure you choose to travel down. How you try to save everyone determines who you ultimately are. Uther’s lack of ideas revealed him to utterly useless in any situation where even the slightest moral grayness was involved. ( UTHER SUCKS AND IN THIS ESSAY I WILL — ) Jaina’s suggestions of seeking aid from Dalaran and her desire to take time to figure out a magical counterattack in order to reduce casualties as much as possible showcase her intelligence and her compassion, while also displaying her utter lack of understanding of the situation, of the magnitude of the horror. Arthas’ suggestion of killing them all tells us that he gets it, he understands the ugly, ugly situation they’re faced with, he understands that they have little time to contain an enormous problem. It also broadcasts precisely how unhinged he is at the moment, how ill-fitting he is for command, because he is so exhausted and scared and unable to take himself out of the moment long enough to even truly consider another avenue than the one he takes. And the one he takes is the cheapest, ugliest, most brutish avenue of them all.

     That’s how the rest of his journey goes, into the dark. Cheap, ugly, brutish. He lies to his men. Betrays the mercenaries that fought for him. Leaves Muradin to die in the snow. Claims Frostmourne. Kills his father. 

     And Stratholme burns, burns, burns.

[dndplus]

In-Depth: Villains, Part 1

I go over Villains somewhat in my Getting Started series of posts, specifically in the ‘Making an Adventure’ segment.  It’s enough to get a Dungeon Master started with a simple villain, but I didn’t go into much detail on how even the examples were made or why those options in particular were brought up.

If you’re interested in something simple, or simply don’t know much about making an adventure in general, you can find those posts here:

     Getting Started: Making An Adventure, Part I

     Getting Started: Making An Adventure, Part II

For everyone looking to do a little more with their villains, the sections below will detail several methods I employ, as well as how and why I go about using them.  These can especially helpful if you have trouble keeping your players engaged and focused on your villain.

To do this, and to better explain it to others, I’ve broken my method down into several parts that will not only help you organically create a villain, but also tie that creation into their introduction to the party and act as inspiration for the adventures you create going forward.

The steps in question:

Motive, Station, Mentality, and Ability (Part 1 ends after this...)

Introducing the Villain to Your Party

The Villain’s Lackeys

Evolution

The Hill They Die On

Some of these steps are going to take less time than others, and some you might choose not to do, but all of these choices are equally important to the process of creating villains that will be unique and varied across a campaign.

Motive, Station, Mentality, and Ability

Why they do it, the means they have, what type of person they are, and what they’re capable of really sums up the framework of a villain in every way imaginable.  This arrangement, their “MSMA”, can be used for every character, but it’s especially important for a villain, even if it’s only a minor one.

     Motive

The motive precedes everything else.  Regardless of who a villain is, they have something they want to do, or, more important, you as as the DM have a story you want to tell.  The scope of the motive is very important here, and should be enlarged to match the importance of the villain.

A minor villain should have a very basic motive...  

A necromancer abusing a town’s graveyard to create undead (whether it be for a purpose or just to expand their knowledge and experiment) is a very good basic motive.  You know this is a bad guy breaking the law, as they care only to further themselves and do it at the expense of others.  Their work is dangerous, illegal, and was probably discovered because some poor soul was eaten by one of their zombies.

A moderate villain should have a quirk to their basic motive, making it more elaborate and take longer to accomplish...

That same necromancer becomes an entirely more dangerous foe with a deeper purpose to their motive.  They could be relatively kind, believing in the long run that their ‘work’ will benefit the world more than it harms it.  In this way, the players’ journey for justice becomes less obvious than black and white, as the necromancer might make a good argument for their actions and drag an adventure out by taking time to reveal whether or not they’re at all to be trusted.

A major villain should have a motive that would inspire incredible effort on their part, as well as instill in the players that they fight someone who may be more determined to succeed than they are to stop them...

A necromancer, like many dangerous wizards, becomes their most terrifying when they are pursuing a singular, seemingly out of reach goal.  Having a truly sympathetic reason to enhance this can help, a common one being that a necromancer seeks to use necromancy to restore a loved one whose death has left them beyond saving by ordinary magical means.  Some players may even be sympathetic to the cause, and think helping the villain and keeping them out of trouble would be a wiser course of action, but then discover the ancient ritual they’ve discovered (or the new one they’ve invented) requires the sacrifice of hundreds, possibly even an entire town or city.  The scope is massive, one that befits a major villain, and offers opportunities for their plot to unfold over time instead of all at once.

Understand also that simpler motives can be used for major villains as well, especially if the villain themselves (like a dragon) has the means and power to threaten it on a massive scale.  For instance, a bandit might seek to take over a town, while an elder dragon could scheme to seize an entire kingdom!

These are just examples, the text in bold is what you’ll want to focus on.  Giving you more than the frame and some examples is somewhat impossible here, as the villain’s motive is essentially the foundation of your adventure/campaign.

     Station

A character’s station in society sets the stage for your adventure/campaign.  That station can also demand you explain how a character gained certain abilities, such as why a noble might be a master thief, or why a street urchin has grown into a crime lord with powerful magical abilities.  

In this way, a criminal mastermind is revealed to have risen to power through their own natural and incredible sorcerous powers, or perhaps because a powerful patron turned them into a warlock when they formerly had nothing, and made them fiercely loyal because of it.

All of this is a tool to combine locales and form a unique backdrop.  It can insert fiends into a narrative, or fey, or other bizarre creatures.  It can give a character seemingly acting alone interesting contacts from their past, or can act as a major revelation that spells doom for the villain (finding out a master thief is actually a noble can be shocking, as well as give the players a more powerful way to go after such an evasive opponent).

