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.
wordcount: 1875 (+3) (+15) Bowser: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (216/130) Bowser Jr: Level 13 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (104/130) Kamek: Level 12 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (83/130) Rika: Level 8 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (67/90) Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams, the Prison of Hope
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
After doing their coordinated strike vs the Caretaker, the troop regrouped, Jr and Bowser road killing bots while Kamek and Rika went overhead. Then they held up in a defensive position from which to shell the bots, and finally, once the eye opened up, gave it hell whenever it dared look their way.
With that and all the other’s contributions, it was only a matter of time till the inverted pyramid fell, and they had their victory. Well, after being exploded anyway. Fortunately Jr was there to patch them up, the prince parking his tank, popping up the cockpit, and joining the others in the bloody dirt to stretch his legs for a bit as he healed everyone up.
While he did that, and Kamek had another rest, Bowser and Rika did the rather standard post battle spirit crushing, which had some interesting results.
Items obtained: Magnetic Field Generator These modular generators use superconducting magnets and vast amounts of electricity to produce an easily expandable and powerful magnetic field Adaptive Control Unit An actuator hub capable of articulating attached machine parts with a high degree of reliability and accuracy Assembly Director System An extremely fast and precise computing system that can be programmed for the effective management of all sorts of networks Smart Plating A composite and computerized inner plating that allows for custom construction of machine and vehicular frameworks, such as supporting electronics on one side and powered armor on the other Phazyonite x180 This spiky purple mineral can be exchanged to various shops for cosmetic items in place of currency Vigorwasp A bug that collects and tightly compacts nutrients into an orb of pure goodness that it then carries back to its nest to feed its colony. If someone steals and consumes this orb, it provides a full heal
”Weird. It just straight up made a bug. A tasty looking bug” Bowser noted, rather confused by the appearance of the vigorwasp that lazily hoovered up from Rika’s hand. The ship girl, equally confused and curious, promptly poked it, causing it to disappear and heal all the damage the mimic shaped hat had done to her while she had been crushing the various small robots and specimen sprites.
”Huh. Ok then?” the shipgirl said as she took off the hat, mostly bemused but a little thankful that she wasn’t going to have to wait for Jr to come round again and heal her
The rest of the items consisted of a pile of crystals which were immediately stashed, and a bunch of metal computer things that neither of them had any idea what they were really for. Jr, once queried, was less stumped but after some speculating and poking ultimately marked the components down as something worth selling rather than using, and had Kamek shrink them down for transportation.
With that settled, and someone hopefully making use of the caretaker’s spirit (and if they didn’t the troop would transport it), it was time to set off. That, apparently, was going to be easier said than done, because not only was the dwarf’s exit strategy noisy as heck, but it also had a time limit on it as well.
”Yeeeesh. You guys should do something about your boss, they sound like a picnic's worth of jerk sandwiches when it comes to minion treatment” Bowser complained, wondering what kind of idiot would just leave valuable minions who could actually get the job done behind like that.
Either way, it wasn’t like they could unionize down here, so for the time being they had to put up with these shoddy business practices.
Things did not exactly start out great, with the machine that was going to lead them to their extraction point climbing its way right up a wall. Fortunately Kamek and Rika didn't have any kind of problem with this, floating and grappling respectively, while Bowser attached his super bell in order to cat climb on up and finally, while he had a rough start, also Jr managed to to take the same rout as Kanna after the platform was put up.
After that Jr pushed on ahead along with the plantpot, with the prince only unable to turn this into a race because he had no idea where they were going, and had to keep the pace set by the 4 legged Molly.
As for the rest, well, now that the wonder effect was over they were back to where they had been before. Kamek was once again rather low on mana, Rika simply spent when it came to ammo, and Bowser was left burning through his remaining stamina to haul his heavy body through the tunnels. Still, they were at this point old hands at dealing with the threats they were facing, and so no bug nor bot could stand in their way.
The only new threat was turned to paste as well, with jr unloading his metal attacker’s cannon into it before the rest of the Troop even managed to see the thing. Then soon after they were at the goal, a towering metal machine with a big ol drill at the base. It was sat next to a foggy area which the troop recognized as the place where they had first met Barnaby. There was little time to reminisce about their fallen comrade however, as there was the larger issue of: ”Wait I need to get in there?!”
Indeed, there was a particular lack of space in the riding compartment, which along with Bowser’s own bulk problem, also prompted Jr to ask ”Wait… how am I gonna fit the tank in there?”
”Not to worry young master, I have a little potion left in the bottle, so to speak” Kamek replied, before requesting ”so if you step out and give me a moment” and then once the prince had done so casting his spell, shrinking down the fearsome war machine down to the size of a toy tractor, which positively delighted the prince.
With that solved, and with Bowser stripping himself of all his extra size (and making sure to point his spikes at the wall rather than at anyone else (and ensuring his son was doing the same)) they all just barely managed to squeeze inside.
Then they were off. Until they weren't. Rather than rest and a drink on the space rig the dwarves were off to, the seekers ended up getting off early and exploring a very unpleasant looking place.
”Galeem really did just pick all the nicest places to build it’s new world out of, didn't it?” Kamek complained. At least with Rika and her tail lamp they didn’t have to rely just on just the candles, though it did make the Troop rather stand out among the seekers.
