“I tried to not kill them either!” Rayne shouted after the retreating boy, but she didn’t give chase. He was, after all, functionally doing what she had told him to do, even if as it turned out his adoptive family was a bunch of village burning murderers.
Plus, there were the questions first of what those beams of light were, but a quick dash chain up into the air answered that question, as she saw the other Heralds backing off and retreating. Presumably, she guessed, in response to the beams that had prompted the boy to run away. Which meant it was over. Well, as long as no one on their side went after them. Rayne most certainly wasn’t going to be one of them though.
Instead she took one look at the burning village, and then dashed back down into it, heading first for the buildings that had collapsed due to the boy’s reckless destruction, in which she checked for survivors. If she didn’t find any, be it for good or terrible reasons, she’d begin moving around the rest of the village till she did find the people who were living here, calling out “The Heralds are gone! Please, if you are trapped, or hurt, call out so I can find you! I’m Rayne, a Knight Witch, and I’m here to help!”
That said, her ways of helping were limited. Back in her world, she’d be able to teleport anyone she had a link with back to the safety of the children of Gaia (the Knight Witch’s parent organization)’s home base. Here, however, there was no such place to send people, and so the best she could do was use sword, spell, and might to clear rubble, and then either apply first aid to the injured or fly them to someone who could do better.
And that is if she found anyone at all. The Heralds had had the run of the town for much too long, and she hadn’t exactly seen anyone alive while they’d been fighting. She could only hope that they’d hidden themselves well, rather than being, well, dead to the last.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
The rest of the mind flayers fell in short order, especially once Mimi copycatted their stun spell, which turned the four on one of Jr, her, Ganondorf and Bowser vs the coming at them in dribs and drabs squidmonsters from just unfair to a practical cakewalk. Add in Rika, Kamek and his shadow clones coming around the other way, and the whole enterprise was sorted out in short order.
Numbers, the monsters in the jail really had no answer to them. Or, well, the things down stairs probably did with their baleful light, but as it turned out the Troop would not be facing those.
Instead they ended up grouping together outside the room Ganondorf and Jesse had come in after doing some spirit gathering, and happened to look inside. The heart that had dropped in alongside the hero and villain was not visible, and neither were the ugly centipedes that had crawled out of it, so the Troop had no idea those were there. Instead what they saw were a number of huts and a trio of ritual pyres, all linked by plank walkways, seemingly built around a single much larger plank house. As in one 4 times the size of the others.
”Must be a big guy around to live in a house like that” Bowser commented, while Kamek was convinced that ”Surely no one sane lives in a place like this?”
It was a question he immediately regretted asking when Rika helpful replied ”I can go check!” before going to do just that, stepping onto the marshy water and then sailing across it towards the nearest hut before anyone could stop her. As she got close, two things happened at once. The first was the hut’s door slapped open, and large fishperson came running out of it towards her, claws bared as it shouted “Glor! Go away!”
The second was that a large spiky tentacle burst from the water right next to her, which then attempted to whip her with its entire body.
The troop all called out in alarm, but Rika was already moving, maneuvering thrustering out of the way of the tentacle lash while thrusting a gauntlet hand towards it, palm raised. From the center of its hand, the gauntlet blasted out a burst of her grizco blaster’s ink shots (she’d freshly reloaded the spit supply before they went on the attack) while at the same time a torpedo dropped into the water from a hatch that opened on the underside of that same gauntlet.
The tendril didn’t seem too perturbed by the ink, but it was a sitting duck for the torpedo, which slammed into its base, and promptly blew it to high heaven.
The princess then smoothly pivoted to deal with the fishman, only for the explosion to prompt three things that were gonna make the situation messy. The first was all the other huts popping open, divulging more fishmen, though oddly rather than all charging forwards, many simply stared at the intruders into their home.
The second was a roar, as from out of a side chamber a giant red centipede who’s nap had just been disturbed emerged, looking for something to take its anger out on.
The third was a series of just awful gurgling chittering, rasping sounds as the noise alerted the man centipedes that they were not alone, prompting them to scuttle up the sides of the pit their hearty home had been dropped into.
All three of these groups of monsters promptly saw both each other and the troop, and none were pleased by what they saw. The big red centipede saw intruders into its reliable respawning food supply, while the man centipedes simply hated anything that wasn’t them. The fishfolk meanwhile were mostly panicking with cries of “Gloooorph!! Glurph glot! Glurph glot!” and “It come to destroy us!” at the sight of their red chitined butcher, but this did not stop the one coming at Rika from continuing to do so.
It lashed at her with sharp claws attached to powerful arms, and then was smart enough to kite back a bit when it missed. Unfortunately for it Rika’s new gauntlets made her far more versatile, and the ship girl promptly teleported her spear into her new hands and then thrust it forwards, delivering a nasty puncture wound to its chest with the needle sharp top. Unfortunately she misjudged where the heart was on the hulking creature, and it did not fall.
Rather than pull back, she teleported the spear back to her back and smashed forwards with a punch filled with Brachydios strength while pulling back and charging the other, and at the very same time having her hull claws lash out. Her first fist smashed it in the face, her claws raked its belly, and then she went flying forwards, delivering a vault breaker to it, smashing it up into the air, before pivoting and ripping open its back with her wrist mounted chainsaw when it landed, finally putting it down.
“Flurgle noooo!” came a call from one of the other fishfolk, but the rest were a bit too busy worrying about themselves as the man centipedes came scuttling across the bridges or through the water to attack them. Several got into a tussle with more tentacles bursting from the water, or tried to take on the larger red centipede, but the rest fell on the fishfolk, spewing acid, stabbing with their tails, or just bodily ramming them with their grotesque melted human faces.
”Good job Rika, you made a real mess” jr told his sister sardonically, but she didn’t pick up on it at all, and instead agreed that ”Yup! Look at them fight each other, cleaning up should be easy”
She did sort of have a point, but that didn’t mean there weren't still foes coming for them, mainly due to both Bowser and Kamek launching indiscriminate fireballs and a wide energy beam into the mix, which certainly got some attention.
”Dad! Might be time for that strategy with the cannon we talked about” Jr called out as the foes started coming, which got a nod from his father.
The king promptly took a more turtle-y pose on all fours with his boy facing side on to the incoming foes. The side of his shell facing them slit, exposing 3 turrets which promptly opened fire, while a volley of spikes launched from his back to create a deadly hail, and the king himself turned his head to the side to spit fireballs. The new part of the strategy however, was twofold. First, the prince healed his dad despite him being fit and healthy, prompting a great deal of vines to sprout from his shell. Most of these he promptly slammed into the wet earth beneath the plank walkway, while the rest were wrapped into the port at the bottom of the cannon turret they had acquired.
All together this formed a stable, and not spike-covered, firing platform onto which Jr stepped, stabbing his paintbrush into the dirt and grabbing both of the turret’s handles.
His two pokemon, Mimi and Dazzle (the latter of whom had been called out while Bowser was setting up) joined him, and then together all four of them began blasting out at the incoming attackers with a hail of firepower. Despite all that, some of the man centipedes still got close thanks to their sculpting speed and monstrous durability, and at which point the other half of the plan came to fruition. When the first of the scuttling things broke past the no-mans land (having dodged past tentacles, shells, water bullets, electro balls, and more) an entire tree promptly burst up out of the ground infront of it, which it promptly crashed into due to the surprise.
Rooting around (king tusk): Bowser can sink the vines from his shell into the ground, and then prompt rapid plant growth using them. This can be used to cause straight line waves of foliage, targeted bursts from a single point, or circular explosions of plant matter around himself. These plants can be anything from thorny shrubs to spearing roots to whipping vines to even small trees, though they will only last a few moments before decaying into nothing. The size and amount of plants, as well as the range they can be grown at, increases depending on how many vines are thrust into the ground, making an on all fours and overhealed Bowser very effective, while a bipedal and hurt one is not so much. Naturally Bowser’s burying of his vines to use this ability restricts his movement while doing so, though it does also make him a rather stable firing platform at the same time.
In the moment it was stunned and disorientated from unwillingly headbutting a tree, jr turned his gun turret towards the awful creature, and let it have it haf its own serving o f high explosive firepower. The other foes got similar treatment, being stabbed by roots, tripped by spiky bushes or obstructed by other foliage that prevented them from getting close.
Even with how effective that was, if that had all they had, the troop might have still been in trouble. Fortunately Rika and Kamek’s additions made the battle against the charging man-centipeds and odd fish person a breeze, with Rika summoning her while whale via pokeball like spinner so it could unleash its cannonfire and adding her own disruption cannon blasts to the fire power, while Kamek decided on just start dropping some dark energy mines in between them and the foes, blowing the few that did get past sky high.
Unfortunately, in focusing on cutting down the herd, they failed to target the actual biggest threat in the room. The Beast, that towering centipede large as two Bowsers wo had been woken up from its nap, had made short work of anything and everything that had tried to take it on, and due to its life draining bites, it wasn’t even scratched. Worse, when it came for them they never saw it coming, because the first moment they were aware of its approach was when it burst out of the ground next to them, the Beast having borrowed over to them while they were busy with the lesser foes.
It seemed to laugh at their shocked surprise, and then lunged its horned head forwards at Bowser’s back. Jr, Mimi and Dazzle all abandoned the ship that was Bowser, tossing themselves out of the way, but the rooted King himself could do no such thing. Instead the Beast was free to slam its noggin into the turret, smashing it to bits and smashing the king into the ground in the process.
It then pivoted, trying to snap up Dazzle in a single bite, only for the water pokemon to leap into the marsh’s waters and swim out of reach. It growled in frustration in response, and was in the process turning to find another target when Rika vaultbreaker punched into it, knocking it back a few steps.
”Papa! You ok?” she asked as the spent gauntlet hung by her side. The king grunted in affirmation as he started to pick himself up only for the Beast to breath in noisily as if to say, no you won’t be, before it unleashed its poisonous breath upon them all. Bowser, Rika and Mimi were all left coughing and choking, their lungs and veins burning from the poison, while Jr had managed to pull his bib up over his nose and mouth to block most of the attack.
He fought back now, shooting small iron spikes from his wrist, and then when that did nothing, forming and hurling a hammer at its head, which did do enough to piss the Beast off. Sick of trying to bite through the vines protecting Bowser’s back anyway, it pivoted and charged the prince, smashing him aside.
Now it was Kamek’s turn to get involved, the untouchable flying mage smashing a summoned magic fist down on top of the beast’s head, knocking its face into the dirt for a moment. It took this as a cue to bury itself in said dirt again digging under it with alarming speed and protecting itself from harm.
Not that this actually gave the Troop a moment of rest. With the beast itself no longer splitting their attention, the man centipedes had won the battle against the fishfolk and tentacles, and now their remaining number came streaming towards the last targets in sight.
They were, at least, not uncontested as they came in. Rika’s great white whale had slipped into the marsh’s waters, and along with sea-lion like Dazzle, unleashed its firepower upon the man centipedes. Cannons roared alongside much less impressive watergun shots, but when the abominations got close, that was when both of them showed their aquatic metal.
The great whale, large as the centipedes themeslves, could surge forwards in the water with alarming speed, open its jaws wide, and deliver a devastating multi jawed bite to them, which was often more than enough to take the wounded ones down. Meanwhile Dazzle’s dire penguin fusion combined with its aquajet move allowed it to leap out of the water and then crash down atop its foes with breakneck speeds, staggering them and letting him then kite back away from them while hitting them with icy winds and its disarming voice.
Still, despite their efforts, several of the man centipedes got through, making an already messy fight even messier, as the still reeling from having their position blown apart by the Beast’s bursting into it Troop scrambled to recover.
