DracoLunaris

World of Light

wordcount: 2,017 (+3)
Midna: level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(81/80)
Location: Nyakuza Metro - Edinburgh
Warp Charges: 0

warp locations

Virgin Victory teleport room
Top of the Split mountain
Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage
Tostarena Town

It turned out that the train ride had not been a straight shot to the finish line. No, instead there were ‘routes’ and ‘transfers’ and all sorts of things that Princess really should not have to deal with. Really where was a personal carriage when you needed one?

Well. Probably being much too slow if the princess was honest. The train had taken them across the world in the blink of an eye and though for the portal hopping princess that wasn’t unheard of it was impressive to have an entire transport network work that fast.

Still, the need to hunt down these pons very much slowed things down, as the princess couldn't just hop on the next train they needed with the rest of her party without going on a pon hunt. Said party had accidentally gained an additional member in the form of Shovel Knight who they had caught up with just before he got on the next train. The noble knight had offered to stay behind and help them, which was very welcome, but it was still turning out to be quite the hunt around this place called Edinburgh.

The most notable encounter on her exploration occurred when passing by a store called “Arcane Tempurr” which had seen, well, a touch of vandalism. A big s had been spray painted over the can of the title, and that was only the start of it: windows smashed, shelves overturned, inventory (which looked to be minor magic macguffins of various sorts) scattered about. The few poor arcane mages who catted the store had been trying their best to clean up, but at the moment they were panicking as they various potion juices that had been being mopping up had started fizzling and sparking furiously in a bucket in the middle of the store

”Hey, what’s going on here?” Midna asked, floating into the shop, avoiding the other goop and glass shards on the floor as she went to investigate.

“Oh it;s a cat-astrpohe! Those Nyakuza jerks roughed up our shop and now the potions are reacting!” the closest store mage told her, while also trying to urge her back, only for the reaction to intensify even more and then explode before the princess could respond to this information. The blast tossed cat mages all around, and unveiled the result of the reaction: An undulating vaguely feline horror of pure shadow.

It looked around for a few moments, before wandering over and swatting at a poor mage with its claws, toying with the poor downed kitty.

”Stop that!!” Midna shouted at it, and when she was ignored added ”I’m the princess of twilight, obey me you creature of shadow you!”

This got it to turn to notice her, but rather than submit it narrowed its malice filled eyes at Midna for a moment, before slinking down into the shadows much like she could and rushing at her through them.

”What the!” Midna said as a mage pinned by a shelf cried out “look out miss, it's a shadow cat!” right before the shadow reached her and suddenly rose up too strike her.

Minda raised her sabo shield, blocking a blow from one side, only to be struck in the back by a follow up sipe from the other side. She snarled and slammed her shadow hand down into the floor, breaking floor tiles but not harming the cat, which instead slunk away in the shadows and reappeared close by.

”Get back here you copy cat!” the shadow hopping princess demanded, hitting the ground and sprinting after the cat with dragons clawed feet only for it to leap up on a shelf and saunter swiftly along it, kicking more items off the shelves as it went. The princess leapt after it, reaching for her knives in the twilight realm only to remember too late they were gone, melted in lava. She snarled and just tried to smash it with a shadow hand again, which ended poorly for a shelf, almost ended poorly for a kitty mage, and was a simple leap out of the way for the shadow cat to avoid.

”Stop running you jerk faced little-” Midna shouted at it, only to have to go on the defensive again as the cat dipped into the shadows and rushed her once more, the princess dodging one, blocking another and being clipped by an unexpected third before it darted away.

“Nya, don’t let it use that spell again, or the field will turn entirely black and it will be able to summon the mothership!” the helpful cat mage shouted from behind cover.

”The what?” Midna asked, only to glance around and understanding what ‘the field turning black’ meant, as the area was becoming saturated with dark magics ”oh goddesses, that can’t be good”

The shadowcat had the audacity to look smug, which only made Midna mad ”Spears! Skewer me that cat!” she commanded, summoning a horde of strikers behind her. Chilfos and Initiates hefted their spears of ice and psionic energy respectively and then rained hell down on the slippery kitty as it leapt and dodged about the store, Midna having to yell ”But not the other cats!” when it began to use the stunned mages as a way to disade their fire.

Still, by the time the fire was coming to a close she had managed to clip it a fair few times and it was definitely looking less than 100% held together. ”Ha ha take that…” Midna gloated, before realizing ”Wait… I should have had the Initiates root you!” which made the cat ever so smug at having taunted her into a bad move.

Especially because it was now it's turn to go on the attack again. The cat lunged through the shadows, and though the princess blocked each hit this time, and did a nasty amount of damage back thanks to her spiky Sabo Shield, it didn’t matter. The last hit point was the only one that mattered and the shadow cat still had it when it appeared atop a half destroyed shelf, sat down ever so proud and smug, and then meyowled a dark melody.

Black light pulsed outside the shop, and then to the terror of all in the station a house sized vessle descended out of nothingness and began floating just above the ground (fortunately not squishing anyone). A scanning beam of red light flashed from it, lancing into one of the broken windows of the store and then began sweeping across it, searching for its target. Said target did the only logical thing in this situation. She hid in a shadow and hoped it would not shoot if it didn’t find her.

It banished those shadows as it passed over the store, but found, somehow, nothing. Then the beam flared, banishing every shadow and again, nothing. The entire station. Nothing.

Then it suddenly locked onto the bathed in red shadow cat and began charging its cannons, which spooked the hell out of the cat, and with another dark pulse the mothership was gone.

There was a pause, the shadow cat looked around, and with no princess to be found, it shrugged and moved to finish off the cat mages. It raised a paw over the cowering kitty that had tried to help Midna, preparing to strike.

Then came a ”Ha” as the princess materialized out of the only shadow that had withstood the red light: that of the shadow cat itself. The monster spun in a panic, only to met its end as Midna’s purple glowing dragon claws cut down that last hitpoint to the sound of ”See how you like it!”

The cat fell, disintegrating into ash, as footsteps came running towards the store. Braum rushed into the scene, and then paused, and sighed in relief and said “Ah Midna, Braum can't leave you alone for two seconds eh?” before looking around the (now even more) wrecked shop and asking “did, ah, did you do this?”

”No. Well. Yes. Some of it?” Midna admitted as the rest of the party showed up, along with some onlookers. These include, she noticed, another big cat guard who gave her a look and started advancing through the crowd towards her.

“She saved us from the shadow cat though” the cat mage who had been moments from death piped up “so it's ok!”

The cat guard stopped its advance upon hearing this, and then gave Minda the second ‘I’m watching you’ gesture she'd gotten from one of those today. It looked like she was getting a reputation.

Best to try and make it a better one

”I mean I did. But I still feel responsible. So we can help!” she said, before turning to her cohort and adding ”Right boys?”

“Verily!” declared the shovel knight, which got the rest followed up with a slightly less enthusiastic round of agreement with the notion.

”Excellent, here, you lot, help as well” she said, snapping her fingers and re-summoning her strikers to help out as well. As they started picking up the junk and rescuing kitty mages the one who had stood up for her said “Are you sure you want to help. More than you already have? The Nyakuza did this, and if they see you helping, you’ll be on their bad side for sure” as the princess helped pull her up from where she had been trapped.

”Those the people that roughed this palace up? Don’t worry. If they come after me I’ll deal with hem the same way I dealt with that shadow cat in the end, don’t you worry”

“By hiding?” the cat pointed out

”Hey! Ok I mean I might… but what about you? ” Midna asked, as much to get off the subject as out of concern

“Us?”

”What are you gonna do if they come back?”

“Come back…” the cat replied before being horrified “Oh mew. They might come back! And they’ll be mad that you helped! And what if they think that ufo was us!?”

”Well. Maybe say it was to scare them?” Minda suggested duplicitously

“Huh. Hmmm. Oh but what if they call our bluff? Our magic is not all that great. We’re mostly a novelty shop, a bucha fraud according to the big shot magic schools upstairs. I don't even know how that cat got made out of our stuff. I just read about them” the cat replied, a moment of hope drowned in dejection.

”Hmmm” Midna thought for a moment, and then glanced down at the shadow cat spirit, and then she had an idea, bedding it over and picking it up. Then she had another thought and asked ”Hey what’s your name by the way?”

“Me? I’m Lana” the cat mage replied

”Well, Lana, how’d you like to get stronger much faster?” the twilight princess offered her a bargain, hand held out with the shadow cat spirit in it and adding, informatively, ”There’s only a few minor side effects”

The mage looked at the spirit, then at the princess of a realm of eternal darkness offering her the deal, then at her wrecked store, and then, finally, nodded.

---

Quite a bit of time and one big ol construction job later and the shop was looking as fresh as could be. Tiles and windows replaced, its shelves and sign cleaned and repaired, stock all back in order and, on top of that, a new bit of security thanks Lana and her new new orange glowing ears and tail tip.

While she had given up her spirit prize, the princess didn’t leave empty handed, the thankful kitty mages having thrust a shopping bag of items into her hands before she left. This consisted of a set of weak healing potions (all of which she used to undo the cat scratches on her) and the field magic spell: Fraidy Cat.

Probably not a good trade, but it was the one that felt right, and that was enough to put Midna in a good mood as she and the lads headed onward towards Twilight town to catch up with the others.

Draco Sheets

expenditure

2 mp : make a glider that can call the wind to give it more lift
1 ap: make a nice sharp curved sword for slaying beasts, fools and anything else. Durable enough to be wielded by a god without breaking, otherwise unremarkable.
2 (4 discounted with adventure!) ap: to make a large ancient mystical forest to get lost in. Hosts a lot of sea life-esque animals (fish, squids, octopuses, crabs, shrimps, sunfish, sharks etc.) in the place of bugs, birds, lizards and small mammals collectively known as tonnikala.
2 (3) mp: to make forest-kin, a diverse range of animated plant matter that roam the forest and make it more ‘interesting’ to explore. Replace your large mammals in the food chain (wolves, deer, etc) and add in a few more unique things like towering humanoid forest guardians, giant root based snakes or the mysterious handworm.
They will collaborate in doing violence towards anyone not living in harmony with the forest (something that makes them all tamable by those that do and the bane of lumberjacks), but otherwise act as normal animals. Their carcasses can be harvested for many potentially useful components which have a variety of medicinal, magical and material uses.
1mp: teach some elves basic wood/plant working to make stuff like pointed sticks, nests, vine grass skirts etc.
1mp: artifact: Granysmith’s cookbook: can be used to learn how to cook an apple pie once the prerequisite technologies have been acquired (fire -> cooking and some form of domestication for dairy products)
1 ap (discounted from 2 from adventure!) monument/landscaping/legendary beast (hard to say what this counts as tbh): big tree house dungeon
1 ap (discounted from 2 using adventure!) legendary ‘beast’: Jim (of many titles): a calcified heart that still beats and is capable of reanimating anything that once had a soul into undead creatures serving his will. Seeing as everything has a soul, well, that gives him a lot of options. His heart is very sturdy, requiring strong magical or divine power to destroy.
4 mp (discounted from 8 with adventure!): to create the class system. See roleplayerguild.com/posts/5390338 for more details as to how this works
2 ap (discounted form 3 with adventure!): to make the Darkwood [Adventurers] Guild holy order, a presently pretty loose knit group of adventures based out of the Darkwoods. Members have a high chance of getting bonus forest related skills.
1 ap (discounted from 2 with adventure) to make the small landscaping change of a spooky castle up in the mountains
1 ap to make Jim a champion with the [necromancer] class
1 ap to fill the castle with mundane treasures
3 mp to unlock the Forests Aspect: More than just trees, a forest is a diverse and complex ecosystem, that, while yes, defined by its largest of residents, includes so much more than that. From vines growing on the trees, to caterpillars munchkin on the leaves and birds tonikalla munching on the caterpillars, to the mushrooms munching on the rotting wood below, all are part of these great landscape defining realms.

