DracoLunaris

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1354(+3) (jr is napping, no xp for him)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (30/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (18/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(23/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino

”Not looking like a conveyor belt so far” Bowser noted with relief after he took in their surroundings, which appeared to be some kind of magician's lair.

There was no time for additional commentary however, as Gneidxick clearly wanted to get the show on the road. His hand plunged down into a top hat that was about as large as the Koopa King and pulled their opponent out of it.

”Giant animal. Classic” Bowser commented when confronted by the oversized bunny rabbit magician, while Kamek merely grumbled about that being his gimmick as he quickly mounted his broom and took off into the void filled with cards and roses surrounding the table. Unlike Bowser’s previous foe the oversized rabbit did not introduce themselves. Instead they let out a bout of manic laughter as they unleashed their fist spell, beginning the summoning of several rabbit skull shaped skulls around Bowser. These began to rapidly rotate around the king as they formed, phasing through the floor as they did so and in so doing making it abundantly clear that they were also forming below him even if he could not see them.

”Hey no fair, you can't just surround someone with projectiles like that!” Bowser yelled at the rabbit but the bunny seems to have little interest in fair play. Instead with another wave of its wand it completed the conjuration, causing the skulls to cease spinning and instead begin to closed in on the king.

The bunny cackled evilly as the ring closed in on the rapidly panicking Bowser until a call of ”Sire. Over here!” caught both of their attention. The rabbit scowled at the other magician, only for shock to suddenly grip its features as Bowser leaped sideways(!) into the void, laughing as he soared towards one of the other floating cards.

”Welcome to the third dimension cheater!”

As the ring of skulls crashed harmlessly together the rabbit ground its teeth together angrily before shouting wordlessly at the Koopa as he crashed into a floating card and barely managed to hold on as his momentum caused it to drift out further into the void. Then it formed another ring, not around either of the Koopas but instead around the card floating on the table, after which it gesture wildly to the gap at the bottom of the circle it had formed through which Bowser could have escaped. Then it crossed its arms and stared at Bowser angrily because in the rabbit’s opinion it was he who has cheated by going out of the bounds of the stage.

”Oh come on how was I supposed to see that!” Bowser yelled back as he continued to float away into the void. ”Don’t put the gap under ground next time!”

Several more bouts of yelling and gesturing resolved nothing as Bowser insisted that the rapid spinning made it impossible to see the gap and asking how was he supposed to know he had to stand on the card in-order to dodge the first cheap shot. This all gave Kamek plenty of time to sample one of the giant flowers. They tasted rather good in the wizened turtle’s opinion. His second breakfast was rudely interrupted however when the rabbit decided they were done with words, or rather frustrated about their inability to speak them in order to argue with Bowser, and went back on the offensive.

With a slash of their wand they formed a row of card suit symbols just ahead of them and then sent them hurtling out into the void after the now rather distant Bowser. One of these symbols was pink, but seeing as neither of the koopas were familiar with the mechanics of Gneidxick’s universe this meant absolutely nothing to them. Instead Bowser did as he had done before, launching himself from his card to another one before the line of symbols scythe through his former position, causing the two haves of the card to plummet down into the void.

”ALRIGHT IT’S ON,” Bowser roared before returning fire from his new perch by taking a deep breath and spitting out a massive fireball at the bunny. The weightless projectile rolled through the sky towards the rabbit who, after a short moment of sweat inducing panic, grabbed the sides of the hat he was in and hooped it to one side like they were in a sack race. After they came to a rest the two glared at one-another for an intense moment, which ended as Kamek’s own contribution, a swirling mass of 3 colored shapes, slapped into the rabbit.

Hostilities immediately erupted for a third time, with the rabbit sending wave after wave of projectiles at Bowser as he leapt from card to card, while simultaneously forcing Kamek to fly around avoiding rings of skulls. Meanwhile Bower and Kamek returned fire when they could, fire and magic bombarding the tabletop as the Rabbit bounced too and fro to avoid them. This went on until Bowser started running out of cards.

”Uh. Um. CHARGE!” he yelled, before launching himself back towards the table top, leaping from card to card as rings and waves tried to blast him to bits. Then with one final leap he hurled himself at the rabbit. Instead of dodging the rabbit saw their chance to end this and instead forming a wall of projectiles in front of the incoming turtle. In response Bowser retracted into his limbs into his shell and then, at the last second, Kamek cast enlarge upon him mid flight. The flying spiky shell increased in size for just a moment and then plowed thought he shots causing the spell to lose its potency. Bowser instantly shrunk back down immediately but thanks to the spel they made it through with only a few scratches to his name rather than suffering grievous bodily harm.

Bowser smashed into the stunned rabbit, rendering it literally stunned as the collision sent the bunny reeling while Bowser fell back down to the table cloth with a thud. The bunny shook its head to clear the stars floating around it’s skull, and then, once its sense quickly returned to it, grinned evilly. The turtle was out of cards to jump between, it thought to itself, and now he was trapped on the table where it belonged. Victory would now it’s to claim! This thought lasted right up until the point where a second not quite as massive hat was plonked down on top of it’s own, trapping it between both of the hat’s velvet interiors. Then it felt both hats were being lifted and before it could do anything the shaking began. The horrible horrible shaking.

Outside Bowser, enlarged by both his and the now static Kamek’s channel enlargement spell, gabbed the top of each hat and lifted them up while keeping their bottoms pushed together so that the rabbit could not escape. Then he began shaking both of them like a cocktail mixer.

After a minute of vigorous mixing the rabbit could take no more. A minute after that it finally managed to jab it’s wand out of a crack between the hats. Bowser immediately gabbed for it but discovered that it had not been poked out to blindly attack but instead to wave around a white neckerchief tied to the end in surrender.

In response revived and Thoroughly scrambled rabbit was unceremoniously deposited on the back onto the table by Bowser. With the thread dealt with Bowser immediately began to shrink back down as Kamek ended his spell and flew down to join his master, though not before he retirved one of the floating roses for a post brawl snack.

”Another spectacular victory over Gneidxick‘s minions your majesty” the wizard congratulated his king.

”Yep. That's what happens when you mess with the best!” Bowser replied smugly before tossing the rabbit magician’s wand, which had shrunk with him, to Kamek ”Here. Least we might get something useful out of this.”

Kamek thanked him and then, after a tap with his own wand to adjust and fix the size of the wand, popped it into a pocket in his robes. While the two had been congratulating themselves and mugging their foe the portal had opened leading back to the center. The two turned to go, but not before Bowser laid out some more criticism.

”So yeah, make the ring gap more obvious. Also no idea how you were supposed to deal with the walls in a flat plain. You need to put some work in if you wanna measure up to the best!” he told the bunny before hopping through the portal after Kamek, ready to spin the dice once more.