How you use a character’s station to advance and enrich a story is entirely up to you, and you may not even use it at all.  It’s simply another tool to improve your adventures and storytelling ability.

A character’s station can be incredibly exotic, though.  If your great villain is a dragon, their ‘station’ in life is now something entirely different.  Luckily, the Monster Manual will tell you about these creatures in their entries, and you can then extrapolate a result based on it.  In this way, a dragon becomes an overlord with its own army, or a solitary creature with an elaborate and dangerous lair.  

Likewise, an Aboleth might live off in some secluded place with a small population of creatures worshipping it as a god, or it could be hidden beneath a kingdom, and in the process of enacting a scheme to take control from the shadows that’s been thousands of years in the making.  In the first example, an Aboleth is a potential moderate villain, whereas in the second, it’s a major one whose identity as an Aboleth may not be discovered till very late in the campaign.

     Mentality

I’ve touched on this a bit already, back in Getting Started: Making An Adventure, Part II.  A villain’s mentality is not something you should skip, as it influences much of how they scheme, and also how they fight.  We spend our entire lives interacting with others, so imagining a way for a person to act isn’t all that difficult.  That said, let’s talk about why you might choose a specific way for someone to act based on the situation...

In the example of a noble who is secretly a master thief, a change in mentality can create a completely different series of adventures and confrontations indeed.  

For instance, you might make them arrogant and haughty.  They’re not so much cruel in their thievery as they are oblivious to how it harms others, and as a result find the sport of the whole thing its attraction.  This character is unlikely to do much killing, and may serve as a prime candidate for the players to try and capture alive (as they don’t necessarily deserve death).

On the other hand, that same noble might becomes a menacing, dangerous, and possibly even horrifying opponent when you attach the moniker of sociopath to how they act.  They might take things simply because they want them, or to prove their superiority and stave off the boredom of a boring noble lifestyle.  This same master thief might start as someone who finds the players chasing him as an amusement until they discover his identity, at which point he become something closer to a manipulative politician or assassin.  The players could find the noble working to pin his own crimes on them, or simply using their own stealthy abilities and ability to plan shrewd and cunning heists as a way to exterminate the players before they can prove they’re the thief.  Unlike the arrogant sportsman, this thief is now a murderous threat who doggedly looks to undermine, imprison, and even kill the players to save themselves.

When deciding on a mentality, understand that a character who is innately insane in some significant way will be much quicker to attempt to kill the players.  In this way, you get a villain who will try to fight the players immediately.  The less insane a character gets, or rather, the more stable they are, the more time you’ll have to build towards a confrontation (a big deal, especially if you plan to have many and the character in question is a major villain).

You can also have a kind character as your villain, such as in the example of a necromancer trying to bring back a loved one.  This villain is nice as you can have them ‘win’, but decide not to kill the players because they’re trying minimize casualties in their scheme.  This sort of villain might have their mental state degrade over time, or all at once when the players finally get the upper hand and ruin their plan.

If motive is the frame for your adventure, a villain’s mentality is the style it’s built in.  A devil can be menacing, or silly, or both.  A necromancer can be brooding, or misunderstood, or wicked.  A thief can be a smiling, sporting fellow who really doesn’t mean anyone harm, or a cold, egotistical maniac who’ll kill you to keep things quiet.

     Ability

And here we are!  If your villain is a dragon, or an aboleth, or a beholder, or a devil, or a hag, you know their abilities.  You might choose to add some, as their station and mentality might push them to have unique quirks in that way, but their abilities are pretty static.

For humanoid figures, a character’s abilities are split into two major categories: player abilities, and non-player abilities.  One of these is obvious, and makes for a relatively easy to construct character - You make them like a player, and maybe splice in something extra from their unique background or through a magical item they wield.  The other, being of the non-player sort, can be more complicated.  If you’re well into a campaign, creating a character who will act as a worthwhile opponent to your players shouldn’t be too hard.  Otherwise, you can look for something at the Challenge Rating you’re shooting for and rig up abilities with similar number values. This can work from CR 1/4, all the way up to CR 26 (it gets a little more complicated after that).  

These abilities, no matter what they are or how you got them, should match the character in question.  A bandit chief, lord, or king, depending the scope, will have mundane powers and incredible natural combat ability.  An archmage, on the other hand, will deal exclusively in magic, while a warlock, or the priest to an evil god, might have a mixture of the two.  

The abilities of a villain also give us clues to the minions they might keep.  While a noble’s station can give them an army or order of knights to command, their dark dealings with a great old one of some sort (as a warlock, in this example) could add powerful, otherworldly beings to their arsenal.  

A character’s ability also denotes how a final confrontation might be structured.  A dragon lends itself to being a single, big foe if that’s what you’re after, whereas a humanoid foe will carry with them tricks or allies to shore themselves up.  The necromancer, obviously, will enter into battle with undead at their side, but the master thief might create a playground of deadly traps and abuse their evasive nature to lure players into them, before finishing them off after the trap has done its work.

The nice thing about deciding a villain’s abilities is that, after the first three steps of MSMA, it’s probably something you’ve already got lots of ideas for.  They’re a bi-product of the first three steps, and help to enrich the overall story instead of just being a creature’s vague capabilities.  By having all of it work together, you have the foundation for a compelling core to your adventures and campaigns, one that will likely prove more engaging to your players.

This will end Part 1 of the post.  I knew the MSMA section would be longest, so I included that here.  It’s also a lot of substance, and good enough to help a lot of players building NPC characters in general without the other half of the post.

