I can see there being a bit of a thematic rivalry thing between our decks building up what with the whole "knights slaying dragons" thing.
Yeah, I can see that. I guess if we want to lean into it we can even make them go to the same school. They probably will be at each other throat. A guy with no respect for authority and the student council president who would tell the teacher that they had homework
"We are looking for the Lasse Library. A long time ago, a powerful mage named Theriadore lived there and created a powerful protection artifact that could help us combat the Land of Twilight's negative energy. There was a chance, true, that the place might have been discovered at some point, or worse, pillaged by irresponsible adventures, but my instinct tells me they only managed to find the key, and not the access to the vault itself, for the access of it was well hidden with a powerful enchantment."
Pausing to take a breath, The middle-aged elf showed everyone a pentagon-shaped brass device with runic letters on its sides.
"How do I know that? I've lived long, long enough, and coincidences felt like daily occurrences to me. I am an archeologist, my dear, and my calling is to find curious findings, whether they were in entombed ruins, or a black market."
A vault...Carnatia would be interested in taking a look at it. After all, with her Golden Prerogative skill, she might chanced upon valuables or other items that would be of interest to her. Unlike the case in the house, ruins were considered abandoned sites with no legal owners, meaning 'finders keepers' do apply here, so it would be less of a hassle to legally claim ownership of any items of interest. Though, of course, as an archaeologist, Vesemir might be inclined to keep them for study or museum exhibits. But she would cross that bridge when the time came. It wasn't even guaranteed that she would find anything, after all. And for now, far more important to focus on actually reaching the vault safely. After all, this was the Land of Twilight the notorious place where many adventurers met their end or returned forever changed.
And with that, Carnatia excused herself and returned to her tent, doing some maintenance on her rapier before getting some rest.
As night came, the group embarked on their journey to the Ruins of Lasse. In the cold and damp night air of the forest, Carnatia had half a mind to use her magic to light a fire for some extra heat, before thinking better of it, opting to conserve mana. Instead, she pulled the fur coat she had brought closer to her body. It was an expensive one, and certainly, it did provide adequate warmth, but...well, Carnatia had wanted to buy the really expensive ones, enchanted with magic, or perhaps with some of those Republican-made clothing with portable heat pads integrated. Perhaps after the expedition.
Eventually, after walking through the forest trail, they arrived at their destination, the Ruins of Lasse.
Their employer did not stop, so Gray Flame warned the rest of the party with a low, but stern voice. “Follow the white light, do not touch the phantom, and don’t stare too much at them.”
“Indeed,” Vesemir added suddenly, reciting part of the old proverb like some sort of omen. “If thou gaze long into the darkness, the darkness will also gaze back into thee.”
'So these are the phantoms they were talking about,' Carnatia thought.
Carnatia remembered Gray Flame explaining that the phantoms were thought to be the ghosts of people who perished long ago or simply the coalescence of the negative energy in the form of peculiar pockets of dense miasma. Either way, they were the result of the war 1700 years ago that was waged here. The war where the tyrannical Serensiel was brought to justice and the elves were humbled, led to the now-prosperous relations between nations, as humanity ended Serensiel's rule of terror and forced the elves to acknowledge their folly and helped them move forward
...Or so the history was told in Westernant. In Varenheim, Carnatia was sure that the prevalent historical accounts were less black and white. Nevertheless, Varenheim notwithstanding, the consensus was that Serensiel was a tyrannical queen and the war was regrettable but necessary. It was a story of the forces of good triumphing over evil or at the very least the lesser evil checking the great terror that was Serensiel. History was written by the victor, after all, and for good or ill, Serensiel was not the victor.
Faintly, Carnatia could hear their screams of anguish, as the faint shadows reached out to them. Never directly touching, but close enough to almost divert her attention towards them.
It was at that moment that some horrific images flashed briefly through her head. Images of a massacre, of flames engulfing buildings and burning people alive, of dead bodies littering the street. A form of premonition, a warning of dangers that would befall her, perceived through arcane divination as part of her Prescient Defense skill. At that moment Carnatia understood, that these were the illusions that would consume her mind should she allow the phantoms to take too much of her attention.
Heeding the advice of Gray Flame and Vesemir, Carnatia focused her attention on the light, doing her best to ignore the translucent black writhing mass vaguely resembling the shapes of people all around them.
Still, it was easier said than done. Fortunately, honing her mind into one singular focus was something that Master Tokimune had taught her. A 'Zen Meditation' he had called it. She typically employed it in combat to hone her mind into focusing on a singular vital spot of her opponent, but here, she applied it to focus on the light of Vesermir's lantern. The phantoms' existence, meanwhile, she treated as excess that would be discarded as she delved into the zen state.
Doing her best to ignore the phantoms, Carnatia kept her attention focused on the light of Vesemir's lantern, hoping to avoid being captured in their illusory trap. And so, she trudged forward.
Aile's extra deck is insane. Zeus, Accesscode and I:P summon Unicorn are way above everything else we have.
She has money to burn More seriously though, I had a feeling they were good, but I didn't think they were that busted. I was on the fence on including them since they didn't really fit the knight theme. Should I take them out to make the deck 'power level' similar to the rest?
A serious girl who is calm and collected most of the time. Her teachers often described her as responsible and mature, but at the same time almost always had an addendum of 'don't get along with her peers'. The type of girl who would absolutely remind the teacher that they had homework. Despite everything, however, pretty much everyone knew that if you wanted to get things done, you go to Aile, and as she took her duty as the Student Council President seriously, even her biggest detractors begrudgingly tolerated her. She also has a high expectation of herself and of others, sometimes to an uncompromising degree, which led her to butt head with others. An infamous incident was Aile breaking up with her first boyfriend over organizational matters. She did not think that he was doing his job well enough as the student council's secretary, and thus removed him from the position, leading to an argument. Of course, most people considered her actions to be extreme, but she was a true believer in 'if things are worth doing, they're worth doing well', again sometimes—or perhaps most of the time—to her detriment.