Forests are also more than just an ecosystem, they are ancient heartlands of terrestrial life, and hallmarks and symbols of nature itself, ones oh so often stood in opposition and contrast to the civilizations who fell them for timber and /or clear them for farmland. To those of the plains, forests are deep dark mysterious things, hiding dangers and terrors, things best gnawed at the edges of or briefly penetrated and plundered for treasure such as furs, fruits or fungus rather than a place any sane being would live.

Of course, people and forests are not incompatible, and to those who would live in harmony with the trees, or even encourage them to flourish in new and wonderful ways, forests can be a sanctuary from the harsh world beyond, and a wonder deserving of protection. From [druids] to [treeshapers] and [forest guardians], mortals who live in tandem with the forests can enter a symbiotic relationship that allows both forest and friends to prosper.
2 ap (discount from 4 with forests) to make the lightwoods in the south west of the continent, between the mountains and the desert.
1 ap (discounted from 2) to make the Cortex Plant, a large growth which can
1 ap: teach the basics of Druidry to the elves of the dark wood, allowing them to gain variations of the [druid] class by entering a symbiotic relationship with Huwu’idang that lets them gain the same environmental restoration and growth encouragement magics as it. Then with levels and technology, they will be able to do so much more.

2 mp ( discounted from 4 by Adventure!): to create the labyrinth city

2 mp: curse the Rirakuri so that if they eat mortal souls they instantly get really bad hangovers

1 mp: create/teach the [poltergeist] class, which ghosts can gain and which allows them to interact with the mortal world in the way a poltergeist would when they are angry. Ment to let them protect themselves from soul eaters, will likely result in the odd vengeful haunting.

1 ap: teach the Rirakuri about classes

2 ap (discounted adventure): Mother Brains: Hulking colossi of biometal that roam the streets of the labyrinth city, seeking out ore and assailing any that incur into what they see as their domains. While being tall as buildings, quite stompy, and having a nest of tentacles so their bodies do make them dangerous on their own, the main threat they pose is via their manufactured offspring:

1 mp (discounted adventure): for Labyrinth Sentinels: Biometal constructs produced by their metal mothers as defenders and laborers.

Their bodies are incredibly tough, night immune to primitive weapons but a quirk of their construction means they must leave one or more glowing red power cores exposed to the elements. These crystals can be damaged somewhat easily, making them glaring weak spots in their otherwise unbeatable defense. Should one die, its soul is drawn back to its metal mother, causing its body to decay into a plain metal husk.

There are 4 kinds:
Troopers: vaguely humanoid troops armed with arm cannons (that fire red energy bolts) and wrist blades
Bruts: Hulking soldiers twice as tall as a man armed with crushing pincers and heavier arm cannons.
Swarmers: which stand just over third of a human’s height and atack with long barbed tails.
Stalkers: Muscular predators with razor sharp claws and good stealth capabilities that like to ambush their prey or assassinate high value enemies

Gallary of Sentinels

1 ap (discounted adventure): slimes!: Born of damp and a bit of lingering divine might, slimes were simple spheres of goo that hopped or rolled around their homes, eating just about anything and everything. Any fluid wil do, and any power too, which caused all sorts of strange and fantastical slimes to come into existence, from blood slimes, to magma slimes, to ice slimes born in different climates, to shadow slimes, plant slimes, kung-fu slimes and abyssal slimes. A slime’s slime will retain its essence and properties after death, which may have uses in future.

1 ap (discounted adventure): magamtaurs: bulls of living lava, that form in the deep, and generally do not like people messing with the rock and stone of their home, let alone mining it. Won;t affect close to surface mining, but go dig down in the underground and you risk their ire.

2 ap (forests): Darkwood Guardians: Consisting mostly of Rangers and Druids, they have a deep connection with the Darkwoods, allowing for greater coordination with its natural defenders, as well as enhanced skill in operating within its confines. Each member gains either the [guardian] class, a defensive class that synergizes well with existing ones, and with other [guardians]. Their leaders are [Wardens], a class capable of anointing fresh [Guardians] and one that will also gain skills to empower their subordinates.

3 ap (discounted with forests) to turn a Huwu’idang into an avatar. Monpau is his name, and he is a Lung Dragon (read chinese dragon, one of them long noodle bois) with green sacleas, sapphire eyes, branch antlers, a mossy beard, fun whiskers, a grassy mane going from skull tot tail tip. He is your protective grandpa. Love him.

3 mp: raise Coin Fairies to a fully sapient species capable of receiving divine wisdom

1 mp: to teach the elves and coin fairies of Sanctuary how to make pots (and other kinds of ceramics) real good. Ming vases up in here and all that.

1mp: to teach coin fairies in general how to miniaturize technology of other, larger, species effectively.

1 ap: (offscreen) teach coin fairies to commune with the Huwu’idang

1 ap: (offscreen) teach coin fairies how to become [dragon tamers]

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 3,122 (+4)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (265/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (232/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(159/100)
Rika: Level 5 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////// (26/50)

Level 11 Blazermate - (5/110) - 2 stored level up!
Level 3 Susie - (4/30)

Location: Riotous River

The rapids part of the river ride eventually came to an end, yet there was still plenty more downstream riding to do. The Troop, however, decided to take it slow once they’d gotten to the foamy pools, partially so Bowser could recover from the turbulent ride’s disagreement with his stomach, and partially to let everyone else catch up. Oh and also to make sure no one had been turned into paste by the bear based carnage that had occurred after Bowser took the lead.

”Nadia… Sakura…Geralt…” Kamek counted people off as they arrived on her fingers, and then grew a little concerned and looked up and about for two robots who could not be found ”Wait, where are Blazermate and Susie?” she asked

”I dunno. Think they were up near some giant skeleton pirate guy?” Jr hovered over to reply, and the answer he gave left the mage quite incredulous.

”Near a what!?”

”Oh yeah, saw them going right up to him just before we left. Seemed cool tho” Jr replied, not letting Kamek’s concern get to him

”That’s not. How could. We should not have left them behind like that. Who knows what could happen to Blazermate without someone there for her to support”

”Doesn't she have Susie?”

”We haven't seen her in action, I do not consider her to be reliable. Yet." Kamek replied, before adding ”Also that bot owes me money” as another black mark against how much he trusted her. She hadn’t been through the maw, and if that place had taught her anything is that its survivors could handle anything if they stuck together.

”You’re gonna go allllll the way back up to get her, aren't you” Jr realized, before sighing and taking a pokeball off of his chest bandolier and tossing it out and calling out ”Come on back Dazzle, ain’t gonna make you swim all the way back up there” to his Poppilo minion before it was beamed back into orb based storage.

”Wait you don’t need to come with me"

”Someone does, and papa and Rika are both not swimming back up that river soooooo you’re stuck with me” for much the same reason that Kamek wanted to go up to get Blazermate ”Now let’s get going already!”

And with that Jr’s clown car took off, leaving Kamek to hit the bricks on her broom to chase after the prince despite this backtracking having been her idea in the first place.

---

A little bit later, and they were floating over the graveyard again, and from their altitude they spotted the pair of bots, Jr specifically pointing them out for the bespectacled mage and saying ”See, there they are. Big bone guy”

”Ah, so they are" Kamek said to the prince, before calling down to the bots ”Hello down there, what is keeping you two?"

”Oh, hi you two. I was just exploring the pirate ship here.” Blazermate said nonchalantly. ”Cortez here is a REAL ghost pirate! Not those cannibals in the maw and all that.” Kamek and Jr. had caught Blazermate and Susie on the deck of Cortez’s ship, getting ready to fly up to and catch up with the others. Since the two bots could fly, they could catch up fairly easily, or at least that was Blazermate’s thought process.

”While not a business bot, Blazermate here did broker a deal with the pirate captain in the ship. We get him back on the open seas, and he’ll help us when we need it.” Susie said, her hands clasped on her stomach. ”I would rather money, but a service is something I suppose.”

”Yeah. I was hoping Bowser could help since hes strong, but I don’t know if even he could pick up a ship. But it appears you guys all left us behind!” Blazermate said, looking at Jr. and Kamek with a stern look on her face.

”Ah, well” Kamek looked a little bit sheepish at that accusation, but Jr had no such shame calling down ”Hey we came back didn’t we? You should be grateful!”

”Young master please” Kamek whispered to the rude boy, but the prince was having none of it, and instead replied loudly:

”What? We did, and now you can magic up a solution or something to help the cool ghost pirate guy and then we can get going again!”

”It’s not. I mean. well.” the mage pursed her beak and then sighed and agreed ”Fine fine, we’ll be helpful as can be then” before laying out the two options she had to offer:

”Well, we have two options here Blazermate, either I make someone really big so they can carry the ship, or I shrink it and we can see if we can fit down the river. All down to you and your pirate friend”

”.... We might have to go with option 2, if Cortez is fine with it. I don’t think I could fly his boat out of the river even if I was big. He had a lot of heavy stuff in there.” Blazermate then turned around and went back into the cabin to have a chat with Cortez.

“Ah, your back already Amigo. Did you figure something out?” Cortez asked as Blazermate came back in, a bit surprised the bot came back so fast. ”Yeah. But I gotta ask you about it. One of my friends came around and gave us two solutions, well one solution unless you think your ship can survive some nasty rapids.” Blazermate said. She waited for Cortez’s reply to that, but he just looked at her, waiting for her to get on with it. ”Uh, right. The method that won't work is if my friend makes me huge. I don’t think I can carry your ship far though, I could get it out of the rocks, but the gold will make it too heavy for me to fly with. The other method is to shrink your ship and all the stuff inside it down so we can get it down off the rapids. ”

Cortez didn’t like the idea of his ship being one of those model ships for even a moment, but he would terrorize these fools if they tried anything. And while his ship was mighty, he didn’t like the idea of a rapids ride. If anything his treasure might go everywhere, and that would be one heck of a mess to clean up!