Jr raised a crude shield through which a pointed tail of a man centipede stabbed straight through, the wicked tip stopping only a breath away from his eye. To his credit, the prince only flinched for half a second before wrenching the shield aside, and promptly hucking a fireball right into the monstrosity's many faces, leaving a patch of napalm burning on them all. The creature shrieked in pain, stumbling back, and giving the prince enough space to form and fire a shotgun blast of iron shards into its core for good measure. Then he promptly turned his attention to curing everyone of the poison that was eating away at them.
”I’ll hold them off!” Rika called out after she was cleansed of the toxins, stepping onto the water again, and then summoned her cloyster striker to turn that specific patch of swamp into a ”Whirlpool!” which dragged in and slowed the man centipede trying to cross it. Then she used her rune to leap over one that came in to flank her, floated above it charging a vault bearer, and then came slamming down right on top of it, sinking it into the muddy water, before leaping off, but not before leaving it an explosive present that finished it off when she was clear.
Bowser and the Beast meanwhile were now duking it out, the towering mass of chitin slamming its horns down to bash the king on the head, snapping off one of the king’s tusks in the process and eliciting a roar of pain from the koopa king. Fortunately he was not fighting alone, and a full restoring burst of healing followed by poison curing from Jr got him back in the battle, while a shimmering amber shield wrapping around him courtesy of Kamek ensured he’d not be taking hits like that again.
It took the Beast a moment or two to realize this however, as it first boldly charged the king, only to find itself stopped by a palm strike, and then going horns to tusks again only to find itself coming out the poorer of the two afterwards. Then it was Bowser’s turn, and the king wasted no time in slamming a rocket assisted right hook right into the Beast’s raised front half, smashing it back and away.
It roared at him, but rather than come back for another go, it dove back underground again, no doubt looking to sneak up on a softer target to chow down on to restore its health.
”Not this time!” the king roared, before more or less belly flopping forward, slamming all of his shell sourced vines into the ground at once and sending a rolling shockwave of foliage bursting out the ground before him, some of which caught the digging Beast as it grew out of the soil and dragging it back to the surface. It scrambled in the treetops for a moment, incredibly disorientated, before being unceremoniously dropped down to the ground as the foliage evaporated beneath it, leaving it sprawled on the ground as Bowser came charging in on all fours.
Regrown tusks met the Beast’s body, and promptly hurled it into the air. As it flew, it sailed past Kamek, who had been spending all this time freely blasting foes from on high. Explosions prompting quad beams, dark energy mines and shadow clones of Bowser had been dropped from the sky atop the hapless man centipedes, along with a fair number of basic fireballs. He’d also picked up Mimi from the ground battle at one point, and the Pokemon was now riding at the tip of his broom like a witch’s cat, merrily copycatting his most powerful spells and using her tail stick like a wand to direct her own devastation down upon their foes.
That had been quite a boon, because Kamek himself had been running dry of mana, but at that point hardly mattered, because all but the last of the swarming foes had been dealt with.
That left only the Beast as a real threat as it crashed down again onto the marshy ground. However, despite the beating and the fall, it still promptly rolled over back onto its legs again, and once more looked for a target. It found one when a young prince piped up with ”Wow that thing is pretty tough huh? Oh! I know! I should make a recording of it!” and then proceed to pull out and click on the relevant button on a tape player.
The Beast lunged for the boy, only for vines to sprout up from the ground and to lash around its tail, halting it in its tracks for a moment. Then came a cry of exertion and a rapidly flying woman as Rika vaultbreaker into it right as Bower’s plant based bindings broke, smashing it up into the air again for a moment.
Despite this knock up, it landed cleanly and whipped its head around to try and take a bite out of her, only for a spear to appear in her unstunned hand, its shaft paced right in the way of the incoming bite. It didn’t stop the lunge forwards, but it did cause the shipgirl to be pushed back as the Beast ended up pushing the spear forwards with its jaws, and her along with it Then right on time the gauntlet she had vault breakered with came back online, letting the ship girl bring it up and blast the Beast point blank in the eyes with her grizzco blaster.
It pulled back, hissing in pain and shaking its head to clear the ink, before having half a mind to curse the spear in its jaw, only for it to jump back to the princess’ hands. She then thrust it forwards, but sadly for her the thin tip harmlessly glanced off the Beast’s red chitin. Something that did not glance off of it however was the spray of acid launched from Bowser’s shoulder cannons, which caused the natural armor to fizz and hiss as it was weakened.
Having fought other foes that used acid both today and in the past however, the Beast knew what to do, and promptly rolled over in the swampy water, diluting and/or washing off the acid in a single move. Then it went for Rika again, not with claws or horns but simply careened into her with the force of a van, smashing into her arm as she tried to dodge, and sending her spinning across the water.
Before it could capitalize however, Bowser had charged back in, forcing it to face the barrier encased king once again. Going on what had worked well before, the Beast sucked in air, and once again unleashed its poisonous breath, which bypassed the physically resisting shield and set Bowser to coughing and thumping his chest as if that would clear the toxins.
With the king’s charge halted by the poisoning, and Rika batted away, the Beast tried to return to its original target, the child with the tape recorder passively documenting the fight, only for those who had just finished dealing with the other centipedes to come to his aid. Magic bolts and electro balls lashed down from the sky thanks to Kamek and Mimi, while Dazzle and Rika’s white whale blasted it with water gun shots and small cannon shells.
It tried to dive under the surface again to escape the deluge, only for Bowser to slam the ground again and pop it up out of it using rapid tree growth once more. Unable to back off, it made a final lunge for Jr, only for Rika to come smashing into it again using her still good arm, knocking it up, and then having her ichor queen striker cleave down onto it with her massive four handed sword.
The blow split the Beast’s armor right across the neck, in what should have been a killing blow (and Jr complained as much by moaning ”Hey! I was recording that”) only for the Beast to not fall. It too seemed confused by this, and the way the massive singer benign jabbed into it and filling its veins with poison did nothing either, but it was more than happy to capitalize, lunging its jaw forwards and crushing the leg of the ichor queen, both healing itself somewhat and harming RIka a fair deal in the process.
Bowser smashed it in the face before the Beast could take another bite out of the now wounded on two limbs Rika, and followed it up with two more strikes before it just powered through and smashed him in the face with its horns again.
Kamek swooped over, dropping a dark energy mine beneath it, blasting it to high heaven, and then even air dropped his diminutive Tonberry striker onto its back so the little thing could deliver its incredibly lethal knife blade stab to the Beast, only for this to do seemingly nothing as well other than give the Beast another striker to chomp on inorder take it off of the death’s door it seemed to have no interest in passing through.
”Ack! This is absurd! How tough is this thing?” Kamek cried out in disbelief through the pain of the recoil.
”Why won’t you die!?” Bowser demanded as he delivered a series of rapid (for him) punches concluded by a kinetic strike module empowered blow he delivered in tandem with one of Rika’s vault breakers, the two of them slamming the Beast back.
The Beast itself didn’t seem to know either, looking rather confused about its still functioning body, before laughing at them with the madness of something that had just found out it was indestructible. That laughter was cut off however by a call of ”Got it!” from Jr, and a click on the tape recorder reaching the end of a tape, at which point the beast promptly exploded as it received a dozen delayed death blows all at once.
”What?” Bowser asked after a few moments, putting words to the question on everyone’s mind as the ash and spirit of the Beast slowly settled on the marshy ground.
”Did you know recording monsters did that young master? Is that why you sounded so confident?” Kamek asked, having worked out the source of the Beast’s deathlessness, and was about to demand to know why he had held that information back when the prince shook his head and informed him that ”Nah. I just thought that no matter how strong that thing is, it wouldn’t be able to take both you and a copy of itself on”
”I see. Well then…” Kamek replied slowly, before sighing and concluding that ”Well, at least we know now, and got something worthwhile out of this mess at least”
”We also got a load of spirits!” Rika pointed out to which Jr also added ”Plus there’s those bonfire things, bet if you light them all something good happens” indicating to the ritual pyres, two of which were already glowing thanks to stray fireballs.
”Also it's a bit weird how the big hut never opened, huh?” Bowser pointed out, which got them all looking at the fishpeople dwelling that was 4 times as large as all the others.
After a short rest, the troop acted on that information. At the end of it everyone was healed up, and positioned around the hut in a close but not clumped up this time formation, at which point Kamek used a fireball to light the last pyre. It blazed to life, and then it and the two others roared hotter and brighter before three beams of light lanced into the giant hut. An eerie glow started to peek out of the cracks and under the door, building up and up and then spilling out when the door was flung open, causing a giant fishfolk shadow to sweep across the marsh, causing all to tense up.
At least until they saw that the shadow was coming from an ordinary sized fish person who was just close to the light source inside the hut. It was however wearing some cultist like robes, which made Kamek to start calling out a warning not to take it lightly, only for Rika to step out from the side of the door where she had been positioned in ambush, at which point she stabbed it clean through the eye with her spear, stab it in the gut with her hull claws, blast it with her disruption cannons, and then finally just cave its chest in with a punch using a her gauntlet.
”Well that was disappointing” Jr commented as he relaxed, before thinking and then admitting ”Though I guess an oversized one of those fishguys woulda looked kinda silly”
Other than the fishperson cultist, the other things of note inside where a book called ‘on tentacles’ which seemed to be somewhat magical, and a scroll titled poison cloud which could be used to cast the spell of the same name a few times. There was also a pile of food, including a large number of spiky durians, but also notably no meat. These made for a good after battle snack, particularly for Rika who needed the fruity hydration after refilling her grizco blaster again. Bowser meanwhile was a bit disappointed by the lack of meat initially, but found he rather liked the spiky and pungent durians, claiming they were the him of fruits.
As they did that, Kamek had some toadies collect spirts, adding them to a bottle store to be used for crushing down the line. In the process he actually discovered the heart, now lacking any man centipede defenders (or rather parasites, not that they knew that), which once they were done eating the Troop promptly bombarded into oblivion from the top of the pit and then added it to their spirit collection.
All in all, despite all the commotion, their little root around the room could summarized by stripping it down to just what Kamek relayed via earpiece to the others: ”No silver keys or boss progress items in the marsh room on floor three, but we did acquire a fair few new spirits, though I do not expect anyone to be interested in fusing with them, as they are quite grotesque. The young master also made a cassette recording of a large red centipede, so if you see one in future please check that it isn’t him before attacking if you please. Oh, and finally we did find a magic scroll that can be used to make poison clouds, and one that seems to be able to summon tentacles. Please inquire if you are interested”
Thirty seven thousand feet above the lands of origins a figure floated above creation, but she was no god. Instead she was the product of chaotic chance, as all beastfolk were, and in her case the dice had been kind in some ways and cruel in others. She was one of those cursed to be without mortal arms, and instead she had the wings of a vulture stretching out from her shoulders. She was also small as a goblin would go from the other half of her gamble, which was what let her fly better than most bird-folk. She had the bird’s eyes too, and it was with them that she gazed out from her lofty perch, having reached it by riding thermals.
She hadn’t come up here for fun, but rather to feed her belly and her flame, for one of the rich folk of her city had promised her a feast if she would ascend and get him a report about the invading beasts they’d all been warned about. Unfortunately, even with her enhanced eyes, the invading forces were just dots. Or had been. Until something that was markedly not a dot had come striding over the horizon.
Egrioth. She became transfixed by the titan, and so rather than swooping down to report, she stayed up there long enough to witness the spec that was Allianthé fly out to battle the titan, and then her failure as she was sent flying back to the great tree at the heart of the land’s of origins.