They missed the conversation between peach and Gneidxick by a long shot, but arrived just in time to watch as the green Kamek clone put the last touches to its very helpful creation.

Overlord: Momento Mori

Act I

Kladora was rather agitated by the tossing and turning of Zouyu in her lap as attempts to sooth his sleeping form proved futile. Kaldora was in the midst of a hushed decision of whether or not it was a good idea to try and wake someone up while they were having a nightmare with the herbalists when Zouyu suddenly awoke. Almost as soon as he did so he began to apologize for going overboard during the hunt, having seemingly grasped the cause of his unconsciousness on his own.

“It wasn’t your fault. We had no way of knowing this would happen after all. I’m just happy to know you are alright" Kaldora assured him, her tone kind and not at all put off by his animistic mannerisms. Quite the opposite in fact. She found them rather adorable and was as a result unable to resist the temptation to pet him a few times as he rubbed his face against her thighs.

Once that was all out of the way and Zouyu was given a clean bill of heath after a once over by the herbalist and dark priest the expedition set off for home once more, heard of Gorgonbulls in tow. Once they returned Zouyu bid Kaldora farewell with a hug, which she returned earnestly, before he set off to deal with business elsewhere

“What a lovely young man" Kaldora commented once he was out of sight, before turning back to her people. They still had plenty of work to do today after all.

---

Act II

In the time between the inaugural hunt and the second meeting the beast pens were abuzz with activity as the vampires did their best to settle into a new routine. The influx of Gorgonbull meat and access to the surrounding vegetation staved off the starvation that had threatened the pens on the first day, but the beasts’ ravenous appetites were far from satisfied. Subsequent lesser hunts had also revealed that simply relying on wild Gorgonbull population for meat would not be sustainable in the long run. It was while this eventual crisis was being debated that Kaldora was res-summoned to the throne room alongside the rest of the Chateau’s list of most powerful denizens. Once they were assembled Rodias laid out a rather elaborate plan to take over the small town located at the bottom of the mountain. A plan she had basically nothing to do with, which suited her just fine. The ongoing issue of finding food for the pens took president over a bunch of elaborate political intrigue in Kaldroa’s opinion, even if she couldn't wait to hear about how it all went down. That said, she could definitely see the usefulness of the end result of it all. Having a lovely little town as part of the Chateau’s domain could be quite the boon in her opinion.

“It would certainly be useful to have some intelligent help around.” Kaldora commented in response to Graft’s suggestion about employing the citizens of the nearby town “Our various low level undead minions can only do so much after all. You would not believe the trouble we’ve had down in the pens trying to get the thralls to act as shepherds without constant supervision!” the herbivorous creatures of the pens needed to be grazed (now that they couldn't simply import feed for them) and so too did the herd of Gorgonbulls they’d captured to feed the carnivores. Keeping them (and all the thralls managing them) in check was proving to be a rather time consuming task and it was not at all one that the vampires relished performing. Long boring hours out in the dangerous sunlight where none of their idea of a good time.

In response to her own instructions, which were to range out on a hunt with the lovely Zouyu by her side once more, she at first asked “Is there something in particular in the area that is of interest to you my lord? Or anyone else for that matter?” before Rodias’ final comment about overexertion reminded her of some information she had been meaning to disseminate among those gathered there.

Once the questioning and sugestions from the had quietened down a touch Kaldora retrieved her Wand of Commentary from her coat (which looked exactly like a fuzzy hand held microphone) and then proceeded to hop up onto the central table for a suitably dramatic vantage point to make an announcement.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. If I could have your attention for just a few moments before you head out!" Kaldora said, her tone crisp, clear and amplified by her wand .

“Now some of you may have heard about what I am about to say already" and certainly the vampires of the beast pens had been gossiping about what Kaldora was about to talk about to anyone who would lend them an ear “But for those that haven't I feel that it is vital to inform you that that we have discovered a rather dramatic difference in the way magic works in this world when compared to YGGDRASIL. The good news is that you can now use more Mana than you could previously, effectively going into negative mana values to keep fueling spells after you exhaust all of what would have been your limit back home. The bad news is that if you do so you’ll suffer from something we’ve started calling “Mana Burn” and it could be a threat to your very lives!"

Kaldora paused for a moment to let her proclamation sink in and draw in her audience before explaining “Now I hear you ask, what is Mana Burn? Well to put it succinctly, if you use too much Mana you will begin to suffer debilitating effects a short while after you use it. These start from light headaches and spiral downwards to being knocked unconscious. After unconsciousness things start to get really bad my darlings. Anyone knocked out by this effect will suffer horrifying nightmares that seem to drag on exponentially longer and more dreadful the more Mana you burn, while the amount of time you spend knocked out is simply linear. One of our brave volunteers claims to have spent what felt like a week in a realm of horrors despite only being knocked out for a few minutes.“

Despite the dire portent of her news for the most part Kaldora’s voice had been bright and cheerful. The woman was clearly enjoying the act of delivering the news to others even if it's contents being rather concerning. However even she could not maintain a merry disposition while saying what she said next “This state also harms the person’s vitals or life force in some way. How bad that can get we are unsure, as even with the death warding we have down in the training arena we didn't want to push anyone to the brink because of the physiological toll such an experience would inflict. Despite this I am quite certain that over use of Mana can and will kill you if you push yourself too hard.“

Kaldora removed her hand from where it had been pressed against her heart while warning the others about their potential demise and then returned to a slightly more upbeat tone “Now. I am aware that some of you might be weighing the risks here. It’s a tempting thing, particularly in a dramatic high stakes situation, to risk these effects In-order to win the day and I am, naturally, in no position to command you not to do so. Therefore I instead highly recommend that if you do intend to over use Mana that you ensure that you A. have a healer on hand to help you survive the after effects and B. that you dang well finish the fight you are in because you're going to be taken out of it shortly after exerting yourself to that extreme. Keep these things in mind, steel yourself against some absolutely dreadful night terrors and don’t go so deep into the red that you can never come back up again and you will probably be fine,“ she assured them.

“That's all I have for you for now my lovely audience. If you have any questions or any additional information about this phenomenon I’ll be more than happy to lend you an ear in just a moment. For now however I’ll let you all get back to your regularly scheduled content. Thank you all so much for listening. Ta-ta!“ Kaldora finally finished her speech with a bow before hopping down from the table and rejoining the assembled denizens of the Chateau with a wide grin etched upon her lips.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 847 (+2)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (27/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (18/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(20/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino

After a bit of dice rolling the team wound up with a whole four points in Gneidxick’s game and a few piles of items that they’d gotten from the sprites. Kamek thought the pile of various crude farm related items was contrasted nicely with the resplendent stack of gold coins and crystal shards topped off with a singular glowing star. Separate from the piles of kings and peasants there was a third stack containing two unlabeled vials of liquid, three smoke bombs and a chunk of the Thing’s crystalline flesh that seemed to induce calm rather than horror.