“Are you sure those are the only options you can think of?” Cortez asked, apprehensive.

”Sadly yeah. I mean, I could fly the ship, but you’d lose your treasure, and what pirate would lose all that booty?” Blazermate said, striking a chord with Cortez. This bot got it, which made him laugh a nervous laugh.

“Do what you gotta do amigo. But if you double cross me…”

”Yeah, you don’t do that to ghost pirates. Or you get the Maw.” Blazermate said, interrupting Cortez and shivering a little bit. With that settled she then went back out and told Kamek the plan.

”Ah, yes we can’t go around abandoning all that lovely gold now can we? Very reasonable. Now then, step back, and we’ll get that ship river capable in no time” Kamek replied to the plan.

Then she floated over and, once everyone was clear, began a quick chant

”
Hocus Boatus Filiocus

Here’s a spell that will let you come with us!

What once was big, soon will be small,

I really should have bought an umbrella at the mall!

With my magic stronger than that of a djinni,

This pirate ship is now the size of a dinghy!
”

And then let out a blast of magic that hit the ship and, with the sound of a big plumber bumping into a goomba and shrinking to half his size, the boat got smaller. And smaller. And smaller. Till the mighty pirate ship was the size of Rika’s whale. It would be a snug fit for some bits, that was likely, but it was now entirely capable of sailing down towards the sea.

”And hey presto, one smallified boat, ready for river riding!” Kamek declared with a little bow and a flourish.

”Hey Kamek, can you make me big too? If you could do both, I could fly Cortez’s ship safely to the ocean no problem!” Blazermate asked, getting a fun idea.

”Aah, urgh, well… I suppose” Kamek said reluctantly, before adding ”Just don’t expect me to do anything else for a while after we get there. Also I’ll need a ride down myself” to which he looked to jr, who himself sighed and scooted over in his clown car’s seat to make space for the old magikoopa.

”Thats fine, if I’m a big mecha, I’ll just pummel whoever bothers us! I don’t have any rocket fists though.” Blazermate said, giving a flex. ”Ready when you are!”

”Very well” the mage replied, and then plopped herself down beside Jr in the car, propped up her broom, and then cleared her throat, raised her wand again and chanted out another spell:

”
Abra kadabra alakazam,

Become so big I could fit in your palm!

With my magic you’ll get bigger,

And certainly have more vigor!

So heroes and villains best go to ground,

Because big bad Blazermate’s now in town!
”

And sure enough the medabot began to grow. And grow. And grow! Till she towered above them all and picking up the shrunken ship would be no trouble at all.

Blazermate looked at her new tall self, and how tiny the others were. Making mechanical noises like out of some anime, she said. ”I’m a gundam! I’mma punch someone in the face!” giving some shadow boxing and causing a few waves as she did. She then got to work, picking up Cortez’s small ship and began to fly with it, Susie flying above her.

”Hey Cortez, we’re flying! Come on out and enjoy the view!” Blazermate said, trying to get the ghost pirate captain to take a look as the medabot flew through the skies. The pirate captain, hearing the giant medabot’s voice, decided to humor her and manifested on the deck of his teeny ship. A ship he figured was much, much tinier than he thought it’d be considering as he looked behind him, he saw the same robot girl as before, but her head was bigger than a whole him.

”At this rate we’ll be at the ocean in no time!” Blazermate said as the group passed over the rapids, the big bot leading the way and the littler one and the koopas in their clown car flanking her like 2 addons.

Blazermate had a bit of trouble looking at the stuff below. She could make out buildings, bridges, almost like there was a town alongside the rapids! Well, IN the rapids. It was a very good thing Cortez didn’t bring his ship through there as it’d get stuck again. The creatures in the water weren’t much of a sight either, although the dinosaurs were kinda cute. Those ‘villagers’ though did not look friendly.

”Going down those rapids in those teeny tiny square boats looked like fun.” Susie said sarcastically as she looked at everything below, getting a much better view than Blazermate, although not nearly as impressed at its denizens. They looked more savage than the savages!

”Yeah, it really does” came a forlorn sigh from Jr in response to that, the prince having entirely missed the sarcasm. Kamek meanwhile was far to busy focusing on maintaining the spell for any sight seeing.

Still, eventually the bypassing of all the fun stuff came to an end as jr stirred from the monotony of being rained on to call out ”Hey is that the ocean? Hey hey is that it, are we there? I don't care if it is I’m going down there” and then put his car into a dive down towards the waters, with Kamek holding on for dear live during the daring descent.

”Is that the ocean, already? Wow. Time flies when you well… fly!” Blazermate said as she descended alongside the koopa troop, being able to fly much more stability than they were. “Ah, to be on the ocean again… Cortez will be a terror once again!” Cortez said, noticing the descent and the mention of the ocean coming up to meet him. Blazermate put the relatively tiny boat into the water when she reached the water, Nadia and the others nearby and no doubt looking at the giant mecha Blazermate carrying a small creepy looking ship with a skeleton head riding on it.

”Ok Kamek, I think you can size the boat back up now.” Blazermate said. She then had an idea, and as the boat grew back to normal Blazermate concentrated a bit to summon a moogle. “What do you want kupo?” The moogle said in confusion as it was summoned. Blazermate, still large, then gestured to Cortez. ”This is the dread pirate Cortez. He says he’ll help us out if we need to travel the seas. So let everyone at HQ know.”

Blazermate then turned to Cortez. ”If people come up asking for a ride and can summon this cute little guy, they are our friends. If not, then yeah, do whatever you do.” Blazermate said. She then reminded Cortez about not getting hostile with little girls or ship girls as they would be really, really painful to deal with. After Cortez got a look at the moogle and nodded at Blazermate’s little deal, Blazermate dismissed the moogle and waved to the others. ”Sorry I’m late guys, but we got a real cool ghost pirate now! I wonder what he’ll do on the high seas…~”

”Ghost pirate stuff probably” Bowser commented as he sailed over on the back of his whale ”And eh, you weren't that late. We only just got here too!”

”Because we stopped for lunch!” Rika helpfully added, the pair of them having parked the whale by the odd out in the middle of nowhere restaurant and gotten some grub using the coins she had collected while jumping around the water spouts.

”Your upset your tummy on the rapids and your response to that was to eat even more? Really sire?” Kamek called over, before waving a wand and undoing both size up and size down spells, causing the pirate ship to grow back to its original size while Blazermate shrunk down to her own petite form.

”Yeah! nothing like grub to settle the stomach!” Bowser replied, before taking a look at the pirate ship and giving it a nod of approval and complimenting Cortez on his vessel ”Nice boat… hey, how about you give us a ride to this Twilight town place? My butt’s getting saddle sore from all this whale riding” there was a little pause and then he added ”and, uh, I guess everyone else could do with a break from rowing. Plus, hey, maybe you can pick up some crew in town? Can’t exactly run a ship without minions to boss around right? That’s like the best thing about them.”

Cortez laughed at Bowser’s mention of crew, calling his ghost crew to his side. As he did, many MANY wisps of ghost fire appeared all around the boat, although mostly on the sails. “Amigo, unless they’re ghosts, they aren’t of any use on my ship.” Cortez than agreed to ferry the king koopa on his ship, it was part of the deal after all, as long as the big lug didn’t go inside and try to take his treasure.

”Looks like you’re already sorted, nice” Bowser said as he hopped aboard, stretched his stiff legs, and then found a nice spot to lay down for an after lunch nap. He was joined by Kamek, who was legitimately tired rather than just stiff and lazy like Bowser, and Jr, who was saving power on his car. Rika meanwhile kept up the skating.

”You sure you don’t want to join us?” Kamek asked as she settled down on the deck

”Nah I’m good!” Rika called back, making a little circuit of the ship just for the fun of it before moving up ahead to take the lead again ”Who knows when I’m next gonna get to ride about on the sea right? So gotta get all the sailing in that I can!”

”I’ll just fly like I usually do. Unlike Bowser, I don’t get tired. Perks of being a medabot!” Blazermate said triumphantly. She then looked at her fellow robot Susie, who was on Cortez’s ship, looking at and poking Bowser. ”I’ll stay on the ship and ‘observe’ our strong friend here. Oh, I wonder…. Yes… hehe” Susie said, trailing off as she started to speak under her breath almost like a mad scientist. Considering she robotized strong people, getting an idea of what augments would be good for Bowser if she turned him into her bodyguard much like Meta Knight would be paramount.

Re:Divinus VII

because this wont fit in questions on discord:

Classes

Classes work as such: a mortal can be granted a [class] and can then, through doing actions and facing challenges related to that [class], gain levels in it. Gaining levels allows them to receive [skills] which allow them to do extraordinary things or become inherently more powerful. Concepts related to these are surrounded with square brackets ( such as [knight] [crescent slash] [proficiency: heavy armor] etc.) to help identify when the system is being used vs natural talent. A knight and a [knight], and a quick slash and a [quick slash] are two very different things when it comes to power level.

To gain a class, a person must be considered to exemplify what it means to be that class by either an authority or their peers, followed by a small ceremony (the nature of which has no OOC requirement other than being thematic). Generally a class mainly propagates more of itself ([adventurers] making more [adventurous]), or lower level versions of itself (a [sword master] training a [swordsman]), with expectations sometimes being skills (such as an [emperor] having the skill [ennoble subordinate]), and, of course, gods (and to a lesser extent champions and heroes). A person is able to reject a class they do not desire (Level ups and class fusions can also be rejected), though once gained it cannot be lost without intervention of a higher power.

examples

A god can anoint anyone as anything they want
A [king] could knight [knights]
That same [king] might be crowned by a [priest]
A party of [adventurers] could welcome a new member into their fold
A savior of a town may be declared a [hero] by the people they saved
A guild of [merchants] might grant the class to anyone who can afford it
A child may follow in their parent's footsteps and become a [farmer]
A school of [wizards] may induct it's students as [student mages]

Note that a person class is not a static thing. An [adventurer] may find their class transforming into a [wandering mage] if they use magic for their adventuring, or even a [ranger], [battle seeker] or [questing knight]. Similarly a [king] may become a [tyrant], [arbiter king], [good king] etc. based on how they rule.

A [warrior] will not however, be able to turn into a [mage] no matter how they try, though they may be able to become a [spell sword].