Expect Part 2 sometime soon (within the next week).

[invokingbees]

I finished Dark Souls 2

So you know what that means!

Absolute fucking Biblical CUBIT of text under the break.

Dark Souls 2 is an oft-maligned game. Once a radically different product, its director was fired half way through and replaced, and the game pretty much rebuilt from scratch using already existing assets, story included. The first time I played DaS2, I didn't like it. I played a caster and had much less experience with the series than I do now, so suffice it to say that I gave up and respecced into a pure strength build because of Fume Knight and vowed to never play the game again because I found it so unenjoyable. But after being disappointed with Sekiro and needing a Souls fix, I reluctantly picked it up again, and with much more experience under my belt, I found myself actually really enjoying it, even more so than my three playthroughs of Dark Souls 1, which to some people, is tantamount to blasphemy. So let me talk about why I feel this way.

In Dark Souls 1, you are the Chosen Undead, with only a scrap of legend to lead you on a quest to save a world on the brink of falling into capital D Darkness. Of course that's all bullshit and is basically a conspiracy against humanity by the gods of fire who feared an age of humanity, an age of Dark. In Dark Souls 2, things are a little different. It appears to have been many many ages since the first game, so much so no one remembers Lordran, no remembers the gods, or Anor Londo or anything. It's been possibly hundreds if not thousands of years. You are again an accursed Undead, who has found themselves in the decrepit land of Drangleic, which long ago was brought to its knees by a war with the Giants from across the sea, after Drangleic's king, Vendrick, took something from them at the bidding of his mysterious queen, Nashandra. Vendrick sought a way to cure or circumvent the Undead Curse which turns all undead, eventually, into mindless Hollows. Alas, although Vendrick was close, he didn't make it, and fled from his queen and his kingdom after learning of her true nature and reason for sending him off to conquer the Giants. You, the Bearer of the Curse, like in DaS1, must collect powerful souls, but instead of linking the first flame and becoming glorified firewood, you must prove yourself a worthy monarch, traverse the continent, gather the Great Souls and take the Throne of Want, to inherit the Fire and conquer the Dark, to overcome the curse, or to leave it and seek something else.

Dark Souls 2 has a more personal scope and is actually the main reason I really liked it. You arrive in Drangleic 'without ever really knowing why' but find your objective fairly quickly. You're gently nudged by the Emerald Herald (the level up waifu) to seek the king and eventually discover he was looking for a way out of the curse. In DaS1 you're fed a grand narrative about the fate of the world and the gods and how you'll be the hero to save it all, but in DaS2, you're the bearer of a curse, a lost soul who's stumbled upon possible salvation and has no real other option but to pursue it. It's a salvation with a lot of responsibility, and you must ask yourself (and are asked by the King's brother, the nefarious Aldia) if that's really what you want. In the end, taking the Throne of Want inherits the fire and links it, takes the power of the gods and keeps it all running, but Dark Souls 2 gives this action a much more personal angle. You could have easily been fed a tale that the king needs a successor and that you must prove yourself in his trials, but no, Vendrick went hollow a long time ago and there's just nobody left to pick up the pieces. But it's all there, if you want it. And Nashandra does so hope that you do.

The idea of Want plays a great part in Dark Souls 2, which really cements the personal angle the game takes. The curse of life is the curse of want. The desire for power, security, knowledge. Vendrick wanted a way out of the curse. But this want factors into the game's real antagonists, the Shards of Manus, Father of the Abyss, who fled through the world and became the queens of four lands, all of which fell to ruin. They were weak creatures, they sought safety, they were envious, fearful, and Wanted. And you have to wonder, are they even to be faulted for what happened? Perhaps. But what about you? Your journey isn't a necessity, it's a want, you rail against fate. You kill and take souls because you want a way out of the curse, to surpass Vendrick's failures.

Dark Souls 2's atmosphere has this almost fairy tale-esque, mythical feel with kings and queens, giants and castles, crowns and thrones, but with the weird and dark twist of Souls lore. There is nary a mention of Gwyn, the first flame, I don't think the game has a single demon outside of the one in Shrine of Amana, and for all the complaints of the game calling back too hard to DaS1, I never felt it was anywhere near as intrusive as people say it is. DaS2 almost could have been its own thing. The different approach to its fantasy feels refreshing, moreso than Dark Souls 3, although truth be told I love that game's idea of an exhausted world being artificially forced to continue and falling in on itself. Dark Souls 2 doesn't even present a world ending threat, because there's other lands out there, Volgin, Forossa and Mirrah come up numerous times and seem to be doing just fine. Drangleic is a ruin to pick through for answers. There is no rush to link the flame, everything is placed upon your want to succeed. Quite meta, in a way.

Lore and atmosphere-wise, I'm very fond of Dark Souls 2. I love the whole lead up to finding Vendrick, hearing about this king, going through the land, fighting your way through the castle, feeling like your hot on his trail, fighting his royal guards, his personal bodyguard and then...you find a mindless husk wandering an empty room. That's a fantastic reveal.

Gameplay-wise, though, it's now time to get tough on DaS2. The game has issues, I won't lie, and they're just enough to bug me.

One thing that really bothered me are the weapon movesets which are, for the most part, abysmal. Nothing feels particularly satisfying and most of the choices just feel janky and awkward. Combat in the game is perfectly serviceable and at time it does feel good but the combat, really, is just fine never anything more. It never feels particularly meaty, but sure, Souls games aren't combat games and this isn't Bloodborne which required a more in-depth combat system. Casting is another matter, Souls magic never felt very good but DaS2 has a pretty good amount of variety to its spells.