”Well that was an interesting haul. Nothing immediately helpful as far as I can tell, but it should be rather useful once we get out for buying things.” Kamek said thoughtfully as he took it all in. Money was always useful, as where strange magic bits and pieces

”Oh hey. You got something to drink!” Jr chimed in as he rejoined them, before grabbing for a bottle of Laudanum

”I suppose we di- wait no!” Kamek began replying before realizing the possible danger of imbibing something that came from an eldritch zombie and making a grab for the bottle. Sadly his aged reflexes were far too slow to halt the Boy from drowning the liquid.

”Blech. Ok. yeah. That was pretty gross, why didn’t you stop me from-” jr began to say to the now very worried mage before pausing briefly to yawn and then continuing to complain, ”stop me from drinking that huh?”

”I tried” Kamek replied with an exasperated sigh before asking ”How do you feel?” as he picked up the other bottle and inspected its label less exterior.

”I’m fine… Well. Kinda tired. Too much running. Also still thirsty. Gimme that other one” Jr replied before making a lazy grab for the second bottle.

”What? No!” Kamek said as held the bottle away from Jr ”Young master you cannot simply go around drinking things from unmarked bottles like that. It’s dangerous! Right sire?”

”Huh what?” Bowser(who had been attempting to absorb the Starite
as if it was a power star while the other two Koopas argued) said upon hearing his name before replying, ”Uh. Yeah. Sure. Listen to Kamek Junior,” having missed the entire context of what they were arguing about.

”Gah fine,” Jr groaned in response, his speech having become rather sluggish, before adding ”Then I’m gonna go take a nap then,”

From this he could not be dissuaded and so after a few moments Jr could be found laying belly down on the plush carpet snoring away with his head and limbs tucked away inside his shell, with only his new horn poking out the front.

After he was checked by the white mage Kameks to make sure he did not require healing Kamek instructed his clones, Mimikyu and a summoned swarm of Dry bones (who crawled their way out of the explosion damaged section of the table) to stand guard over the boy while the two elder Koopas got ready to head for another portal.

While they were doing so Linkle pointed out something seemingly obvious that they had all none the the less glossed until she brought it to their attention. Gneidxick’s eyes weren't red.

”Huh. Yeah that’s weird.” Bowser said to Kamek before pointing out the other obvious thing to the rest of the group which was that ”NEITHER WHERE HIS’S GOON’S”

”Interesting. Putting this together with what he said before about losing bets and seekers it seems Galeem‘s conquest was not quite as absolute as it seemed. Maybe it’s the dark magic resisting cloaks that spared them? Or others got away however our pink friend did. hmm” Kamek pondered aloud as he stroked his chin thoughtfully.

”Ha. Yeah he did lose a bet to someone didn't he. Guess the house doesn't always win huh. Whoever bet on us winning must be way smarter than this blockhead.” Bowser said mockingly,

”Perhaps. It would be very interesting to meet more of this gentleman's gambling partners that I can say for sure.” Kamek noted before turning his attention back to the glowing portals ”Ah well, we can speculate and ask questions later once we have the upper hand. For now, as someone who holds the coveted title of Game Mage, I’m very interested in playing this little game of his. If you would also like to do so Sire?”

”You’re the only one uh, ‘speculating’ here but sure. Let’s go see who else he’s got in this boss rush of his.” Bowser agreed before shouting ”THERE BETTER NOT BE ANY TREADMILLS IN THIS ONE!” up at Gneidxick.

With that all said and done the pair stepped through another portal together, only this time it did not end up shutting behind them. They left behind a bunch of rather stupid minions (and Mimikyu) guarding the sleeping jr, a collection of items with varying usefulness and a glittering pile of treasure.

While the dry bones ambled around as was their proclivity, the white mage Kameks darted around healing anyone who came out of their portals injured and the red mage stood to attention over Jr’s sleeping form the green one approached the pile of farming items. It paused for a moment, magical automaton mind whirring away as it identified a pattern within the pile, and then set to work building something out of the items found within.

Overlord: Momento Mori

Rodias so smrtz! Telling the resident hermit about his plans, knowing full well she doesn't know the slightest bit about anything going on outside her little room... Such a clever boy~

Poor Kath, she is now the center of gossiping Chateau-folk all over the Chapters! ... Except Graft's Guards don't really gossip, or talk... And Ashara's priestesses are too respectful to bad-mouth Kath... And the Bone Butlers are too butler-y to make rude remarks... And Salem's minions are too busy tearing each other apart to gossip about other things... And Gromgard's goblins are too goblin-y to understand what gossip is... And Isolde and her minions don't care about gossip... And ... You know what... Apart from Chuunitrixx own mimics and maybe Kaldrona's vampires, I don't think anybody will be talking much about it now that I think about it... xD

@Xaltwind

The background char vampires will be more than happy to make up for the lack of gossip ongoing in most other departments. Unless explicitly stated otherwise they are constantly chattering with one another about everything and anything like a colony of bats living in an dilapidated rumor mill.

Overlord: Momento Mori

Hunt for Answers

Kaldora trotted along beside the beast they had captured, content to let Zouyu’s energetic stream of consciousness wash over her until all at once is slowed to a halt. At first she thought the young man had been struck by melancholy upon his own mention of his master Yaoishi and was about to offer him words of reassurance when her nose picked up the scent of blood. She glanced in the direction of the smell just in time to see Zouyu sliding limply off of the side of his massive furry mount.

“Oh dear. That isn't good” Kaldora said, the shock of his sudden collapse muting here response so much that it took a moment for the rest of the hunt to catch onto what had happened. It was only when Zouyu came close to being trampled by an oblivious hunter's mount a few heartbeats later that Kaldora shook off her surprise with a cry of “Zouyu!” and she leapt off her horse to rushed to the were-tiger’s side.

Around her spooked horses and equally spooked vampires ground the expedition to a halt as half of its members turned inward to try and figure out what was going on while the other half drew weapons or looked warily outwards for unseen threats. Arthanar pushed himself through this mess on horseback to the center of the incident, where he found Kaldora kneeling down beside the limp form of Zouyu holding two fingers to his neck.

“Still alive” she was saying with a sigh of relief before looking up at the shocked Arthanar. The two locked their worried gazes and then both of them began shouting orders at their compatriots.