Generally the more specific and fancy a class’s name is, the better and higher level it will be.

Finally, a person is in no way limited to one class and a person who is both a level 20 [witch] and a level 10 [general] is entirely possible. Classes can also fuse together, so the aforementioned individual could become a level 20 [warmaster witch] upon one of their level ups. The highest of the fused classes is taken for the new class rather than the combination of the two. This makes them have to level up to gain skills from level 20-30 quality, rather than jumping straight to gaining level 30 quality skills, but also means they will have more skills overall once they get there.

Leveling

Once a mortal has gained a [class] they can level in it by gaining experience in it. If a [farmer] existed, then they could gain experience by, well, farming. How much experience is gained is a complicated cross section of general difficulty of a task done, effort put into it, earning of prestige for doing it, and how dangerous it was.

A [farmer] who tilled carrots in fertile soil and sold them to local peasants would level up slowly. A [farmer] who grew rare herbs in a barren mountain while fending off hungry gargoyles and became famous for selling their product at a high price to powerful kings and esteemed wizards meanwhile would level extremely quickly.

Similarly, kill a wolf with only a wooden spear at level one and you’ll probably level up a few times. Do it at level 30 and it won't be worth much exp thanks to your double digit number of [skills] making the task much easier.

As a shorthand, the more adversity experienced and the more impressive the task, the more experience gained.

For simplicity, experience does not need to be tracked, only levels. Simply assume that each level takes a fair amount more than each one before it, and you’ll be fine. There is no level cap, but getting anywhere close to level 100 would result in a world-rocking titan of a mortal, who would need to do equally earth -shaking deeds easily to gain even a mote of experience.

The difficulty of leveling up is shared between classes, so a mortal who is both a level 10 [mage] and a level 5 [fencer] would have the same difficulty at leveling up as a [fencer] as a level 15 [mage] would in their single class. Class fusions can mitigate this flaw, in this case by creating a level 10 [spell blade]

Skills

Leveling’s benefit is that gaining levels is accompanied by gaining [skills]. Generally these come around every few levels, either on their own or, more rarely in pairs or groups.

[skills] can be all sorts of things. They can be active abilities with cool downs and/or energy costs associated, knowledge which lets people instantly learn how to do something, passive enhancements, periodic boons or even transformations

Examples

[Perfect parry] - which lets a person automatically and expertly parry an attack that was going to hit them every 10 minutes.

[fireball] - the spellcaster can launch balls of fire from their hands without doing the required book learning or meditating to learn how to do this the normal way.

[triple thrust] - strike three times in one blow

[high jump] - leap incredibly high (and don’t get hurt by the landing)

[fast grow] - accelerate the growth of a set of plants

[blueprint: ballistae] - knows how to build a ballistae without needing to understand the principles behind it

[recipe: simplified health potion] - the user can make health potions with a few key ingredients missing certain ingredients, as the skill will fill in the gaps for them.

[immunity: crossbow bolts] - crossbow bolts can't hurt the person

[never dry inkwell] - ink will fill any pot the writer is using at a rate that ensures they can keep writing (but no faster)

[nimble cat’s paws] - gain a cat’s paws for feet, and the stealth and athleticism to go with them

[evolution: wyrm] - permanently turn into a powerful wyrm

[proficiency: spears] - better at using spears

[always available closet] - can summon and unsummon a closet (and it’s contents) at will

[frozen fire] - all fire attacks now do cold damage

[army: spoils of war] - enemies killed by your troops always seem to have more lootable equipment or belongings on them

Which [skills] a person gets depends on their class (they get relevant ones) and the level of the class that is leveling up (they get better ones). Which [skills] a person earns and when is not a rigid thing, and the leveling system will attempt to grant suitable ones for what the person is doing (so one warrior might gain [spear proficiency] at level 7, while another might gain [quick chop] at the same level).

Skills gained at levels 10, 20, 30, etc. are generally more impactful and tend to define the person more than those between (this often lines up with their class evolving into a new form), with 50 in particular being a very big deal.

Skills can change as a person levels, either upgrading to stronger versions ([lesser endurance] to [greater endurance]) or to a more specialized version during a class evolution ( a [mage] to [frost mage] transformation resulting in [water jet] -> [icy water jet]) which will generally be better, or at least more synergistic.

example progression up to level 50

Level 1 [adventurer]: [forest traversal]

Level 3 [adventurer]: [lesser endurance]

Level 7 [adventurer]: [danger sense]

Level 10 [spear elf]: [proficiency: spears]

Level 12 [spear elf]: [lesser enhanced strength]

Level 14 [spear elf]: [quick stab]

Level 15 [spear elf]: [forest camouflage]

Level 16 [spear elf]: [preferred foe: beasts]

Level 20 [spear warrior]: [stand firm] [proficiency: heavy armor]

Level 24 [spear warrior]: [extended reach]

Level 25 [spear warrior]: [proficiency: shields]

Level 26 [spear warrior]: [twin thrust] [the forest provides: sustenance]

Level 27 [spear warrior]: [deer’s nimbleness]

Level 28 [spear warrior]: [self mending shaft]

Level 30 [forest sentinel]: [root spear-wall] [rooted stance]

Level 31 [forest sentinel]: [bark armor] [featherweight shield]

Level 33 [forest sentinel]: [javelin proficiency]

Level 34 [forest sentinel]: [triple thrust] [unerring block]

Level 36 [forest sentinel]: [instant pivot] [fleet footed]

Level 38 [forest sentinel]: [the forest provides: javelins] [unerring aim]

Level 40 [elven spear master]: [mastery: spears] [cavalry slayer]

Level 41 [elven spear master]: [armor piercing spear tips]

Level 43 [elven spear master]: [twirling defense]

Level 45 [elven spear master]: [enhanced endurance]

Level 47 [elven spear master]: [rain of thorns]

Level 50 [Guardian of the Darkwoods]: [instant spear wall: vine men] [not one step back!] [evolution: dryad]

the mortal experience

Mortals know which levels and skills they have because when they gain them a gender-less voice will informs them about them in their head during a moment of downtime (in such a way that a person won't be distracted by them during a moment of danger).

Example: "[adventurer] is now level 10. Class evolution: level 10 [adventurer] -> level 10 [axe elf]. Skill transformation: [quick strike] -> [quick chop]. Skill gained: [axe proficiency]"

After this has been read out, mortals can always remember their classes and skills with perfect clarity, and have at least a loose understanding of how to use them, though learning to use skills to their maximum potential is a talent of it's own.

Using skills meanwhile generally involves calling your attacks for active abilities (an archer might say "[pin point shot]" before firing to activate their skill") while passive ones are always active. Not that saying the skill isn't actually mandatory, just assumed to be so by 99% of people (and it also makes it much easier to do), and it is also entirely possible to mimic saying a skill you don't have, either as a momentary bluff, or to pretend you have a class if you can pull it off naturally.

Experience is not tracked by anything, but a person with a class can tell if their actions are generating it or not, though not how much. It is a mildly pleasant sensation.

Re:Divinus VII

“My god what is a pie? Please, you have to tell me!” was the first thing Jeon heard once he’d finished his little chat with Lektor the bolder kitty. Specifically out of the one that had been unable to answer the goddess' riddle and been charged with creating a Pie as an alternative to becoming kibble.

“I think she was joking, Pebble. Right Jeon?” Fern tried to calm her friend, before repeating “Right?” more assertively to Jeon, which the god found quite funny. Making demands of him, a god! He quite liked the attitude, but he was going to have to disappoint her.

“Oh not at all. You, my dear Pebble, should be honored! You are quite possibly the first person to be charged with a divine quest!” Jeon replied

“She wants me to make a thing I don’t know what it is or else she’s gonna eat me! How is that a blessing!?” Pebble bemoaned her fate, having slumped into Stag’s arms as the elf tried to comfort her “Is she though? I mean there was no ’or else’ in there so maybe it’ll be fine to not do it”

“I. Well. Look you don’t want to upset gods you know. We can do anything, and some of us are probably big jerks!” Jeon explained, not really relaying the threat of getting on the wrong side of an actual malicious god that well “That said, think not of the potential consequences, but of the potential boons and rewards that would come with completing the quest!”

“What would that be? She didn't exactly say anything about rewards either” Fern pointed out

“Well you’ll be able to make more pies, and pies are great!” Jeon said “plus, um, nebulous favor? I’m sure she’ll be impressed if you manage to figure it out!”

The elves did not seem convinced, looking between each other before one of the ones who hadn’t spoken yet asked “Can’t you just teach us? Like you did with food and sticks and stuff?”

“What. No no no no! That would just go against the whole point of a quest. You can't get other people to do them for you jeez” Jeon sounded appalled at this suggestion, before remembering his audience and saying “Because you wouldn’t be following the spirit of the quest. The hardships and self improvement is like most of the points, especially with gods. We can make anything, so what we want to see is impressive effort! It's not like she’s asking you how to make pies because she can’t make them herself. She wants you to learn, and then to spread that wisdom to all!”

“But we don’t even know where to start!” Pebble replied, getting them back to the original problem.

“Hmmmm. Hmmmmmm” Jeon held his chin and tapped his foot vigorously as he thought for a few moments. Then he looked to have an idea, but rather than speak one he instead said “give me a few days and I’ll see what I can do”

The elves looked dubious at that, but it looked like that was all they were going to get when Jeon clapped his hands together and then said “Now then, how about we blow this joint and you all can go back home and awe your friends with tales of your underground adventure!” which they were all very much on board with and soon enough the elves were climbing back up towards the light.

---

Once he’d gone his separate way from the underground explorers Jeon set about orchestrating a way for his elves to learn how to make pie without him just handing over the information. That would be dreadfully dull and they did need to learn how to, well, learn as well. So to that end the first thing he did was make a book and detailed on it everything you needed to make an apple pie from scratch, but with a forestry touch to it (Acorn flour (no grains in the woods), penguin eggs, milk (and butter) from a redwood-deer and, of course, apples) along with whole host of other baking recipes, all with plenty of diagrams that would explain things to even the illiterate elves could get some use out of.

Now, it was all well and good to list some ingredients, but there were two big missing components here, namely how to actually cook things, and how to milk a (pant) animal in the first place. There were some hints in there of course, but he hoped that having to work those out parts would be a quite helpful learning experience for the elves.

Now that it was made, there was no way he was just handing this over either. He’d said as much that if he just told them it would defeat the purpose of the quest. So how then to hand over the information in a way that didn’t just involve, well, handing it over?

Well for Jeon this was quite obvious:

Make getting the book its own quest!

And what better way to start off his adventure making that the classic: a dungeon!

