Young Writers Society

The Reference Book

Glory Online: Calamity of Orr

Eight hundred and fifty years have passed since the fall of the elder dragon Morgoth, and civilization has built wonders across the grand world of Angara. This great era, however, has not been without turmoil. Four years ago, a great invasion from the north struck the elven homeland of Quel Danar, and the siege of the undead legions shook Angara to her very core. Hope was not lost, however, and a band of heroes rallied to defend their beloved lands. Thus was formed the Alliance of Angara: a pact between the great nations of Humans, Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves, and Trolls.

After years of intensive combat and many casualties, the great Undead Siege was quashed, and their leader, the wrathful King Arvid Baradin, was returned to the earth. Several months of peace have found this new alliance of heroes, and that is when our story begins...not quite before the oncoming storm predicted by soothsayers, but rather on the cusp of calamity never before seen in the land of Angara.

You are a great hero, a level 80 champion of your people! And while your strength alone may be little compared to the dark lords at work in the world, together with your allies you can achieve anything. You are a member of the small-time guild Facepalm, and have seen the warning signs of oncoming chaos. You and your guildmates have decided to band together and meet this new threat head-on in hopes of claiming eternal glory on the battlefield.

Glory Online:// Races

Humans
Indomitable in spirit, the humans have proven to the world time and time again that they will not be moved. Though faced with great adversities, humanity has persevered and created a lasting alliance among the sentient races of Angara.
Elves
Admired for their ageless beauty and wisdom, the elven culture of Angara has reshaped history itself throughout countless centuries. Recently pushed into licking their wounds by the mighty armies of the relentless undead, the Elves of Angara look to their allies for support now more than ever.
Dwarves
Regaled throughout the land for their mighty earthen fortresses, the Dwarves of Angara have a true knack for good times, as well as a true knack for war. Dwarves are natural warriors from birth, and have literally written the book on war.
Gnomes
Gifted with an eye for ingenuity, Gnomes are the inventors and hard-thinkers of Angara. Despite their short stature and cheery disposition, one would be remiss to cross a gnome. One may also awaken to a ticking pillowcase...
Trolls
Once the dominant race on Angara, the trolls of Zin Dabari joined the great human alliance in the year 816 to fend off the great invasion of undead. Hailed for their major victories in the north, the trolls now find open arms awaiting them in major cities across the world. Of all their legends and legacies, the element that sets the trolls apart from the rest of the world is their connection with the spirits.

Glory Online:// Classes

Warrior
A ruthless gladiator with a fighting spirit and two strong hands made for grappling. Warriors excel at melee combat and the mastery of weaponry. True to their nature, once a warrior finds a weapon of choice, it’s likely that it’ll be their weapon for life.
Crusader
A righteous templar whose mission in life is the defense of his allies. Crusaders are holy knights dedicated to drawing the attacks of their enemies so that they may bring judgment upon them. Crusaders also employ holy magic to treat the injured and helpless.
Blackguard
A ravenous dark knight who wields mighty greatswords and axes, as well as plagues and bone-chilling spells. Blackguards often find their roots being mistrusted by their fellow soldier classes--and with just cause. Blackguards have a history of thirsting after power, and thought a righteous few may be found among them, the general consensus is that only power can curb their bloodlust.
Thief
Cunning and conniving, these rogue swashbucklers will drop an enemy before they can blink. Thieves excel in stealthed combat, employing tricks of their trade and dirty tactics to get the upper hand on their enemies.
Ranger
A ranger’s most valuable companion in life is his animal guide. Truly connected with nature, Rangers live to protect creatures of the wilderness and stand tall for those who can’t do it on their own. Proficient with a bow and arrow and not much else, Rangers are best left to their own long-range devices.
Shaman
Arguably the most versatile class of all, the Shaman is one with both the earth and spirits. Whether he is healing, wielding the elements against a foe, or bolstering his body for the onslaught of battle, the Shaman will always admit that he is nothing if without the guide of the spirits and elements alike.
Druid
When one considers the druid, one may look no further than the very earth beneath one's feet to understand the interconnectedness of all living things. While hailed as natural physicians and mediators between sentient creatures and nature, druids are by no means a spiritual people. Where they find their roots, they find their power--and little may be done to shake them.
Mage
A scholar and a tactician, the mage is not to be underestimated. Though often eccentric and wide-eyed, Mages have a certain...reputation for calamity. True purveyors of offensive magic, the mage trusts wholly in two things: the loyalty of his burlier friends, and the speed of a fireball.
Necromancer
Mistrusted by society for admittedly good reasons, Necromancers are masters of the dark arts. Whether by summoning minions, conjuring chaos, or bringing down enemies by dark-minded tricks, the Necromancer is never to be turned away from in combat. While necromancers may be powerful allies, they may also prove a more menacing foe.
Curate
Most often spiritual leaders in developed communities, the Curate is the light’s answer to a chaotic world of darkness. The Curate is a master of the holy arts, and finds his comfort zone tending to suffering allies. Do not mistake the Curate for a one-trick pony, however. No one really knows the boundaries of his power. No one really wants to know, either.