The beastwoman hovered there for a few moments before summing up all she had just seen with a simple “Oh fuck” and then diving back down towards the city she called home.
A few hours after the vulture-goblin had witnessed the divine battle, Lilly, ‘discoverer’ of the art of speaking with one's past lives and secretly daughter of Asheel, excited a council chamber within which she had just heard a retelling of said battle.
From those steps, she paused to look out over the rest of Tricity as she mulled over what she had just learned. True to its rather literal name, Tricity had started out as three separate cities, all of them built into and atop the hills and cliffs that ringed the land of origin, and specifically the spot where the eastern river entered them.
The oldest settlement was the one she was currently in, spreading outwards from the cave of painted memories, a site holy to Asheel within which generations of folk had left their artworks to be remembered for all of time. Naturally it was a popular place to make a home for the devout, and so it was surrounded by the well of citizens of the city, and, by extension, most of the important buildings, such as the council chamber themselves which sat within view of that temple/art gallery.
As did her own family home. Or rather, the family home of her mother. The Mother. Despite her divinity, the building was not the most impressive or richest place around, though the sprawling stone structure still represented a great deal of wealth and influence. Not the goddess’s own however, for none but Lilly knew that was what she was.
Instead it came from her large and successful family, though certainly she’d had a hand in their triumphs.
Still, when Lilly returned home it wasn’t to speak with any of them, and so she traded only brief hellos with the goddess’s varios partners and descendants and promised that she’d fill them in on the council decision soon. Goblin families were large, and not at all monotonous, so even the large home was still bustling, and so it was something of a miracle that she managed to find the Mother alone as she did. Or, well, almost alone
“Hello dear, I take it you’re here to see me?” the slightly wrinkled but not as much as she should be goblin asked from where she was sitting by the fire and rocking one of her grandchildren in her arms. Her garbs were a comfy cotton robe dyed a cozy red, and her slightly graying hair was done up in a pair of buns. She was not wearing any kind of hat.
“And youz already know why,” Lilly replied, rather combatively. This wasn;t the first time they’d talked about the impending crisis after all.
“I’ve heard a thing or two. That city wide announcement for one. Somewhat large monsters coming from the south, which I assume that emergency council meeting was about” the goddess summarized, disregarding the tone of the question, before saying “So I assume you have come to your dear old mother for advice?” not unkindly before requisition she “please, come, sit by the fire with me. But do keep your voice down, I only just got this little one to sleep”
“No, I came to ask why you iz still here, and where is the goddess who saved gobs and beasties from the desert? The voice said the gods was handling things, and yet youz still here!” the goblin replied, even as she obliged the request to keep quiet via whisper-shouting her accusation.
“I’ve learned to delegate, my dear. I can’t be everywhere, and for the world to be stable people need to be able to handle themselves instead of waiting for me to show up. I tried that back in the day, and believe me, it was an endless parade of putting out fires” she replied “You can handle these beasts, I know you can”
“Handlz them! One just smacked a goddess outa the sky! What are we gonna do bout summit that can do that!?” Lilly threw her hands up, unable to believe the Mother really thought they could do that.
“I… I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” the goddess replied slowly, looking genuinely shocked
“You… you don’t know?” Lilly replied, almost as shocked and yet, somehow, a little relieved.
“Darling dear, I’m not omniscient or all powerful. Or all that powerful at all at the moment” she explained and didn’t explain before asking “so could you tell me more about this… concerning news” to which her daughter obliged.
A few moments after she was done, the doors to their family home’s garage open, and a family six wheeled buggy came rolling out with the Mother at the helm and a soon to be road sick from her mother’s erratic driving Lilly in the passenger’s seat.
The Buggy rolled down the streets from the wealthy district towards the shore line, weaving around other buggies and more traditional bug drawn carts. Lining that shore where the north bank docks, bustling with activity as resources and food were shipped in, and worked goods from the artisans of the city were shipped out, all of it carried either on the backs of large boat beetles, on barges either pulled by dozens of smaller ones, or powered by buggy technology to spin multiple paddlewheels. On the far side of the river was another set of docks, sat to the second of three cities, but neither of those docks were going to be involved in the way the pair were going to cross the river.
Instead they took a turn, and swung onto the main road, one that led to the third city, and also a way across the waters.
In the center of the river sat an island, a craggy rocky thing that stood in the face of the river, splitting and widening it by its very presence, and in doing so, shallow and slowing the waters, forming not quite a lake, but something close enough to it. This width should have made it harder to cross, and indeed in the past it had, resulting in the island being used as a home for a community of goblins who, after being exiled from the land that had become Harrowfane, had tunneled into the rocky cliffs and turned it into a fortress from which to launch retaliatory raids back into the lands they had been created in.
Retaliatory strikes from the fowl-folk had eventually put an end to that, and the island had lain sparsely inhabited until it had been learned that the more calm waters made building in this part of the river safer. The extensive piers strutting out from both shores were the first use of this, but the two goblins were riding towards the newer and grander construction: the two sisters.
Built and constantly maintained by teams of aquatic beastfolk, the two sisters were a marvel of engineering. Hundreds of stone columns encased in biocrystal waterproofing rose up out of the water, all of them covered with circular carvings for strength, while the plank walkway they supported had the same symbology freshly painted on it every few months. In addition to this, numerous shrines to Tuuni had been erected all along their twin lengths, to which travelers offered thanks and tribute, further strengthening the bridges against the force of nature they straddled.
It was also the source of one of the world's first major pieces of congestion, as anyone and everyone who didn’t want to or couldn't afford to charter a beetle boat used it to travel between the three cities. As a result it took a while for them to get to the center island, which was now part military high command because of its central and defensible location, and part entertainment district because of its central location that sported a lot of foot traffic and off duty soldiers.
Lilly and her mother had no time for the peddlers of trinkets, snacks and the oldest profession attempting to get their attention however, and after passing through the central cavern and out the other side, where soon buzzing across the south bridge towards the poorer side of town.
On either side of them stretched more docks, these rather than exporting finished goods instead exported the cities actual primary resource: the bounty of the earth. Mining was the name of the game in the south, as the hills before them where pockmarked with goblin sized mining tunnels used to extract ores (including the now all important tin used to make the bronze backbone of their civilisation) and gems from their depths, or simply torn apart by beastfolk wildbloods who’s strength had been put to use quarrying out vast sums of stone for use in construction both in the city itself and beyond.
The hills on the north were pristine by comparison, because no one in their right minds dared risk disturbing the cave of painted memories. Desecration of a site holy to the goddess to whom they owed all was unthinkable after all.
What was mirrored on both the north and south sides however were the farms to the east, stretching out as far as the eye could see. They were the rowdy domain of the snouters, although the pig folk were only a plurality and not quite a majority. It was there they were heading as it turned out, though there was one stop they had to make apparently, and that was to the grand market situated just a street away from the river side ports.
“Lilly darling, do you have anything to barter for a shovel or two? I seem to have forgotten to bring anything but the cloths on my back, and the Pollies will need their feed if you want to get home” The Mother said to her daughter, who ended up having to trade an earring and a quick lesson on past life seeking meditation to a happy if bemused pangolin-dwarf while her mother doted on and hand fed their buggy’s bug motors.
The goddess did not dain to explain why they had purchased those shovels till they were both out digging a hole in the middle of a field, which was the point at which Lilly finally snapped “Mother! I’z had it up to here with dis! You goddess, why can’t just. Fix!” her goblin accent fully slipping back in as she did so.
“I don’t have my hat” the Mother explained without explaining, before saying “now please, less talk, more digging we’re almost- ah, there we are” only for her shovel to thunk against something solid. A few more scoops, and she had unveiled a crystalline substance Lilly had never seen before. What was even stranger was when the Goddess pressed a hand to it, and caused it to open up somehow, before she hopped inside with a call of “Take care my darling!” to her daughter.
Lilly was too shocked by her sudden disappearance to reply, and then when the ground started to collapse around the hole they had dug all she could do was run. As if a great object had been suddenly removed from beneath it, the dirt spilled into a great pit, and yet up from that pit burst a smaller mono wheeled buggy adorned with spikes and made of unknown metal and crystal.
It landed next to Lilly with a crash, revealing its rider, now far more wrinkled and grinning beneath her purple hat.
“Mother?” the goblin asked, but the goblin before her simply barked out a laugh and replied “Hah, not on your life. That fool wanted to play mortal, so she locked our power away in this ol thing” she gave the witch’s hat a flick “and locked us both away again too. Well, now that she’s come crawling back and let us out of the cage so we can solve this little problem of hers, she can have a turn in time out instead of us”
“I… Little? Dat thing took on a goddess!” Lilly replied, both aghast at this dismissal of their fears, and also suddenly coming to the realization that the very same might happen to her mother.
“Oh yes, showed Life who’s boss it did. But so what? She makes things that she never wanted to end. Me? I Break things” she said, before revving her super cycle, and then blazing away from the scene, leaving Lilly to explain to a very angry snouter where half his field had gone.
The goddess herself was long gone before the snouter arrived, roaring southwards. First she rolled past the Tricity area’s borders, where the state’s troops: shield, mace and crossbow equipped goblins, billhook armed Snouters, and eclectically armed beasfolk, had seen off the first scouting beasts. No state in the riverland survived if it couldn’t overcome the military strategy of an all wildblood army, and the tactics vs those were rather adaptable towards fighting the larger monsters.
Once she was out of the lands, she found the first thing they would struggle with, as she ramped clean over a wave of refugees fleeing north. They came from all around the south of the lands of origin and represented all those who could not fly or swim with beasteal prowess, and were too destitute to own rivercraft or beetle boats, or who would be denied entry into the goblin city states. All of them were heading for the bridge Lilly and her Mother had just crossed, the only place where the waters that split the world in too could be crossed by all forms of mortal life.
Only then she encountered her first beast, one that was literally hounding the straggling refugees as if driving them towards the city was part of a greater plan. Before it even knew what had hit it, the Breaker did just that, her blade armed super cycle cleaving it clean in half. Cackling, the Breaker rode on, slicing through every beast she came across, or at least those on the ground. An army of beasts had been coming for Tricity, it seemed, and she rolled right through it as if its forces were air, before continuing on, weaving to and fro to further cut down the numbers the city would face as she headed for a date with the titan.
A Rüppell's vulture-goblin flying thousands of feet in the air observes Allianthé’s ill fated battle with Egrioth, and then reports back to her home of Tricity (which is built around the cave of painted memories on the eastern border of the lands of origin) about this. We then pass to Lilly, one of Asheels many mortal children, who rouses the Mother form of the goddess from her life playing mortal matriarch with the news. The two then take a trip across the Tricity, giving us an understanding of its three sub cities, and the two bridges that span the mighty river flowing through it.
Then Asheel digs up her hat and super cycle, reclaiming her true power, before her Breaker form rides off to the south to confront Egrioth, road killing a whole load of beasts in the process as she does.
Rayne dodged, weaved, blocked and fired until she finally thought she had her foe cornered, pursuing them down the alleyway. It was a bit of a double edged sword however as it made it nearly as hard for her to dodge as it was for them, the knight-which complained exasperatedly “how are you not out of arrows yet?”
It didn’t really matter in the end how endless their quiver was, because as she closed in, she saw her chance to end his ability to fire its contents. She dodged under the last arrows they fired, not really thinking about how easy it had been this time, and then summoned and swung her blade in one motion, cleaving through the bow. She let out half a breath of relief that it was finally dealt with, only for things to explode behind her.
“Wha-?” she exhaled, glancing behind her, only to see the buildings on either side starting to tip down towards them, the shattered remnants behind pulling the rest of the walls down in a rapidly approaching wave.
