RE: The Battle of the Victors (*S1/2*) - Round "1" - Crystal Mirage XIX
12-05-2023, 01:16 PM
The Whole Hog
Kill rampaging hoggrels (1/15)
Set the explosives (0/4)
Description:
Young <char_class>! The hoggrels are attacking! Mysterious holes in the ground opened up and hoggrels have been pouring out ever since. Redchurch is just a simple little village, we don’t have anyone skilled in combat here to help protect us from the hoggrel threat! It’s all up to you. Please defeat as many of them as you can and if you can use some of the explosium we use for mining to seal up their tunnels then that’s even better.
Redchurch really was just a simple village. A couple of houses, the eponymous church, a small handful of villagers (anthropomorphic foxes, similar to Franchesca but lacking the muzzle and the claws) standing around complaining about the hoggrels. The hoggrels themselves were, in Thrillseeker’s opinion, just boars. The only thing about them that might have signalled they were anything more than this was the claim that they were capable of launching a coordinated assault using some kind of tunnelling system, and given that all the hoggrels were doing was wandering back and forth on the spot that was seeming kinda doubtful.
The surrounding area was all dense impassable forest (if this village was involved in a mining operation Thrillseeker had no idea where that was supposed to be located), the only real path out was located on the far side of the village. This, combined with the fact that the hoggrels disintegrated at the slightest touch from her scythe led Thrillseeker to the inevitable conclusion that she’d been dumped into the low level tutorial zone. Dull. Time to relocate somewhere more interesting.
Ignoring any obligation to the foxgirl who had asked her to help defend the village, Thrillseeker strolled past the 'rampaging' hoggrels, her cauldron trailing slowly behind her with uncertain mechanical steps. As she walked she tried making small gestures to see if she could pull up the world map or the in-game menu. There had to be some way to do that after all, and if she was going to find some strong foes to fight she probably wasn’t just going to run into them by chance.
As she walked she hadn’t noticed the gentle pull upon her scythe, safely sheathed at her back, getting stronger with every step, until it was strong enough that it caused her to trip and stumble slightly. Staggering forward, her scythe slid loose from its sheath and flew ahead, heading straight for the red stone church, clattering uselessly into the wall and then sliding frantically left and right seemingly looking for a way through this solid wall. A foxgirl nun (dressed in a blood red habit) standing by the church’s heavy closed doors, hadn’t really reacted to the flying scythe but did spring into life as Thrillseeker hurried after it.
“Beware young hero for beyond here lies the catacombs in which we have contained the Emperor Hoggrel. Venturing below is not recommended for the new arrivals in our realm. If you should ever seek to destroy this ancient foe please return when you are greatly experienced.”
Thrillseeker ignored her, futilely struggling to lever her scythe from the wall. She was still attempting this as the doors of the church burst open and out stumbled One-Billion-Blades, her black briefcases in her hands and her sheaths empty. As she emerged from the building Thrillseeker’s black scythe dislodged itself from the wall and flew to her side, dragging Thrillseeker along with it.
There was a moment while One-Billion-Blades stood, breathless and Thrillseeker continued to try to wrench back control of her weapon, that neither girl was really cognizant of the other. As One-Billion-Blades got her breath back and saw Thrillseeker still wrestling to free her scythe from her xiphokinetic grip, she gasped, and let the scythe loose.
“Thrillseeker.” she said, a clear level of awe in her voice, and then she seemed to struggle for what to say or do next. Behind her, her swords, coated in blood and viscera, clattered clumsily through the church door and found their positions hovering around her.
Thrillseeker, scythe in hand, simply bowed.
“Thrillseeker.” Again she hesitated long enough that it seemed as though she was done, but finally she reached out and grabbed Thrillseeker’s hand. “Teach me how to do it.” she said. “I want to murder those bastards for what they’ve done, but… evidently I couldn’t even manage to kill The High-Roller. I’ll do anything, whatever you need from me, whatever you want from me. Consider me your tool, your weapon. Just so long as eventually me and you together can destroy every last one of those bastards.”
Thrillseeker considered her thoughtfully, disentangling her hand and sheathing her scythe to grab her slate and chalk. ‘Could this be a thrillseeker? Be wary of revenge.’