Glory Online:// Characters

1. Varen the Crusader, played by @Lumi
2. Jackie the Mage, played by @Rosendorn
3. the Warrior, played by
4. Killn the Necromancer, played by @Flite
5. Felgin the Ranger, played by @BiscuitsBatchAvoy
6. Aristocles the Thief, played by @Holofernes

Code: Select all

[bebas]Name[/bebas]

[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Race:[/b]
[b]Class:[/b]
[b]Tropes:[/b] Choose three to six tropes that sum up your character’s persona. Use tvtropes.org for help.

[size=150][b]Appearance & Habits[/b][/size]
Your information goes here.

[size=150][b]Personality & Behavior[/b][/size]
Your information goes here.

[size=150][b]Spellbook[/b][/size]
♦ Spell Name: Description.
♦ Physical classes (Warrior, Thief, Ranger) may not need all ten slots, if any.
♦ Passive abilities count as spells.
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦
♦


Like all stories worth reading...or in your case watching, ours begins in the bowels of an epic battle between good and evil. I'm not one for prologues, so that's all you're getting.

It was a dark, frozen night in the middle of the summer in the realm formerly known as Quel Danar, home of the immortal elves. A great quake shook the bowels of the undead citadel of Scourgeholme as runic power fluctuated throughout the atmosphere, summoning from his frozen slumber the Undead Lord, Arvid Baradin.

Twenty-five heroes had banded together with the grand Alliance of Angara to confront the undead king, and one among them was an elven crusader, Varen, who will admittedly get more spotlight in this story than she may deserve.

"I want my Thaumaturges to flank the mage quarter and prepare for the incoming adds. Watch out for the knockback...and otherwise, just don't die."

A young Thaumaturge, Hazel Lannister, took a deep, panicked breath, and raised her hand.

Varen cocked an eyebrow. "Yes, Hazel?"

"You told us to bring our fire spells to the front. Does that mean that the dungeon journal is wrong?" She clicked her tongue and brought up a screen with highlighted words:



"That is clearly a fluke on the programmer's part. Nothing can have that much resistance, no matter what level they are."

A groan echoed through the top of the citadel as Arvid cracked his knuckles. "I know you guys like to strategize and all, but this is the fifteenth week we've done this. Why don't you try and mix things up? Maybe let the mages tank for a bit."

A troll held up his middle finger, garnering a smirk from the undead king.

"I'm just saying, is all. After a while, this gets boring."

Varen pouted pointedly at Arvid and held out her pearlescent-glowing sword. "I spent eight months crafting my new sword, and I will plunge it into your gut tonight if it's the last thing I do."

Arvid held up his hands. "Fine, fine." He sighed. "Always sass from the healer."

Varen sheathed her sword and pinched the bridge of her nose in deep, concentrated thought. "Okay, people, listen. We all know Arvid is full of it, so let's just band together one last time and send him back to the depths where he belongs."

A hand popped up from the mage quarter.

Ra'Fael, the troll shaman who tried his best to burden half the responsibility of being raid leaders, pointed at the pink-haired woman. "Raid leader acknowledges Jack."

