The Ending

Prologue Soundtrack: "Footsteps to Destiny"

A Reckoning long delayed fast approaches.

On the checkboard planet, the carapaced forces of black and white clash. Soon a moment interrupted and reversed will come to pass once more, and the white king will die for real this time. This battle will determine the fate of the Earth, but it is not really the most important one.

High above, a lone girl waits. The gold color of her eyes match those of the hoodie she wears: soft golden threads earned from a resurrection, bearing an insignia of hope; her ears, like those of a cat, poke through the hood, and her body courses with powerful magic. She is a witch. There she awaits the arrival of that which she most fears. For sixty hours--more or less, there was some time travel involved--she has avoided him, but now she is the only one who can prevent him from interfering in the battle below.

You are Morgan. You were given this name about two days ago by one of the three friends you have ever had. You were completely alone the first sixteen years of your life. Except for him.

He arrives right on cue, as Jonathan predicted, just a few yards in front of you. His appearance is obscured by a dark cloak, the image of a crown projected above his head with light magic. Everyone has their own ways of referring to him: The Guardians called him The Elf King, your friends refer to him as "that jerk" or any one of a variety of expletives. To you, he will always be just...him.

He raised you and taught you everything you know. He tortured you for your entire life. And now here he is, in front of you again.

"There you are, girl." You don't say anything. He raises his head enough to see the red gleam in his eyes under the cloak's hood. The overwhelming pressure of his immense magical power washes over you; it's intimidating, but you're quite used to it. "Finally decided to stop hiding, did you?"
You don't respond; you have nothing to say and no power to say it. It was more of a rhetorical question anyway.
"You've grown much recently." He grins. It's sickening. "I think..it is high time for a test." He opens one of his hands and summons a scimitar into it, holding it ready before him. "Go on. I'll let you take the first move. Let's see if you were worth all the trouble after all."

Phase one of the plan is to stall him. He must not interfere on Skaia until the others' task is finished. Then they will join you, and the plan can move on to the next phase. You draw your own weapons and prepare yourself; you have no real confidence but you have hope. No matter what happens, this battle promises to be a long one.

ROUND 1

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Party Status

HOPE


Morgan (Witch of Hope)
Uninjured | Unfatigued

Inventory:

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Spoiler-2x Bladekind Equipped with:
--Energy Blade (Right): A short sword strongly resembling the Master Sword, sparking with the unlimited energy of the Denizen of Hope. Electric spells can be cast directly from it, and it can be used as an item to recharge mana an unlimited number of times.
--Doomed Blade (Left): A short sword strongly resembling the Master Sword, faintly glowing. Can store and output magical energy at the will of the wielder. Holds the spirits of Morgan's friends from a doomed timeline. Currently at 50% energy capacity.

-Witch of Hope garb: Provides protection based on HOPE Meter status.
-Healing Potion x200: Fully restores an ally's Physical Health when used. Can not bring back the dead.
-Energy Potion x200: Fully restores an ally's Energy when used.
-Sprite Summoning Token: Calls forth Morgan's Kernelsprite, "Spidercat".

Capabilities:

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SpoilerHope/Despair: Morgan's current emotional state, indicated by the HOPE Meter, can turn the tide of battle. Hope (51-100%) causes various helpful effects, while Despair (0-50%) can cause negative effects.
Recall: Spend a turn to remember some of the events leading up to this battle. Has a random (usually positive) effect on Hope. Can be called by other party members, spending their turn instead of Morgan's. Sometimes called as a free action by the events of battle.
Witch: Morgan knows a vast variety of elemental, illusion, psionic, and summoning spells, and has a reasonably high amount of magical power and technique to cast them with. Electric magic is difficult for her to use but powerful when accomplished.
2x Bladekind: Morgan uses a strife specibus to wield her weapons with a moderate level of skill. She has some experience with this but prefers long-range combat.

A/N:

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SpoilerSo...this adventure is going to consist of a final boss fight, and that's it. It's up to you to come up with what kind of specific attacks and skills to try, and then it's up to me to interpret whether they're possible and what they end up doing. Good luck!

This ties into something I wrote on the MSPA forums long ago, but you don't need to know anything about that to play this. More story and characters will come as the battle continues.