Background Born to the Schulze family of the Wohnglück conglomerate, Aile spent her childhood attending the best tutoring money can afford. From academics to etiquette in high society as well as artistic pursuit, Aile grew up with her entire day's schedule full of these tutoring. The Schulze family is descended from old German nobility, and they maintain a noblesse oblige look in regard to their company. In short, they are at its core a business passed down in the Schulze family though its heirs are expected to dedicate their lives to the company. Aile, is of course, no different in this regard, she has been brought up as an heir to the massive conglomerate with all the lessons and strict upbringing that come with it.
Her relationship with the rest of her family, is of course, more professional than the warmth provided by a conventional family, with many being people of importance in various sectors and family politics a commonplace occurrence. With her father being the sole exception. A former philanderer and rebel in his youth, Aile's father, Joshua Schulze tried his best to be laxer with his daughter and provide her with a more normal childhood, in particular introducing her to various games from chess, tabletop, and video games, and of course, duel monster—to the consternation of the rest of his family, in particular, his mother—at least until Aile was five years old. In a tragic course of events, both Joshua's mother and wife died in the span of a few months. His mother on a plane accident and his wife from an illness. As he took over the conglomerate, Aile began to see him less and less often, eventually the only times Aile would interact with him was through phone calls or emails amidst his supposedly busy schedule.
By the time Aile graduated from middle school, she got into an uncharacteristically rebellious phase and decided to attend high school abroad. After a heated exchange with her father (over a call, of course), she had permission, to attend school in Domino City, where an old friend—though apparently they’ve been estranged for a while—would act as her guardian. While Aile agreed, she had also managed to wrangle the concession of her living on her own. And so her new 'independence' life (as much as one can be independent as a teenager whose living cost is still paid for) begins. While living without the constant lessons and tutoring was nice, after a few months, Aile was starting to get restless at suddenly having too much free time. She eventually took to do some tutoring for middle school kids as well as joining the student government, eventually becoming the student council president as a first year. A feat that she repeated in High School.
In her 3rd year of High School, she found out that her father had gone missing on a business trip. After looking deeper into it, she had found the circumstances to be off, but further inquiry was blocked by the Wohnglück conglomerate. Her trail of investigation ultimately led to her guardian in Domino City, William Burke. William eventually revealed that her father, as the head of the Wohnglück conglomerate, was actually part of the secret society the Conspiracy, whom the conglomerate had been backing for a while now, and he had gone missing while conducting some business as a Conspirators. William himself was a member of their rival society, the Duelist Society, finding out Aile’s father's involvement with the Conspiracy was what led to their original estrangement.
What William had told her confirmed most of what she had found out from her own investigations, as well as giving better context to the situation. Aile’s current hypothesis was that the Conspiracy was responsible for her Father’s disappearance in a secret experiment that had gone awry. And so, to get to the truth of the matter, Aile was inducted into the Duelist Society through William.
Spell Reinforcement of the Army x1 Called by the Grave x1 Camelot, Realm of Noble Knights and Noble Arms x3 Noble Knights of the Round Table x1 Heritage of the Chalice x3 Noble Arms - Clarent x1 Noble Arms - Arfeudutyr x1 Noble Arms - Caliburn x1 Noble Arms - Gallatin x1 Noble Arms of Destiny x1 Noble Arms - Excaliburn x2
Trap Until Noble Arms are Needed Once Again x2
Extra Deck Artorigus, King of the Noble Knights x2 Sacred Noble Knight of King Artorigus x2 Sacred Noble Knight of King Custennin x2 Ignoble Knight of High Laundsallyn x1 Knightmare Unicorn x1 Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights x1 Ferocious Flame Swordsman x1
In case anyone is wondering, I'm waiting for Enzo's post @Bounce since if I'm understanding correctly, Ian can't hear what the ghosts told Enzo. No rush though, just in case you \were waiting for me since I usually post first
Kinda, I do have a character in mind, I'm just not sure what to do about the deck, honestly. I'm not sure where to begin building deck with the ruleset you've linked. I'm not sure I fully get link and XYZ
“I guess it was wishful thinking to hope you came to see me.” said Fia with a smile. She walked around the tree to meet Carnatia. “I’m just waiting for now for the sap to become thick enough to collect. It sounded tired before, so I don’t know if you can get it to answer, but I would love to listen to it speak again.”
Carnatia sighed, as she asked rhetorically, "I would not live down the bathing debacle, would I?". Her brief moment of vulnerability from having been caught off guard would follow her for the rest of this expedition, it seemed...unfortunately. Also, further misfortune was that Fia turned out to be correct and that the Ent did not speak again, leaving Carnatia no answer to her query. Not being an expert on talking trees, Carnatia gave up, walking back to the rest of the group.
"So, any more concerns? Don't be shy with me, we are in this together, and I would like to hear all inputs from my friends."
Carnatia turned to Gray Flame, "I attempted to inquire the Ent on the Ruins of Lasse, to no avail. Unfortunately it...he? has returned to slumber. As our guide, anything else do we know about the Ruins of Lasse? What was it originally? And what else we might expect aside from the phantoms and miasma you've mentioned?"
Her lips then quirked into a thin smile,
"After all we do not want further 'surprise' now do we, Sir Gray?"
King Kindred,
swordandpens,
Lunamaria Hawke,
Megatron,
Digmata,
Rune_Alchemist,
Randomness,
Soldat Elf,
NoriWasHere,
Eviledd1984