"Oh, come on, Raf! You can at least give me my ee at the end!"

"Ya sound tougher as Jack. Ya look like a Jack. If I squeezed ya, ya'd probably quack like a Jack."

Jackie, who learned from the best, pouted pointedly at Varen, who shrugged. "Raid leader two acknowledges Jackie."

Jackie curtsied and cleared her throat before carefully summoning her spiralled, purple-and-pink Arcana Staff Of The Frozen Wastes, and nodded its crystal head at the undead king who, at the time, was picking his ear with his pinkie. "I'd just like the raid to know that the sooner this bad boy goes to sleep, the sooner we can party!"

There was a racous cheer from the warrior section. Varen bit her lip and deflated, letting her guard down. "Fine! Fine! I want the party as much as anyone, I just want to know that we're--"

"--Prepared, Vee. We're all goddamned well prepared and you know it! Jackie has so much legendary gear that I don't doubt she could tank Arvid!"

Ra'fael deflated.

"Alls I'm sayin' is that the lady is cute and she has a point."

An awkward silence drew on. Varen turned back to Arvid before casting a defense buff on Raffy. She waited another moment, then scanned the crowd into the duo of necromancers in the back. "No snark from Our Dark Lord?"

Killn the necromancer shrugged and looked around at the faces turned to him. "I just. I agree with Jackie, is all."

Varen nodded. "Okay then. We'll get on with our fi--"

"--OH!" Killn yelled, echoed through the pinnacle of the castle. "If anyone needs a new staff, I'm pretty sure you could make one out of the stick up Varen's butt."

The raid roared with laughter--save for the solemn crusaders who were...let's say they respected Varen. Not feared. Not at all.

"Ya ready?" asked Raffy. It was his swagger voice, ready to take a beating and have a good time doing it.

"Even you seem off your game tonight."

"Ma spirits sense somethin' wrong with tonight. Somethin' bad's headed our way."

"We'll deal with that after we get back to Ravenholdt."

Raffy nodded and his fist weapons materalized in a flash of pixels. He pointed a hand at Arvid and walked forward. "Arvid, it's been a good time knowin' ya. It's even been a good time dyin' to ya time after time. But tonight is special." He smirked. "Tonight, ya stay dead."

Arvid whined with boredom and drew his legendary greatsword. Varen nearly drooled at the sight of it. A runic blade forged in the heart of the underworld, capable of stealing, seizing, thieving, and in other words taking the souls of its victims. Hellcrest. She would give up healing for that sword. She would learn how to fight properly instead of just lunging at enemies to redeem the energy of injured allies. She'd change everything for that sword.

When Varen blinked out of her stupor, the battle had begun.

Her eyes glossed over as she appraised the battlefield, sword slinging radiant light into the chests of injured allies. They blossomed with renewed strength as a font of light bloomed from their bodies. She ran to Raffy's side and drew her shield, blocking a deadly strike from Hellcrest. The attack sent her skidding back several yards, but she rebounded and swung a breath of life into Raf's lips. Her sword began to glow, filled with holy power, and she dove for the undead king, plunging the epic blade into his gut. Pixels splattered against her appraisal screen. She roared with vigor and shirked back as a horde of comets rained down from the mages.

In the side of her eye, she saw the health bar for Arvid shrinking at speeds she'd never seen before.

With one fluid swing of Hellcrest, Arvid knocked his assailants back against the rim of the citadel's throneroom. The frozen walls stung through Varen's armor. She began to summon shields.

"Archers! Assail the invaders!"

Varen nodded. "Phase two!"

To spare you the grueling tale of how our heroes nearly wiped an entire fight on their final night with the undead king, we'll speed through this next part and land on something cool and bloody, riiiiiiight....here.

"Glorious Light!" shouted Varen. The luminous glow in her eyes dissipated as a surge of holy energy shifted from her into the bodies of her allies. She coughed. She sputtered, and with fading vision, she collapsed on the frozen floor, downed.

Ra'fael struggled against the pressure of the undead king's blade before he saw a looming giant heart over Arvid's head. His eyes went wide and he dove for cover as Jackie swatted down the gluttonous arcane bubble, crashing into the king's chest in a wondrous explosion of hearts and rainbows.