This got them a nice initial introduction to the threats of the area, namely a desiccated old man riding on a floating chair and armed with a long spear who floated up to say hello. Using his spear. Which he thrust at a now foot slogging again Jr.
The prince yelped in alarm, but managed to bring up his rune covered right arm with which he formed a crude shield to catch the spear thrust just in time. In response Rika, currently wearing her ammoless gauntlets on her back (she had not had the space in their cramped ride necessary to refill them with bullets or spit respectively), cleanly stepped around the side of her brother’s guard and thrust her own spear forwards in retaliation. The thin point neatly pierced through the bishop’s eye, and into his brain.
”The nicest places” Kamek reiterated his criticism as the area as the foe disintegrated, before suggesting ”Things look clearer up here, shall we go have a look over there before going down to wherever that thing came from?” as he pointed over at the warden’s office on the far side of the upper floor, a suggestion which he found general agreement for.
Upon entering it, they found that the room was in disarray, as if violently ransacked apart by a larger-than-normal creature via primarily blunt force, including the desk, where the damaged remains of a book lay. The book's cover has been scratched at, and leaving the only legible part of its title as 'Midsummer'
There was also a safe locked by a 4 digit combination lock, a set of oxidized bronze keys hanging from the wall and two potted whispering roots, one of them seemingly growing out of the floor due to its pot being broken in several places. When one of Kamek’s wisps (that they were using for extra light) floated close to one of those plants, it started to glow and hum ever so softly.
That wasn’t the only strange and mystical thing about the room, for a few dreamlike motes were also wafting through the air, looking in appearance like ethereal glowing dreamcatchers, and they seemed to be especially concentrated around the book, even more so than the plants which had similar styling. Kamek, naturally, was curious as to why, and proceed to flip the book open, only to find, after a bit of skim reading, that it seemed to be a novelization of a very long, somewhat comedic play about a marriage set in ancient times, including multiple subplots spanning several sets of lovers.
”How strange” the mage said to himself, unsure as to why this book was of interest to whatever minor magical force was wafting around the room. He proceed to close it after making that assessment, just in time for Jr to wander over to show him a 6 inch tall statue carved out of whispering root that he had found on the floor, one depicting a figure with a satyr-like body and a horse’s head.
”Hmmm, I think that is from the book? Odd. Perhaps the warden of this place carved it after reading this?” Kamek noted, to which the prince simply shrugged and declared that ”Well it's mine now” before stashing it in his duffle bag.
”That. Very well” Kamek sighed, it was no as if there was anyone around to complain that wasn’t going to try and kill them anyway, or so he assumed. After pocketing the book because he also could, and doing a quick test to see if he could get the trees to do anything more (he could not) they left the room, taking both the keys and the entire safe with them (again because they could).
Outside the two koopas found Bowser and Rika standing next to a cell door that had an air of significance about it. Soft light coming out from under there, orange-pink, similar to the motes around the whispering roots, and the sound of muttering (not uncommon in this palace as it would turn out) along with the intermittent (and more unusual) sound of something scraping on wood.
The king had clearly tried to punch the door open, giving he was nursing bruised knuckles, and he and Rika seemed to be in the midst of debating whether to use a torpedo to try and blast their way in when Kamek and Jr arrived to stop them.
”Let’s not draw any more attention to ourselves, shall we?l” he suggested, before Jr let them know that ”Besides, we have keys!”
Unfortunately, the keys they had found were bronze, not silver, and so they failed to open the singularly silver lock on the door they had found themselves before, resulting in the prince complaining ”Yeah, of course it couldn’t be that easy!” and giving the door a useless kick.
”Now now, these ones must open something” Kamek reassured him, before pointing out ”Plus there was a spot for another set of keys in the room, so maybe they are somewhere else in the facility”
”We should probably radio in and let people know about that, and stuff you found, then? Right?” Rika suggested, which the others agreed was wise.
They returned to the center of the chamber where they could see down the various levels, and while doing so Kamek took on the duty of informing people about the missing silver keys, the door that required them, the safe they needed a code for, and, lastly, about the bronze keys they had found.
Should any of the other heroes have waited for them to check out the office, the mage would supply them one of the keys then and there. Otherwise the mage was willing and able to coordinate sending a toady, his propeller hatted mini-me magic minions, down a floor or two to deliver a key to anyone who had started their own descent.
As a result of both their investigation of the top floor, and their subsequent organizing of key delivery, the troop would be quite a bit behind any front runners. No doubt those on ahead would have cleared several floors before they even got started.
Rayne saw the arrow coming just in time, the Knight Witch disappearing in a flash of light that began to race upwards, only for something unexpected (to her) to happen. The arrow somehow struck the light itself, and in an instant Rayne was back, clutching at her belly as the arrow tumbled down to the ground, having only been stopped from taking her life by her armor.
“Wha-” she began to ask, utterly confounded by what had happened. The arrow should have harmlessly passed right through her as she had blinked, and yet it had somehow struck her. It was only by coincidence that she had split second decided to dodge up rather than forwards through it, and though she did not know it due to not having perfect knowledge of the arrow’s flight path, if she had done that she would no longer have a throat.