This seemed to give One-Billion-Blades pause. “I’m angry, yeah. They took away from me the only person who-” She stopped short and tried again. “Even if I put that aside, what they are doing is wrong. Crosses a whole new threshold of wrongness that I didn’t even know about before this whole damn thing started. Fighting them is the right thing to do and I’m not going to stand by while I could have helped just because you think having personal stakes in this matter is somehow a problem.”
Thrillseeker made a small adjustment and flipped the slate back around. ’Could this be a thrillseeker? Be wary of right.’
“If I can’t fight for Winter, and I can’t fight for what’s right, what’s left?” One-Billion-Blades demanded. “What are you fighting for Thrillseeker?”
‘Victory, O joy therefore madness required ahead’
“Just fighting for the sake of fighting?” One-Billion-Blades asked carefully, her blades ceasing their slow ambient movements to hang perfectly frozen for a moment. Thrillseeker gave her a grin and a nod. “You’d be just as likely to kill a monster as a person?”
’Seek strong foe. Behold, monster!’
One-Billion-Blades considered this and produced a cloth to clean off her hanging blades. “Any strong foe? What if a girl just wanted to live her life but she’d been born too powerful? Is she a monster?” she asked. Thrillseeker shook her head in response.
’No enemy ahead. Praise the battle!’
One-Billion-Blades considered it and gave a soft smile as she sheathed her blades. “I still think maybe you need someone keeping an eye on you, but I’m counting all this as a yes. Whatever your stated motivations we both want to fight the Hosts we stand a better chance of actually managing it if we stick together.”
’Madness required ahead all the more time for friendship.’
Thrillseeker extended a hand to One-Billion-Blades, who took it and then pulled her in for a hug. Thrillseeker, fought against it for a moment before just hugging her back.
“So Thrill, any plans currently in the works to force the Hosts out into the open?” One-Billion-Blades asked. “Is Thrill okay? You can call me Billie if you- nevermind.” She chuckled slightly and Thrillseeker gave her a shrug and a nod at the same time, which probably meant it was fine to call her whatever.
’Visions of futility, let there be research.’ Thrillseeker walked over to her cauldron and started messing with the control panel upon it.
One-Billion-Blades decided to leave her to it, and walked back over to the church, glimpsing once again the inside, the now vanished remains of the hoggrels that had chased her out, the deep crevice down into the earth where at the heart of it the creature had been chained.
“Beware young hero for beyond here lies the catacombs in which we have contained the Emperor Hoggrel. Venturing below is not recommended for the new arrivals in our realm. If you should ever seek to destroy this ancient foe please return when you are greatly experienced.”
One-Billion-Blades was closing the church doors but she actively bristled as the foxgirl said her piece. “What did that poor creature ever do to you? You think it’s okay to imprison someone, to treat them as an object just because they’re strong?”
“The Emperor Hoggrel has been our enemy for many generations. Even still they direct their hoggrel soldiers to attack our homes.”
“Yeah because you have them chained up in a dungeon for no good reason.” One-Billion-Blades grabbed the foxgirl by her shoulders and squeezed. “What do you think the hoggrels should do? Just sit back and allow themselves to be hunted, killed, imprisoned?”
“I-I I’m just here to warn people about the Emperor Hoggrel.” They said. “I wasn’t there at the sealing. They’re bad, they’re evil, they hurt people. It’s just what hoggrels do.”
One of her blades unsheathed itself from her hip, and slowly but deliberately reorientated itself in the air, its point coming to rest by the foxgirl’s throat. “No person or being is inherently evil just by who or what they are. We’re going to go down there and let this Emperor Hoggrel free and you’re going to apologize for-”
There was the sound of metal clanging against metal. One-Billion-Blades turned around to see Thrillseeker stood atop her cauldron, its lid open, her scythe in her hand. She made a gesture towards the controls of her cauldron and then stepping directly over the open vat Thrillseeker brought her scythe round and slit her own throat. Her body plummeted directly into the vat and One-Billion-Blades immediately abandoned her grudge against this foxgirl npc and hurried over to Thrillseeker’s vat.
Resting atop the controls was Thrillseeker’s slate on which she had written. 'Time for research. Seek Thrillseeker.’ Above the slate was a small simple monitor showing a cross labelled: cauldron and a dot far off to the west labelled: Thrillseeker.