He screamed. He fell to the floor. His sword vanished.

The next thing Varen knew, she was lying in Killn's lap, eyes agape with surprise. She gasped, gripped his cloak at the neck and looked him in his ominous green eyes. "Did we win?!"

Killn nodded. "You really need a new spell, pal. It's getting boring watching you sacrifice yourself in every fight."

"It's a necessary sacrifice," she responded curtly.

"Not really," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "Either way, we won. Everyone's bugging Jackie for teleports back to Ravenholdt now."

"I had a wonderful dream while I was out."

"You were out for all of thirty seconds."

"And they were beautiful."

"Varen?"

"Yes, Killn?"

"Please get up. You're crazy heavy."

Her face flushed red and she smacked him, flourish of light and everything. "Apologize."

He shifted uncomfortably, looking off to the frozen throne.

"Do it or I'll never heal you again."

"Drop it or I'll never rez you again."

They paused and stared at one another. Then Killn groaned. "Please get off my lap! You're crushing me!"

Jackie swooped in and yanked Varen up onto her feet, twirling her around despite every scrap of Varen's elf-and-priest-forged-in-a-fire-of-stuffiness dignity protesting.

"We did it we did it we DID IT!"

Varen's arms bounced, her feet staying stubbornly on the ground. "I know, Jackie. You can let go now!"

Jackie stopped bouncing and pouted, pink lip sticking out as far as she could make it, bending her knees so she could look up at Varen with her very best doe eyes. "Not until you promise to actually party with us and not go celebrate by praying all night!"

Varen's spine straightened. "I must give thanks to the light for this victo—"

"NO YOU DON'T!" Jackie whacked her on her overly ornate chest plate before grinning. "Not right away, at least."

Killn stood, dusting himself off. "I believe Jackie is trying to express that after such a great victory, humans should relax and reward themselves. We, after all, did it."

Varen huffed. "Fine!"

Jackie jumped in the air, legs tucking under her and arms straight up over the head. The familiar "click" of a screenshot as she struck her victory pose resonated through the guild's audio channel, along with a chime that dealt with her earning another skill point in 'charm'.

The slow-mo finished, Jackie grabbed them both by the wrist and took off towards the guild already heading towards the par-tay.

"Jackie I need my arm," Killn said. "I don't think I could reattach it..."

"Oh PSH," Jackie said, continuing to drag the two slowpokes along. "You've done it before!"

"At the cost of half my mana."

"Fine!"

Jackie let go and skipped behind them, one hand between each of their shoulders and pushing them towards the crowd. Both of them were, for some reason, digging in their heels.

"Oh come on, it'll be FUN!"

Both of them groaned.

Varen turned her head to look at Killn. "I should not have let her lead."

Killn simply nodded.

Jackie laughed. "That's the most fun I've had in years when can I lead again?"

"At this rate?" Varen said, stiffening. "Never."

About a hundred metres from where Felgin was crouched, glugging down an HP potion, he could see Jackie shoving Killn and Varen along a forest track. He shoved the stopper into his flask and clipped it onto his belt as he jogged over to them. Jackie grinned at him and rolled her eyes in the direction of the other two.

"Come on, guys!" said Felgin, "We killed Arvid. Why aren't you in the Guild House yet? Nothing to drink out here."

Killn grabbed a flask from her hip and took a swig. "I beg to differ."

Felgin rolled his eyes and strode ahead. The House doors beckoned to him and he grinned as the came fully into view. He let himself in and turned to see if it was worth holding open the door for the others.

"Where are they?" he muttered. A few dots glinting in the darkness told him they were at least ten minutes away. He shook his head and was about to led the door fall shut when he heard a voice call up to him from the bottom of the steps.

"Wait up!"

Felgin peered into the darkness and spotted the bulky, blueberry figure of Ra'fael.

"Hey, Raf," said Felgin, as Raf clambered up the stairs. Felgin held the door open for the troll and they slipped inside. "Spirits' sakes, it's dark in here!"

Raf grabbed a torch and lit a sconce beside the entrance. "Didn't Hyken ride ahead to let everyone know?"