As she floated and tried to work out what had happened, the sniper shot again, but rather than dodge this time she flicked a spell card, using a single point of mana to create a shockwave that knocked the arrow out of the air. That gave her enough time to come to the conclusion that she couldn’t rely on the blinks to bypass shots anymore. She didn’t know why. But it was terrifying. Without that ability she’d likely be dead several dozen times over or more.
In the time she had been thinking and avoiding being sniped, the battlefield continued to develop, and into it had floated a creepy magic child who was unleashing lasers on several of the others.
A child.
Rayne wanted nothing to do with that, and as luck would have it she could not afford to get involved, because the sniper seemed to have it out for her. Another arrow came, but this time, knowing her newfound limitation, the Witch Knight dodged to the side, ensuring that her profile got out of the way of the shot as quickly as possible.
Then she started blinking in the shooter’s direction, moving unpredictably at diagonals. However this was, with the fixed distance of her jumps, not quite unpredictable enough as an arrow embedded itself in her hat right at the end of one of the blinks.
She cursed, and then bolted to the right, putting a building between herself and the sniper, and in doing so running right into one of the armored foes, this one sporting the classic sword and board combo. The warrior flicked a blade her way, only for her hand to flash and for Runedge to appear in it, blocking the sword. Her other hand instinctively formed a rune and pulsed a spread shot blast at him, only for the shots to slam into the herald’s shield.
They strained for a moment, blade on blade, before both had an idea, the warrior bashing their shield forwards, while Rayne reached out towards it, hand glowing. Mit and metal met, and the shield was engulfed in the same glow out of which Runedge had been summoned, which now swallowed up the shield. Eyes behind the mask widened as Rayne (after shaking her hand once with an “ouch”) reformed the spell rune and fired again, the shots now slamming into their unshielded knee, chest, and face, the last of which caused a blob of mana to pulse off.
The Raven herald went down hard even as Rayne burst up and away, not wanting to look at just how hard it had been exactly. She cleared the building’s roof and hovered there for a moment, panting, not wanting to think about the lives she had probably taken, just wanting to find her original target.
Right on cue, another arrow came at her, but this time she was prepared. In a flash the (rather beaten due to her own actions) shield of the warrior appeared in her hands with which she blocked this latest attempt on her life. Then she started to burst towards again, blinking straight ahead this time, body tilted so she could fit her entire figure behind the shield as she rammed straight for where the shots had come from.
She could see them now, a hooded figure in a gray cloak, and once she closed the distance she pivoted, bringing up her free hand up and unleashing spread shot blasts even as she kept the shield up to cover the rest of her body.
Only for the magic bullet enhancing weapon she had equipped to time out, leaving her back with just her basic projectiles.
That’s what she got for being overzealous with equipping it as soon as she had the mana for it rather than when she specifically needed it.
Galaxor soon left his new holy temple before giving instructions to Maxima and her tribe to make sure they don’t cut into the tree’s roots…’lest they’ll attract the wrath of a different divine being. His destination? A place where he felt hundreds, if not more, goblins all at once and where Jaxx’s essence can be felt from.
Appearing above the giant river, Galaxor’s majestic form cast a large shadow over the goblins, who, out of a sense of fear and maybe recognizing their creator, went on their knees.
“Ha! HA! HA! Cute little goblins! You don’t need to fear me, I’ve created you. I am your creator, if I wanted you gone…I wouldn’t have made you. Ha! HA HA! Gods, you sure are cute on your knees. Isn’t there at least ONE of you standing up to me? One of you trying to show me who’s the big bad goblin, defender of his kind? A HERO?! ” shouted Galaxor with his usual happy but challenging tone.
Responding to his challenge, one goblin stood up. One goblin that was 2 metres tall and had grey skin. He pointed a hand at Galaxor and shouted at him…something as he charged Galaxor, who has since landed.
“Oh’ my. Jaxx! There you are and you’re attacking me? You remind me of myself a bit, y’know? HAHAHA! Little one, I shall only use my little finger on you. ” continued Galaxor as he easily evaded every single one of Jaxx's clumsy blows. As Jaxx became more and more winded, Galaxor decided to end the match. Lifting his little finger, he very gently tapped Jaxx’s chest sending him flying.
The goblin skipped like a stone across the waters of the river, and then began sinking down into it as the goblins wailed in dismay, and the Daffotales chattered, relaying this tale all along the river bank.
Then after a moment the goblin suddenly re-surfaced, and seemed to be standing atop the water. In actuality he was standing atop the back of a sea-turtle-goblin that had bailed him out, stoking its inner fire of helpfulness in the process, but only those close to him could see that. To the others it appeared to be a miracle. .
The goblins around were amazed, letting out cheers for Jaxx and Galaxor for saving Jaxx. Even if Jaxx lost the fight, he had the guts to do it and in Galaxor's eyes it was enough.
"Good fight, little one. You haven't backed down for 1 second! Very impressive but you lack a lot of skills. Like, a lot, a lot. You definitely need to train more but I guess you've earned something from me. First of all, here. " shouted Galaxor as he waved his hand and taught Jaxx the language of the Goblins. Nothing requiring even a smidgen of divine power, just a simple download of information.
But Jaxx wasn't done. He jumped from atop the turtle back on the shore and screamed at the top of his lungs:
"I'm not done! For what you've made me to, I'll take you down! No matter what!"
