The Grand Battle S2G1! [Round Six: Eddelin City]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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Cole and Envoy had gone over to a back room to question Girnham, while Packston had filled Arkal in on some more details of the city's conflict - as well as explaining his odd condition which left him with four personalities.

"The conflict's been going for a while, but in all honesty, outside of a small handful in each camp, most of the citizens are banding together out of fear of the other group more than a genuine hatred of them. I regret to say I nearly joined the human faction myself."

"What stopped you?" Arkal asked.

"The most fortunate of coincidences," Packston replied. "I was trying to fix a radio and suddenly it blared to life and I heard a message. It was a message speaking of opposition to these 'Grandmasters', which I've had vague memories of ever since I awakened... the ones running these battles. But it also carried a warning. A warning not to trust Vandrel Reinhardt."

"And that was enough for you?"

"Well, on its own? Most likely not. But when I hear a message that begins with 'My name is Eric T. Packston', I feel I can't simply ignore it."

"So that's how you ended up in charge of this group?"

Packston nodded. "I gathered who I could, we organized ourselves somewhat... and now here we are."

"So what's our plan?"

"Ah, yes. It's been clear for a while now that the biggest problem is the human faction's leader, who we only know as the Hand of Silver; and his right-hand man, Vandrel Reinhardt. Other than that, we've got a few genuine psychopaths on both sides, but they've got no real talent for leadership or propaganda."

"So we need to take down the Hand of Silver," Arkal said thoughtfully.

"Yes and no. If we simply killed him, hard as that might be, it could simply turn the humans against us. Reinhardt's already calling us 'traitors to humanity'; we don't need to cement that reputation. No, our plan revolves around turning the more sensible elements in the Hand of Silver's faction against him. That's a much more favorable scenario all around; the non-humans' leader, Tor Kajan, is driven by distrust more than hatred. Get somebody halfway sensible in charge of the humans, and we can at least get the two sides to negotiate."

"And how do you intend to do that?"

"We need some sort of evidence. Something implicating Reinhardt, if not the Hand of Silver himself. But we aren't sure precisely what we're looking for, or even how to distribute it properly if we did find it. As it stands, our contacts in the human camp are few, and extremely cautious; they fear Reinhardt's retaliation."

"Damn," Arkal muttered. "Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you."

"And it's not just that. For some time, there's been a cult forming insisting that Konka Rar would rise up to save us all - that's another thing, there's a widespread belief among the 'awakened' that when actual battlers come and their round ends, we'll all die - and just now Konka Rar, or at least someone claiming to be him, has turned up. And it seems he can awaken people on his own. Or perhaps he can just turn them into dinosaurs. In either case, it's going to complicate matters."

Arkal looked concerned.

"Wait a minute. I came here from a battle."

Packston's eyes turned a dark red and he pounded on the table.

"Why the hell didn't you say that sooner?" he shouted. "There's more of you, aren't there? One of them's probably revealed their existence already. That's just going to make this whole panic worse! Damn, damn, damn!"

His eyes turned brown, and he took a deep breath.

"I apologize for Bern's behavior there. He's particularly sensitive. Regardless, he has a point; whether or not it's true we die at the end of your round, enough people believe it that we're going to have another problem on our hands. The only upside is that it might drive support away from the two warring armies and towards Rar's cult, but as we know nothing of their alleged 'savior', I'm not sure how much of an improvement that would be."

Just then, Cole stepped into the room.

"Did you find anything out?" Packston asked.

"Yes, actually. Girnham was all too eager to sell out his former allies. Unfortunately, they were smart enough to distrust him, so he couldn't actually tell us much... but, there was one detail that was particularly interesting."

"And what was that?"

"Over the last few days, Girnham had been assigned to acquire a few items and ordered not to tell anyone else of his assignment. A fair amount of scrap metal, some durable and transparent glass, a skull mask, and some black cloth."

Packston blinked.

"And he didn't stop to think about why he was doing it, naturally."

"No. That isn't his style."

"Right. Well, one thing seems clear. This alleged 'Konka Rar' has become our top priority for the moment."

He turned towards Arkal, and smirked.

"And I imagine if one of the Four Battlers of the Apocalypse were to announce himself, that would force him to react."

The old smith laughed.

"Yeah, I think I can help you out with that."