“Why?!” she began to demand to know, but the sniper, no, the young man, no the boy, was already answering, and it left her shocked. Part of her mind reeled at the implication, that it seemed to be that he only thought she wasn’t trying to kill him because she wanted to enslave him (and what that meant about the world she’d ended up in), but the rest saw a child about to be crushed and reacted accordingly. All the mental buildup to do the ugly deed that needed to be done was annihilated in an instant as who Rayne really was at her core came racing back to the fore. The only reason she had the power to kill in the first place: to save people.
With an impassioned cry of “no!” she blinked forwards, grabbed him by the front of his garb to stop him from falling, pulled him close, and then turned to light again, this time, for the first time, using the fact that she still had collision in that state to drag him after her. Then before the blink screeched to a halt she hurled him forwards, giving him all the momentum he was about to lose and sending him tumbling clear from the incoming collapse.
Then she did stop, and in the moment she had to wait to blink again, the building was going to crush her. Rather than face her fate, a hand flicked a spellcard and used it to form a massive ornate ax in front of her, one near as large as the buildings themselves, which then cleaved up over her head at breakneck speeds, careening into the debris and literally annihilating it, wood and stone vaporizing under the blow, and buying her just enough time to blink again and out of harm's way as well.
Dust swept fourth over her even though she was out of the way of the debris after she stopped. It was a thing that wearing her goggles would once again have helped with, but as it was she had to clear the air by waving her hat around, before setting it back on her head and then, if the boy was even still here, would ask “hey, are you ok?”
A moment after she’d remembered what he said and then ad “and I don’t want to enslave you! I would never, that’s just horrible. I just don’t want anyone else to die. So just … run. Leave. Go home to your parents, before one of the others does kill you” her genuine concern for his life clear on her face, no matter how foolish it was to let someone who had just tried to kill you live.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) Shinra building (Arahabaki)
Despite having not put an end to the slaughter occurring at the daycare, Midna still took her parting words as a win. It was petty, oh it was ever so petty, but she’d take her victories where she could. Plus, it really did mean something, because part of the problem they had been having is that bringing down bits of the regime had also brought down bits of the forces defending the city. Here, at least, she had a methodology to repurpose part of it into something more useful than it had been before.
The fact that mass-producing pokemon for war wasn’t the most ethical thing either didn’t really cross her mind, given her own usage of warbeasts. Instead it was running through how to convince people to do things her way right up until the elevator arrived deep down into the earth. Or at least that was how she thought it anyway, but it was entirely possible that they were still above ground due to how tall Midgar was.
At any rate, they entered into a world for which the princess had zero context for, because apparently this was what computers looked like inside. ”So do they all have miniature buildings? Wait, are they just run by tiny people?” she asked, but upon closer inspection there weren't any people in sight, at least not through the thick fog that prompted Minda to slip her mask over her mouth and nose to avoid breathing it in.
”Well, we’re here, and that was easier than it should have been” Midna said, thankful that no one had thought to post guards or cameras just watching the entryway. As it turned out, there were some looking at the fancy looking platform that was apparently a teleporter, and also the way forward ”Good thing we were planning to stop here anyway”
Rather than hang around here any longer than need be, the princess instead moved to her designated task, namely setting up their way in and out of here. She found a nice looking pylon a bit away from both the door and the teleporter, and also out out site of both, and did her magic, punching a small hole in reality, and the causing pixely black squares to spread out from that hole, widening it as they went till above her it yawned.
Task done, she turned back to the others and held out three hands and asked ”Shall we?”
Once everyone was done nosing around, and had accepted a proffered mit, they were off. The 4 heroes turned into particles of twilight and raced up into the portal and across the city, with their souls along for the ride. Then a few moments later a portal in the S.O.U. Building opened, depositing them back at their city HQ.
”Goddesses, it feels like it has been months since we set out this morning” the dead beat princess said as she let go of the other’s hands, and then gave a stretch and cracked her knuckles, real hands above her head, magic behind her back, before she dismissed the latter and called out ”Anyone home?”
She waited a few moments, but there was no answer.
”Ah. Well. I guess we are the ones with the fastest travel” she tried to play it off, before adding ”Oh wait actually let me just” and then disappearing back through the portal. A minute later she returned empty handed, and reported ”No one’s at any of the other city side portals either” too tired to hide the hint of concern in her voice.
She got to distract herself from that worry for a bit by taking the chance to wash the blood, sweat and ash from body, but soon enough there was nothing but the contents of the building and views of the city to distract herself. One was dull, and she was really starting to get sick of the other. It had its moments, but between the politics, man made horrors and external threats, it really was suffocating.
”I really could do with some air” she realized, before muttering ”But its not that it's any better out there, all smoke and fumes and-”
She paused, glanced at her portal, and then hopped up onto her feet to ask the others ”Anyone up for taking a break from this place? I’m thinking of just going up to the top of the split mountain for some fresh air and a nice view. We can leave a note for the others if we all go”
If she got any takers, then she’d happily link hands with them beneath the portal again and then once more skim them along the space between day and twilight, bringing them much further away this time.
High above the clouds to the south east of the massive city they had just been in, the princess and her companions arrived on the precipice of a great cliff. Down below, she had almost frozen to death, only to be carried to this safehaven of land bathed in the glow of the split mountain’s peak that sat just a bit further up the mountain.
It had, unfortunately, seen better days. Only a little ways away was a great pit within which a bell had once sat. Now it was split open at the side, creating a massive gash in the side of the mountain, rubble spilling from it and down its slopes in a trail of worm made destruction.
”Ah, I forgot we messed this place up a bit. The boss was here, and well. That’s the result of its running off into the desert. We had to blow it up with a train” she explained vaguely.
Still, while it wasn't quite as picturesque as it had been, it still had a stark beauty to its stone terrain surrounded by fluffy clouds, including some which, if someone were to look close enough they might see marble structures built atop of them.
”Don’t mind that one” Minda said as she pointed up at the titan, explaining simply that ”He’s a friend” which might be unbelievable where it not for the distinct lag of red glow in its four eyes.
The land itself wasn’t entirely quiet either. Friendly dog lizards could be seen and heard digging through the rocks and stones the sundering of the mountain had tossed about, seeking out for glowing gems that the proceed to scarf down, while penguin-esque creatures and bears in pajamas, all only knee hight, engaged in 0 stakes dance battles with each other around them.
Down below, they could see where they’d spent the last few days. Roughly see, anyway. The city of Midgar was only really identifiable by the extinction belt hanging above it, for the city itself was smothered in a cloud cover of its own making.
”Ok, looks like I really did need the fresh air, because just look at that” Minda said as she looked down on the consequence of industry, before breathing in the clean crisp mountain air, and then letting out a relaxed sigh. Then she plopped herself down on the ground, removed her mask and helmet, and then just lay back in it and really relaxed for the first time since breakfast despite it not being the most comfortable of surfaces.
In doing so, she ended up looking up, and in her relaxed state, really taking in the night sky for the first time. She hadn’t exactly lived beneath the stars of Hyrule for long so there was no immediate foreignness to their pattern as there might be for others, but even she managed to find a fair number of out of place celestial bodies, the largest of which was a rather twisted looking moon that took that moment to reveal itself from behind a cloud.
She frowned at this ugly blot complaining ”Galeem just has to take the worst things huh, I mean couldn’t have put something nice looking up there?” and drawing attention to it in the process, before letting her eyes keep wandering, focusing on very little as she mostly just let them rest from the harsh artificial lights of the city they’d soon have to go back to.
Rayne mentally cursed as her triple shot spell ran out more or less as soon as she had started to really make use of it. With the volume of fire that seemed to have forced the sniper to keep his head down subsided, the arrows started to fly again, and they were, ironically, faster than her bullets. It was, as a result, a lot easier for her foe to get a bead on her than for her to do so on them, particularly because Rayne was not used to evasive foes (Golems and monsters didn’t really have human survival instincts) but mostly because her big glowing bullets where slow and unsubtle.
As a result of this she was put firmly on the defensive, blinking, blocking until two more mystical bolts flew above and below her. Light and sound exploded above her, deafening her- but not blinding, for the Knight Witch’s distinctive wide brimmed hat saved her eyes from much of the light. The goggles sat on that hat did nothing however, when ironically if she had been wearing them she would have been entirely fine.
Still, it meant that when she instinctively flinched her gaze down and away from the flash, her vision was still clear enough to see the verdant growth lashing up at her. It wasn’t quite enough time to stop the first lashing vine from wrapping around her leg, but it was enough for her to have already started pulling out the solution.
Runedge crashed down, cleaving through both the vine wrapping around her ankle. For a moment she looked like an actual knight, sword and shield in hand, but as the blade was made for a woman twice her size, she had to banish it away immediately after lest it rip itself from her grip. In its palace the gun rune reformed and blasted out, vaporizing the away the next vine, after which she blindly fired it downwards, pumping shots into the plant, as she checked above her for threats, but fortunately the blast had only been light and sound, and not a volatile birth of something to perform a pincer maneuver on her
The archer however was still an issue, and more arrows flashed forth, prompting her to blink away. She did not, however, chase her foe right away. Instead she took advantage of the stationary target that she had no ethical qualms about taking down, blasting away as she dove down towards it, briefly swapping out her battered shield for her masterwork sword, and driving Runedge right into the eye of the plant.
Mana that had bubbled off of the plant when she’d struck/shot it pooled into her as it withered around her, filling her to the brim, and then some more as she equipped a new weapon, this time doing it so in advance so as to not waste mana.
Then she was off after her target again, but this time when she opened up it was not with a triple shot, but a whole grapshot’s worth of bullets. They might have all been individually weaker, but the resulting cones of damage were far harder to evade.
She gave them one warning shot and a request to “please surrender!” and if she wasn’t getting that she’d use the shotgun as a suppressive tool as she closed in to try and disarm them via a blade to the bow.
And if that didn’t get her a surrender, she’d do what she had to, even if she hated it.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
As the troop was organizing the key drop offs from the top floor and not being particularly subtle with their chatter there came a banging from one of the cells right next to them. Five heads (Mimi had been brought out to help out) turned towards the sound, before they all traded glances.
”I mean. Only one of the people that got let out where crazy” Bowser pointed out from what they’d seen/heard from their vantage point ”and the other two were alright, that’s, something like, 90% chance whoever's in there is fine and won’t try to kill us like the one Sectonia got”
”Sixty six point six recurring percent your mathmaticalness” Kamek raised an index finger to correct, during which Bowser plucked a key from the mage was holding onto and headed for the door.
”Wait! Sire!” Kamek called after him, while Rika asked ”Why are we using a key to let someone out?” not really understanding the altruism of the situation, while Jr just said for them to ”get ready as he started forming an iron barricade to use for cover.
There was a click as Bowser undid the lock, followed by one more bang on the door as the occupant came careening out of it surrounded with magical power and with her fist outstretched before her. Bowser was cleanly smashed to the side by the woman who was screaming at the top of her lungs, while Kamek yelped in surprise as he took to the open air above the central shaft and Rika leapt to the side, leaving Jr behind his shield still in her path.
Vi, which was presumably her name going by the tattoo under her eye, proceeded to cleanly blow through the iron and into the prince, who was launched up into the air. Then as he came down she slammed another punch into him, sending him sailing over the banister and down into the central shaft. With another cry Kamek swooped after the prince, leaving the king and princess to face the madwoman together.
Vi, who had finished screaming and was now laughing maniacally and shouting something about “I get it now Jinx!”, was now encased in some kind of energy barrier, which cleanly absorbed Rika’s first spear thrust. In response to the failed strike pivoted, and bodily grabbed the head of the spear with her gauntlet, yanking it from the ship girl's hands.