Galaxor lifted an eyebrow at him and let out a laugh that shook the ground and pinned down the goblins that were closer to him.
"You want to fight, little Jaxx? Very well. No magic, no divine power, no tricks. " said Galaxor when he finally managed to stop laughing.
At that, Galaxor's form shrunk and changed to match Jaxx’s. His muscles retracted, his aura diminished, everything that would scream "DIVINE!" was gone for a mortal at least.
Not that Jaxx cared, he started throwing blows at Galaxor. One by one, they'd be defected and he'd be hit back with the exact same strength that Jaxx put behind them. It was clear for everyone around that Galaxor, even reducing his powers to a mere mortal, would be the winner.
"It isn't about divine power. This is only pure skill. I'm using the same strength that he does, same speed, everything is mortal levels. Everything but my experience and skill. I've trained longer and I became stronger than anyone else. Even when I was a mortal I worked my way up and now I'm a God and so can you…if you train hard enough. I give you my word as a divine being. " said Galaxor while fighting without any interruption. For him this was nothing more than friendly sparring but for Jaxx…Jaxx took it more seriously. One could clearly see that Jaxx was giving it his all and that he was slowly improving as he was fighting.
For less than a nanosecond, Galaxor became distracted and felt something. But it was enough for Jaxx to strike him with a glancing blow. Closer than any other hit before. One could see Jaxx's pride when he managed to touch the God of Heroes and then the pain in his body, as Galaxor shook his head at Jaxx's pride that had no skill to match it.
"Very well. " it's all that Galaxor said. His Heroic Aspect awakened. The goblins around cowered in fear as every survival instinct they had screamed RUN. Even Jaxx, in his hatred, noticed it.
Galaxor caught both of Jaxx's arms and broke them and as Jaxx screamed, Galaxor lifted Jaxx in the air by the throat, looked him square in the eyes and uttered one word. "Yield."
But Jaxx didn't, instead closing to strike at Galaxor with his feet. Kick, kick, kick…kic…ki…k…… "Yield. "
To the right, in the distance, sand exploded into the air in a line travelling along the outskirts of the river land, only for the twin showers of sand to turn into one blast as whatever was kicking it all up pulled a sharp turn straight towards them. The source, a wheel, came flying through the air, landing in the clearing the god and mortal had been fighting in, before it began to rapidly circle them.
As the wheel spun donuts around the pair, the pointy hatted goblin running like a madwoman inside the wheel pointed a finger at Galaxor and demanded he “put the guy down right now, miser!”
The Heroic Aspect of Galaxor didn't care about the sand exploding, nor the shockwave it made. For THA Galaxor, it was background noise.
He felt the divine essence around him and spared the divine a glance with one eye before returning to Jaxx.
"Yield. Now. " he said once more.
To which Jaxx eventually nodded and uttered a weak "yield…"
The moment the words were uttered, Jaxx’s arms and bruises healed but he fell unconscious on the ground.
Returning to his usual self, Galaxor turned to the other divine and offered her a bow as he returned to his size, his muscles bulging, smile wide and mesmerising.
"Ha! Ha! HA!! Greetings O Muse of mine. I thought I felt you earlier. Let me introduce myself, I am Galaxor! The God Of Heroes, The Hero Maker, Divine Artisan of Heroes, Celestial Forger of Legendary Champions, Master of Heroic Destinies, Architect of Heroism and Valor, Weaver of Epic Tales, Cosmic Mentor of Heroic Prodigies, The Legendary Enabler of Greatness, Creator of Champions, The Mythweaver, The Cosmic Patron of Heroic Aspirations, The Celestial Architect of Legendary Deeds" and this was a duel, no harm done. "
“Jeez that’s quite a mouthful” the small goblin goddess said, still spinning around, before deciding “I’ma call you Gax instead” before furrowing her brow furrowed as she rolled her mind back to the start of his words and repeated “muse?” right before shifting form.
Galaxor put a hand on his chest as if struck in the heart. "Gax? No, no, no! Gaxi. That's what maidens would call me. " said Galaxor before laughing it off.
He turned towards the goblins as Asheel told him off and looked at them inquisitively before turning back to Asheel.
"Yes, Muse. We haven't been properly introduced but I needed inspiration for my goblins and I gazed upon your form, one of them at least. I think it was…the youngest one and you’ve reminded me of something I forgot, a different life from before I raised myself to become the God of Heroes. I knew right then and there, I had to do something ‘lest I forget that memory again and I gave life to the goblins, all shaped like you with a bit of a personal spin. ”
“Gaxi huh? Call me a Maiden then because that’s a cute name” the goblin said with a mischievous grin, only to be cut off by and with a “No!”
In the blink of an eye, the wheel was replaced by a crystal sphere that slid to a halt, from within which a middle aged goblin woman, also wearing a pointy hat, glowered at him.
“We are Asheel, and you? You have something to answer for!” she declared from within her spherical chariot, before flicking a hand and causing sand swept skulls to spill out of the entrance of the orb to pile between them. “You really think I'll believe you’d do no harm when this is the care you have for your creations. Cast into the desert to die?! Created to suffer and perish if not for my helping hand?”