With only a little additional prompting Arthanar got the troops forming first into a defensive perimeter and then, once it was clear that nothing was going to attack them, sent some out hunting for possible snipers or assassins. Meanwhile Kaldora moved the fallen druid beneath the shade of a tree, where she was joined by two vampires, male and female who had secondary levels in dark priest and herbalist respectively. They where the best Kaldora had on hand when it came to healers for non beasts, but even then they weren't great. The dark priest focused mainly on healing undead like themselves, while the herbalist was there to cure status ailments inflicted by beasts and both were utterly stumped by Zouyu‘s condition.

The initial examination revealed he had no physical wounds which when combination with the scouts' failure to find any trace of anyone or anything hostile in the surrounding area ruled out the source of his collapse being an attack. The beast itself was inspected as a possible culprit, but suspicions that its fur might be poisonous were also quickly discovered to be unfounded.

“It is quite the conundrum” the Harbalist, who wore a witches hat on top of the sun shielding cloak and veils that all the vampires were draped in, stated. She sat beside Zouyu, who had been laid beneath a tree and atop a picnic blanket with his head rested upon Kaldora’s lap. The two vampiresses where examining a hovering low quality stats screen that the herbalist had summoned that was normally used to track allies' statuses in combat, but was currently being used as part of the medical examination.

“I’ve never seen this ailment before,” the herbalist explained to the beast mistress as she pointed to a small icon shaped like a grey star with a stylized downwards pointing dagger overlaid slightly off center on it. It was listed alongside a few others including one they recognized as unconsciousness and several others that they did not but had found present on everyone else they had examined by the spell as part of the investigation.

“Whatever it was it's done a number on the poor dear” Kaldora replied as she gently stroked Zouyu’s hair, her tone conversational with only a touch of worry remaining. After the Dark priest had done what he could to restore his physical condition and they were fairly sure Zouyu had been stabilized, his sizable healthpool was gradually ticking up from the low it had dipped too, but he still hadn't woken up.

“Whatever it was, its completely drained his mana pool” the herbalist noted as she pointed towards a bar that should have been brimming with blue, but was instead entirely empty.

“You missed his performance, but Zouyu certainly must have used quite a bit of mana when he trapped the beast over there. But I don't think it would have been enough to drain him entirely.”

“Well his MP is rather low for someone with MAG. ATK as their main attack stat.” the harbalist commented conversationally. As the pair tried to suss out what was wrong the rest of the party had set up a temporary camp around them. Arthanar had posted guards and sent out messengers to the foraging party who would now be coming to them instead of the other way around.

While the herbalist was in the midst of theorizing about the atmosphere of this new world being slightly poisonous to the living from their home realm Zouyu‘s mp suddenly started ticking up.

“Ah that’s good yes? Something must have changed to make that happen!” Kaldra said excitedly before the pair scrutinized the stats screen, which showed no change in status other than the very gradual filling mana bar.

“That makes no sense!” The herbalist exclaimed in frustration “Nothing Changed! If the statuses are all the same then it should have been ticking up all this time! SO why wasn't it?”

Kaldoa stared at the hovering screen for a few long moments before suggesting that “Perhaps it was then and the monitoring screen is broken? It was ticking up but we couldn't see it for some reason?”

“Want? No that’s not how magic works… or at least not how it did. hmm” the herbalist replied first with indignation and then with thoughtfulness before turning to Kaldora and, after getting her permission, casting the same stat viewing spell on her once again.

“Oh well now that is most certainly less than it used to be. I assure you that I could cast twice as many spells more spells than that bar seems to indicate.” Kaldora said after she cast a spell and noted how it dropped the bar by twice as much as it would have before they arrived in the new world. “It’s a shame this screen doesn't give exact details or we could compare numbers rather than just looking at valueless bars and icons" she noted.

“We'd need a dedicated healer class to get that I’m afraid” the herbalist apologized before she launched into a bout of theorizing,“So. Your guess was probably right. There’s now... Negative mana? Unsafe mana? We used to be able to use the whole bar without adverse effects and so maybe the bar still shows that? And the rest of it is negative and has adverse effects when used up?”

She paused there for a moment before deciding that “there's only one way to find out I guess?” before she stood up, cast [view status] on herself and began throwing around low level druid spells.

“Do be careful,'' Kaldora said as thorn bushes and medicinal plants sprouted around the herbalist “It won't do to have two people knocked out if overuse of mana if that is the issue."

The heabalist nodded as she used up the last of her mana bar. When she did both of them glanced over at the screen and to the herbalist delight the grey star had appeared on her screen, only it was tagged with a small red chevron instead of the dagger Zouyu had been displaying. Then she cast a few more times and watched as a second chevron appeared below the first, and then a third joined it after a couple more spells.

“That's quite enough darling, any more and you run the risk of ending up like poor Zouyu here."

After a moment's hesitation the herbalist agreed and rejoined Kladora on the picnic blanket. By the time Zouyu stirred back to consciousness a few minutes later the rest of the hunt had arrived with their captured herd of Gorgonbulls and the herbalist was oscillating wildly between complaining about the headache she’d given herself and telling anyone and everyone about their new discovery.

“Welcome back." Kladora greeted the were-tiger as he awoke in her lap “You over exerted yourself just a little it seems and knocked yourself out in the process. I’m so glad your awake. How do you feel?"

Overlord: Momento Mori

and Kath's books are reproducible,

@Enkryption

They might be reproducible, but considering they are probably no other copies of those books in the new world then up until the point that they are replicated they should be considered irreplaceable.

On the topic of resources, I have a question for all of you as well...

@Xaltwind

The beast pens have 2 of every, or almost every beast in Yggdrasil (whether sun200 succeed at catching them all or not isn't a question I'm narrative interested in answering, nor is what all even equates too species count wise other than way to many). It is a massive resource hogging vanity project, so the answer to "how long can the Beast Pens be kept fed?" is not very long at all even with the oncoming injection of Gorgonbulls. The equivalent of chapter 2 will involve vampires trying to teach themselves/their thralls agriculture and that likely still wont solve the problem for good even if it goes off without a hitch. The pens are supposed to be modestly useful/powerful if people make use of whatever beast they want to find within but its also a massive pain in the ass to maintain in the state Sun200 intended.

Things the pens defiantly have in addition to the monsters.

• Some but not many un-replaceable vampires (mostly hunters, tamers, and trappers with a few support classes thrown in like dark priests or herbalists, all of them with rider levels)
• A tone of dumb thralls, mostly stable hands.
• Lots and lots of tunnels containing cells for monsters dug by miner thralls.