But not some same old same old set of tunnels in the ground, Kitty had those covered and he was sure that if he wanted to make the best of the best those he’d want to collaborate with her anyway. So no, instead he’d make something nice and forestry instead.

With that in mind he found himself a nice big tree, laid a hand against it, and then made it grow. And grow. And grow. Till it towered three times above its lesser kin and its lower branches where a canopy of their own blocked out the sun. Inside these branches he wove dwellings made from living branches and leaves fusing together in such a way that the tree became home to a small community’s worth of dwellings and homes that were all made out of the tree itself.

“There, maybe that can be a hint too” Jeon said to himself, before saying “and now, what to use for the danger? hmmm” before looking around at the trees now smothered by the titan’s sun stealing size and thinking “well, how about we repurpose these!”

He snapped a finger and accelerated time for the trees, causing them to crumple and decay around him as he recycled the energy of doomed trees into something else: a heart, one that was rotten and fossilized yet still beating in the god’s palm.

It throbbed, pulsed, and then the rotten wood around it started to shift and splinter until grotesque limbs started to form, and then rotten decayed humanoid shapes used those limbs to haul themselves out of the graves of the trees Jeon had condemned, each and every one possessed by the pretty ticked off souls of the dead trees.

Their claws were long and gnarled, their eyes glowed red, and they wanted only one thing: destruction. Unfortunately for them, their desire was superseded by that of the rotten heart and what it wanted? Why that was to put up a jolly good fight against anyone invading its dungeon!

“So, you know the drill, yeah?” Jeon asked as one of the lumbering dead approached, took the heart, and shoved it into its chest.

The tree corpse's face, initially just a gnarled mask, split in twain to form a toothy maw that worked itself, creating horrific sounds as it tried to find words for the first time “grnfoemfn nefmrm nrry heeh. Nyee eh. Nye he.” it tired and then found its rhythm laughing “Nyeh heh he!” and then saying in a nasally and somewhat high pitched yet still male voice “Sure I do boss! Get me ghoulies up in the treehouses, put em in some nice ambush spots, and then show the boys and girls you're inviting over a good time!

“Ha ha yes now that's what I’m talking about” Jeon replied, excitedly giving the zombie some finger guns before pausing and asking “ah but one thing, you need a name. Now what’s it gonna be?”

“Hmmmmm” the heart in the tree thing pondered as its host body continued to refine itself to its whims, face becoming more skull like, limbs like bony wood coated in solidifying bark armor and then a hooded cape of brown leaves forming over its back and a garbled branch appearing in its arm as it declared “you shall call me… Jim!”

“.. Jim?” Jeon asked, finding it oddly close to his own.

“Jim the stunningly sinful sorcerer supreme!” he extended it, bowing as he did in such a way that his leafy cloak fluttered in the wind behind him before standing up and holding out a hand and demanding “now, hand over the treasure I’m gonna be guarding nyeh heh he”

Still a bit bemused by the name the goat god handed over the cookbook which caused bemusement in Jim, who after saying “What is this? Some arcane tome of unfathomable perhaps?” flipped through it and was forced to conclude that “this is a recipe book for pies? You wish for me, the mighty Jim!, to guard pastry making instructions?”

“Well the elves have basically learned about eating, drinking and hitting things with sticks at the moment,” Jeon defended himself “so the secrets of the universe are a bit beyond them at the moment. Besides, it's for a quest! From a god! Who isn’t me! Which makes it a big deal all on its own, yeah?”

“A quest?” Jim said, before figuring something out, which was: “Wait. So are you expecting me to lose and for them to claim my treasure?”

“Well yeah, you're a bad guy guarding an precious item in a dungeon, and dungeons exist to be beaten, so you know, your loss is kinda the point” Jeon replied, before adding “but don’t go easy on em or anything, i want this to be a proper adventure and test of their mettle. Or wood I guess, ha!”

“But, then when they win, won’t they kill me?” Jim asked, suddenly fearful for the first time “you know for getting in the way and trying to kill them and stuff”

“Whaaaat? No no no no. or I mean they’ll try, but your heart’s super tough, so much so that they straight up can't hurt it with the sticks and stuff they’ve got. Just play dead and you’ll be fine. Or make a dramatic escape, those are fun too. Be all like “I’ll get you next time you meddling elves nyeh heh he!” or something and then throw yourself from the canopy. You’ll live and they wont be able to follow”

“Oh? ... Ok great!” Jim perked up at finding out he was invincible, before frowning again and scratching his wooden skull “Wait. So. What happens after I 'die' or run off?”

“Eh, we’ll figure it out” Jeon replied with a shrug and then adding “Don’t think too much about the future, just live in the moment and ham it up buddy, and I know you’ll do great” and patting his creation on the shoulder reassuringly.

“Ah. hmm. Well then, there's only one thing left to say then isn’t there?” Jim said, before pointing dramatically upwards towards his new treetop dungeon home and commanding “Climb my minions climb! Let’s go prepare to roll out a warm welcome to those no good adventurers, nyeh heh he he he he he heh!”

summary

Jeon Du Termas talks to the underground exploration party about the quest they have gotten (to make a pie) and tells him that he can’t just teach them as that would be cheating. So instead he sends them home and goes off to make a quest for them to do that will help them along their way: retrieve the ledger artifact known as Grannysmith’s cookbook which will give them an idea of how to make a pie, (once they figure out fire and milking and such).

Then he makes a massive tree, puts living wood homes in it to form a dungeon, and finally creates Jim, a petrified heart with necromantic powers to act as guardian of the cook book.

mp

Jeon De Termas: 1 mp/2 ap

1mp: artifact: Granysmith’s cookbook: can be used to learn how to cook an apple pie once the prerequisite technologies have been acquired (fire -> cooking and some form of domestication for dairy products)

1 ap (discounted from 2 from adventure!) monument/landscaping/legendary beast (hard to say what this counts as tbh): big tree house dungeon

1 ap (discounted from 2 using adventure!) legendary ‘beast’: Jim (of many titles): a calcified heart that still beats and is capable of reanimating anything that once had a soul into undead creatures serving his will. Seeing as everything has a soul, well, that gives him a lot of options. His heart is very sturdy, requiring strong magical or divine power to destroy, but his body is always just another reanimated minion crafted into a personal vessel for him to pilot and give villainous speeches using.

None spent

World of Light

wordcount: 928 (+2) ( -5 from a heart I forgot about)
Midna: level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(78/80)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Kara Kara Oasis -
Nyakuza Metro
Warp Charges: 0

warp locations

Virgin Victory teleport room
Top of the Split mountain
Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage
Tostarena Town

A little bit after they had appeared in a shower of pixels in the Virgin Victory’s teleport room Midna and her recovered team of bros headed for the train station, with Midna carefully and unnecessarily avoiding getting too close to the Gerudo guards to avoid the whole Urbosa spirit situation.

After that little bit of unneeded tension was out of the way, the princess rode down into the underground, her arrival causing quite a bit of a stir among the feline passengers class who cleared a wide berth around the bottom of the stairs. This meant she and her posse had little issue getting to the map of the underground. Unfortunately, they had one slight problem, which was that they had no idea where they were going.

”Wait. Shoot. I don’t have any idea which one of these is the one we need to take” she was forced to admit as such to the others. Fortunately, their obvious arrival had made them quite hard to miss for the person who had been waiting for them.

“Never fear, Bruam is here!” the self identifying muscular man called over “and he knows where to go”

”Oh, phew, good to see you” Midna said as he approached, quite relieved before going ”Eek!” when she was suddenly picked up into a bear hug by the big guy who said “and it is good to see you again safe and sound my friend. You had Braum a little worried you know ha ha!” while patting her jovial on the back and then plopping her back down on her steed.

”Ah, mmm, well, you didn’t need to be” Minda replied, pointed ears a touch flushed from the intimacy before she cleared her throat and insisted that ”I handled everything just fine”

“Yes yes, and I see you found some of our other friends while you are it” Braum said, giving a wave to the lads who were mostly trying to not have a laugh at the princess’ expense, before asking “and our trapped friend…?” to which Midna shook her head sorrowfully, a hand briefly grasping the frozen olive strung around her neck.

”I’ll tell you about it on the train” she said, before asking the important question ”So where are we headed off too? I assume you stuck around to catch me up while the others headed off to wherever was closest to home base already?”

“That’s right. Primrose has already gone off to this place called Twilight Town which is just a hop round the coast from home.” Bruam informed her, before clarifying that “The other two decided to go their own way” before she even had to ask.

”Oh…” Midna replied, briefly feeling annoyed about them doing that after all the effort they’d put in, before mentaly scolding herself for that selfishness and picking up on the interesting name of the palace ”Wait, did you say twilight town?”

“That’s right! Oh, is that the twilight you are a princess off?” Braum asked

”I… No it cant be… but maybe?” her people should not be able to live in the world of light, but maybe Galeem had let them and plopped a town from her home into its realm regardless. She wasn’t sure if she should be excited that she might be about to see a bit of home or fearful that a town was all that was left of it. Regardless ”Well, only one way to find out. So, do we need to pay to get on or..?”

“We do. We need these pon things that were lying about the station, though it looks like people have cleared them all out for the most part, at least the easy to reach ones. Braum didn't have much luck looking where he could still look for you” Braum explained, which caused Minda to take a proper look around the station, spotting at least one high high up in the rafters eventually, but mostly noticing how the cats had given her wide berth and where glaring at her.

”Huh, what is their problem?” she asked, glaring back at one only to find it not matching her eyes but instead… She looked down at her mount who was entirely unaware of the mean looks coming its way, and was instead just happy to be here as always.

”Oh. Cat’s and dogs huh” Midna said, finding this kind of funny at first, at least until she noticed a rather more towering and more authoritative feline striding through the rest at which point she decided maybe she should just put the wolfos away so as to not cause any trouble. Sure, she could take them if things came down to it, but it would make using the train a bit trickier to become a foe of the local enforcers.

So instead of getting into some kind of argument or tussle over their little problem she banished her steed, dropped the floor, made a little show of the fact it was gone, before replacing it with her Vibrava instead as her escort. The big guard/thug cat scowled at her, before making an ‘im watching you’ gesture with two of its fingers and halting its advance.

”Right. Now that that’s all cleared up let’s get this place cleaned up” she said, having her vibrava latch into position on her back before buzzing up into the air and proceeding to make a mockery of all the platforming and obstacle avoidance challenges via flight and shadow hopping.

The amount of scrounging she had to do to find every last pon they needed did make her a little concerned about just how useful this would be, because what would happen if they spent all the currency the stations had? Still, that was a problem for another time, for now, she got what the five of them needed and then together they set off to catch up with the others.

Hopefully there wouldn't be any kind of big climactic event going on in twilight town that they’d arrive late too.