“I’ve got to answer? I don’t answer to anyone, my muse but I’ll set your record straight. I wouldn’t purposely kill any of my creations in a duel unless they’d agree with it. Any of the goblins around will agree to the fact that I’ve met Jaxx in battle as a mortal, not a divine being. I haven’t used anything divine. Just my skill. How else would he learn? How else would a hero grow to be a hero if not met with a stronger foe than they are? Jaxx here choosed the best foe he could, myself. His creator. If he wishes to defeat me, he’ll have to train and train until he becomes stronger than me…as for the others? Cast into the desert to die? What do you mean? Jaxx here was able to survive even without your help. He fought his fear and met the crystal creature, he knew he stood no chance against it…so, he befriended it. Quite…heroic I’d say. All the other ones could’ve done that. Any hero worth their salt will tell you that without struggle, they would’ve never become a true hero. The strong would’ve survived anywhere I would’ve thrown them, even in the ocean if they had the drive to do it. Also, they weren’t all in the desert. I threw them everywhere on the planet. If too many of them would’ve died, I would’ve saved them myself. Yet…I didn’t. That was by design, not a flaw. ” said Galaxor, his voice weirdly calm. Collected.
“Rather neatly leaving out the part where I pulled him out of the desert I see” the goblin noted “If you were the only god, he would still be dead, perseverance or no”
“Is this what passes for gods beyond the cycle?“ she then asked, before listing off his failings with the tone of a disappointed mother “Deceitful, irresponsibly from passing the care of your creations off on to others, and a complete lack of foresight when it comes to seeing the consequences of your actions. Given you’re not the only one to dump mortals in the desert it seems so” and then shaking her head at this sad state of affairs.
Galaxor looked hurt initially before shaking his head. “Maybe, just maybe you’ve got a point. I should thank you for saving the ones that would’ve died. The struggle they went through will forge them into greater heroes. ” replied Galaxor, suddenly calmer than before, all while bowing slightly to the goblin god.
“And yes, you’ve pulled Jaxx out of the desert but I’m sure you’ve seen that he wasn’t far from habitable lands. Lands which needed a hero to be. But I think I can see your point. To a degree. You don’t grasp the concept of heroism, out of no fault of your own. I’m sure I don’t understand your cycle any better. To make up for it, if you wish to guide the goblins here to the underground, they’ll have everything they need. Food, a leader our their own kind, shelter, protection from the elements and knowledge. ”
“Don’t mind her, she just doesn’t know how to let go” Asheel’s third form took over to say, the old goblin leaning casually on her spiky wheeled vehicle, before adding “Everything has to end, even your foolishness”
“And that just means something new can begin. It’s not like they're gone after all” the Maker who had named herself Maiden added, before pointing at a skull in the pile and then at a 3 day old goblin one in the arms of his mother and saying “see he’s over there now. Same soul, new turn of the cycle”
“And yet what a waste of the first” The Maintainer broke back in again to say “What can he learn from his past life? Nothing other than what it feels like to die of dehydration”
“He knows it can always be worse, and that we have made sure that death is nothing to fear” the Breaker insisted, before the Maiden quietly pointed out that “Or will. We still need to teach them how to actually get in touch with the past”
“This … is getting off topic” the Maintainer insisted, before getting back to the point “you want to take them underground? Why? Is this river not a lovely thing? A perfect place for living”
“Well it is getting a bit overcrowded,” one of the Daffotales interjected, before asking “What? It is!” When every creature with green skin looked at it with frank amazement that it had enough ego to butt into a conversation between gods.
“It does… have a point” the Maintainer admitted “The beastfolk someone else also dumped everywhere have doubled the population and some of them are a bit … rowdy”
“So tell me more about this underground” she conceded, before adding caveats “is it safe? Is there space, food and water enough for all the goblins you would invite there? Is there adequate transportation in and out of this underground?” not at all trusting him to have thought this through.
Galaxor took a seat as the 3 aspects of the divine discussed between themselves. He summoned something in his right hand and eat with his left, from time to time. That something was invisible to the mortals.
"Beast folk? Is that what I saw down the river? Those sound interesting, must pay'em a visit but that's for later. But how are they rowdy? Have they attacked anyone? Killed goblins? If so…I think we have a task for Mr. Jaxx here. Anyways. Now. What was that? Underground. It's very safe, hidden from view, deep underground. Last I went there, they slowly started to dig upwards. I've created them an artefact that provides them air, one that gives them food and one that holds knowledge. They bring things to it and it shows them different usages of what they've brought it. Think of it like a recipe book. Transportation to the surface is, as I said, in progress by the goblins themselves. Again, this is by design. Above them, stands the Khodex and that big tree. If these goblins leave here now, they'll reach the underground exactly when the surface will be reached. Unless you're going to offer them a lift, of course. " said Galaxor, the jumble of words coming out of his mouth.