The main game has some great areas, but also really just terrible ones. The two most glaring areas, for me, are Black Gulch, a frankly bullshit almost straight hallway lined with poison shooting statues that eat your weapon durability like no one's business if you want to be rid of them (also, this game's durability is a joke). It also has OHK grab enemies and worm enemies designed to just completely block movement. It's a bad, bad area with a shit Dirty Colossus rip off boss as one of its Great Souls bosses. Of course there's also Shrine of Amana, an area that was once nearly unplayable and was reduced to just frustrating and unenjoyable. Instant death drops everywhere, a near constant movement penalty, ranged attacks coming from all sides, all the time. Bad fucking area. There's certain sections of other areas that stick out, too, like the run to the boss in Huntsman's Copse, or the foggy forest in Shaded Woods with almost literally invisible enemies.

As for the bosses, they're mostly forgettable. They range from pretty cool gimmick battles like Looking Glass Knight, to complete fucking trash like Royal Rat Vanguard or Authority. I really appreciate DaS2's amount of DeS-like gimmick bosses, especially since DaS3 went real hard with the JUST LIKE ARTORIAS stuff but shit like Executioner's Chariot, tone it down for fuck's sake. At least take out the necromancers if you must have skeletons. I wil say, DaS2 gets flak for having lots of dudes in armour, but to me, it fits the tone of the game, even if some of them are a bit crap. The base game's final bosses, though, are a shame. Nashandra is barely a fight and Aldia even less so. He's immensely tedious and there's just nothing fun, interesting or satisfying about it. He sticks out as one DaS2's worst moments and was clearly added as an afterthought.

The DLCs, I'm actually not the biggest fan. Most people say the DLCs are better than the main game, but Brume Tower? Kinda sucks. It's drab, its boss is frustrating, there's not much to do, Maldron the Assassin is there. Shulva, Sanctum City? Much better, great aesthetic, nice level design, but then it throws in LMAO POISE enemies all over the place, and not just that, but the constant threat of poison and the return of Black Gulch poison statues. Eleum Loyce? Has the best bossfight in the entire game, that's for sure, my heart aches for the Burnt Ivory King, but there's little things here and there and that sour a mostly fine experience. The return of Maldron the Assassin, for one, and of course the fucking spiky rat fucker Wheel Skeleton 2.0 bullshit enemies who can and will kill you in seconds.

Also the intro where you meet the Firekeepers is just fucking awful, oh my GOD.

Overall, Dark Souls 2's bad moments are bad, they're terrible, but let's not forget Dark Souls 1 had the entirely of Lost Izalith, the Demon Ruins and Blighttown, and Dark Souls 3 has TWO poison swamps. The good parts of Dark Souls 2, its amtosphere, its art style, its general tone, are sorely overlooked and sometimes outright ignored in favour of, in my opinion, overbloated nostalgia for Dark Souls 1. Dark Souls 2 has a lot going for it, it has combat mechanics like power-stancing which is great, it has a totally overhauled NG+, it has variety and weird gimmick weapons and armour the ass, it has fantastic fashion, it's a good fucking game and deserves praise for the good things it did. And like the other Souls games, criticism for the things it fucked up on. But regardless, I'm glad we have them, and I'm really glad I've played through Dark Souls 2 again. It deserves to be played.

[ninjakitty15]

Chapter 12: Of Gods and Bondage (Loki x OFC Pairing)

They say people love and choose to accept life while fear death because life is a beautiful lie while death is the painful truth. In theory that's true although death itself isn't painful, only the transition to it is which means it's actually life that's painful, you don't feel much of anything when you're dead...unless you're me. Loki was a beautiful master of lies himself but was accepted and loved by few, while I was a pain in the ass necromancer that ruled the dead, so in a way we were stark opposites, our magic/power cancelled each other out in a way. We did have a few things in common though, betrayed by our own people, demi-gods, a fondness for daggers. I sometimes wondered just what he saw in me though, a quiet tall, ever observing man like himself going for the unquiet undead zombie queen. It couldn't just be the great sex or what we have in common though. He seemed far too clever to go for that alone. Then I wondered what his reaction would be when he really sees what I am, what I can do. Would he be afraid, intrigued? He rarely showed any fear, curiosity definitely, and caution, but he was probably trained his whole life to never show fear or weakness no matter what he was faced with.

I studied his face when he thought I wasn't looking while we stood in the park and enjoyed the tranquility. He told me stories of Asgard, the golden city, the glorious realm, things he missed terribly that unfortunately my realm couldn't compare. He spoke of other realms his brother, their friends, and he were sent "to keep the peace" which really meant beat the living shit out of till they surrendered and followed Odin's rule. The more he spoke of his past, the more I came to see just how and why he loathed his father so much, the guy, god or not, was a massive bully and I hated those cretins.

"Thor says its not a place but a people and the people there sound like they royally suck, pun intended, so if you think about it, Asgard wasn't really your home if you didn't feel all that welcomed there. Home is where the cuddles are."

"Are you trying to convince me you're my home now?" he asked in amusement.

"Is it working?" I replied hopefully.

He paused during our stroll and opened his mouth to retort but nothing came out as his expression of mirth turned to caution. "Do you hear that?"

I blinked and listened and if I could feel the cold again, I'd probably have goosebumbs, there wasn't a sound in the park, no bird, no barks of dogs being walked, no people talking or leaves rustling. "My zombie senses are tingling." Utter silence was completely unnatural, even when there wasn't a soul in sight.