The blade promptly teleported out of Vi’s hands and into Rika’s again, but madness was a great vaccination against surprise and so the woman simply did what she did best, and drove a regular punch towards the princess. In response Rika brought up both her hullclaws and spear to block, only for the impact with them to send a shockwave pulsing forwards, battering her back.
The followup punch did the same and managed to bring down her energy shielding and dent the backs of the claws, but at that point Rika had enough of her wits about her to retaliate, and did so by firing her rigging mounted disruptions into her foe at point blank range. They knocked down whatever magic barrier was protecting the madwoman down, punching straight through and sticking to her, sapping her strength, and making the third blow she landed a little bit weaker.
Despite said weaker punch, Vi seemed to draw power from it, her fourth punch coming in with close to half the delay that there had been between the last. It was rather fortunate that she wasn’t thinking straight enough to do anything but wail on the guarding shipgirl however, because it meant Bowser had plenty of time to recover and come charging into the fight at last with a roar.
Said roar alerted Vi to his coming of course, and so she pivoted, pulled back a fist, seemed to start charging it, and then, before Rika could drop her guard and go on the attack, went flying back towards the king in much the same way she’d come flying out the door. Running on all fours as he was, the king’s head was right in the way, and so he got a nasty smash to the face as Vi knocked him into the air and into the ceiling, before pivoting and starting to try and give him a beat down as well.
She got a nice hit in with her follow up, but when her third came Bower, snaring past a cracked tusk, was up and ready to take it. Forming a boxer’s guard he blocked the hit, and then swung one of his own, only for Vi to step out of the way and jab at him again. Furious, the king lashed out with the vines from his shell, thorned tendrils tearing and zapping at Vi, only for her to deliver another shockwave punch that obliterated them all in a single strike.
She was quite the foe it seemed, but sadly for her, or perhaps thankfully given the loss of her mind, she was outnumbered. Rika entered the fray right after the vine blasting strike, becoming a hammer to the anvil that was Bowser himself. Her spear jabbed forwards, and then flipped around, inverted in the blink of an eye so she could bring the helbard like serrated spine up in an under swing of a chop.
Bleeding, Vi stumbled back, and then got absolutely anvilled when Bowser drove a kinetic strike module empowered punch straight into her, sending her tumbling clear across half of the upper floor.
She still got up again, snarling at them thro bloodied teeth, which was exactly the moment that Kamek, with Jr hanging from the bottom of his broom, floated back into view. Her gaze flicked to them and then, despite (or perhaps because of) them still floating above the drop to the bottom of the prison, she reeled back a punch. Rather than charging up any power however, an ethereal connecting line lashed out and linked her to the dangling prince, at which point she started flying through the air straight towards them, following that guiding line.
”Oh dear” Kamek exclaimed as Jr instead yelled ”Fire everything!”
The prince immediately launched a hail of metal shards from his ferromancy arm, as well as a swarm of strikers consisting of the toothy Flukefey and clever armed Vespikan, while Mimi hurled an electroball but all of this was blown aside by the unstoppable Vi, no matter how much it hurt her to do so. She also sailed clean through an explosion caused by a convergence of 4 of Kamek’s dark magic beams, and a hail of fire from Bowser’s shoulder cannons.
Then, as she was just moments from crashing into the floating pair and to send both plummeting down Rika surged forwards, in her own mad charge that saw her leap off the spiked banister around the pit and to then leap forwards, firing her maneuvering thrusters and intercepting Vi mid air, driving her spear directly into the fast but predictably moving woman’s throat. She burst into ash that fell alongside Rika for half a heartbeat before she smacked into the abdomen of her Vespikan Queen striker when she summoned it below her. She grabbed on with both hands, letting her spear fall away down below. She only had scant seconds before it timed out, but in that time a paintbrush was lowered down to her by jr, onto which the princess grabbed.
She also took the liberty of grabbing Vi’s falling spirit while she was at it.
Up above Bowser ripped up the banister to the central shaft, reached out, and grabbed Kamek’s hand, before effortlessly hauling his family back to safety. They all then sprawled onto the solid ground, catching their breath for a moment, before quickly slipping into conversation about what had just gone down
”Let’s actually set up before we do that again next time” Jr suggested while is papa awkwardly scratch the back of his head, ”You know, disposable minions at the front, rest of us spread out, that kinda thing”
Rika meanwhile was more interested in the result, asking ”So, who’s going to use this anyway?”
”You took her down, you can have her” Bowser decided for everyone, after which Rika decided ”I like how she looks, so I think I’ll just use it as it is, no snacktivator” and then popping it into her chest
Appearance change: Fusing with Vi has caused Rika’s Brachydios gauntlets have transformed into a pair of giant mechanical hands, which feature the brute wyvern’s visage on the back of their palms (in a similar style to the jade lions on this skin) while still sporting both horns sticking out from their foreheads. The left gauntlet has absorbed the grizco blaster, no longer requiring the awkward pipes from the horn to get a supply of explosive goop, and can now fire the ink blasts from a barrel in the palm. The grappling hook has also moved over here, and now sits on the back of the gauntlet’s palm. On the right, her rifle has also moved into the palm, and sports a rotating Gatling style barrel the same size as the grizco blaster’s one. The chainsaw bayonet now runs along the back of her gauntlet’s hand and in between the middle knuckles, giving her punches from that hand some extra bite during and after impact.
For the rest of her body, Rika’s top half is now entirely human, apart from her mismatched horns which are now rather small and stubby, while retaining the lower scally half from rider and beast. Her hair has turned a light pink with blue tips, and has lengthened in the top and back and shortened on the side, giving her a messy pixie cut beneath her helmet. The letters RI are tattooed beneath her left eye. Her arm armor has evolved into a pair of dark steel pauldrons, and she has gained two large plates of the same style protecting her thighs.
Personality wise Rika has gotten more loud and self confident again, returning her to more or less a neutral volume/assertiveness level over all, as well as leaving her more impulsive.
Power: Vault Breaker: Rika can now charge her gauntlets with mana, which she can then use to unleash a punch that flings her forwards at breakneck speed, smashing foes that she collides with aside or even straight up into the air. The charge can be held for a maximum of 4 seconds, the first 1.25 of which increase the range, strength and speed of the punch. If the maximum time is eclipsed, the mana is forcibly vented to prevent damage to the gauntlet.
Weakness: Hexed-tech: Rika’s gauntlets really weren't designed to work with mana, and the overlapping energy systems unfortunately interfere with each other. If a gauntlet is used to perform a mana expending ability, it (and anything installed on it) will subsequently shut down for two seconds as the technology recovers from having magic run through it.
”Huh. Guess I got some more armor” she noted as she examined her body, before doing a few practice punches, not finding anything different and then wondering ”Huh, I wonder what it did?”
”Uh, sis, check out your gauntlets” which got another ”Huh,” then and ”oh yeah!” and finally an ”Oh. Wow” as she pulled them up front, and took in the mechanical mitts she was now equipped with.
”That is just … perfect!” she declared, giggling with glee as she slipped them on, having them lock smoothly in place, and then flexing her new hands. Mechanical digits perfectly articulated to her whims, one of the first of which was booping her papa on the snoot. Her second was examining the twin guns now set into the gaunlet’s palms, careful to not actually point them at herself, and then finally summoning her spear from down below into her mecha hands, and twirling it around with masterful dexterity.
”Ok, I totally see why unlocking that door was a good idea now” she said, quite clearly delighted with her transformation. While Bowser of all people tried, badly, to explain why you should help people (his instinct to do so was not his own after all) Jr gave the gauntlets an inspection, equally impressed at what had happened to them.
”Way better than all my hacks I gotta admit, though there is one flaw, and that’s that you can't really use that feather fall rune any more, right?”
”Oh, yeah, shoot. Guess not” Rika replied, spirits dampened a bit, but Jr was already prepared to pick them back up, becking her to give her both a hand and the rune, before he used his ferromancy to simply weld it to the bottom of her ;eft palm in a place where she could squeeze down on it using a single massive mechanical pinky.
Rika enthusiastically declared this ”Neat!” before saying that ”This’ll make going down the central shaft way easier!”
This inevitably got her some questions, to which her answer was simply ”It’s faster than using the stairs, plus we won’t have to worry about those tough flailing guys we saw Nadia handle. So it's a good way to catch up with the others”
With that there was little argument to be made, but based on the previous event Jr did manage to sit his papa down for a few moments so they could hash out a strategy.
A few moments after that, they sent down one of Kamek’s wisps to do some recon. As it passed the fourth layer it attracted the attention of a few bishops, who floated out into the central shaft. They were promptly showered with acid from Bowser’s shoulder cannons, metal spikes from Jr, fireballs from Kamek, and Disruption cannon globs from Rika, against which they had little defense.
The wisp then floated on down further to the third floor, at which point it was promptly blasted by half a dozen glowing magic missiles fired by the beaked mind flayers roaming those halls. They got to stew in satisfaction at having seen two foes off now for a few moments, before all hell descended upon their layer.
First came a squad of five shadow clones of Jr, accompanied by flukfey and Vespikan berserker strikers who swarmed the closet mind flayer. It blasted several of them with a shocking orb as they came in, causing a brief shout of panic from on high as the paralyzing feedback hit jr, but the rest kept going and in moments teeth by the dozens, cleavers, and clown car boxing gloves where laying into it, overwhelming it with both numbers and strength.
A moment later, Kamek dropped into view, and promptly quad lasered a second flayer who had come in response to the frantic ringing and then silence caused by the attack upon and then death of the first. A third was sicked by the remaining jr clones as the real thing came sliding down using the Grapple Worm as a zipline down from floor 5. Rika floated down with her rune to land next to him as the prince reached down and formed a platform of iron sticking out of the closest support pillar, one that allowed Bowser, who had been using his Meowser form to cat scratch down said piller, to stop his descent and step into the room.
”Smooth work” the king complimented his son, but the prince replied ”We still got stuff to do, so let’s deal with the rest of these squid faced guys already!”
Rika was already ahead of him, reeling back a gauntlet and then slamming forwards in exactly the same way Vi had, smashing a mind flayer up into the ceiling while it was distracted by one of the jr clones. The gauntlet she had used to slam forward went dead for a moment, causing her to tilt to the side as its anti grav failed, but she still had the strength to pivot, raise the other one, and use the grappling hook to reel the mindflayer in so she could cleave into it with her hull claws.
Another stepped into view as she finished it off with her chainsaw bayonet, hitting her with a stunning blast, but Kamek was there to take it on in her place, first smashing it with a magic fist summed above it, and then blasting it with his own magical bolts.
On the other side of the room the same kind of teamwork played out, a stunned Bowser being protected by Jr and Mimi, who struck it with a combination of electroballs from the pokemon, and a mix of fire, earth, and metal projectiles from the prince. These drove it back long enough for Bowser to recover, at which point the towering king promptly punched their foe through a wall.
Said wall incidentally turned out to be right next to where Ganondorf and Jesse had come in from, which meant that a moment or two after they’d made their check in the King came stomping through the hole he had just made, dusting off his hands as he did so. He then, quite contrary to Nadia’s suggestions, loudly called over ”Hey! How’s it going?” prompting his son to pop his head into the same room a moment later and request that they ”Come help us punch up some squids!” while the sound of spellfire and more Vault Breaker powered punches echoed through the halls behind them.