Felgin frowned. "Aye, he did. And he took my horse."

Raf shrugged and lit a few more sconces. They walked to the end of the corridor and turned into the Great Hall. The windows in the high walls provided a little light, most of which was cast over the two outer tables. The inner two were cast into a light shadow, which would soon be remedied.

"Ready?" asked Raf.

Felgin grinned and nodded.

Raf raised his staff and hurled a ball of fire at one of the twenty sconces dotted around the room. He whirled around, the fire seeming to explode outwards from him as he span. When he finished, he staggered back and leaned against one of the tables.

"You okay?" Felgin asked.

Raf looked up and grinned.

A thud snatched Felgin's attention.

"Anyone here?" called a deep, feminine voice.

"In here, Varen," Felgin replied. He smiled at Raf. "Let's get this party fucking started!"

After Varen, Killn and Jackie arrived, the rest of the guests started to flow steadily into the Guild House. Three hours and seven tankards of ale later, Felgin had his arm around Jackie's shoulders and was belting out a chorus of 'Empty Bottle'.

"So bottoms up, lads!" He paused, waiting for the banging of spoons on wood to reach a crescendo. "And let's save the last drop of this empty bottle!"

Whoops and cheered rang through the hall, swooping around like ghosts at a graveyard ball. Felgin grinned and bowed. He let his head droop forward, lapping up the applause.

The noise began to rapidly change tone and a tug on his robe told him that something was wrong. He jerked his head up and spotted Hyken standing a few feet away from him.

"Varen!" Hyken panted and leaned on the table across from Varen. "What are you all doing?"

Varen frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You haven't heard?" Hyken's eyebrows shot up. "Check your quest log."

Felgin heard a couple of beeps as he scrolled through his quest log. He couldn't help but grin at the completed next to 'Defeat Arvid'. A moment later, however, the smile was smacked off his face by news that the south, Troll land, had been invaded, and was now overrun with hostile forces.

"Spirit save us," Felgin whispered.

"I told you!" Raf shouted. "I told you, Varen. I knew something was up. And you're just sitting here, drinking."

"Ra'fael, I will have you know that I have only had time to have three drinks because I was busy praying to The Light." She pointed at an empty tankard next to Raf. "You, however, have had three."

Raf sprang from his chair and threw his tankard to the floor. "Don't turn this on me. You always get complacent after a fight!"

He clambered onto the table, plodded to the other side and leapt onto the next table. He sprang from table to table, colourful splashes of sauce flying out from wherever his feet landed. When he drew parallel with the door, he looked straight down the webcam and muttered, "Join me in saving my people, if you can be bothered getting off your arse."

He raised his staff and the balls of fire he had distributed earlier flew back towards him. He absorbed them with the staff and in the light of the orb atop it, he 'hmmphed' and sauntered out of the Great Hall.

Varen waited until the chamber doors had slammed down the hall, meaning that Raffy and his temper had fled the building. "No one tell him I did this," she cut, then did the thing. A ray of light shot into the ceiling, darting down around the rivulets of bronzing and into the bellies of the sconces, igniting them with glowing blue fire. "I need a better look at this troll quest before I go charging ahead into the jungle."

Jackie looked over her shoulder. "It's got a nice XP reward," she remarked. Then her eyes went wide. "Whoa! An XP reward! That means!!"

Everyone immediately clicked and swept away pixels from their dormant XP bars that hadn't moved in the past two years. "I don't believe it." Varen was wide-mouthed and growing more and more sobre by the minute. Behind her, Jackie jumped and clicked and danced and screenshotted and spun and kicked and played air guitar, but Varen was almost confused. When had it happened? She had--she double-checked--419 out of 350,000 needed experience points for level 81.

"Varen!" Jackie poked the crusader with her staff over and over again, prompting an agitated almost-growl from Varen's throat. She gave in, though, and smiled. "You know you're happy, Varen!" Jackie crossed her arms and her staff dissipated. In its place came a small pink kitten that purred and turned over in Jackie's arms. "Here you go." She put the kitten on Varen's head and screenshotted.