Loki must have sensed  something because he suddenly spun around, his back to me and seemed to use himself as a shield once more before his body went rigid then twitchy in front of me as he fell. I dropped to my knees by his side, his veins bulging, his face contorting in agony and I saw something small and metallic attached to his neck and put two and two together.

"The voltage will go up before you can touch it," a new voice warned me.

I didn't move from where I knelt but narrowed my eyes and looked for the owner of the voice that jumped from a tree to the ground. A hydra agent judging by the symbol on his otherwise blank black uniform. Others appeared from their own hiding spot.

"Do as I say and his blood won't boil and fry him alive from the electrical shocks."

My eyes went to Loki's though rage boiled my own blood at a bunch of asshats knocking down my god so easily. He couldn't even nod let alone talk but his eyes seemed to say enough to make me do as they said. I looked back to the man with the machine gun and narrowed my eyes.

"Stand up slowly, hands where we can see them and don't move unless we tell you. Boys, search her for any arcane weaponry."

I did as commanded and stood up and was immediately surrounded and padded down for anything which I almost found amusing as I was the weapon, why would I carry more?

"Nothing, sir," one reported.

I smirked at this, not taking my eyes off the commander who glared hard at me. He walked over to me, probably thinking he was safe if I was unarmed, and grabbed me by the throat.

"Tell me where they are or I'll crush your windpipe."

"You know what I'm not doing? I'm not using my windpipe," I hissed. "What is dead can never die."

He squeezed harder before letting go but didn't back down. "Lock em both up separately, if I can't break you, I'll break him and make you watch. Make sure they're not being watched either, we wouldn't want to have a tail."

They cuffed Loki from where he lay stiff on the ground and muzzled him as well like they had with me, then turned down the metal patch on his neck so he could at least stand for himself before forcing him away from me as I let myself be cuffed as well though they didn't bother with the muzzle on me this time, I was already too pissed for words anyway. We were led to a super shady looking armored truck, the commander sitting across from me, hands not leaving his firearm.

"They told me you couldn't be broken, they showed me recordings of what they tried on you and how you'd just smile or mock them when they stuck you full of blades and experiments."

"I've been told they tried that on me for five years...you know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Your scientists are actually legit mad, not just evil, have fun with that."

"Oh don't worry about that, if we can't do it to you, we'll do it to someone less immune to our methods." He glanced over at the silently fuming god at the other end of the truck.

"You think this is the first time someone I love has been used against me that I'd just roll with your punches?" I asked incredulously. "Or is it because you people are terrible at judgments of character that think I've been alone till him? Did the ones you roped into your mess tell you about me? I mean really tell you about me? Did they explain why I don't feel physical pain? Why I can't be killed? Or are you the type to just go in guns blazing and skip the questions entirely till someone drops dead?"

"They told me enough."

"If that were true, you wouldn't be doing  this, you'd drop this entire mission of yours and leave the necromancy to the few of us left that haven't changed sides. Because if you did know enough about me...you'd run and you'd sleep with one eye opened till I drag your soul to hell and use your empty skull for a cereal bowl."

"You really think that will scare me?"

"I work at a screampark, I know full well what makes even the toughest soldiers tremble, if you break him, you're next."

"You're in no position to threaten me."

"You sure? The way I see it, you need me more than I need you. You think by torturing him that I'll comply when you're only really giving me that much more reason to tear you apart, your actions are the tinder on which you burn. Then again by killing the others and attempting to break me before this, you got my attention so either way you're still fucked. I'm in every position to threaten you and so much more."

The truck stopped before he could retort and we could hear even more soldiers coming to the truck, no doubt to make sure we don't do anything against them or escape. We were led out and Loki was steered away from me and my line of sight while the commander and his team led me in the opposite direction elsewhere into the building that looked perfectly normal, nothing fancy, nothing suspicious, didn't even look abandoned like some hideouts were, people in business suits and briefcases were coming and going while I was being led in by the team. As I was being walked down to the basement I spotted another traitor I knew personally and stopped suddenly, not caring that I was completely surrounded and tapped on the glass wall separating him and the people he was working with from me. He turned around and went pale while I grinned maniacally. "Hiya Georgie!" I then let the team drag me away, I had left my mark on him, he knew what would happen the second I got free and found him. I was led to a large control type room with giant glass container filling up about half of it, a control panel on one side most likely for whatever's being contained. A middle aged man with scars distorting his face wearing an expensive business suit stood at the center of the room along with two scientists in lab coats and clipboards. He turned when he heard me walk in with the team and set his sights on me before glancing at the commander.

"Ah good, you caught her again, let's hope we have better luck and results this time around. My name is Dr. Feist, I'm the head of this operation and you are Noelle, are you not? The infamous necromancer that leveled an entire building without needing any explosives."

"And yet you thought it smart to bring me into another building?" I questioned.

"Well yes, we couldn't do any of this out in the open where we can be repeatedly interrupted by your new friends and if you try anything we don't want you to do well..." he snapped his fingers and the door to the glass cell opened up and Loki was suddenly thrown into it, the door sealing shut behind him as he got to his feet and bright abnormal looking lights clicked on in the cell.

I glanced at the panel controlling the room and back at Loki as he looked around attempting to get a bearing on his surroundings while the lights got brighter and I suddenly realized what was going on as he seemed to almost wilt where he stood before sitting down on the built in bench. They essentially put him into a small greenhouse, melting the Frost Giant.

"How long do you think he'll last in there?" Feist continued. "His people couldn't survive outside their own frozen planet without the casket of ancient winters I'm told."