Down in the southern deserts, a tribe of nomadic goblins had set up camp in the shade of a massive rocky outcrop, one which sheltered a precious oasis from the heat of the midday sun, while still giving the plants blooming around it enough light to grow. Said plants were currently in the process of being harvested however. Their feeding fruits had already been plucked off, and their seed fruits cored out so that the outside could be eaten and the inside planted. There’d be plenty of space for said seeds, as the foliage was in the midst of either being converted into lumber, or devoured by the tribe’s herd of rolly pollies.
The large breeding and laying pair were busy devouring the leaves of all the trees, while their spawn rolled and crawled around nibbling up the little shrubs and other smaller plants. One of these little ones got a little over adventurous, rolling out of the patch the goblins wanted them in, and off towards the wilds.
In response, one of the herders on watch called out “Wez got dat one!” to the others, and then he and another goblin mounted their shared steed to go after it.
Said stead was no beast, bird or bug however, but rather a contraption of wood, copper and solidified silk supported by two wheels, which were padded with tyres made from the rubbery shells of rolly polly. The driver of this machine sat himself down on the machine’s saddle, grabbed its pair of handlebars, and then twisted one of them, causing a rope to pull a gear into place down in the body of the machine.
Nothing happened.
The goblin grumbled and then grunted to his copilot, a small goblin sat sideways on the back of the machine. This goblin leaned down and performed the sacred art of percussive maintenance on the device, prompting a trio of small rolly pollies inside of it to start running around an axle, which turned the gear, which turned a rope belt, which turned the rear wheel of the machine.
With a traditional cry of “vroom vroom!” The goblins were off, speeding across shrub and sand on their two wheel contraption. Or rather on their bike.
The rider left his fellows, who were lounging against several other bikes, in the dust, rolled past a few larger four or even six wheel buggies, and then raced after the errant polly, while his co-pilot whooped and cheered. As they got close she stopped making noise and instead pulled a spear that had been sticking up like an aerial out of its sheath, and then as they caught up with the polly used it to tap the bug on the side, guiding it to turn around and back towards the rest of the herd.
That was, incidentally, also how they steered the big ones. The giant rolly pollies, near as large as the ones that had saved goblins and beastfolk from the desert generations ago, were wonderfully at transporting things around, but the problem was you couldn't really steer them from inside the crystalline axles they rolled around. So you had to be able to keep up and tap corrections onto them.
Actual steeds had been used for this at first, but they tended to freak out about being around the big bugs, whereas their lesser kin were perfectly happy about that. The problem had been turning those into steeds. Everything from balancing on the axles to riding them as they were to hooking them up to sleds and carts or even using them as the wheels of carts had been tried at first, but the issue was that it was hard to get them to start and go when you wanted. Plus the inherently helpful and peaceful bugs didn’t like rolling at things, which made those contraptions too limited for certain types of goblin’s tastes.
It had been the Maiden who had first gifted the goblins the gear, or so it was told, and from it dozens of variations of the buggy had been made. These machines would go only when you pulled a lever or pressed a pedal, and the pollies were safely stored inside where they could not see that you were running down your prey or into battle. They were perfect and amazing, though they did have a habit of breaking fairly easily due to the poor quality of materials available.
Then the Mother had also given them art of painting them with certain shapes and patterns that made them better. The bike used to chase down the polly was decorated with red rings on its wheels, which made it go faster. The bigger buggies often had filled in circles for strength on their wheels, while the one dedicated warmachine they had had circles split into two halves, which made it much better at running things over. All of the tribe’s buggies were also decorated with fire on their chassis (bikes decked out like that more radical in their eyes, which was an important thing to be) hence the name of the tribe, the flame riders.
The rider of the bike which had been chasing the rolly polly turned it to one side, sticking a foot down into the sand in-order to bring it to a halt while his co-pilot shouted “yeah git back der ya bug” at the rolly polly. She then moved to slot the spear back into its sheath, only to see something moving up on the ridge. It was a goblin, waving their arms and pointing behind them, out into the dunes.
One of their lookouts, and the way they were freaking out could only mean bad news
“Other gang maybe?” the driver guessed
“From der? No ways. No water place for ages dat way!” the rider reapplied, which got a nod of agreement from the driver. They were about as far south from the river as you could get safely before the deep desert began after all, and they were both looking south right now.
“Sneaky around maybe?” the rider suggested, which got a shrug, before he suggested “best go back den” right in time for a monster with a crocodile's tail, a 7 legged cheetah's body the size of a bear which had three eagle heads with beaks that split into three pieces stuck haphazardly onto it to come crashing over the top of a sand dune.
“Broked wheels! What is dat!?” the driver cried out in a panic, only for the rider to slap him and shout “Who care! Floor it!”
That got the driver going, the goblin kicking off the sand and revving the clutch, sending them zooming back towards the rest of the tribe. Despite this however, the speedy monstrosity kept coming, three beaks screeching as its paws kicked up sand behind it.
“Shoot it! Shoot it!” the driver shouted at his rider, prompting them to move this time. She reached down to the other side of the spear, picked up an arrow and a short bow, notched the one into the other, and then fired. The arrow flew, and stuck rather perfectly into one of the eyes of the beast.
Unfortunately it still had 5 more so this just made it mad. The goblin shot again, and again, and then slung the bow aside and grabbed the spear again, jabbing it forwards only for a three jawed maw to crunch around it, snapping it like a twig, and pulling the rider back and off her seat. Just before she fell however, the driver reached back and grabbed her hand, holding her on, but now unable to turn the clutch, causing them to lose buggy power.
It would be over for them in a heartbeat, had the vocal cord produced sound of engine not have reached them as the rest of the tribe caught up, here to give them aid. Other riders let arrows fly, peppering the beast with arrows from both sides, slowing the beast enough that the one that had been about to bite the dust was pulled back to safety and her driver, who could then get his hands back on the throttle.
As they sped away, the other bikers started circling the beast, surrounding it, heckling it, jabbing and shooting at it while it tried to lash out, only for the goblins it was attacking to swerve away and others swerved in to take advantage. One on dozens, the beast did not stand a chance, and soon enough it fell.
“Yeah! We’z gonna eat good tonight!” the driver cheered as he watched it fall, but the still shaken by her near death experience rider was paying more attention, and noticed “Dat gobbo on ridge, dey still waving”
Indeed, they were, and even more frantically now. Then they stopped for a moment as if in shock, before starting rapidly running to where they’d climbed up, shouting something at the other watchers who also climbed down. Whatever they were shouting reached the rest of the tribe near the oasis, who seemed confused for a moment, and then were revved into a flurry of movement.
“Huh? Why dey packing up?” The driver asked, but the rider already knew why before the answer, or rather answers, came lopping over the same sand dune the beast they had put down had come from.
Three more monsters, alike in no ways but their strangeness and their bloodlust.
If there was one blessing, it was that none of these had the speed of the cheetah bodied one, but still, they were coming.
“We get bow! Help!” the driver said as he sped off towards their dropped weapon, still thinking they could take these beasts even if he was a bit shaken, but the rider already knew the truth. “There more. Must be more. Tribe moving. We gotsta go!”
Despite this insistence, she still snatched up the bow when they got close to it, but after that she pointed back to the rest of the tribe who were mourning up on carts or piling into the giant rolly polly’s transport rods and called out “Go back, flee! Too many!” to the others.
Some laughed and raced into battle against the new threats, but those that looked back saw the truth. Specifically they saw a buggy riding towards them, and a goblin standing on the back waving them to come towards them. The goblins that complied made the right choice.
It had only been a few dozen heart beats since the fresh three beasts had arrived when a dozen more broke over the sands. Then two dozen came after them. Then countless more. The third wave pinned several of the riders who had gone to fight the second between them, claws and hooves crushing buggies, maws and jaws feasting upon goblin and rolly polly alike.
Only a few broke away, racing after the already fleeing rest. Most of them still died in the subsequent holding action made to buy the rest of the tribe enough time to get moving. After much blood, sweat and tears had stained the sand however, the nomad tribe was moving north, the herders becoming the herded as they were driven before the oncoming wave of hell.
It was a pattern repeated all across the south, buggy riding goblins fleeing for their lives towards the river lands. When they hit the sedentary settlements there, a pattern repeated there too, and it was not a pretty one. They were sacred, desperate, and low on supplies from their flight. Some sold what they had to buy what they needed, or convinced the villagers to fight or flee with them, but many simply saw slow and deaf people who would soon be dead anyway, so why not take what they had so at least one of you would live?
Thus in many places the first casualties of the invasion came not from the horrors themselves, but at the hands, and beneath the wheels, of those who were fleeing them.
There are now nomadic tribes of goblins out in the desert riding around on rolly polly powered bikes and karts collectively called buggies (because they are bug powered, get it?). They herd rolly pollies between patches of vegetation for a living.
We meet the flame rider’s tribe, and watch some of their bikers first surround and kill one of the lesser outer beasts, before being forced to flee north when way way more of them show up right after.
Other southern tribes end up in a similar situation, creating a rolling wave of fleeing buggy riding nomads that is ahead of the outer beasts, and which act both as an early warning of their approach, and as the first threat to the settled peoples of the riverlands, as many of them are more than willing to raid farms and villages for supplies as they keep trying to flee north.
Start: 9 1 mp, enhanced by wheels, to teach goblins how to make buggies, crude rolly polly powered vehicles made of wood for the most part. They are pretty rickety but can get up a good clip on flat/smooth terrain. 1 bonus mp is used to bless the goblins who learn this technology to be supernaturally gifted at making these. Goblin buggies are simply superior, being faster, more durable, etc, than those made by non goblin hands, even if both machines are technically identical. Goblinoid beast-folk get this boon as well.
1 mp to teach the goblin buggy builders a bit about the power of patterns. Specifically teaching them the circle, sphere and split wheel symbols which represent the 3 forms of Asheel’s super cycle, and grant speed, durability, and killyness respectively if painted on the wheels of vehicles, as well as encouraging them to paint tribal heraldry on their machines that will gradually develop meanings of their own based on what the goblins believe they mean. Arguably a very crude form of runecraft. +1 towards witchcraft (currently 2/4)
She saw only darkness, the back of her eyelids squeezed shut in concentration, trying to will a connection, a thread, that she had been told she would be able to find.
“Relax my child. You cannot force open your soul. You must let yourself sink into it. Just breathe for a moment, and it will come to you instead” came a warm familiar voice, the one who had told her she could do this, and who even with those chiding corrections, still believed she could do it. So she took the advice. Air passed her green lips, flowing down into her lungs, then back out. In. Then out. In. Then out. She let herself relax, truly relax.
As she breathed, as she stayed calm, her skin started to tingle with a soft warmth, while her body locked up into a kind of sleep paralysis she had complete control over. She checked, flexing her fingers, and then letting the sensation flow back in again. Relaxing. Sinking deeper into her own mind, into her own soul.
Then, suddenly, the darkness before her wasn’t the darkness of her eyes but another one, the dark of a dark room. Her excitement at succeeding almost broke the meditative state, but she let it sink away, and instead reached out, following a thread all the way to the beginning and then lighting a fire to reveal what she’d found.
Warm embers illuminated the space, revealing it to be a small cave, one she’d like to hide away in when she was young before she grew too large to scramble in through the narrow opening. The figure across from her wouldn’t have been able to crawl in either, but not because of any bulk. Said person was a goblin as well, though their skin was a desiccated beige in contrast to her own emerald green. He was taller too, though he was also all skin and bone where she was rather well fed.
“Who are you?” she asked the figure, who first shied away from the fire, before reaching his forwards to warm them before he replied, simply “I is you”
“But you’re a man?” she replied, grasping at the first major difference.