>Examine the prototyping on the King

>Use illusion/summoning magic to summon funhouse mirrors. Lots. Won't hurt the King directly, but may succeed to leverage their sense of pride into wasting time breaking the mirrors before they attempt to break your face.

>Examine the prototyping on the King

On the battlefield below, the Black King succeeds in killing the White King. All are prototyped with the following: Spider/Cat, Darth Vader/Doc Brown, Ruth/Smaug. He takes the scepter and begins the Reckoning. Right on cue, the others arrive with the White Queen, aiming to take the scepter and give it to her so she can stop the meteors before they do significant harm to Earth.

>Use illusion/summoning magic to summon funhouse mirrors. Lots. Won't hurt the King directly, but may succeed to leverage their sense of pride into wasting time breaking the mirrors before they attempt to break your face.

Although it's clear he wants you to try and hit him with something, you don't feel much inclined to give him what he wants, besides being fearful of how he might counter almost anything. You try a delay tactic first instead, creating a number of mirrors around him bent to distort his appearance. He examines them for a second and gives a brief, derisive "Heh", and almost as soon as you hear that he is on top of you and unleashing a lengthy flurry of blows with the scimitar.

Your reflexes just barely kick in, avoiding a few slashes and taking advantage of having two blades to block. He's so fast that you can barely keep up, certainly not counter, and you know he's toying with you because he's normally strong enough that there should be no such thing as blocking without the sword being thrown out of your hand.

He breaks off the attack after a moment and separates, leaving you slightly winded. You managed to waste a little of his time, but it might annoy him into fighting more seriously if you don't actually try to hurt him this time.

ROUND 2

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Party Status

HOPE


Morgan (Witch of Hope)
Uninjured | Winded

Inventory:

Show Content

Spoiler-2x Bladekind Equipped with:
--Energy Blade (Right): A short sword strongly resembling the Master Sword, sparking with the unlimited energy of the Denizen of Hope. Electric spells can be cast directly from it, and it can be used as an item to recharge mana an unlimited number of times.
--Doomed Blade (Left): A short sword strongly resembling the Master Sword, faintly glowing. Can store and output magical energy at the will of the wielder. Holds the spirits of Morgan's friends from a doomed timeline. Currently at 50% energy capacity.

-Witch of Hope garb: Provides protection based on HOPE Meter status.
-Healing Potion x200: Fully restores an ally's Physical Health when used. Can not bring back the dead.
-Energy Potion x200: Fully restores an ally's Energy when used.
-Sprite Summoning Token: Calls forth Morgan's Kernelsprite, "Spidercat".

Capabilities:

Show Content

SpoilerHope/Despair: Morgan's current emotional state, indicated by the HOPE Meter, can turn the tide of battle. Hope (51-100%) causes various helpful effects, while Despair (0-50%) can cause negative effects.
Recall: Spend a turn to remember some of the events leading up to this battle. Has a random (usually positive) effect on Hope. Can be called by other party members, spending their turn instead of Morgan's. Sometimes called as a free action by the events of battle.
Witch: Morgan knows a vast variety of elemental, illusion, psionic, and summoning spells, and has a reasonably high amount of magical power and technique to cast them with. Electric magic is difficult for her to use but powerful when accomplished.
2x Bladekind: Morgan uses a strife specibus to wield her weapons with a moderate level of skill. She has some experience with this but prefers long-range combat.

A/N:

Show Content

SpoilerIf you're not familiar with the Pern novels, it's a bit buried in all the text of that article about Ruth that he can time travel.

>Use your psionic magic to levitate any big environmental surroundings you see and launch them at the king.

Every second shaved off the clock is another towards backup arriving.
>Ha. King should have paid more attention to those mirrors.
>Put those illusion/summoning skills to work once more, and set those mirrors to generating cheap mockeries of the King to go after em. Either the King takes the time to deal with the mirrors, or they get mobbed with cheap doubles. Either way, should be able to get a few potshots in. Bonus points if the cheap mockeries are also mirrors, generating ever more terrible mockeries ad infinitum.

Every second shaved off the clock is another towards backup arriving.
>Ha. King should have paid more attention to those mirrors.
>Put those illusion/summoning skills to work once more, and set those mirrors to generating cheap mockeries of the King to go after em. Either the King takes the time to deal with the mirrors, or they get mobbed with cheap doubles. Either way, should be able to get a few potshots in. Bonus points if the cheap mockeries are also mirrors, generating ever more terrible mockeries ad infinitum.