World of Light

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 2,025 (+3)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (261/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (228/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(155/100)
Rika: Level 5 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////// (22/50)
Location: Smash City Alcamoth

And off the gang went on another adventure, the little pile of boats setting off into the Eryth Sea, headed for Twilight town. Along with them went the boatless troop: the koopa king riding atop his cetacean steed while Jr and Kamek floated above him and Dazzle and Rita moved alongside him (just under and just above the water respectively). It would have been a lovely start to an lovely ocean cruise if it went for the weather.

Rain lashed down which left all the koopas grumbling in one way or another, while Rika got the bright idea of hiking her cape up abv her head to act as a very impromptu raincoat. That was the start of the bad times, the weather only got worse with mini tornadoes wooshing about across the waves, one of which sucked Jr in and sent him dizzily spinning through the sky. Add to that the big water spouts and there were plenty of opportunities to be tossed about.

Rika was deft enough to avoid trouble fortunately, and she even had the nerve to go platforming about on some spouts to collect a few coins while she was at it, which she added to her cash reserves. Bowser meanwhile started to just plow through stuff once he got sick of the whale swaying about beneath him, the water spouts failing to lift the beast anyway, while at least one lily-pad got itself burned/rammed/clawed through when it got in his way.

Generally there wasn’t much that threatened the troop, who with their flight, skating or big whale mount were more or less in their element. The same could not be said of the little rowboat riders who ran into all sorts of trouble. Sakura managed to dunk herself in the drink and that was the least of it.

The most of it was just barely avoided when a Serpond breached the waves right next to Nadia and scared the bejesus out of her. The fact that it didn't swoop around and come in for another pass right away indicated that it had mostly been an accident that it had disturbed the catgirl at all. Unfortunately a certain turtle did not have the brain cells to work this out and so things swiftly got messy when he assumed the worst of the situation.

”HEY YOU, PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE YOU OVERSIZED SARDINE!” came a cry from Bowser, who then went surging forwards atop his white whale and aimed his cannons at the aerial tuna, unleashing a barrage of shells at it. The four shots pummeled into the Serpond, which let out a glub of a groan before the red in its eyes flared with more of Galeem’s light and it arched around to take on its attacker.

”YEAH THAT’S IT COME AND GET ME. I’LL KNOCK THE STUFFING OUT OF YOU REAL GOOD” the king yelled, punching his palm challengingly.

”Sire, I don’t think it was actually-” Kamek tried to point out the misunderstanding, but it was, as Jr pointed out ”too late!” as the mighty minnow came charging through the air right at them.

”I got your back!” Rika called out, being right on Bowser’s wavelength and having only not started this off herself because she’d been a bit further off coin collecting. She made up for that now by cocking all 4 sets of guns and unloading them with a single figurative pull of the trigger, a spray of fire shotgunning the fish as it came swooping in at them.

The damage spong of a creature took this head on however, just as it took on the white whale’s own barrage of shots that it sent out just after its master’s. All this did slow the mighty sea/sky creature, though did leave it bloody. Remarkably it was the smallest among them who made the difference as Jr shouted ”Dazzle! Use Penguin Jet!” which caused the Poppilo to burst out of the sea and into the air, chest feathers glowing with malignant energy while it was carried by a jetstream of water.

The little sea-lion was absolutely dwarfed by the fish, and swallowing him whole would have been a breeze for it, so it was a good thing the mon had raced ahead and was coming up at a nice angle that let it smash into the side of the fish instead, the heavy impact of the blow knocking it off course and causing it to splash down into the water next too Bowser rather than ramming right into him and his whale.

”Nice one Dazzle” Jr cheered, but Kemk had only once concern which was ”But where is it now?”

Indeed, just as it had been undetected till it surprised Nadia, the big fish had become near invisible after diving into the depths of the surprisingly deep sea.

”I got this. Melock Marines, find that fish!” he shouted, summoning a gaggle of the eponymous strikers around his elevated aerial position. The poor things then went splashing down into the waves like it had suddenly started raining fish.

Once they had recovered from their fall they dived down to take on their commander’s foe. Then after a few moments had passed Jr started going ”Ow! Ow ow ow!” and a moment after that a much smaller number of merlock surfaced. Sending smaller fish vs a bigger fish did not go well it seemed.

However, when Rika demanded to know ”Where! Where is it?” from the closest one they did provide some use when it ducked its head under the water and then pointed a finger down in a specific direction, its big bulging seeing what the surfaceworlders could not.

That was all Rita needed. She primed her gauntlets, and then unleashed her torpedoes, getting a use out of them for their intended purpose for the first (what might well turned out to be the only) time.

Perfectly calibrated, the propeller propelled tubes vanished into the dark, and then a flurry of flashes reached the surface as the grenade sized blasts rocked the Serpond that had been just about to splash out of it in order to snap Kamek out of the air. Instead the mage swooped away with the time and warning the blasts gave her, and then prepared some retaliation while she was at it.

When it surfaced again the fish went soaring up, up, up, higher and higher into the sky, only to find itself being hounded by a set of shadow clones of Jr summoned by Kamek, who assailed it with boxing gloves, saws, hammers and drills. The Serpond ignored them all despite the wounds it was receiving till it reached the top of its arch and then flipped around, batting some out of them way with its tail and gobbling up especially unfortunate one up in its twin fanged maw.

Pests dealt with, it started plumating right down at them, the troop scattering while having difficulty shooting straight up at it. It selected the biggest and least nimble target for its dive, angling just a little as it swooped towards Bowser.

Despite knowing that if it even managed to knock him off of his steed he was done for due to his inability to swim, the king stood firm atop its back.

”OH, YOU’RE COMING AT ME HUH? WELL THERE’S ONE THING YOU’VE FORGOTTEN” he shouted before pointing dramatically up at it and concluding the taunt with the observation that: ”THERE’S ALWAYS A BIGGER FISH!”

Just then the titan that was Scylla burst from the waves, the striker taking all of Bowser’s stamina from him and in return to delivering a devastating counter charge to the shocked Serpond. It smashed into the smaller fish and then gappled it with its barbed tendrils before finally taking a massive bite out of its neck with its multiple rows of teeth, ripping apart the spine and sending a gush of blood that quickly turned to ash as the rules of nature took another victim.

Scylla faded and its own spirit returned to the exhausted Bowser while the Serpond’s slowly drifted down, only for Jr to swoop down and snatch it out of the air. Kamek meanwhile floated down to her king’s side, concerned about how he was slumped down on the white whale’s back.

”I’m fine I’m fine, that one just really winded me” he told her, waving her off while joking that ”good thing I’m riding rather than walking yeah?”

”Mmm well yes, but i do worry about you sliding off now” she replied, which was how Bowser ended up having the toadies gripping him anyway, the floating mooks that Rubick had made copies of (a thing Kamek found quite validating in a way) acting as a seatbelt for the tired king.

Fortunately, there weren't any other big threats than the one the troop had created on the way down the river, and soon enough they found themselves in the ship graveyard. Bowser inched his way through the wreck on the back of his whale, and Rika went with him in order to help clear the way, using her hull blades as fire axes when she wasn't just blasting stuff.

Kamek and Jr meanwhile went rooting around the ships a bit, looking for anything that might be of use.

The ship they ended up choosing that had anything of worth in it was a decrepit paddle boat pirate vessel that looked to have been used for target practice multiple times judging by the holes blown in it. Despite this punishment it was still alive, though fortunately the AI mainframe buried somewhere in the autonomous ship’s hold was not programmed to feel the pain of its grievous injuries. Equally fortunately, no one decided to inflict any more damage on it that might have trigger it to try and use its oversized front gun to defend itself.

Instead they ranged around the hold for booty before reuniting with their fellows at the end of the graveyard. Kamek herself returned with several crates full of bananas and meat benign carried by a set of shadow clones, which her king was uncharacteristically grateful for and the contents of which he immediately started scoffing down to restore his stamina.

Jr meanwhile came back with a rusty self reloading 64 Pdr Cannon dangling from the end of his clown car’s (sentient) hook.

Any attempt to dissuade him about the practicality failed, and soon enough the white whale had the old timey ship weapon tied nice and tightly to it using some of the plentifully available rope found around the boaty ruins. The tightness of said knots was then swiftly put to the test as the next leg of their journey (after giving banjo a passing wave) was a set of rapids.

It was probably for the best that the troop went first, because if they had not then there would have been a risk of Bowser’s white knuckle white whale ride plowing through the smaller rowboats at the speed the whale ended up going. The king only avoided becoming a stain on some rocks thanks to Kamek and Rita scouting ahead and making sure the whale was warned of any upcoming dangerous rocks or sharp turns.

Instead of helping with this Jr proceed to instead cheat at what appeared to be some kind of target practice minigame that had been set up, big hanging pots meeting an end at the end of a boxing glove robo arms, but got bored of that about a third of the way through, leaving the rest of the target's up for the boat riders to try their luck at if they had the guts to multitask during their dangerous ride.

Instead he raced with Dazzle down the rest of the way, prince blazing his way down just the waves while the sea-lion had a lovely time splashing down the treacherous waters, periodically showing off by leaping over the top of his trainer’s low flying car while the boy giggle in delight at his minion’s antics.

Then all too soon they were at the end of the ‘ride’ and the next leg of their journey could begin.

Re:Divinus VII

Under the Darkwoods

Beneath a glinting glowing globe of their god the 5 elf band advanced with an assortment of wariness and excitement. The daring Fern led the pack stalking through the tunnel deep below the earth with a tooth sharpened pointed stick held in hand, bare feet sloshing through the shallow river flowing down with them. Behind her, where a man wrapped in furs that covered all but his eyes and ears carrying a slab of bark as a shield, a woman with a bag full of stones, a second woman holding a set of long fangs like knives and then at the back, Stag, bringing up the rear.

Or at least that was where he would like to be, but unfortunately for the nervous elf the person who was actually bringing up the rear was the jauntily sauntering Jeon who was holding up the light for them.

“M-my prince, I don’t mean to instruct you but, well, should you not be in the front what with you being so strong and skilled and all” Stag finally plucked up the courage to ask

“What, and claim all the glory and fun for myself? No no no what kind of god would I be to do that!” Jeon replied “besides, back here I can keep an eye on all of you aaaaand what’s ahead at the same time, so its the best place to be while supervising your first adventure. I mean sure, if something comes running down the tunnel I would be the first target, but what if something comes up from behind? Or comes burrowing out of the wall? Oh oh what if one of those stalactites is actually a creature in disguise and it drops on you hmmm?”