Things of note the pens may or may not have:

• Some actual farm animals, but only 2 of each.
• A (completely uncontrollable and sealed in a can) world boss
• A golden goose equivalent
• The sable lords' personal op/adorable pets who are missing their masters
• Queens and princes of 1 or more hive mind swarm species
• Lethal joke monsters
• Creatures that would make very nice fur coats
• weird gimmicky mounts galore
• whatever creatures people want to find in there

most of which the vampires will not consider the usefulness of unless pressed

also I'm going to try and post on thrusday or friday to nurse the, presumably, manaless baby. Shame the cleric's gone, would have been fun to dramatically rush Zouyu to the hospital temple

Overlord: Momento Mori

Hunt for Answers

As Kaldora urged her steed to ride away from the incoming beast Zouyu launched himself at the beast. She had hoped that the gardener would be able to soften up their weakened prey even more before they got round to trapping it, but much to her delight Zouyu went above and beyond her expectations, trapping the beast in a cage of bone and binding its tusks with druidic magics.

”Goodness me darling, that was quite the stellar performance!” Kaldora called as she approached the boy and their captured quarry ”I’ll get it under my spell right away.”

“Aye nice work lad!” Arthanar said as he and the rest of the hunters (who added their cheering to his) approached the trapped beast “And dinny worry about stealing our thunder, making it weak's all we where needin tae do anyway. It’s the trappers you gotta worry about who'll have set up their ambush in the forest for nothing. Ye’d best watch your step till we get back lestt you end up hanging upside down in a snare trap!” he joked before directing a few of the hunters back towards the forest to tell the support teams there that the battle had been won and that they should begin packing up their things.

As Arthanar got everyone else in order Kaldora dismounted and then carefully approached the beast front on, making sure to stay within the narrow cone where it had binocular vision. Her eyes glowed a bright crimson as she locked eyes with the beast, using a combination of the [Dominate Beast] and [Vampiric Enthrallment] skills known as [Enthrall Beast] to gradually begin stripping way at its resolve. By the time she reached it and gently laid a hand on it’s snout the trapped and heavily wounded beast was completely under her spell.

”“Shshshshsh its ok” she spoke softly to it as she gently pet the beast before telling it that ”You belong to the beast pens now, and we look after our own.”

With her free hand she indicated for the other beast master's to approach. When they did so they laid their hands upon the creatures wounds and cast [First Tier Magic: Bestial Regeneration] upon it, causing the many wounds that had been inflicted upon it gradual heal shut.

“There we go. All better.” Kaldora said, before petting the beast a final time before standing and returning to her mount. The other beast master’s following her lead, but not before a few of them paused briefly to lick the blood of their gloved hands.

”You can let it go now.” Kaldora told Zouyu as she mounted her horse, before adding “It will obey anyone for the chateaux at the moment, so if you’d like to ride them back your more than welcome too.”

After the beast had been captured and the hunting party had gathered back together (with Zouyu receiving only a few dirty looks from the trappers) Kaldora spoke to the group, saying ”Well now that was an exciting diversion if I do say so myself, but we do still have a task to complete. Let’s head back and see how the others are getting along with rounding up those Gorgonbulls Zouyu found shall we?”

After she received a course of agreements the hunt set off back towards their camp at a brisk trot, the vampires chatting noisily to each other about a dozen different topics as they went. Kaldora herself road alongside Zouyu, casually making conversation with him and asking “So darling, did you enjoy your first hunt with us?”

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 2,082 (+3) (none for Kamek’s bit part)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (25/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (16/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(18/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino

When Bowser (who had increased his size to maximum in preparation for a fight) and Jr arrived on the other side of the portal what they found was both very familiar and yet utterly alien. The long narrow platform floating in a void littered with deadly obstacles was a rather common sight for the pair, it's just that most of the time they weren't on the receiving end of such an obstacle course.

”Pretty lame set up. Same trap over and over. No pits or jumps or,” Bowser began to say, immediately launching into a criticism of the stage, only to be halted when the arena lurched into life.

”Hay what,” Bowser exclaimed before realizing that they were actually standing on an auto scrolling convayorbelt ”Oh one of these! Yeah, that's why it’s so repetitive looking”

Jr, who had glanced behind them and spotted the massive spike wall they where now being dragged towards them, had no time for Bowser’s analysis of another stage maker’s art and instead yelled ”Papa! MOVE!” before taking off at a run before hopping over the first set of spikes. After glancing behind him in confusion and then noting ”, and there’s the thing to force us forwards,” Bowser took off after his son. Well versed in the art of jumping, it was pretty hard to get around their world if you weren't, the pair breezed past the first few sets of spikes. Things got a little trickier however when their opposition showed their face or, rather, faces.

The person taking up their usual spot of villain on the right towards which they would have to advance where, in fact, two people sharing a massive domino shaped body and which was riding a swing that descended down from nowhere. After introducing themselves as Pip and Dot and then immediately went on the offensive, sending a domino bird after Jr while the much larger Bowser had to contend with the lazily bouncing dodecahedron.

”Ahahaha is that it!” Bowser laughed before slapping the energy shot with the energy buckler projected from his mecha mitt. Instead of being batted away as he had intended however the uninterruptible shot tore through the energy shield and was only prevented from tearing a hole straight through Bowser's hand because his had hit it with the edge of the shield rather than the center. Instead it simply singed furrow through the scales and flesh on his hand. ”GAHH!” Bowser cried out in surprise and pain before ducking into his shell, which thumped down to the ground just in time to avoid being torn through by the unstoppable shape. A moment later he popped out again and had to put in a burst of speed to avoid a collision with the ever advancing spike wall.

Meanwhile the domino bird swooped at Bwoser Jr. The boy dodged to the side hastily while narrowly avoiding the spikes he’d just jumped over and then he had to sprint to make up lost distance while shouting ”Mimikyu keep it off me!” as the bird came in for a second pass. Sat atop Jrs head where his new horn met his hair the small rodent did as instructed, its elongated tendrils lashing out to slash at the avian playing piece’s two massive eyes. When struck it swerved off to one side, partially blinded and squawking in pain as it did so, giving Jr enough time to take a leap over the next set of spikes. As he did so he extruded slime from his hands, gathered up a mass of it and then, once he’d landed, gathered it up between his hands lobbed it at their foe with a hadouken like thrust. The pair, swinging merrily, tauntingly, ahead of them, guffawed loudly as the splatter of goo barely made it far enough to stain the conveyor beneath them. They laughed even more when the goop rolled back towards the troop, forsing them to dance around the substance lest it blow their legs off.

The one upside to this was that Muimikyu copied jrs attack, using it to slap goo over the bird as it continued to harry jr. The subsequent blast took it out, right in time for Pip to summon another from beneath his hat.

”OH COME ON!” JR complained loudly. His frustration only grew hotter and hotter as the two continued to run on the treadmill while narrowly avoiding the infuriating harassment coming from Dot and Pip. It didn't help that they initially failed to find a way to strike back. Mimikyu and Jr’s attacks didn't have the range to strike their foes while Bowser didn't have enough time to stop and charge up fire balls thanks to the barrage of birds, shapes and ever looming threat of the spike wall behind them.