“Oh yeah, there’s some bad seeds among them for sure-” the Daffotale once again spoke up to reply to the question regarding the beastfolk “-and among the goblins too, sure, but the most bestial of the beast folk ones are way more capable of being a nuisance, if what I’ve been told is true. I heard of this one that’s called ‘Maw Who Slew In Salvation.’ Spooky title right? And then there’s the Fisher King, The Talons which Crave Prey, Birbarus the Dreadful, The Stalker of Scale and Tooth, Death Roller and-”
At that point the goblin goddess started to speak over the plant to summarise that “Yes, It seems there are a number of folk who have learned rather … poor lessons from the desert. To sadly be expected when the only edible thing around is other people”
“She wanted to handle each and every one of them herself, the coddler” the Breaker mocked the Maintainer's apparent position on that matter, before stating “but there’s power to be gained from breaking an impactful pattern like the regular spilling of blood, and the mortals deserve to claim that for themselves”
“And power in forming one too” the Maiden agreed “like a string of heroic victories against the odds! That sounds like a cool one”
“Yes, well, helping the mortals help themselves would be a boon to them I’m sure, should they wish to receive it” the Maintainer conceded, only to push back against his cave idea by pointing out a few flaws “as for your little cave, well I’m quite concerned by the apparent singular points of failure it has. A single artefact breaking, being stolen, or what have you, and the whole place turns into a death trap”
The Breaker shrugged at this fate, but the Maiden was interested, saying that “Well maybe we can make it more self sustaining? Add some cycles down there that can keep themselves running? You’d need some kinda power source like the sun. Only better than the sun, coz it's kinda a single point of failure too right? Same with the source of this river”
“I suppose” the Maintainer conceded again, before getting down to the crux of the issue, namly “you’ll have a hard time convincing them to go with you however, given your previous performance” she gestured to the pile of skulls that was still sitting between them, a reminder of both god’s position in the goblin’s eyes. Perhaps she should have not been quite so confident in her own higher standing in their eyes however, given the Daffotale was still listing off the nicknames of infamous beastfolk that she had delivered into their midst.
Galaxor only laughed as the three Asheels talked between themselves and to him.
“Let’s split your bits, shall we? First of all. Heroic victories is what I’m all about. Victory against all odds. That’s what Jaxx here was trying to achieve after all. Defeat me in single combat because I dropped him into the desert and he had to survive…by any means necessary. If these beastfolk cause issues, I’m sure Jaxx here will rise to the task and he’ll even get a boon from me if he does…to help me in his journey. ” said Galaxor as he raised 1 finger in the air.
“Second of all. There is no chance of failure. I’ve got something hidden in there as well. If something would happen, I’d know and I’ve got a plan for their food…soon. Just need to gather some more power to do so. You could say…I’m in the process of learning some new things. As for a power source, they’ve got magma, lots of it. Go and see if you don’t believe me. As soon as they learn how to use it, they’ll be very well off. ” as he raised another finger in the air.
“And last but not the least, I don’t need to convince anyone to do anything. They can do however they wish. They can stay here, go to the place where the Goblin Queen will rise from or they can go to the goblin states in the south east. It’s absolutely up to them. They can do whatever they want. It’ll be a journey either way. Here they’ll have to face the beastfolk, in the goblin states they’ll have to fight each other and the Goblin Underground? They’ll have to face Maxima. No matter what they choose, it’ll be a heroic journey. The weakest of them will either die or become strong. The strongest of them will become stronger, heroic. ”
“The little dears can’t exactly choose travel somewhere that isn’t accessible yet now can they?” the Breaker sardonically pointed out before the Maiden was more fixated on the fact that “The world was full of spinning hot goop?” which she thought was “So cool!” after which the Maintainer got back on topic and said “And even for these ‘goblin states’, whatever they are, it's quite a trek I imagine, especially for those further away from the sea”
“Oh, we’ve heard some stuff about them coming along the grapevine. They have this metal called copper they get by melting rocks! Neat isn’t it?” The fearless Daffotale broke off its recounting of the world's many villains to interject again, this time about tales that had come up from where the rivers flowed into the goblin states.
“That’s lovely dear” the Maintainer said dismissively before pausing and then actually addressing the flowers ”wait, what else do they have? Something to help people travel long distances perhaps?” to which the plant replied “yeah! They have these little things called boat for travelling on rivers”
“Fascinating” the Maintainer replied, before turning back to Galaxor and saying “Well that might solve that problem, if you give them some time to interrogate the flowers for all this information they’ve apparently been picking up. Enough time for these diggers to breach the surface I suppose”
“You’re misunderstanding me, I think. They can choose to travel to the Goblin Underground and by the time they reach it they will have reached the surface. How they get that isn’t my problem. They can find ways for themselves. For example, as your flowers have noticed, others have invented boats to travel up and down the river. If one is persistent enough, any problem that comes their way will be resolved. Creative thinking, strength of will, the power of their internal cycle if you want to call it like that. It is up to them. They’re free to do whatever they want, that’s why I created them after all. Heroes will rise wherever they are good, bad or somewhere in the middle or they can choose to stay here and do what they’re doing. They can do whatever they can and want. I threw them all over Galbar, a thing that I can understand that might’ve caused them pain, so that they’re everywhere and do something with this world. Others have created slaves tied only to their worship or to follow their commands or creatures with a specific purpose in mind. I didn’t. But, feel free to see for yourself. Come to the underground, see how the other goblins live. We can go as soon as I give Jaxx here, a gift for having the guts to face me in battle. ”
“You have been rather talking around each other, so how about we break that cycle and move on dearies” the Breaker suggested, to which the Maiden agreed “Yeah, I wanna see new stuff”
“Fine fine, gift away” the Maintainer conceded with a wave of her hand, before being replaced by the Breaker who cackled and joked that “she’s sulking”
“HA! HA! HA! You figured out what I was doing! HA! HA! Well played, Maintainer of the Breaking Maidens. Very well. Jaxx! Wake up! ” laughed Galaxor with a hand on his belly before turning to Jaxx, who stood up almost immediately. Something inside him stirred as his creator spoke to him.