“Y-you almost sound like you want that to happen” Stag observed

“What? No! Nononononono. Of course not” Jeon assured the antlered elf before immediately proving himself a liar by saying “well I mean at least it would be interesting. I mean the cave was neat at first but it's just so tunnely. Where’s the glowing mushrooms and giant spiders and living crystals mon-”

Jeon was interrupted from his tirade by a gasp from the front of the group coming from Fern, which prompted the god to rush forward saying “make way I wanna see!” as he blasted past the centerlay leves and arrived at Fern’s side in the blink of an eye where he skidded to a halt and then whistled at the sight.

Before them the tunnel suddenly opened up massively to reveal a massive cavern with a relatively low ceiling and a floor that was completely submerged in water, forming a massive underground lake over which light now flickered for the first time from Jeon’s magelight.

There came a swake from their left as confused penguin grew alarmed at the appearance of these predators and swiftly dove into the water, disturbing a few water insects as it splashed into the pool in now called home.

“Huh. Wonder how that got down here” Jeon asked himself as he peered into the darkness, to which Fern pointed towards a crack in the ceiling from which a small river water was trailing and said “maybe it fell down?”

“Maybe” he agreed, as he observed several other underground rivers flowing in here, and the various aquatic-insects and water-birds he had made to fill the forest’s rivers that must have been dragged down here by shifts in the landscape caused by the underground’s creation.

Water and detritus pooled here, and then at the far end of the cavern it flowed on off to who knew where, bringing life and nutrainse from the topside along with it. Where food flowed in darkness, the Umbra weren't far behind it seemed, as the god spotted a few off in the distance, beyond his mortal’s ken, drifting above the water, hunting for fowl and bug. He wondered how far they’d gotten out from beyond this cavern at this point.

Before any sort of reaction could be had from the group, a massive stone pillar formed around them, the dust, previously spread out and chaotic, now encircled them while also leaving their image clear towards the creature atop the pillar. On a similar note, there was clearly a creature on the top of the pillar.

”Ohhh, so it is you who brought those shadows into my realm? Hmmm~ They have not been the most pleasant, I must confess.” the sphinx sighed. ”Punishment may be necessary. I have eaten many things, but an elf I have not. Perhaps I could amend that, with a simple challenge, a game of charades? Or maybe, a decimation, have you pick the one who shall be sacrificed!” the goddess said, trying to hide a smirk while looking down at the panicked mortals, her bluffs making the situation no better for them.

“Ah ha ha! Now we’re talking!” Jeon cheered as the mortals panic, taking a moment to Fern from chucking her spear at the goddess before stepping forth, before raising his free hand next to his mouth and calling up “How about riddles? Those are a classic!”

“My god, you can’t be serious!?” Fern cried out, trying to get her spear throwing arm free from the god’s grip.

The sphinx looked down with distant eyes, while some might think she was smug towards them, in truth… she had not expected the mortals not to flee, she had not made a good riddle actually, and was somewhat struggling to come up with a good one.

”Uh… what comes with plates and a crust, but is not a pie?” she asked, sweating in shame, to the random elf with the stones.

“I… I… I…” the elf stammered eyes darting to and fro desperately before suddenly breaking down and wailing “I don’t know what any of those things are!” before bursting into tears

Now the goddess was just feeling sorry for the poor thing. ”Well I uh… Would you look at that, I am on a protein diet! Elf meat would be terrible for me, so I guess… you get a pass. But do learn about pies! Yes. That will be my mission to you, in exchange for sparing your life.” she stumbled her point across. ”Now, I see there is a fellow divine being with you. May I have a moment alone with him? To uh, further clear up this situation and his trespassing into my realm.”

Jean let go of Fern’s arm, the elf now too confused (and a mite suspicious) to carry out on her daring attack, and sauntered over while the elves either looked on in awe or went to comfort the poor riddle receiver who was now burdened with divine purpose.

“I am Jean Du Termas, adventurer extraordinaire” the god introduced himself while giving a theatrical bow before standing up, pointing towards a little outcropping sitting in out in the water, connected to the shelf they where stood on via a set of stepping stones, and saying “how about we talk over there? It looks nice and scenic”

”Lektoria Koreh Tellur. First Secretary of the Core, Oversee of the earth.” The sphinx also moved after her introduction, hovering over a nearby area, waiting until the elves were away from the scene, beyond their voice. ”Ok… That was terrible. Argh. I should have planned better… it was just so annoying, to watch y’all losing your smile as you went in deeper into MY REALM. Like, at first that elf girl was so excited, now she is straight up bored. BORED. So I wanted to do a little thing, make it more exciting… might have overshot. Uh.” she adjusted her hair, ears twitching free from strands. ”You have been with them a bit longer, can you explain to me what happened to the mood?”

Jeon followed after her, skipping from stone to stone on nimble cat paws, and once they were clear and Lektoria had explained her deal he had to have a light pearly laugh at her expense. “So that’s what it was. I mean yeah, you did go a bit overboard but still, 10/10 for effort” he reassured her, and then had the decency to look a little embarrassed. He too had been insulting her realm only a few moments before after all.

“Ah, well, it's just tunnels are a bit samey, you know. Just by their nature. There's only so many meters of dimly lit stone walls you can walk through before you grow acclimated to it” Jeon explained “but hey, it also made suddenly coming up on the lake a whole lot more impactful! Not that it ain’t mighty fine on its own! Though I guess getting down here and then finding it just has stuff from the surface was a little disappointing maybe?”

The god himself had found it quite fascinating, but then again he could see far more than just the little pool of light the elves were restricted to, and also understand how it all fit together forming an intricate and entirely organic ecology neither of them had intended to exist.

”That… is a very valid point. I did not expect others to come prodding in so soon, if I am to speak in honesty. Life will naturally diverge here in a few eons, give or take, but perhaps a more direct approach will be beneficial.” she turned around while deep in thought. ”On the other side, would mortals truly be interested in seeking a place full of exoctic, and possibly dangerous, life? If I made hermit crabs that use stalactites for shells, how would the novelty factor outperform the worry of being clawed in half by their rock claws? Questions, questions.”

“Kinda wish I didn’t forget how I made my woods so I could give you advice based on my experience of creating things, but as someone who just lives for adventure and excitement, its all about incentives balanced with danger” Jeon replied “So, say, you fill a tar pit with alligators, well, no one wants to go there because its all danger and no reward. But if you make a cave full of jems right out in the open well that’s no fun at all, and it’s gonna be cleared out in a week anyway.”

“If we come back to your rock crabs, well, make em too repressive and the caves to droll and it doesn't matter if they are neat, which they are by the way, if they make it so people just avoid going to the cave” the god had produced a piece of paper and was doodling crabs and terrified mortal stick figures in a long corridor as he talked about this, before adding a big diamond at the end “but make a thing they want at the end and suddenly the crabs are adding to the experience. Adrenaline, excitement and experience from the encounters themselves, and prestige added to the reward at the end because they can say ‘I battled past the deadly rock crabs to get this thing!’ and everyone will be impressed”

He tapped the gem while talking about it, and then thought for a moment and added “I mean it being an actual big jewel does kinda limit it to a one time adventure. Maybe make their eggs really tasty or their rock flesh stuff repurposable so people have a reason to keep dealing with em. That last is what I did with my first-kin, I think” he gestured over to the elves (who were watching the pair with a mix of curiosity and concern) and at their varios garbs and implements made from the plant-animals roaming the woods above.

“So it seems and yet…” she tilted her head, a somewhat feline smirk appearing where once was a more hawk-llike keen expression. “That would be positive feedback, then, of course, there is negative feedback. In other words, not bake the first pie and gain a gemstone, but bake the first pie or I shall make you into the first pie.” she giggled, imagining how the elf would rect to that hypothetical.

“I think I understand your spirit, and if I am to be honest, I appreciate it, but there is an element of… wishful thinking. The more grounded laws of the world may interrupt an adventure. For example, say those stone crab shells become very sought after by the kingdoms that will one day occupy the surface, and it becomes a habit to just send hordes of peasants down the tunnels to fight the crabs by sheer numbers. That does not feel much like an adventure, more like a two sided massacre.” she closed one eye and held her chin. “And would that not be a shame?”

“Urgh, yeah, totally ruin the whole point of the deal” the god stuck his tongue out in disgust at the idea, having half memories of dealing with that exact sort of operation. “But then it also doesn't work because.. Because.. Gah I’ve seen that exact kinda deal before I was a god how did it go…”

Jeon’s face twisted up as he tried to remember why before snapping his fingers as he recalled how it went “oh oh, yeah ok I remember now. The poor chaff fighters were so miserable that they hailed me as a hero when I came in and wiped the floor with all the gem crawlers. Pretty sure we overthrew the jerk who orchestrated the whole thing too in the end? Yeah, that was a riot for sure!”

”In full honesty, I have very little idea of what you meant just now. But I believe I can understand some of it.” or rather, she had her own idea to peddle to the adventure god. ”We are gods and our words are taboo. What we say to mortals, they will take to heart and soul. So what if we just force our desires here? Soldiers are soldiers, and they are not adventurers. Sure you could send your army to deal with a great beast, and by a certain logic they would have a better chance than three colorful hobos just off the local tavern. But you cannot do that, because that is not the way it is done.” she smirked again. ”Can you somewhat understand what I am trying to do here? I am afraid charisma is not my forte.”

“Oh for sure that is how it's done. An army versus a massive monster, that’s just a tragedy. No glory, just corpses. What you want is heroes! Preferably a small band of, mmm, about 5 people” Jeon said, having clearly influenced the composition of the exploration team given their number being just the same thing “going out there and getting stuff done! That's the kind of stuff you can tell stories about, and for that, you need a way that people can get stronger. Exponentially stronger. So that the more challenges they face, the more the can take on in future.”

“What we need-”

The god turned his page to face him and quickly scribbled over it, before turning it back and unveiling a simple diagram of a wimpy stick figure elf pointing a spear at a wolf, then an arrow to the same elf with muscles awkwardly painted on and a pair of big axes facing a snake thrice its size, and then finally another arrow to one with an axe twice its size facing down a towering tree creature that could squish the elf flat with a step, and yet the hero, a shining aura surrounding it, showed no fear in its pose.

“-is progression!”

Lektoria looked up and down at the drawing over and over. "I see… but why is the little man juggling bowls with its arms? Ahhh. I believe I just do not understand this." shaking her head, the sphinx had to fly a bit closer. "Ah wait, it's a muscle. Huh!" she turned midair.

“You just don’t get my artistic brilliance” Jeon replied with exaggerated snobbiness

"Hmm. That would make sense. A level of progression beyond what a simple soldier or king would attain. That could work. It is my belief you should officialise it. Put all adventurers under your system by rule. I wish I could help more, but at the moment I have a great backlog of things to do in the underground…. That said, if you ever need gemstones or gold, I have river of those, not even a figure of speech."