You think fast; since the mirrors you just made are now behind him, maybe you can do something with that. They "absorbed" some warped versions of his appearance just enough to pull them out, like crude cartoons stepping out and flying at him with their distorted weapons. You pull yourself back, instinctively drawing on memories of the pain he's caused you, and the fear from his presence, to amplify their power slightly. He deflects a few of their attacks with the sword in his hand without even looking at them, and draws out a magic circle before his free hand, rapidly casting a powerful spell.

Dispel Ω

A sphere-like shell of magical energy flies out of him, tuned to eridcate any magic it encounters. You manage to put up a shield in front of you for it to crash against just in time to prevent it from totally burning out your own magic, but the summoned mirrors and warped versions of him are annihilated by the effect.

ROUND 3

Dragon's Breath

He follows this immediately by a cone of intense fire directed at you from the tip of his sword; you don't have time to dodge and the shield you just put up is mostly gone; the heat pierces through your unusual cloak's defense somewhat, leaving you with a few burns.

>Use your psionic magic to levitate any big environmental surroundings you see and launch them at the king.

He doesn't miss a beat, starting to rush you again. You notice one of the pieces of your planet floating nearby, and focus your mind, drawing it to intercept. It catches him in the side, knocking him away momentarily, but he recovers and doesn't seem particularly hurt. The impact was enough to knock off his hood, however, giving a clear view of his face.

The Elf King is visibly ancient, his gnarled face covered in wrinkles and scars from battles long forgotten. His eyes glow faintly red, hinting at the power taken from the souls of many dragons long ago. And for the moment, he is smiling, a nauseating thing to see. "Hahahah. Now there's my girl..."

ROUND 4

In an almost-inperceptible blur, he switches out to a pair of short swords. They aren't as long as your weapons, but you know he will be much faster and harder-hitting, and there is some kind of enchantment running through them. You don't know exactly what he wants but the idea that he's getting it from you is terrifying. You try to remind yourself that you just need to stall him, a little longer maybe...

You can't afford to look down and check on things below; if he thinks there's something you care about in that direction then you're pretty sure he'll go out of his way to ruin it.

>

Party Status

HOPE


Morgan (Witch of Hope)
Hurt | Winded

Inventory:

Show Content

Spoiler-2x Bladekind Equipped with:
--Energy Blade (Right): A short sword strongly resembling the Master Sword, sparking with the unlimited energy of the Denizen of Hope. Electric spells can be cast directly from it, and it can be used as an item to recharge mana an unlimited number of times.
--Doomed Blade (Left): A short sword strongly resembling the Master Sword, faintly glowing. Can store and output magical energy at the will of the wielder. Holds the spirits of Morgan's friends from a doomed timeline. Currently at 50% energy capacity.

-Witch of Hope garb: Provides protection based on HOPE Meter status.
-Healing Potion x200: Fully restores an ally's Physical Health when used. Can not bring back the dead.
-Energy Potion x200: Fully restores an ally's Energy when used.
-Sprite Summoning Token: Calls forth Morgan's Kernelsprite, "Spidercat".

Capabilities:

Show Content

SpoilerHope/Despair: Morgan's current emotional state, indicated by the HOPE Meter, can turn the tide of battle. Hope (51-100%) causes various helpful effects, while Despair (0-50%) can cause negative effects.
Recall: Spend a turn to remember some of the events leading up to this battle. Has a random (usually positive) effect on Hope. Can be called by other party members, spending their turn instead of Morgan's. Sometimes called as a free action by the events of battle.
Witch: Morgan knows a vast variety of elemental, illusion, psionic, and summoning spells, and has a reasonably high amount of magical power and technique to cast them with. Electric magic is difficult for her to use but powerful when accomplished.
2x Bladekind: Morgan uses a strife specibus to wield her weapons with a moderate level of skill. She has some experience with this but prefers long-range combat.

A/N:

Show Content

SpoilerI haven't mentioned update schedule before now. The plan is "at least once a week, at most once a day". I guess we'll see how well that pans out.

>Take out your dual-blades and commence epic sword fight!