Jaxx stood up and while initially prepared a punch to throw at Galaxor, stopped when he realised he wasn’t alone this time. The other divine. The goblin divine. She was present too. He stopped his plan and turned towards the lady.
“My saviour. I thank you for saving my life. ” said Jaxx with as much courtesy he could muster.
“You’ve got the wrong one of us deary” the Breaker, replied, before telling Jaxx that “You’ll have to wait till she’s not in a huff to tell her that yourself, looks like”
“Now, now. Jaxx, I understand you wish to defeat me. It’s a fine goal and one couldn’t find a better enemy but you’ve got to train a long time to reach my level and you’ll need to go many quests. You’re angry at me because you had to kill your tribe to survive, well, now there are others that are killing goblins. Many, many goblins and not because they don’t have any choice. I offer you this deal. Go on this quest, save your fellow goblins and if you win, I’ll offer you a rematch on equal footing. ”
Conflicted initially, Jaxx eventually nodded. He wished to save his kin and he wished to kill Galaxor and if doing quests for him are the only way for that to happen, then that’s what he’ll do.
“I agree to your terms. I shall save my kin and we will have our rematch. It’ll be to your death. ”
Galaxor laughed at the sudden seriosity of Jaxx then turned serious himself too. His aura blaring with power, pushing the goblins around to the ground, pinning them there.
“Ok. Sounds like a challenge. ” the Heroic Aspect of Galaxor said before the aura was reduced in size and the cheerful Galaxor “came” back.
“I shall offer you two blessings to help you in your quest. Be smart and use them. First, you’ll receive the hero's senses. They will act as an early danger system. If something’s coming your way, you’ll know about it a few seconds before.
You will, as well, receive the ability to sense if others that are part of your quest are near to you and their general direction. Use it to guide you wherever you need to go. These two are not making you a true hero. You’ll earn that yourself. ” said Galaxor as a wisp of divine power flew from him to Jaxx. As the wisp connected to Jaxx, his eyes turned a bright yellow. Soon he’d find out that his eyes will never change colours again, they’ll always be bright yellow and they’ll always shine in the dark.
Afterwards, Jaxx gathered whatever weapon he could find and went where his senses told him. Somehow he knew just where to go.
“Apologies it took so long, Maintainer of the Breaking Maidens. Business is concluded. Let us go. Permit me to teleport us. ” said Galaxor as he teleported both of them to the goblin underground.
“You really have an endless amount of breath, don’t you deary. Asheel will do just fine” the Breaker told him (not that it helped), before letting the Maiden take over again so she could get a look at all the new things there were to see down here.
While not much time passed since he was there last, it already looked different than before. There were many different stone tablets with information they gathered from the Smilegma written down, goblins were walking in every direction trying to write as much as they could about their closed-up world. Some were mining and talking with a goblin which wrote everything they could about the miners and their techniques. There was a very audible murmur of voices, of knowledge being shared all around the cave. Different types of furniture could be seen in the cave and clear delimited areas with built walls were made in the cave. It started to look more like a city than a cave.
As soon as the two divines appeared, it seemed like the whole cave just stopped. Maxima quickly stood up from her chair, goblins making her space to approach the two divines.
“Greeting creator and divine guest. We are greatly honoured to receive you in our home! Creator, we’ve followed your indication and have started learning new things, everything we know is being written down and the tablets have been stored into a newly dug out room. Smilegma called it a “library design”. We’ve stored everything there neatly on shelves. Progress is slow going more down unfortunately, the rocks seem harder to break than before and the tools of our miners are breaking faster than we can repair them. ” said Maxima with a bow.
“Thank you, Maxima. You’re following up on my plans, you’re learning more things. I appreciate it. Well, Maintainer of the Breaking Maidens. This is the Goblin Underground and that’s Maxima. The Queen. ”
“Super neat place you’ve got down here Gaxi” The Maiden, who had stepped out of her wheel and darted out to read the entirety of the library in the time it had taken for Maxima to give her status update, and particularly fixating on one rather new discovery that she found very funny as she read the tale bout them.
“ooo and glowing ‘spooky’ rocks. I want some!” she declared before in a flash she had returned to her wheel, sped off, and then returned with one which she looked rather more contemplative than entertained. She eyed the glowing rock. Polished it on her dress.Then bite it lightly.
“Hmmm. Tough. Super tough” she noted, before biting clean through it and then examining the two halves, the exposed cores of which revealed the entire thing to be a luminous diamond of some kind “buuuuut also kinda easy to cut. I mean not for you lot with the tech you got, but still. Hmmm”
She then proceeded to ‘peel’ one half of the diamond like an onion using her teeth, cutting it until she had fully exposed its shimmering centre. She examined her work for a moment, before sticking it into her mouth again, and chomping away. As she did she moved over to the goblin’s primitive copper forge, and made herself a disk of heated metal. She stuck the rim into her mouth as well, and began affixing a series of razor sharp thin slices of diamond onto the outside, till she had formed a circular saw with a diamond blade.