The pair were left sweaty and nerve wrecked by the constant pressure and, in Jr’s case, increasing angry at the extremely frustrating combination of attacks and the fact that ”I. Hate. Exercising!”which he yelled at the world in generally, before shouting at ”Get down here so I can punch you in your stupid faces.” at Dot and Pip specifically.

Laughter was the response. “No no, keep running tiny I’m sure you’ll catch us eventually. Your soooooo close! You just need to keep running for a few more minutes I swear.” Dot mocked him.

“Yeah you’ll have to get up here if you wanna hit us. Good luck with that you ugly tortoises!” Pip added.

”GAHHHH” Jr raged in response to the taunting. There where a number of ways of dealing with the problem that he might have thought of, but under the influence of his anger Jr instead picked the most reckless and cathartic one. ”Throw me at em, I wanna bash their faces in!” he demanded

“What?” the pair asked together, only to screech “What!” far louder when Bowser responded with a casual ”Yeah alright” before grabbing his son by the shell, leapt up into the air (as Mimikyu bailed off of the soon to be projectile and onto his hat) and then lobbed him at the domino duo who where two surprised to try and do much of anything as the child rammed into them. The pair reeled from the impact, and then Pip screamed as Jr rabidly sunk his teeth into one of his arms to avoid falling.

“Ahhh!” the pip cried as Jr grabbed the rope of the swing with one hand, while with the other he began to repeated punch a slime extruding fist into Pip’s face.

“Get off him pipsqueak!” Dot demanded as she attempted to kick Jr off, only to receive a foot full of spikes from jr’s back and some retaliatory kicks from to the forehead as a result of her attempt.

”Yeah that’s it Jr. smash em up!” Bowser cheered as Mimikyu swatted at the last bird pip had put out from atop the king’s back.

“You idiot. Stop being punched in the face and just.” Dot began to say before Pip’s voice joined hers and together they growled “bite him back!” before the central maw loomed open to chomp the boy. Cries of alarm from his father and Mimikyue gave jr just enough warning to drop out of the way. Blindly. It was a miracle he didn't skewer himself on one of the sets of spikes scrolling below in the process. Instead he simply landed hard and was left panting dryly as the mass of slime on Pip’s face exploded. Red slime from the first punch detonated, vaporizing or set off the rest of the unprimed goo, sending Pip reeling but neither unhorsing the pair nor putting the man out of the fight just yet.

As their foe tried to recover from the blast Bowser scooped up his son could be dragged into the spike wall, wincing as their spiky, now blue, shell grazed the wound the the dodecahedron had inflicted earlier.

”Again,” jr growled horsley ”I can take it”

”Nah, you did enough already. I figured how this fights is meant to go now anyway. See I got other things to throw exept you.” Bowser replied before grabbing the annoying birds and lobbing it at the pair as right as they finished recovering from Jr’s attack. The squawking bird sailed through the air and smacked Dot in the face.

”Bullseye” Bowser cheered as Jr climbed up his arm and onto the back of his shell.

Pip, his face blackened and scorched by the explosion, and clearly furious about that fact, removed his hat and then began violently shaking it with one hand, popping out bird after bird from it's interior. “Take this you jerks!”

“Wait no you moron you’re just giving them more ammo!”Dot cried out in alarm as the miniature flock swooped down toward the troop. In response Bowser lashed out with the mecha mit, catching one of the birds while it’s blade scythed through others. Just as quickly as he had caught it the king threw it back again, smacking dot in the face a second time, much to her chagrin. Then as jr and Mimikyu fended off those birds that had tried to circle around he hopped over the next set of spikes, grabbed a second bird mid flight, and then upon landing hurled it at Dot.

“Stop that you imbecile!” the furious woman yelled at her partner after the third consecutive bird slammed into her. When he didn't immediately cease his avian onslaught she began kicking him repeatedly in the face while yelling “Enough. With. The. Birds!” Before they could resolve their dispute however, the pair were hit by a mass of flying hat thrown by the now completely un-harassed Bowser. The pair were sent reeling and this time it was enough to cause Pip to lose a grip of the ropes of the swing entirely. Arms falling they toppled down onto the road, Dot’s head smacking into the back of some spikes as they landed. They weren't enough to pierce her hardened exterior, but they were more than enough to knock her out cold.

Pip, left unable to walk by dot’s unconscious state and being dragged straight towards the rapidly advancing troop (who paused only to collect Bowser’s hat), raised his hands in the air and yelled desperately at them “stop stop I give up!”, causing both the conveyor belt to jerk to a sudden halt.

”Wait... What? YOU DO?” Bowser asked between heavy breaths as he slowed and then stopped his advance. He was already so used to the no surrender attitude of the Galeem possessed that this bout of self preservation came as something of a shock.

“You win!” Pip insisted before pointing a finger to the side of where Bowser had stopped at where a portal suddenly opened up leading back to the central area. “You can go spin the dice now, hooray for you!”

Bowser glanced at Pip, then at the portal, then back at Pip again. ”YEAH ALRIGHT” he replied to Pip’s relief and Jr’s surprise, pausing only to add ”OH AND 6/10 DEATH COURSE, COULD USE MORE VARIATION,” before stepping back through into the central room. Upon arriving he promptly collapsed onto the plush surface of the poker table.

Jr’s alarmed cry of ”Papa” was joined by a call of ”Oh no Sire, are you alright!” from Kamek. The mage, who had been in the middle of demanding to know what was going on after Linkle had vanished into a portal that closed behind her, rushed over to his king while flanked by his two white mage clones.

”I hate treadmills” he responded simply as he had a nice lie down on the soft table surface. Jr slipped down of of Bowser’s back as Kamek got close, himself also rather tuckered out by all the running, which meant it was relatively easy for him to get clear when Bowser produced an explosion of green spores in response to being healed by the white mage Kamek clones.

After that incident had been resolved (it’s source quickly being discovered to be an interaction between magical healing and the mushroom badge Bowser had gotten from a loot box the day before) the group resolved to sit back and wait for the others to return from their fights so Kamek could provide them with healing and the two royals could get some well deserved rest after their time on the oversized running-machine of domino doom.