“Dramatic bitch.”
Kill rampaging hoggrels (1/15)
Set the explosives (0/4)
Description:
Young <char_class>! The hoggrels are attacking! Mysterious holes in the ground opened up and hoggrels have been pouring out ever since. Redchurch is just a simple little village, we don’t have anyone skilled in combat here to help protect us from the hoggrel threat! It’s all up to you. Please defeat as many of them as you can and if you can use some of the explosium we use for mining to seal up their tunnels then that’s even better.
Redchurch really was just a simple village. A couple of houses, the eponymous church, a small handful of villagers (anthropomorphic foxes, similar to Franchesca but lacking the muzzle and the claws) standing around complaining about the hoggrels. The hoggrels themselves were, in Thrillseeker’s opinion, just boars. The only thing about them that might have signalled they were anything more than this was the claim that they were capable of launching a coordinated assault using some kind of tunnelling system, and given that all the hoggrels were doing was wandering back and forth on the spot that was seeming kinda doubtful.
The surrounding area was all dense impassable forest (if this village was involved in a mining operation Thrillseeker had no idea where that was supposed to be located), the only real path out was located on the far side of the village. This, combined with the fact that the hoggrels disintegrated at the slightest touch from her scythe led Thrillseeker to the inevitable conclusion that she’d been dumped into the low level tutorial zone. Dull. Time to relocate somewhere more interesting.
Ignoring any obligation to the foxgirl who had asked her to help defend the village, Thrillseeker strolled past the 'rampaging' hoggrels, her cauldron trailing slowly behind her with uncertain mechanical steps. As she walked she tried making small gestures to see if she could pull up the world map or the in-game menu. There had to be some way to do that after all, and if she was going to find some strong foes to fight she probably wasn’t just going to run into them by chance.
As she walked she hadn’t noticed the gentle pull upon her scythe, safely sheathed at her back, getting stronger with every step, until it was strong enough that it caused her to trip and stumble slightly. Staggering forward, her scythe slid loose from its sheath and flew ahead, heading straight for the red stone church, clattering uselessly into the wall and then sliding frantically left and right seemingly looking for a way through this solid wall. A foxgirl nun (dressed in a blood red habit) standing by the church’s heavy closed doors, hadn’t really reacted to the flying scythe but did spring into life as Thrillseeker hurried after it.
“Beware young hero for beyond here lies the catacombs in which we have contained the Emperor Hoggrel. Venturing below is not recommended for the new arrivals in our realm. If you should ever seek to destroy this ancient foe please return when you are greatly experienced.”
Thrillseeker ignored her, futilely struggling to lever her scythe from the wall. She was still attempting this as the doors of the church burst open and out stumbled One-Billion-Blades, her black briefcases in her hands and her sheaths empty. As she emerged from the building Thrillseeker’s black scythe dislodged itself from the wall and flew to her side, dragging Thrillseeker along with it.
There was a moment while One-Billion-Blades stood, breathless and Thrillseeker continued to try to wrench back control of her weapon, that neither girl was really cognizant of the other. As One-Billion-Blades got her breath back and saw Thrillseeker still wrestling to free her scythe from her xiphokinetic grip, she gasped, and let the scythe loose.
“Thrillseeker.” she said, a clear level of awe in her voice, and then she seemed to struggle for what to say or do next. Behind her, her swords, coated in blood and viscera, clattered clumsily through the church door and found their positions hovering around her.
Thrillseeker, scythe in hand, simply bowed.
“Thrillseeker.” Again she hesitated long enough that it seemed as though she was done, but finally she reached out and grabbed Thrillseeker’s hand. “Teach me how to do it.” she said. “I want to murder those bastards for what they’ve done, but… evidently I couldn’t even manage to kill The High-Roller. I’ll do anything, whatever you need from me, whatever you want from me. Consider me your tool, your weapon. Just so long as eventually me and you together can destroy every last one of those bastards.”
Thrillseeker considered her thoughtfully, disentangling her hand and sheathing her scythe to grab her slate and chalk. ‘Could this be a thrillseeker? Be wary of revenge.’