My eyes didn't leave Loki as his normally stiff, proper posture seemed to deflate with the rising heat in the room, he looked tired, worn down, like it was a struggle just to sit and stay awake for him. "What do you want?"

"Every necromancer carries a blade and a stone, where are yours?"

"They already searched me, but you'll have to take me out to dinner before you can strip me yourself."

"Then where if not on your person?"

"Where only I alone can get to it, but I'm sure you already know what happens when someone not marked tries to play with things that aren't theirs."

"Clever lady. You're right, we can't touch them, that's why we brought in people who can."

I snickered at this. "The others you either bribed or threatened to join forces with? Let them try."

"Well since you don't have those things we were hoping for, we'll find other uses for you while we have you. Put her in the other holding cell for now while we dig deeper."

I was led away from the controls and down to the level where Loki was kept to another cell but before they could shove me in, I bolted to Loki's desperately and pressed my hands against the glass between us. He saw me despite the heavy eyelids and it damn near broke my heart seeing him look so weak as he held a hand up to match mine against the glass. Our eyes met once more before I was forced away and locked in.

[displacedleylines]

Science of Magic: Undeath in Azeroth

So I’m a gigantic nerd that really loves meshing science into fantasy settings. Largely because what’s scientifically impossible for us here on this Earth is doable in these other worlds. Which means the laws that bind us to not being able to shoot fireballs from our hands don’t apply in worlds like Azeroth. Which means if you really like science because figuring out how the world works is really fun and exciting for you, then a fantasy world that breaks so many real-world rules is like being invited into Wonka’s Factory.  It’s no longer...”Oh, we just can’t shoot fireballs” to “Hm. I wonder how magic does the thing?”

Arthur C. Clarke is a science fiction author who has penned three laws, the third being wildly cited and referenced in popular media. My first introduction to these three laws was when the 7th Doctor quoted that ever-popular third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.“ For the sake of completion, and because they’re relevant to this post, the other two laws are: “When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, they are almost certainly right. When they state that something is impossible, they are very probably wrong.” “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” Moving on! To say that there’s science to magic isn’t trying to discredit or get rid of any mystique magic has on Azeroth. Spells and things affect the world and the people there just like any other non-magical force here on Earth. So this is less of trying to say that magic isn’t real, it’s all science, but more of using science to theorize about the effects of Magic. You’ll see what I mean in a bit. Undeath is easily one of the most influential pools of magic to have shaped Azeroth since its introduction to the world. There are even various ways to be dead and you can still have some form of brain function despite your level of decay. Or, seemingly lack thereof. Anyone who has rolled a Death Knight or paid attention to the massive amounts of NPC’s of that class running around would know that there are many Undead out there that aside from the eyes and the voice, and sometimes skin tone, you’d have no idea they were dead. This seems to play into how they became a Death Knight, or how soon after death they were raised. There are also non-DK NPC’s that also fall into this boat, so consider them included in this tirade. We all know that how quickly a body decays depends on a lot of different factors. Was it embalmed? Was it buried? Is the body lying in a desert? Water? Forest? Etc. And many critters also play into this, I’m looking at you, maggots, bacteria, carrion beetles and sometimes the occasional deer! Among others. So it stands to reason if your Undead is looking pretty good, it’s because they were either slowly corrupted into undeath or they were raised not long after death. Potentially even right away in the middle of a battlefield. But then, if they’re resurrected instantly and have no chance to properly decay what makes them Undead and not just....alive? Simple! (And it can even play into the status of Undead that are further along in their decomposition too.) When resurrected, it restores brain function (in some form or another) enough so that the Undead can do things like move, talk, see, hear, etc. And it restores the cells in a body -partially. Bacteria doesn’t eat us alive (aside from the rare strains) in part because our skin is always replenishing itself and because human cells are too darn big for them to consume. It’s after death when the cells start to burst that the bacteria get to wriggle in and work its decomp magic. So, once you get that good ol’ yoink from that Necromancer, your cells return to doing what they do best. With one exception. They no longer divide and replenish. Because they don’t need to.(And also because no Necromancer is that good.) Even if your heart is beating out of reflex or some magic mishap, it doesn’t matter because you don’t need your blood to transport oxygen anymore. Hell, you’re only taking breaths because you’re so used to doing it. You’re talking, you’re walking, you’re using magic yourself and your cells are functioning just enough to prevent you from decomposing in the best case scenario. Necromancy is like the magic version on embalming! With the added bonus of pulling your soul back out of that afterlife and into a strangely preserved body. Might not even be yours if the person who raised you is experimenting or if a Warlock is involved!  Unlike being resurrected by the Light, Nature or Spirit based magic, Necrotic magic doesn’t restore you. It really is just shoving you back into your body and using magic to do whatever needs to happen to keep you from decaying further (or at all) and falling apart.  I’d say a really good or powerful Necromancer, if able to instantly raise you can probably ensure your undeath is comfortable and maybe even leave you feeling a bit free. So then, if you’re looking as good as Sylvanas why would death be awful? Or painful? Why feel the need to proclaim how badly you’re suffering? Simple. Like any other spell, the magic probably doesn’t last forever. Unless brought back by something that embodies death itself, and just like embalming, eventually the bacteria WILL get to work. There are items and allusions to this in game, that there’s a bit of upkeep to staying undead. Unless you were personally raised by the Lich King right after death or given special attention by a Val’kyr.... You’re going to need some work done sooner than those lucky ones. “Lucky”, being used loosely here. Not to mention, you can’t go to the light anymore to get fixed. It hurts now. As seen with. Bolvar. The light and light-based healing will try to heal the corruption of undeath, and not actually restore life to you.  Like you know when you put bactine or salt or lemon on an open wound? But it doesn’t heal anything? Yeah. Like that! Being ressurected by the light, I’d say, would be like being resuscitated in a hospital. (You can get resurrection sickness in game, but that’s a topic for another day.) It brings you fully back to life, restores you completely. Yay! The light won’t hurt. Being resurrected into Undeath would be like being filled with embalming fluid before being resuscitated by a doctor. Fantastic, you’re thinking and moving again but your body is devoid of normal fluids and is preserved and won’t age. Or. cell divide. Or function in ways that a living person would do. And when you come in contact with the light, it will try to purge that embalming nonsense out of you and it will hurt like a bitch because ultimately it can’t. TLDR; Necromancy is the magic version of emblaming a body after death, with the added ability to either return a soul to the now preserved corpse or to allow a ghoul, abomination, other mindless undead thngs, to move and function in some way, without restoring actual natural life to the body. In a really, really weird way, Necromancy is anti-bacterial. Which I’d imagine is really good if you’re an Unholy Death Knight. Or Heigan. It’s probably also how Scourge minions can be such effective carriers of death causing bacteria without out it decaying them right on the spot, or causing further decay if they already are. This post can also double as a PSA that after-death care could be something that exsists on Azeroth and that your DK should make that appointment soon. ;) In all seriousness, if you want to take “Plague Doctor” OC’s to the next level and have them provide services to Undead to upkeep their elbalming spells to prevent unwated rot and decay it could be a really fun twist on your traditional Necromancer OC. I could go further into things but this post is already really long, and if there’s anything specific about Undeath you’d like to see talked about in another post, feel free to let me know!  Or if there’s any other kind of magic on Azeroth you’d like to see mixed in with science tell me about that too! I’ll do more of these for sure, regardless. Just wanted to hash this one on. Might refine later.