Everyone was beginning to rise from their seats, knocking the sides of their head to get the drunkenness out of their systems. It was already game morning, and Rafael was probably halfway to the jungle by then. Varen took a moment to read through the details of the quest.

A dark cloud has fallen across the southern lands;
It appears, adventurers, that a new threat threatens
us and our peaceful way of life. No longer may we
be safe to hunt as we please, to raid as we please,
to pillage and plunder as we please. Even PvP may
be in danger! Brave heroes, I beckon you now to
investigate the jungle ruins for the steel meteor
that fell from the sky upon the fall of King Arvid.
Your reward for exterminating the hostiles will be great!

Reward: 14,900 EXP | 900 Karma

"Seems easy enough. We kill some invaders and then...a plot twist comes our way."

Jackie's kitten pawed at Varen's forehead, nesting.

"Of course, the last plot twist was that my entire homeland was conquered by undead...so what part of the world are they crushing this time?"

"Varen," called Felgin, "you're depressing everyone at the goddamned table. Even with a pink kitty on yer head it's nothin' but gloom and doom outta you."

Her ears twitched in annoyance before she held up her hands. "Fine! I won't be crazy Varen. I won't go off the deep end or depress everyone." She shrugged. "Maybe a new experience will be healthy for me."

"And your deep, deep, endless depression!"

Varen nodded. "Yes, Jackie. Even my woes and worries."

"Your woes and worries," interrupted a jungle voice, "may have to melt away without me."

Everyone turned their gaze up to the doorway where Ra'fael stood, hardly moving. "Once I got ta thinkin' about why we had a new quest, I started lookin' through ma' inventory, and I found this." He held up a tiny frozen hourglass that made everyone gasp.

"Ma lousy, good-for-nothin' history major playa forgot ta pay ma subscription." He looked away, tears bubbling in his eyes, as tears did on trolls.

Varen and Jackie clutched their chests, turning their eyes away. "History majors," Varen half-spat. "Why couldn't you belong to a brilliant Psych major like me, Ra'fael?! How tragic..."

Jackie was clicking around in her head before coming up empty. "I was seeing if Miss Advert Master had enough cash to bankroll you." She frowned. "Sorry, Raf. :("

He slowly sat down at the head of the table and smiled warmly at his friends. "Y'all'll have ta find a new tank in ya new adventures. And as for the title of guildmaster, I hand it down--"

Varen's eyes went wide. Jackie experimented with growing a kitten tail out of her backside. Felgin belched and Killn resented the writer of this post entirely for not giving him dialogue.

"Ta Jackie."

And he froze. Pixels vanished. Erased from their story, just like that.

Everyone shared a silent moment of contemplation before opening their eyes to a guild hall that had already been dyed pink by Jackie. She floated around the room, throwing spa tubs and massage tables in every free corner, replacing the sconces with heart-shaped self-lit candles, throwing streams of paint on the walls and ceilings. Varen watched with horror as she changed the guild symbol from a roaring lion into a picture of her kitten.

All-in-all, it made everyone Facepalm.

Pink.

Fluffy things.

Kittens and soap bubbles.

PINK.

FEMININE THINGS.


Killn’s vocabulary seems to have regressed to those few words as he stared at the guild hall in horror. His eyes frozen in a state of paralysis, one would have thought that he had come face to face with his mortal enemy.

Wait, perhaps even then he would not be so terrified. Eyeing the hall as if it’d come alive and swallow him alive any moment, Killn edged backwards inconspicuously, perhaps he could just sit outside and avoid that entire cluster of idiots.
No such chance.

“KILLLLLLLLLN, why aren’t you in here? Don’t you like my decorations!” Jackie bounced out of the hall, pinkness fluttering tailing behind her. Her lips.....was it possible for her to make it even more pink than it was previously?

“No.” He said bluntly, backing away hastily.

“That’s mean!” Jackie pouted, her eyes widening in an expression of hurt before reaching forward and latched her hand onto his arm. Pulling fiercely, “you’ve got to get in the hall.”

Killn dug his feet onto the ground, “over my dead body.”