This seemed to give One-Billion-Blades pause. “I’m angry, yeah. They took away from me the only person who-” She stopped short and tried again. “Even if I put that aside, what they are doing is wrong. Crosses a whole new threshold of wrongness that I didn’t even know about before this whole damn thing started. Fighting them is the right thing to do and I’m not going to stand by while I could have helped just because you think having personal stakes in this matter is somehow a problem.”
Thrillseeker made a small adjustment and flipped the slate back around. ’Could this be a thrillseeker? Be wary of right.’
“If I can’t fight for Winter, and I can’t fight for what’s right, what’s left?” One-Billion-Blades demanded. “What are you fighting for Thrillseeker?”
‘Victory, O joy therefore madness required ahead’
“Just fighting for the sake of fighting?” One-Billion-Blades asked carefully, her blades ceasing their slow ambient movements to hang perfectly frozen for a moment. Thrillseeker gave her a grin and a nod. “You’d be just as likely to kill a monster as a person?”
’Seek strong foe. Behold, monster!’
One-Billion-Blades considered this and produced a cloth to clean off her hanging blades. “Any strong foe? What if a girl just wanted to live her life but she’d been born too powerful? Is she a monster?” she asked. Thrillseeker shook her head in response.
’No enemy ahead. Praise the battle!’
One-Billion-Blades considered it and gave a soft smile as she sheathed her blades. “I still think maybe you need someone keeping an eye on you, but I’m counting all this as a yes. Whatever your stated motivations we both want to fight the Hosts we stand a better chance of actually managing it if we stick together.”
’Madness required ahead all the more time for friendship.’
Thrillseeker extended a hand to One-Billion-Blades, who took it and then pulled her in for a hug. Thrillseeker, fought against it for a moment before just hugging her back.
“So Thrill, any plans currently in the works to force the Hosts out into the open?” One-Billion-Blades asked. “Is Thrill okay? You can call me Billie if you- nevermind.” She chuckled slightly and Thrillseeker gave her a shrug and a nod at the same time, which probably meant it was fine to call her whatever.
’Visions of futility, let there be research.’ Thrillseeker walked over to her cauldron and started messing with the control panel upon it.
One-Billion-Blades decided to leave her to it, and walked back over to the church, glimpsing once again the inside, the now vanished remains of the hoggrels that had chased her out, the deep crevice down into the earth where at the heart of it the creature had been chained.
“Beware young hero for beyond here lies the catacombs in which we have contained the Emperor Hoggrel. Venturing below is not recommended for the new arrivals in our realm. If you should ever seek to destroy this ancient foe please return when you are greatly experienced.”
One-Billion-Blades was closing the church doors but she actively bristled as the foxgirl said her piece. “What did that poor creature ever do to you? You think it’s okay to imprison someone, to treat them as an object just because they’re strong?”
“The Emperor Hoggrel has been our enemy for many generations. Even still they direct their hoggrel soldiers to attack our homes.”
“Yeah because you have them chained up in a dungeon for no good reason.” One-Billion-Blades grabbed the foxgirl by her shoulders and squeezed. “What do you think the hoggrels should do? Just sit back and allow themselves to be hunted, killed, imprisoned?”
“I-I I’m just here to warn people about the Emperor Hoggrel.” They said. “I wasn’t there at the sealing. They’re bad, they’re evil, they hurt people. It’s just what hoggrels do.”
One of her blades unsheathed itself from her hip, and slowly but deliberately reorientated itself in the air, its point coming to rest by the foxgirl’s throat. “No person or being is inherently evil just by who or what they are. We’re going to go down there and let this Emperor Hoggrel free and you’re going to apologize for-”
There was the sound of metal clanging against metal. One-Billion-Blades turned around to see Thrillseeker stood atop her cauldron, its lid open, her scythe in her hand. She made a gesture towards the controls of her cauldron and then stepping directly over the open vat Thrillseeker brought her scythe round and slit her own throat. Her body plummeted directly into the vat and One-Billion-Blades immediately abandoned her grudge against this foxgirl npc and hurried over to Thrillseeker’s vat.
Resting atop the controls was Thrillseeker’s slate on which she had written. 'Time for research. Seek Thrillseeker.’ Above the slate was a small simple monitor showing a cross labelled: cauldron and a dot far off to the west labelled: Thrillseeker.
“Dramatic bitch.”