[bestfriendforhire]

Children of BFFH, Entry 73

 “Care if I do some scouting now that we’re away from Ashengarde City?” asked Rona hopefully.  Having a character name that matched her actual name was convenient, but I still had her on my list.  When she had asked me to join her and some friends on a quest, I didn’t really expect anything as grandiose as this, nor as time-consuming.

 “Good plan.  I’ll cover the ground.” replied Holly Wood, who appeared to be a River Elf.  She had a bow and several types of swords.  Though Forest Elves were constantly fighting my people for land, River Elves were too far away to care about Muckbluck Goblins.

 I scanned my list for the player name that Rona had provided me.  “Doc” was what she had told me.  Was she actually named that?  If not, why would they call her a doc?

 “Anyone willing to carry my pack?” questioned Rona.  “Gets in the way if something attacks me.”

 “I’ll take it.  Perseverance can carry a lot.” I told her, having my character accept the moment she offered.  On one hand, a Paladin was guaranteed to be the most trustworthy ally, but handing over these ridiculously expensive packs with their even more expensive contents was insane.  Though Rona and I have been texting, we only met two days ago.

 My jaw dropped open as Rona changed into a black bird and flew away.  I’d have never guessed that her character was a shapeshifter.  Was that racial or a spell she knew?  Actually, I didn’t have a clue what any of these people could do.

 “Where’s Holly?” I questioned, realizing I couldn’t see her.  “I was going to assist her, since my stealth is decent, despite my armor.”

 Damien’s laughter was easy to recognize, despite being muffled from the coffin he was in.  “You’d never keep up.” he insisted.  I certainly hadn’t expected several characters to be vampires.  They all had very stereotypical coffins, hauled in a wagon covered by a canvas.

 “What Greythorn is trying to tell you is that Holly is a Ranger, as in the title.  She’s the best tracker and scout among us in the wilds.” explained Peredur, a tall fairy-like boy brown hair and gossamer wings.  He looked like a type of melee combatant with several weapons strapped to him.

 According to my list, that was… Four?  I really hoped his parents hadn’t numbered him.  I was fairly sure my clan had a NPC Ranger, but I didn’t have a clue what a player had to go through to get the title.

 “That does sound advantageous.” I admitted, wishing I knew more than that these were Four’s friends.  None of them sounded like adults, but did they all know Damien in person?  “If you don’t mind my asking, how did all of you meet?” I questioned.

 There was a brief pause before anyone replied.  Then Anima said, “Excluding Rona, we’re the children of Best Friend For Hire.  We all grew up playing this together where our parents work.  Since you’re going to see some strange things from my character anyway, I might as well tell you that my mom is the game’s developer, giving my character a unique inheritance.”

 Anima looked like a human priest.  She wore a perfectly white robe with silver trim and a black belt that held her morningstar and a dagger, so I assumed she was a healer, though most people focused on healing also carried a shield.

 “She means to say we inherited some admin-like abilities.” asserted Justine, sounding giddy.  Justine was probably human, though her skin and hair were perfectly white.  She wore a short skirt and a tight-fitting top, both in black.  The gold stripes on them made her look like some sort of superhero.  Lifting the enormous hammer strapped to her back would take inhuman strength outside of the game.

 Messy and Crazy were the supposed names of these two.  Was Rona just messing with me, or did they really call one another that?

 “So you’re sisters?” I asked, trying not to say anything embarrassing as my brain struggled with the idea that I was playing Ancient Tribes of Earth with the creator’s daughters.

 As Justine laughed, Anima said, “No.  Technically, she’s my niece, but we’re about the same age.  My sister is older.”