“So?” the goblin replied with a shrug, before grinning with chipped teeth and saying “If dat weirds you out, you ain’t ready for who we was later”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You’llz see” the goblin told her smugly, before actually being helpful and saying “Also, that was the wrong question. Remember what she told ya to ask”
“Wait. How do you know about that?” she asked, to which the other goblin simply reminded her that “I iz you”
In response the meditating goblin pursed her lips, breathed deep, and then asked what she had been suggested to ask: “Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“Didn’t have a name. No time fo dat in da desert. Never got out of it neither, so can’t teach you much. Well, maybe that some folk are monsters when they life on the line” the goblin who had died before Asheel could save him replied, before adding “oh, an also that death ain’t da end, so don worry bout too much”
Then the light flickered, and the goblin was gone, replaced by a teal skinned goblin child. The meditator was more ready this time, but still not quite enough for the sight of one who had died so young. Still, the little goblin smiled and waved, encouraging her enough for her to ask again
“Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“Dot. I liked the pretty singing flowers. An I teach how to make hats out of the non singing ones? Oh, and, um, I guess have fun while ya can” the child replied, and then like their short life they were gone, and the next life came in their place.
The meditator’s eyes bulged in their sockets as she looked up and beheld the towering figure of a beast folk full blood, who’s turtle shell took up much of its side of the chamber, and who’s neck was so long that in arched along the ceiling and then looked down at her with its pitch black eyes with bright yellow iris.
The somewhat goofy permanently grinning lips might have made it less intimidating, had it not opened them to reveal blood stained and wickedly sharp goblin teeth.
“Who… who were you? What can you teach me?” she managed to stutter, which caused the creature to only grin wider.
“No name. Abandoned. Prob thought I was monster. Where right. Grew up anyway. Ate little fishies. Other lil monster try and kill. I too tough. Kill them easy. Slurp up guts. Easy pray. Big prey. More. Can teach you, little morsel, how to do same. Get a taste for it. Grow strong. Every time I ate it, killing got easier, will for you too”
“No … no thank you” the goblin women replied, before thinking and asking “but someone stopped you in the end? Right?” which caused the monster to laugh and laugh before grinning again, and replying, simply “Suppose. Choked on bone” and then it was gone.
The replacement was hardly better, as it was a massive snake with the eyes of a person, and small pointed ears like those some of the tall lanky beastkin had. Those were the only mortal features it had to distinguish it from an actual snake, baring, of course, the size, and the vague indication that maybe there was a torso somewhere under all the scales and muscles there.
“No fear, no fear. Am friend. Ask me and find out” it insisted, curling up away from the goblin to give her plenty of personal space after the previous life had given her none. It was enough for the goblin to oblige, prompting the snake to tell.
“Much same at first. Left behind, grew up in water eating little mices and fishes” it started, before going on “Monster came. I bite. It die. Horrible time. I see other monster attack other people. They bite no kill. Me bite. Me kill. Me get friends. Me protect friends, they cook me food, keep warm on cold night. Me no monster no more. Was good. Die for friends in end. Worth it” It concluded with a nod, and then was gone.
She was replaced with a stocky figure, beast kin again, though in her case the only bestail feature was that her beard was made of gray feathers. The goblin asked, the dwarf-from replied simply “Smith. Smithing” and was replaced with an equally straight-forward snouter who replied “farmer, farming. Simple innit”
Despite those simple answers, she kept on asking “Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“I were a farmer too, got gifted coconuts by the goddess herself, then tamed the desert I did! Then died coz one dropped on me head! Ironic or summin” a lanky goblin who, with his reed hat, was the first one to actually be wearing any kind of clothes, told her.
“Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“I was blessed to become Mouri. I made war on your kind, thinking myself greater. Now I have stood where you stand, know what it is to be not me. I can teach you the secrets of evolution. You will need them, if my kin still war as they did in my time.” So spoke a towering creature with a tendriled maw the likes of which the goblin had never seen before, and she had seen a lot of types of beastkin come and go in the city she called home.
“Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“Also a farmer. Someone’s gotta put the floatatos on the table, and i can teach you to make a real nice stew with em” a tall round eared beastkin with webbed fingers and scatterings of scales across his body told her. He was also wearing a simple grass skirt that hid his privates, which was a first that she really appreciated.
“Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“Warrior!” the tall goblin who still carried the gore wound that had done him in proudly proclaimed with a clenched fist “Protector of our people! Scourge of beast-folk everywhere! I’ll teach you how to take em all down!”
“Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“Farmer, also farming” another Snouter told her, “also did some knitting on the side. Bit of rough housing too inbetween. Did in a bunch o that warrior bloke’s folks I think. Buggers deserved it, even if I get how they got there. Not easy being small, turns out. Still no excuse”
“Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“Founding member of the miners union” a short goblin who was so attached to his profession he had a pick on him even in death, boldly proclaimed “It was a big deal! Really put goblins back on the map, and in the right way too! Grab something people need, hold it tight, and they have to deal with you. If those tall folk wanted ore they had ta treat us with respect, and pay a fair price too!”
“Who were you? What can you teach me?”
“Eh, nofin much. Was a priest of the cave of painted memories, but it didn’t matter to me, and I never really was good at anything else neither. I was a spoiled brat too, looking back at it” another goblin, this one with the same short stature and emerald green skin as her, admitted, before shrugging and saying that “Mother did a much better job with you than she did me, that’s for sure sis”
“Huh?” the goblin shook her head, breaking out of the pattern she’d been sucked into, before asking “What do you mean, sis? I’m Mother’s oldest, how’d you die before I did?” clearly very confused.
“Mother was sowing and growing long before she had you. Probably will after your dust too. Basically the only thing I take after from her. Other than the good looks, which definitely helped out with that” he joked rather than answering clearly, and then he was gone, leaving her in the dark as the fire flickered out.
It seemed like she had caught up to her own life.
Then it flared back to life and she was looking at a rapidly shifting amalgamation of all the people she had just met, who all asked her with one voice and many “Who are you? What can you teach us?” in a turn around of what she had been asking
“I… I am you. And you are me” she stuttered, before shaking her head by a fraction in the real world, clarifying her thoughts and finding herself again fully, enough to answer “I am me. I am Lilly. And you’re going to learn everything I do, starting with what it's like to live life while in touch with your past ones”
And then she was back in the land of the living, and the first thing she saw was the smile of her mother, or rather, the Mother she now realized, beaming at her with pride and telling her that “I knew you could do it!” before the goddess embraced her and assuring her daughter that “Your going to be amazing!”
Lilly, one of the now many mortal children of the Maintainer turned Mother, learns how to get intouch with her past lives via meditation technique taught to her by the Mother. In doing so we get a vague look at how time and generations have passed, including a mention of how goblins in some places have gone full ethno-state to compensate for their weakness, while others have found a niche for themselves as miners and yet more have been propped up by Asheel herself via being instilled with religious significance.
Start 3 1 mp enhanced by cycles used to teach the peoples of the river lands how to get in touch with their past lives (as described in the khodex) and 1 bonus mp used to bless her progeny with being particularly good at it, allowing them to more easily learn and use skills from past lives. 1 mp progress towards witchcraft Ending mp: 2
Asheel’s great desert rescue had brought untold mortals to the banks of the great river circling the globe, delivering them from desert starvation and to a promised land full of verdant bounty. Yet by doing so she had delivered them from one crisis to another, this one simply slower, for though the riverside was fertile and had been booming with life, many hungry mouths had begun to strip it dry of edibles, and given little back in return.
The goddess had gotten somewhat ahead of this problem, first having her giant rolly polly woodlice transporters prioritize producing clutches of infertile eggs for the mortals (after it became clear there were none still left in the desert to save), but soon enough they had ripped through much of their own food supply as well. So she had them mate, lay fertile eggs in hidden or protected places, and then let their lives end so that their flesh would feed the people.
That, again, bought only so much time, but hope had come on golden petals. The Daffotales, mostly an amusing novelty at first, proved themselves to be quite the information distribution network. Stories of copper forging city states, and furrow plowing pigfolk came from the waters end, while stories of democratic organization came from their source. These stories where one of the reasons why, while much of the embankments had been reduced to stripped mud, golden patches still bloomed where eager ears still listened.
Facing their end, the peoples of the riverlands had banded together, and put flower sourced knowledge to work. Orange and blue stones that could be found on the surface were melted down and forged into tools. With these tools, many carved little boats out of trees, or wove them from reeds, using them to seek lands beyond their own, only to find those lands where much the same state, except for those at the river’s end, into which many flooded.
Others continued their desert-learned cannibalism, now armed with weapons and cohesion, though the naturally armed full bloods still reigned supreme in that department.
These would not bring true salvation however, and instead it was the ones who had been inspired by a tale of a great horned god and his mighty implement who would change their world for the better. With crude mimicries of the legendary hoebreaker they struck not out or each other, but the earth itself, carving furrows and scavenging what seeds they could for planting. In mimicking the great god they unintentionally attracted the attention of his creations, who, it was true, brought both more mouths to feed, but they also brought unfiltered, first hand knowledge of the ways of farming. They where then further bolstered when Asheel took their knowledge of what plants made for the best crops, and produced several new ones that followed the specifications, designed to grow in the warm wet environment of the great riverbanks
With faith, fresh foliage and new friends, the riverland farmers were rewarded with the sight of rows of fresh shoots sprouting from their fields.
Life, now nurtured, once again bloomed once more along the banks of the twin rivers, but it was not enough. Water, ironically, was the biggest issue, for over it they had little control. It surged, it receded, it made the ground too wet, or was lacking further from the banks where they were free from its whims. They had ideas, of course, but unfortunately here the Daffotales where a bane, not a boon, as they told the tale of ones who had dared try and control the water, and been cursed for their hubris.
Even with encouragement from a goddess, the peoples of the river feared for their bladders, and refused to divert the water's flow.
And so Asheel set out to confront the god who had made the rivers, to put those fears to rest, one way or the other. And as she searched the winding world river, she eventually came across an unusual scene.
Along the riparian Bank of one particular bend in the mighty river, a small gnomish god sat on a wicker chair, eyes closed and a happy snore erupting from his beard. Daffotales danced by the chair, quiet yet gossipy. Funnily, large cartoonist Z's floated up from the sleeping god, punctuating his personality.
Asheel slowed her roll upon seeing this and started muttering to herself about if this was who they were looking for or not, before the Breaker snapped, dismounted her wicked transport and approached the dozing figure. The Maiden swapped in briefly to try waking him with a “hi hello!”, then the Maintainer with a polite cough, only for the Breaker to be back incharge, and to opt for forming and then roundhouse kicking a massive bronze gong right next to the sleeping god.
“Rise and shine!”
Tuuni leapt into the air, arms and legs flailing until he landed back into the ground with a thump. He looked up past his brow to the Goddess Three and the accompanying gong. A moment of silence passed before his eyes settled from surprise to joy and he said, "why hello there!"
“My my, you really took that in stride” the Breaker marveled for a moment, before she grinned pointy toothily and declared this “Excellent” and then thrusting a hand out to shake and introduced herself with “I am the Breaker of Cycles, and we are Asheel. A pleasure to meet you my dear.”
Tuuni took her hand, body whipping up and down from the forceful shake. “A pleasure to meet you as well! I’m Tuuni, god of the flow!” He released himself and pattered back onto the ground. “Are you here for the boccie tournament?”
“I’m afraid I have not the slightest clue what that is, Deary” the Breaker admitted, only for the Maiden to swap in, sit down crossleggededly in front of him, plant her hands on her hips, lean in and enthusiastically say “but I wanna know!”