“And there, all done” she declared as she spun the saw around on one finger, before approaching the other uncut half of the diamond and telling them to “now watch this” before using her new saw to first cut that diamond, and then split it into more blade fragments.
“And just like that, you can make more of these without my help, and a bunch of other stuff with diamond tips too. Like drills. Trust me you wanna make those, it'll be great” she told them as she set down the blade next to the shards, and then gestured to offer both to the queen.
Galaxor continued talking with Maxima about what other events happened since he was last there, learning about Tunni and Ralk, the new tribe that joined and brought glowing diamonds with them. Lots of events.
Nonetheless, as he talked with Maxima, his senses were trained on Asheel. He noticed how she left to go to the library and potentially read everything inside and then she brought with her…the glowing diamond. Galaxor excused himself from Maxima and watched with great interest what Asheel was making.
A blade. A saw. Knowledge of tools above any others created in this world. Now that was interesting. Galaxor quietly motioned to Maxima to take the blade and the shards which she did, slowly, carefully and still managed to cut herself slightly.
“My, my. You’ve sure evolved my goblins quite a lot with diamond technology. This will propel their civilization a lot forward. Especially with the Smilegma now having access to diamonds and unlocking new technologies for them. Maintainer of Breaking Maiden, if I’m not mistaken, I’d say you like my people and…maybe changed your mind about this place, am I correct? ” said Galaxor with a laugh and a large smile.
“You know, I owe you a favour now. Tell me, what do you wish for? Maybe a hero? Someone to spread your ways? I’d take that, trust me, my heroes…they’re a bit different than your usual hero. Or maybe you require an upgrade to your wheel. ”
“Hey now I was always a fan” the Maiden insisted, before pointing out that “I mean you already gave me a hero to root for buuuuuut if you still wanna trick out my ride I ain’t gonna say no now am I?” the little goblin replied, stepping out of her wheel and gesturing to it “so tell, me, what did ya have in mind?”
“Do the others agree with the pimping of your ride? I’m more than happy to leave it as a favour for later but if they don’t have any issue…Do you wish your ride to sense danger to mortals, seeing that you like saving them? Maybe you want it to be able to inspire mortals to do heroic acts if they’re in the vicinity or maybe…I’ll leave you Jaxx. How does that sound? I’ll forever remove him from my plans. I still promised him a fight if he manages to save those goblins but after that, I’ll leave him alone forever. How does that sound? ”
“Deal” the Maintainer popped back in to accept that final offer, before leaving again almost immediately, being briefly replaced by a cackling Breaker who was very amused by that theft, and then finally cycling back to the Maiden again who threw her arms up in frustration, before sighing and huffy also agreeing to that with a “fine”
"Perfect! He's all yours. Make sure to let him know next time you meet him. Ha! HA! Haha! He'll hate me SO much more! He'll be a worthy adversary. I'm sure! Now, ladies, I think it's time for me to leave. The Goblin Underground has a lot of work to do ahead of them and not sure if you've noticed…but they're all staring at us. Godly presence and all that.
So, I wish you goodbye and thank you. It was truly a pleasure! " said Galaxor, turning on his charm and winking at, hopefully, the Maiden.
The Maiden was indeed there to be winked at, and she flushed just a little as a result, before nodding and swiftly agreeing “right up gotta be off things to do adventures to watch! See ya!” before hopping back into her wheel and spinning it around on the spot before vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Galaxor goes to visit the river lands, and runs into Jaxx. The little goblin tries to fight his creator but is naturally no match. Asheel shows up to try and put a stop to this one sided bout, but the god was merely humouring Jaxx and lets the defeated goblin go.
Asheel’s Maker personality is then rather crucial of Galaxor, what with her having had to save many of his creations from death by desert. The stone wall of personality that is Galaxor takes this all in his stride, and eventually convinces Jaxx to go after various fullblood beast folk trouble makers, and Asheel to come assist the goblins he has in his cave.
During this talk a Daffoflower keeps interjecting, and in doing so reveals them to be quite the convenient information transmission network, informing the riverfolk both of the goblin city state’s technology, and of the aforementioned trouble makers.
Then the Maker, now going by the Maiden due to some earlier flirting, goes with Galaxor to the underground. She snoops a bunch to learn about all the new things they are doing, finds the glowing rocks from the quest post after reading the goblin’s rendition of the tale, and discovers they are actually glowing diamonds. She turns one into a diamond edged saw blade, and then demonstrates how they can use it to make other diamond edged tools, including, importantly, additional sawblades.
Galaxor offers the Maiden a boon for this gift, but the Maintainer swoops in and steals said boon, getting the god to promise to stop harassing poor Jaxx.
Then they both go their separate ways.
Galaxor Available MP - 2 -1 MP + 1MP domain boost: Blessed Jaxx with the hero sense, Jaxx will now have a few seconds of "danger sense" before being attacked or so (Think Spiderman) + blessed Jaxx with the heroic questing sense, he'll know the general direction when people are in danger and can follow it to reach them. End MP - 1 Asheel Available MP - 5 1 mp, boosted by wheel, to make a diamond tipped copper saw blade (1), and to then teach the goblins of the underground how to make more diamond tools using that blade, most importantly including additional blades (bonus) End MP - 4
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