 “When you say admin-like, what sort of abilities do you have?” I asked hopefully.  Realizing she might not want to tell me, I quickly said, “Sorry.  I am curious, but you don’t have to say, though knowing what all of you can do might help if we get into a fight.”

 “Just listen to Ella or Four.  Ella probably remembers you exist by now.  She’s our de facto battle master when Four doesn’t take charge.  He’s our leader.” explained Kyduan, whom Rona named Aid.

 “Remembers I exist?” I prodded, not sure what to think of that.

 “Ella has very poor short-term memory.” explained Anima.  “As for my abilities, I can do things like this.” she stated just as an elephant appeared next to me.  “I ran into some trouble a few months ago, so I’ve been working at leveling my unique skills.  I can summon a large variety of the game’s creatures now.”

 “I spawn weapons, not creatures.” asserted Justine, using the shrug emote.

 “Okay…  so Anima is a healer with beast summoning, and Justine is a fighter?” I asked to confirm.

 “Yes, I primarily heal, so good way to think of us.” replied Anima.

 “I’m working on a Wizard title, so I have a very large number of diverse spells.” supplied Kyduan.

 “What’s that one give you?” I asked, feeling curious.

 “A flat twenty-five percent off on spell cost, twenty-five percent increased effect, and a number of unique spells.  The real trick to getting it is keeping all spell skills balanced for an extended period.  I have to do non-combat spells constantly to keep them on par with my other spells.” he explained.

 “If we explain what we can do, will you be able to remember which is which?” questioned Ada, who was walking by Adele, Adeline, and Adelaide.  The only distinct difference between the Elven girls were their weapons.

 I wasn’t even certain what type of Elves they were.  “I’ll certainly try, but… why did you make your characters so similar?”

 “We’re quadruplets.” stated Adeline, though she sounded exactly the same to me.

 Then Adelaide said, “Identical quadruplets.”

 “We’re used to matching.” added Adele.

 “I go to school with identical twins, but I haven’t met quadruplets before.” I admitted.

 Before I could say more, Holly came running toward us, calling “Hármann raiding party coming our way on blighthounds.”

 “How many?” asked Peredur immediately.

 “Around thirty.  I didn’t take the time for an accurate count, but I didn’t see any Pride Marks.” she replied.

 If I remembered right, Hármann painted their bodies as displays of their previous victories.

 “I took count!” exclaimed Rona as she came swooping down to land on Peredur’s shoulder. “Thirty-three of them.”

 “Can you control your minions from the air?” asked Four.

 “You bet!” she exclaimed.

 “Try to get them around to flank while flying circles over the Hármann party.” ordered Four.  “We’ll move to intercept, so Megwrn can see what we can do.  Ella, ambush plan.”

 Seemingly without even needing time to think, Ella said, “Right.  Mounted Hármann.  Aid stay with the cart and give the vampires cover on my mark.  They’ll charge in from the side after we engage.  Doc will create a trench in front of their charge, aiming to trip their mounts.  Then standard wall and assault formation.  Rona, use your magic to keep them funneled after the trench is deployed.  Some might try to escape the open side of our formation.  Messy, summon something ferocious if any get through the walls.  Layla, you’re part of the wall, so front line on the left, please.”

 “Wait.  My duty is to first try to make peace first.  As violent as they are, Hármann are intelligent.” I explained, knowing my new friends weren’t experienced at playing with a Paladin in their party.  “Also, what minions?”

 “Rona’s a Necromancer.  Don’t worry.  They’re not inherently evil.” supplied Justine.

 I had no experience with necromancers at all, so I had to take her word for it.  I was a little disturbed that I missed the fact we had Undead following us somewhere nearby.

 “In that case, hurry off to meet them.  When diplomacy fails, charge toward that thicket.” ordered Ella as she made her character point.  “We’ll reach there in time to hide.”

 I replied with the nod emote and hurried off.  This wasn’t how I was used to playing, but the experience would be good.  Small parties of my Goblin brethren rarely accomplished much compared with guilds like The Garde, and my solo play was largely just role-playing with the game’s NPCs.

 Spotting the raiding party, I rode out toward them, reigning Perseverance in a good fifty meters from them and casting Divine Presence to make me more noticeable while increasing my voice range.  Then I activated diplomacy and called “Please, stop and speak with me!”

 The riders turned as a group toward me and started speeding up.

 “If you do not slow yourselves, I’ll take that as a sign that you’re looking to fight.” I told them, frowning when there wasn’t a reaction.  With a sigh, I charged toward the thicket.  Diplomacy rarely worked on raiding parties, but I still hoped to pull it off eventually.  As I rode, careful not to outpace the raiders by too much, I pulled Hamchopper to the ready.

 When my mom decided to retire from the game, she had gifted me her giant cleaver, Hamchopper, as well as her armor and other gear.  Nekopawpaw had made Hamchopper a couple years ago as a special order through Uncle Mick, and the cleaver had proven its worth through countless fights.  Without the great gear, I probably wouldn’t have managed becoming a Paladin.

 Hearing the sounds of Hármann screaming behind me, I glanced back to see the back lines crashing into the front as a large pit opened in the ground.  By the time I was looking ahead again, spells and arrows were flying past me.  I hurried around to take my place, jumping off Perseverance as I reached the end of the line.

 A moving cloud of darkness charged into the Hármann raiders from the side, and the screams intensified.  When a zombie leaped onto the back of a Hármann who had attempted to flee, I realized that the fight wouldn’t even reach me.  I had seen some similar one-sided victories from the great warriors of my clan, but I never expected such a feat from other kids.