“Boccie!” Tuuni reiterated, “it’s a fun little game best played by the river. You toss a small white ball and then two teams take turns trying to get their colored ball the closest to the ball to earn points. See?” He pointed over to where a few daffotales were dancing, a tiny white ball between them. “They were keeping it safe for us.”
“Ooooooooo” the little goblin goddess marveled, before saying that “you know no-ones really had time to make any games, I never knew how much they were missing”
“That’s because there’s too much to do” the Maintainer replaced her younger self to point out, before insisting that “we are here to talk business.”
“Ah lighten up, we have time for a game or two I’m sure” the Breaker reclaimed command to insist as she used a finger to beckon the white ball to roll over to her. The Maiden then skillfully flicked it up into the air, saying “we can play and talk after all” and finally the Maintainer caught it. Sighed, and then agreed “fine” due to being outnumbered as usual.
“So, would you like to toss the target or shall I?” she asked, half offering the white ball to Tuuni.
Tuuni tugged his beard. “Why don’t you? I’ve been tossing it all by myself for so long, it would be grand to have someone else toss it for me.”
“Very well” the goblin replied, retracting her offered hand. She tossed the ball up and down a few times, thinking, only for the Breaker to swap in and give it an appropriately godly toss all the way to the other side of the vast river they were sitting beside.
Then she dusted off her hands and asked “there we go, is that suitable?”
“Sure!” Tuuni said and then looked at a few tiny salmon-beast-people who were watching from the reeds. They seemed sad as Tuuni whispered, “I think you might have to sit out this round.”
Pulling a blue ball out of thin air, Tuuni gave it a toss, the ball disappearing into the distance. The gnomish god stood still, hands on his hips. He turned to Asheel. “I think I’m about three centimeters from the target.”
The maiden responded by making a green one in kind, aiming, and tossing it nice and hard straight ahead … and ending up severely off mark. She was quite for a little bit, before admitting it was “Five meters.”
Tunni smiled. “Oho! Two more tosses for you to best me, otherwise I think I might have this one in the bag!” He tossed another ball. He waited. “Darn. A Daffotale and a half away.”
“Here, let me try,” The Maintainer said, before biting her lip, squaring up, and then tossed it up into the air so that it flew in a lazy arc before plopping down a bit closer than the Maiden’s but not closer than Tuuni’s.
“About a hat away” she said, referring to her own naturally, as it was the first and truest of hats before starting to ask “so I heard a little something about you, how do I put this-” only for the breaker to cut her off to get to the point “bladder blocking a buncha beavers!” and then cackling at the idea.
Tuuni held up his ball, turning it as he thought out loud. “Beavers… oh yes! You see, the beavers were of a certain antithesis to planetary life and were blocking the flow of the world river, thus the life blood of this lovely planet, and so I made a deal that I will block their own little rivers until they righted their wrong, which they did very quickly!” Tuuni paused and coughed. “You aren’t having… bathroom problems, are you?” He tossed his final ball, admittedly distracted as it took a bird out of the sky with a squawk. He looked over at Asheel and tugged his beard. “If it’s a kidney stone, trust me, it’s gonna hurt.”
The Breaker had a real knee slap at that tale, before recovering with a sigh and saying “ah so that was what that little drought was caused by. You should have seen the Maintainer lose her head about it eh heh”
Then she prepped her own toss, and this time she put a proper spin on it, tossing the ball at close to a right angle to the target, but having it spin through the air as it flew, curving the shot nicely towards the white ball… only for her aim to be too good and her green orb to impact with the white, knocking it away from its starting spot.
“Ack… wait is that good or not?”
Tuuni watched as the ball rolled right over to the Maiden’s ball, clacking against it softly and stopping. The bearded god gave a subtle nod and sighed. “It would appear that you have bested me.” He broke into a jolly grin. “What fun!”
The Breaker let out a laugh, and then slapped the god on the back in agreement “Truly!” before adding “If I’d known you where this much of a riot I'd have come visit sooner” as she beckoned the balls to return, floating them across the river and conveniently right into the clutches of the previously disappointed observing beastfolk.
“Yeah that was fun!” the Maiden agreed, before adding “oh and We’ve never had to go? Is that bad? I mean we’re a god I just assumed that was a mortal thing” referring back to the prior mentioned bathroom problems comment.
It was at this moment that Tuuni paused and pinched his beard. “My goodness, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were a god! You’re the first one I’ve ever met, so it must have just slipped my mind. My goodness, my goodness.” He gave a hearty laugh. “What a great day this is!”
“I am?” the Maiden replied, not sure if she was being made fun of or not, before the Maintainer took over again, looking a fair bit more serious, or unfun, than her other two parts, as she got back down to the brass tacks.
“So, referring back to the beaverfolk,” she said as the salmon-folk started an imitation game of boccie behind her “was it the complete blocking of the river that warranted your intervention, yes? Because I’ve been trying to encourage attempts at lesser control over your river and the tale of what happened to the beavers has left the rest of the river dwellers rather scared they might receive the same curse”
“It’s a lovely river, truly, a life saver even, but it only waters so far, and with so many mouths to feed, they need more land that is both wet and not at risk of flooding” she quickly clarified as to why she wanted them to do this in the first place “we just need to spread the water out a bit, not dam it and deny it to those downstream. That would simply be counter productive ”
“Oh yeah, that’s no worries, friend,” Tuuni said coolly, “I only stepped in because it was doing the exact opposite of that and taking the flow away from all the good little nuggets downstream. Even the clouds were upset!”
“Excelent excelent” the goddess replied with a fair amount of relief, before calling over to the Daffotales dancing “You heard that right? Update your story please so we can get people digging and irrigating on the double!”
“Double timmmmmme!” A daffotale shrieked before madlibbing so many stories at once, including a revised story regarding the beavers.
Tuuni clapped his hands. “Ah! Glad you’re getting joy out of my little creations.”
“Oh yes, a great help, sans that little miscommunication. Well and scaring people by telling them about bad events happening halfway around the world. That’s not their fault though. Mosty. The world simply is so much larger than mortals seem to be able to comprehend a lot of the time” she noted “but otherwise, quite the useful source of information regarding discoveries and technologies made in and around the place the rivers end. Did you know that they have these things called boats they can use to travel across water? Quite remarkable”
“Excuse me!?” Tuuni thought back to his own raft and floaties. “That’s genius!”
“It is, isn't it!” the Maintainer agreed before adding “They’ve been very useful. Plus I’ve seen a few of the more aquatic beastfolk towing them along for their land bound friends, which is just so sweet” and deciding to not focus on any of the piracy, raiding, colonization or hunting of other mortals that it had also facilitated.
"I suddenly want to make some myself," Tuuni nodded with certainty. "How do you feel about giant cute insects?"
In response the breaker simply pointed a thumb at a cow sized rolly polly wheeling its across the dunes behind them and added, simply “ours”
“Very dashing,” Tuuni punned. “But what about that… but a boat!”
The Maiden appeared with her hands on her cheeks, gasping in amazement at the idea. “WABAM!” Tuuni zapped a finger at the river and out splashed giant bus-sized beetles with concave shells one could sit in. Their long paddle-like legs zipped them around as they purred happily. Tuuni smiled wide at his creation.
In a mortal hartbeat the Maiden was all over the bugs, giggling with glee while leaping from steed to steed till she found one she arbitrarily found one she liked and took it for a spin. The beetle happily paddled through the waters, guided by tugs on the antennae and purring happily along.
“Look at me go!” the little goblin cheered as she rode around on the river on the beetle, only to purse her lips and look thoughtful for a bit, before coming to realization/decision, which was, perhaps predictably “These could be faster”
Fortunately/unfortunately, she proceeded to declare “don’t worry, I can fix that!” before she leaned forwards and booped the beetle on the snoot, which caused it to suddenly gain a spinneret on its butt. Then, with just a bit of extra power from the goddess to speed up the process, it proceeded to weave a disk of silk, which then hardened into a crystalline paddlewheel. Grasping this in’s rear claws, it began to rotate this new propulsion system, picking up a nice boost of speed as a result.
“Weeeee! Now this is more like it!” the little witch cheered as she sped around the river. Tuuni clapped.
“Clever girl!”
“I know I am!” the goblin agreed, only for the Maintainer to swap out and refute this statement by saying “no you aren't! We need that power to help feed people, not move them about faster!”
“Oh don’t be such a spoilsport deary” The Breaker told her younger self, before grinning wickedly and adding “besides, that is an awful rude thing to say to our host here”
“Yeah, don’t be so mean!” the Maiden piled in, before swapping the Maintainer back in to look embarrassed as she stuttered “Ah, well, my apologies that was not… I did not mean to imply… sorry”
“Huh!?” Tuuni asked as he sped around the river on the fastest of the paddle beetles, wind breaking glasses over his eyes, tinted black.
The Maintainer flushed hard from even more embarrassment, only for the Breaker to replace her, make a set of wide glasses with padding that let them sit nice and snug to the face, and then racing after the bearded god, her hat flapping in the wind yet never leaving her head.
As the two old looking divines sped around on the new bug boats, the tale of their little game traveled on down the flower fields of the river bank, getting only slightly embellished as it traveled. Yet hear they a tale of the wheel beating the river, or one of a wise grandfather teaching a foolish young girl not to jump to conclusions, in the end the lesson learned was the same. Mortals may command the river, yet never so much that it deprives those downstream of its blessed gift of life.
Fears dispelled, goblin, beast-folk, snouter (and the odd helpful crystal strider) alike got to work, building floodbanks to protect their fields and digging irrigation ditches to spread the water further afield, massively expanding the viable farmland, and pushing back the desert. Fields of rice and floatatoes sprouted swift supplies of nutrition, while coconut and roller-fruit tree saplings took root in the watered desert sands, promising a brighter, greener, future.
The two globe spanning rivers have gotten rather overpopulated due to Asheel bringing all the desert lost mortals there, causing a growing food shortage crisis. Asheel feeds the adult rolly pollies to the mortals, while they themselves pick up various goblin city state techs thanks to the Daffotales, the most important of which is farming. Unfortunately, while asheel’s production of suitable crops and the arrival of Snouters with their practical farming experience both kickstart this process, fear spawned from stories of the bladder blocked beavers prevents the mortals from trying to control the river, limiting the amount of viable farmland.
Asheel travels around the world to confront Tuuni and see if they can put an end to that fear. After finding the god dozing and waking him up Asheel and Tuuni play a game of Boccie (a type boules) while discussing the event. Asheel wins due to a bit of luck, and the misunderstanding regarding why the beavers where punished is cleared up, freeing the mortals to meddle with the river as long as they do not block or divert it enough to impact those downstream.
The gods then end up making paddle wheel powered water beetle boats as well as a bonus, and have some fun racing them around while the mortals get to work digging irrigation ditches and building floodbanks to nourish and protect their crops, greatly expanding the viable farmland surrounding the riverlands, and getting the food crisis under control in the process.
Tuuni: starting 5
1 MP to create the boat beetles
End: 4 might
Asheel: Start 5
1 mp enhanced with Cycles to make a variety of real and fictional crops suited for warm wet climates, such as rice, coconuts, floatatos (plants that float tuber like fruits up to the surface for easy harvesting) and roller-fruit (who’s large fruits are wheel shaped for easy individual transportation). 1 bonus is used to bless the plants with supernaturally swift growth.
1 mp enhanced with wheels to enhance the beetle boat, letting them craft and use biocrystal paddlewheels to enhance their speed/efficiency of waterbound movement. Bonus mp used to make it possible to teach them to make other things from that same biocrystal.
Fetzen
Frettzo
teenangstlife
Lord Zee
Neziul
Ariamis
rush99999
Simply Not Real
Shadowheart