As they waited Kamek and Bowser proceeded to crush their way through the rest of the pile of sprites, lest they start to fade away, while explaining the situation both down here and far away in the Dead Zone to each other. Meanwhile a thirsty Jr tried to find out if anyone had brought anything to drink down into the pit with them.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 998 (+2)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (22/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (13/50)
Location: Gneidxick ‘s Casino

wordcount: 5,36 (+1)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(18/50)
Location: Guild Hall, LoA

Kamek crashed onto the table and, dangerously Kamek realized after the fact, onto some of the sprites. Rather than mutating him into some hideous beast due to unwanted sprite absorption it instead simply made for a very uncomfortable landing indeed, as farming equipment popped into existence below him. The spontaneous matter creation shoved him off of the table again, preventing even more sprites from being crushed, or worse absorbed, and depositing the mage onto the floor just as Linkle burst in and started yelling about an emergency. Kamek was a bit to confuddled to actually respond to her shouting until the young woman offered to help him up.

”Thank you, Linkle.” the mage said hurriedly as Linkle pulled him up off the floor. He moved quickly to the edge of the pit and looked down it, worry clear on his face as he did so. When it became clear that nothing could be gleaned from above his agitated concern was replaced with steely resolution as the mage stepped back and retrieved his wand from his robes. As he did so a number of adventures echoed Linkle’s question, all of them rightly concerned, curious and/or confused by the Guild Master’s actions.

”Turns out there was more to the Guild Master than met the eye. He used dark magic to make this hole” Kemek explained as he used his magic to create 4 mirrored duplicates of himself. As he continued speaking he conjured 4 colored orbs and tossed them to the clones, causing them to take on a green, red or white coloration depending on the color of the orb. ”He was rather displeased with our success, held out on confirming our kill till we presented him with the Brachydios’s spirit. Then he became furious that we made him ‘lose a bet’ while referring to our group as ‘Seekers’. Finally he created this hole in the floor that swallowed up our allies and sent then plummeting down to badness knows where”

When Kamek finished explaining he had transformed the illusionary clones from distracting mimics to independently animated minions, one red, one green and two white. The silent magical constructs hadn’t been idle as they were formed and Kamek talked. The red mage had picked up the pitchfork off of the table, while the pair of white mages had cast light healing spells on Kamek to remove the light injury he'd received to his hand and back. Finally the green mage, (who had been made first), had decided the most supportive thing it could do at the moment was gather up all of the uncrushed spirits(and a weird skull with a white spirit embedded into it) off the table inorder to transport them down to the rest of the party.

”Who knows what dangers they might be in down there” the mage said as he and the clones mounted their brooms in preparation to descend and then asked the woman in green ”So. Will you be coming down with me? The white mages can give you a lift,” he said, causing the two healers to offer Linkle a hand each in-order to carry her down, ”or is this emergency you were shouting about a more pressing concern to you?”

---

Down below the courier's gamble was heard, considered and then finally dismissed by card based ejection into one of the portals.

”Gahahaha. Serves him right.” he chortled at the cowboy’s, in Bowser option well deserved, misfortune.

”Because I’m the boss here and I say we get to krumping this guy’s goons, whoever they are, without trying to make any more stupid deals.” he told the team despite the fact that he himself had just tried to make them fight twice as many enemies at once for absolutely zero gain.

Before he could turn to enter one of the portals however they were joined by jr. They prince's fall was far more controlled than his father's uncontrolled panic of a fall and as a result so was his landing which involved a ground punching superhero landing.

”Jr!” bowser called out to his son as the boy got up from the kneeling posture he had landed in as the boy quietly complained about having sore knees. Any further conversation was put on hold as the Koopas examined, with surprised looks on their faces, the changes that had come over Jr as a result of his sprite absorption. Most obvious to jr was the fact that he now had tougher blue scales on his arms and legs that made it look a bit like he was wearing a pair of matching pair of elbow length gloves and knee length socks. Said arms and legs were also a tad bit longer. Only slightly however, which Jr felt relieved about. He wasn't sure what he would have done if he’d suddenly doubled in height and been unable to use his clown car once he got back to it. Perhaps, he thought, he could absorb something small if he ever did get to big.

Obviously the change to his limbs (or here to unregistered change to his tail or change from green to blue coloration in places) was not what anyone else was focusing on.

At the sight of their master’s arrival Mimikyu abandoned their seat atop Gaig-tron’s shoulders and then dashed over to the transformed Jr. Upon arriving they hoped up, but instead of landing on Jr’s shoulder as they normally would they instead sat themselves atop the large horn that had formed on jr’s forehead.

”Wow. Hay. What is thaaaaat?” the boy exclaimed as the added weight in a place where wight should not have been able to be applied caused him to become fully aware of his new horn. He'd wondered why he couldn't see up any more. He reached up with his hands and patted it a few times to get a feel for its dimensions.

”Uh. Huh. Ok. Probably need a mirror to really get how I look. Hopefully it isn’t dumb? So how do I do the slimy boom thing?” he said out-loud before balling up his fists and tensing every muscle in his body to try and will the slime to form. Form it did, from all the locations it was able too.

”aaaand now it’s everywhere. Gross.” jr noted as slime leaked out from between his new rugged blue scales and out of the end of the horn. Mimikyu backing up swiftly as the slime began leaking down from the horns tip to coat its upper half.

Upon seeing the dangerous explosive slime forming Bowser shook the stunned look of surprise off his face and warned jr that ”That stuff explodes Jr!”

”Yeah dad I know.” he replied calmly at first, only to realize what his father meant a few heartbeats later.

”Ahhhhh! It explodes! It explodes!” he yelled in a panic and then began to violently shake his hands, splattering the volatile substance across the table in front of him while shouting ”Get off! Get off! Get off!”. Mimikyu clung onto Jr’s top knot as the boy proceeded to shake his head to do the same to the horn.

Bowser backed away hurriedly as the spatter zone started exploding in a piecemeal fashion, tearing up the felt surface in a series of small explosions erupted from the droplets of slime. Eventually jr realized that his hands hadn’t been blown off by this point they probably never would, so he slowed and then stopped his shaking. Then he examined his hands, noting that a small amount of green slime still clung to it in some places, He was fairly sure he hasn't made any more, so why, he wondered, hadn't it also exploded like the stuff he had sprayed everywhere

”Huh. I think it doesn't explode while on me?” he concluded.

A little bit of experimentation proved this and scorched the felt table top a bit more in the process.

”Well... That turned out OK in the end. Risky though. You could have gotten hurt.” Bowser said as the boy got the hang of his new powers.

”I’m fine. Its fine” Jr insisted.

Bowser grunted in disagreement before telling the boy that ”We’ll talk about this later. For now we’ve got to clobber gilgaflix or whatever his name is’s goons so we can roll that dice and win his stupid game. You ready?”

”Heck yeah I am! I’ll blast em into the next dimension!” Jr cheered, raising up his lightly slime covered fists confidently.

“Mimi-ku-ku!” Agreed his pokemon as it sat at the base of his horn. As they called out Mimikyu copied both jr’s pose and his power, two small patches of green slime coating the ends of their long tentacle arms.