“Ooo” the gods eyes lit up at the thought, a little bit of the old wrym greed raising its head before he quashed “Well. I mean. That won’t be useful once there's any kind of civilization. Elves back there don’t even know how to cook yet, let alone bartter for stuff. Buuuuut in the long run yeah that would be super handy I’m sure, so I’m not gonna say no to a wealthy patron sponsoring my fun, no mame”

“And, well, I think you’ve helped plenty, coz you’ve given me this idea” he flapped the paper with progressing elf about a touch “and for that you have my many thanks kitten”

”Hmm. To me gold is its own reward, but, I am glad I am of help. I do like the idea of adventurers exploring the caves and mountains I made, over uh, petty armies and kings.” she sighed. ”I would invite you to meet again, but I am currently homeless, I need to fix my things, carve a realm, then I can accommodate you, serve you some tea. My own way of saying thanks to you… lizard? goat? Hmm~ What to call you?”

“Oh I’m one of a kind my dear” the cat lizard goat elf thing replied with a flourish, before saying “but I’ll take goat for how funnilly ill fitting it is, or wrym, which is what I was”

”It is decided then, goat. We are now business partners.” she grabbed forward, as if trying to handshake, overshot, and ended up just sort of grabbing Jeon’s head, turning that into a headpat and pretending that was always the plan. ”Let’s make this a fun world to live in, yes?”

“Oh uh, sure thing” the goat replied, briefly flummoxed by this move, but in a good way, before recovering and pumping a fist excitedly “Yeah! You and me, we’re gonna shake stuff up, bring the party and ain't’ no one gonna stop us till this is a place full of heroes and epic tales of adventure!”

summary

Jeon and 5 elves go into a cave to do an initial little exploration of the underground, winding their way through a long tunnel till they reach a massive underground lake into which varios above ground creatures have fallen and tried to make a living, along with some Umbra drifting above it.

Then they are suddenly ambushed by Lektoria who jokingly threatens to eat the elves, giving them the option of either playing cherdas or picking one of their number to sarafice. Rather than defend his panicked mortals Jeon instead suggests Lektoria ask one a riddle instead. She does, but unfortunately the elf recognises 0 of the concepts in the riddle and breaks down crying, which causes the goddess to put a quick stop to her fun and gives the elf a quest to discover how to make pies.

After burning a mortal with heavenly purpose Lektoria goes aside with Jeon and the two chat, divine to divine. Lektoria elements about the fact that the mortals had gotten bored
of her realm after one to many meters of stone tunnel, to which Jeon makes a few suggestions, and they eventual work their way around to making it a tempting place for adventurers to explore via a combo of tempting loot and dangers to great for simple unenhanced mortals to handle using weight of numbers, forming a very loosely defined pact in the process (and also giving each other nicknames of kitty and goat while they are at it)

mp

None spent

Re:Divinus VII

Darkwood Denizens

Two shapes darted through the Darkwoods like shadows in the night. Clad in large cloaks of forest-kin fur that still grew despite its former bearer’s demise the two elves stalked, the rest of their forms covered in simple leafy wraps for modesty, while the rest of their skin lay exposed but not bear, for it was instead covered in delicate patterns of blue woad and red bloodroot that allowed their pale skin to blend with the shadows, while also allowing for a bit of personal expression. One was covered in swirling fronded strokes of her namesake: Fern, while the other, Stag, had depicted a leaping deer upon his own chest.

The pair also wore crowns of branches, Fern’s a ring of thorny spikes while Stag had stolen the wooden antlers of his naming for headgear. Fern thought that was going a bit overboard on a singular aesthetic honestly, and sometimes teased him about it for fun.

Less fun was his constant skittishness, which presently resulted in a hushed conversation between the pair.

“There it was again!” Stag hissed, sharpened branch raised towards a patch of shadows, “I swear something following us”

“This is the third time now. Keep it up and you’ll end up like Acorn, mauled by a barkwolf after people stopped listening to her crying out about them” Fern replied, lowering her own spear, having not quite gotten to that point with him yet that she hadn't turned the moment he had cried danger.

“It’s not a wolf it was… person shaped” stag replied, before saying “Maybe it's an outcast?” (banishment, temporary or permanent, was the favored form of punishment by their tribe) “Or one of those ghosts the Prince sometimes talks to?”

“Oh so your pretty eyes are as good as a god’s now?” Fern teased

“No but... Come on I’m not the only one who’s seen things” Stag insisted, a touch flustered, “shadows in the distance, here one moment, gone the next”

“Ehhhh. I don’t know…” Fern replied, less certain about this point. Prince Termas had explained ghosts to them after people started thinking he was going nuts, and soon after people had started to see things too, but no one was sure if it was real ghosts they where glimpsing or just tricks of the light creeping through the leaves “look let’s just keep going, apple trees are close”

They were, indeed only a few steps away, but so was something unexpected: The pair suddenly found themselves stepping out into the evening sun where it should have still been hidden by the apple trees, the pair squinting hard at its sudden intrusion. So much so that they almost fell into the pit that had replaced their gathering spot.

“What? Where? Did we get lost?” Stag asked, standing upright front he stalking stoop they had been taking through the forests, and raising a hand over his brow to look around “I swear there wasn’t a clearing anywhere near here”

“I don’t think so, look” Fern replied, pointing down into the pit where, half buried in rock and soil, she had spotted the crushed remains of several apple trees.

“What in the world?” Stag said as he pampered down at them, before looking back to Fern only to find her half way through clambering down into the pit.

“What, I don’t want to come home empty handed, do you?” she called up to him before continuing downwards. Stag glanced back and forth for trouble, sighed, and then followed suit, sliding down into the pit and helping the more daring elf with salvaging whatever apples they could from the ruins, each picking over their own half of the ruins to increase harvesting speed.

A little later Stag, a leafy gathering bag full of dirty and bruised apples, met back up with Fern, finding her standing before a gaping hole in the deepest side of the pit, one they’d missed at first due to all the shattered lumber clogging it up.

“Guess this is maybe why everything collapsed?” she said to him as he approached, rubbing a pointed ear thoughtfully before noting that “Now that I see it, I think the whole pit leads down here?”

“Do you. Do you think something dug out? Like some sort of massive root viper?” Stag said, suddenly worried that whatever it was might be coming back

Fern shook her head “Doesn't look like anything’s scraped against the edges or something… maybe god made it?”

“Why?” Stag asked the obvious question, to which Fern replied with the equally obvious answer “So we could explore it of course!”

“What. Now?”

“Yeah! What are you, scared?” Fern leaned in to tease

“No!” Stag replied, unconvincingly due to a voice crack “but… Ok hear me out. What if instead we go back and tell people about it, and then we explore it once people know where we’re going?”

“Oh. Smart. That way they can come explore too” Fern agreed, somewhat missing the point “Sometimes your cowardice is a blessing Stag”

“Thanks… Hey wait!” turned to glare at her for the insult, but Fern was already racing up and out of the pit, pausing only to stick out her tongue at him before continuing to hurry on upwards.

“Hey come on! Wait up!” Stag called after her, before chasing on up after her as darkness fell upon the land.

Into that darkness came a shadow, abandoning its curious stalking of the elves as they hurried back home, and instead slinked down into the pit to investigate it instead.

First things first, the Umbra phased its head through the ruins of the trees to find the apples the elves had missed, before turning physical in-order to dig them out and consume them. Then, once sated, it drifted towards the deep dark entrance to the underground the elves had found and put off investigating till they had supplies and had told people about their discovery.

The simple minded shadow had no such thoughts, only curiosity: where did the hole lead?

There was, of course, only one way to find out.

summary

A pair of elves, stag and fern, are on an apple collection run in the darkwoods. After a brief discussion about ghost sightings prompted by stag thinking they are being followed they find that an entrance to the underground has opened up under the apple trees, causing them to smash down into the pit like entrance.

The elves scavenge what apples they can find, think about exploring the cave, and then wisely decide to let people know about the entrance first.

After they leave an Umbra that had been following them out of curiosity drifts into the pit, snatches some apples the elves missed and then goes into the underground to have an explore.

mp

Jeon De Termas: 1 mp/2 ap

None spent

The Friestan Incident, a Fantasy Sci-Fi Fusion RP

Q-T Brackman

If Q-T had had nerves they would have been wracked by the fight, despite having not actually been involved. Actually because she had not been involved. The soft humans were out there, fighting for their lives, while she, the armored AI, was stuck in a box with nothing but the muffled sounds of violence. Well that and the commentary of her colleagues (who had taken a seat on the box inorder to stop her escaping from it).

Neisly’s agitation about not being allowed to just shoot these fools did little to sooth her concerns, and though Riley remained calm and the voice of reason, the bot had know her for long enough to know when the woman was suppressing her own fear or concern in the name of putting on a brave face and being the calm and commanding voice of reason in a crisis situation.

Still, in the end, all the bot’s concerns were for naught as the guards did their job marvelously, stepping in to cleanly and efficiently take care of the thugs, a life on a relatively conflict free explorer vessel having not dulled their skills one bit it seemed.

Catherine’s own contribution could hardly be described as clean, but you couldn’t argue with its efficiency.

Finally the local guards showed up to do their jobs after the incident was resolved, and then proceeded to request the presence of the adventurers, to, as it turned out, deal with another one of their messes. The two human astronauts took over box carrying duty form their captain, it would hardly be dignified for their boss to be hauling stuff about when meeting an official of the city after all. So instead it was they who got the odd looks as they to me to you’d the Q-T containing crate all the way into the mayotal office, and then proceeded to use it as a chair while he explained the situation.

Drawing inspiration from Garret’s guards they set up a comlink with Q-T so that she could better hear what was going on, and they could quietly converse with her without the bot giving away her existence.

”A dark lord? Really?” Q-T whispered into their ears via the pair of earring stud looking coms units the pair had

“Eh I mean, they’ve already got dragons, elves, magic and stuff, so a card carrying big bad evil guy is sorta expected at this point right?” Neisly pointed out in a pretty attached manner that Riley did not agree with.

“Please focus on the fact that we and the ship are in danger rather than the tropes of the situation” she said to which Neisly retorted “Please, I’m sure Garret and the girls can handle a few goblins or whatever other fantasy minions this guy’s sent to look around”

Q-T wasn't so sure things would be fine. She was also going stir crazy in her box, but there’d be no leaving that any time soon, as someone had finally had the guts and brains to tell the captain no and to have her sit out of the danger this time. Instead she was being functionally put under house arrest while the situation was handled, which left them in pretty much the same situation, the pair of noncombatant ladies picking up the Q-T cube and hauling along to whatever room the captain was being grounded in.