”Great.” Bowser said before turning and looking at all the portals.

”Hmmmm. Which one? Eni. Meni. Mini. Moe! This one!” he announced, before stomping his way into a portal two steps to the right of the one the courier had been thrown into. After waving goodbye to anyone still left on the table Jr and Mimikyu hurried on in after him. Then the portal close behind them, trapping them inside with whatever oversized casino themed boss awaited them. Or as Bowser would have phrased it: trapping whatever sad excuse for a minion they found inside in there with the most dangerous father son duo in the world!

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,309 (+3)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (20/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (11/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(17/50)
Location: Gneidxick ‘s Casino

”Oh hay. Cool robot.” Jr greeted the Courier as he arrived with the newly built Gaige-Tron. While a part of him bemoaned how the cowboy had been useful during the night while jr had slept like a very sad rock, most of Jr was too interested in their new companion to let his sadness drag him down for the moment. He pushed himself down off of the stool he was sitting on and wandered on over, pausing just long enough to let Mimikyu hop onto his shoulder from off of the sprite littered table.

He gave an impressed whistle as he examined the robot up close. As he did, he came to the thought that he and the Courier actually had a fair bit in common, what with their tinkering, minions leading and Pokemon training skills. It was, jr thought without much awareness or consideration of the other major, major differences the pair had between them, a shame they hadn’t interacted much before.

”Man you’ve stuffed so much gear in there” He noted with an impressed tone as a precursory glance revealed several weapons and mysterious contraptions bolted onto or into the machine. As he examined the robot Mimikyu hopped up onto the robot’s shoulders to have a look around. Then when the bot began to express her colorful personality the spirit eagerly joined in her wacky wavy inflatable tube man routine, waving its equally floppy limbs all about while sitting where Gaige-tron’s head should be.

”And you’re smart too. That’s so cool!” Jr said, rapidly switching his focus from the creator to the creation. Gaige-tron was something that had been lacking in the boys life recently, and that was chaotic fun. She was just the thing to jolt him out of his stupor, maybe for good.

”Hey Gaige-tron, so I’m Bowser Jr,” he quickly introduced himself ”and I’ve still got this minigun arm from an ice cream truck mecha we beat up laying around somewhere. Way too heavy for my car but for you maybe it’d work for you?” he suggested, mind suddenly coming abuzz with ideas where he’d earlier been failing to think of any that would stick just moments ago ”Oh oh, or maybe I could upgrade that weird pea gun you got with my magic ink! Juice em up with it and then when they hit stuff they go splat! Really goop up the works of who your hitting.”

Before Jr could bombard Gaige-tron with more ideas however, the argument over quest rewards came to a head.

---

While the prince had been moping and then inspecting the newly arrived cool robot Bowser and Kamek had been confronting the Guild Master, who had become highly resistant to their continued success. While combing through his king’s dumping of sprites on the table Kamek had considered that this was about more than just trying to hold out on giving them the sizable reward for the quest, but those suspicions had not adequately prepared himself for the Hooded figure’s dramatic reaction.

The Guild’s Master shifted suddenly from his standoffish and obstructive manner to a brief burning rage when presented with proof, only to snap back to being smooth as varnish moments later. There was little time to process him casually referring to them as “Seekers” and the implications of the existence of that name for their ilk or the fact that there were people watching and betting on their actions because just as soon as he had done dealing out dramatic reveals so the Guild master hit them with a more magical surprise. Darkness blossomed from the figure, which Kamek quickly guessed was the Dark Magic the Master of Masters had mentioned when asked about the type of cloaks the pair wore. Using this dark magic he transformed that same cloak into a coin that he flipped at the team before any could react.

Bowser was, predictably, floored by these events. Or rather de-floored. When the coin hit the deck it blossomed out into a hole or portal in the floor, dropping the King and most of the party down into a deep pit. Kamek, who had been using his broom as a walking stick, was the only one who could avoid plummeting down on his own thanks to his grip on it. Left hanging by one hand from his floating broom he acted quickly, dropped the Brachydios spirit and grabbing a startled Jr by the leg before the boy could drop away from the hole and into the darkness below.

”Don’t worry young Master, I have you.” Kamek told to jr as the boy dangled upside down in his grasp.

This left Jr in the perfect position to watch Bowser plummet into the darkness, his eyes bugged out, his mouth agape and his arms flailing wildly as he did so. Mimikyu fell too, riding Gaige-tron down into the darkness, it’s arms clinging to its disguise to avoid the cloth outfit from being swept away by the wind-rush of the fall. In that moment hopelessness reared its head in his mind because he was in exactly the same situation as he had been last night. Without his car he was unarmed and relying on Kamek to protect him, which was, in Jr’s mind, utterly pathetic. Yet as the tendrils of hopelessness threatened to ensnare his heart once more his eyes caught sight of the Brachydios sprite floating slowly down into the darkness and, far below, a few burst of burning light. He recalled the conversation he had overheard Kamek and Bowser have last night, about starting to absorb sprites for power, and saw possible evidence that the pit had a bottom within which his father was fighting, and came to a decision.

”Let. Me. GO!” jr yelled as he lashed out with a foot three times in quick succession, kicking his savior’s hand. Kamek yelped in pain and surprise as he dropped his young master, who plummeted down after the rest of the party. As he fell past the slowly drifting Brachydios sprite he grabbed it and then slammed it into his chest, the transformation taking hold as he continued to fall downwards. ”JR!” Kamek cried out in distress above as the sudden loss of weight made his broom lurch up, throwing him back into the guild hall and causing to crash onto the spirit covered table.

---

Down bellow the Guild master, who had revealed himself to be a dice headed demon serving card game master called Gneidxick. After shooting a few angry but ineffectual fireballs at the red nosed fiend Bowser got over their predicament with surprising speed.

”So kinda like Mario party then? Only with fights instead of mini-games. Yeah I can work with that.” He said casually after the rules had been explained before adding that ”This should be easy. Or really really really really annoying.”

It wasn't exactly the cutest aesthetics of the mushroom kingdom, and it might smell incredibly foul to the Koopa, but from board game tables to pinball machine’s Bowser had been in many a shrunk down situation and so this didn’t phase him at all.

The Courier also seemed to take this all his stride too, betting the dice headed honcho that they’d be able to take on every single miniboss without taking a single casualty. That they could do it Bowser had no disagreement with, his ego fully restored by a nights rest. That the Courier had tried to make this deal without any input from Bowser, who was supposedly his boss, he most certainly did take issue with.

He growled briefly at the cowboy to demonstrate his displeasure and then complained that, ”That’ll take forever.” before immediately making things worse by saying that ”I bet we can take two of these goons at once, no problem.”