“That won’t make a difference.” Killn glanced up at Varen’s sudden appearance behind Jackie, a readied smirk on her face. “Jackie, turn it back.”

She hmphed.

“Aren’t you even a teeny, tiny bit excited about the new quest, alien?” Jackie punctuated the dialogue with another sudden pull, causing Killn to stumble and crash into her, which also managed to trip Varen down.

The trio stared at Jackie in mutual accusation before Killn stood and dusted himself off with a small scowl. “Traipsing through the jungle isn’t exactly on the top of my top ten holiday adventures.”

“Oi, Killn. C’mon, stop being a killjoy and enjoy the fuckin’ parteh!” Felgin’s voice boomed from the halls.

Jackie rebounded up before assuming a dignified pose and jabbed a finger tainted with pink at Killn. “I am the guildmasterrr, soooo, you have to listen. And you don’t wanna miss out on any important announcements on the new quest.” Followed by a triumphant smirk.

Killn pondered this for a moment, “Fine. I will come.

Jackie clapped her hands in glee as Varen rolled her eyes and trotted back to the hall, “really?”

“Yes, I will come.” Killn said, allowing Jackie to bounce ahead before stopping at the edge of the hall.

“I never said I will come inside.” Killn smirked, crossing his arms across his chest, a sign that allowed no further negotiation. There was a collective sigh from the others inside as they witness, no-doubt perhaps the gazillion repetition of the earlier episode.

Upon returning to the guild hall, Jackie noticed everybody who could manipulate colour trying to take the pink down from the walls. She humphed and crossed her arms. "Well I like pink."

Varen rolled her eyes. "What would Raf think of that? He put so much thought into the decorations!"

Felgin slammed the butt of his axe down, nodding along. "The way you honour a fallen warrior isn't by changing everything! You preserve it."

"Raf isn't dead," Jackie said. "Just... temporarily indisposed!"

Killn was still outside the hall. "I'm not coming in until that pink is gone!"

"Plus," Varen added, polishing a spot on her bracers. "We need our necromancer."

Jackie looked around at the absolutely perfect guild hall, only to remember how she'd helped Raf decorate the last one so it was perfect for him. He had loved how her alchemy potions could turn everything exactly the right colour and had thanked her ten times over. It really would be a shame to have all that work destroyed...

With a theatrically large huff, Jackie slammed her staff down on the floor and spread the colours back to what they had been before— minus a few bows, crystals, and one keg of alcohol that was conspicuously and mysteriously hot pink. Those she kept.

"It's gone!"

Killn still didn't move. "I don't believe you."

Varen sighed. "Ignore the bar."

Jackie giggled at the stunned silence from behind the door. "It's mostly the same!"

"How much is 'mostly'?"

Felgin shook his head. "Oh for gods' sakes..." Before crusader or mage could say anything, he turned on his heel and walked straight outside. In a scuffle of "no stop what are you doing there could be pink in there", Killn slid in on his stomach to the centre of the room, the dwarf marching behind him. "Squishy necromancer."

Killn stood up and dusted himself off absolutely every scrap of potentially pink dust before looking around. His dark eyes narrowed at the bar, and the crystals, and the head guild's chair being thoroughly covered in bows, before wrinkling his nose. "It'll do."

"It's not like we're not staying here long!" Jackie said, finger going straight up in the air as high as she could reach. "We need to get to the jungle! To the airship!"

"To the airship!" the guild echoed, filling the voluminous space with their voices.

Jackie lifted her staff as a beacon to guide everyone out, skipping more than running but still keeping pace ahead of everyone. They all piled into the ship, Jackie leaving little touches of pink as she made her way to the captain's chair, before selecting "Southern Jungle" on the map.

"Let's get these aliens!"

If any character had made a better ":3" face after issuing an order, nobody had seen it before.

The Midland Fields drifted past hundreds of metres below. Felgin sighed. It wasn't exactly his homeland, but he and his horse had racked up riding achievement upon riding achievement down there.

"Felgin!"

Felgin whirled round at the shout and spotted Varen jogging over to him from the starboard side of the airship's deck.

He smiled. "Hello there, Cap'n."

"Actually, Jackie is the Captain today," said Varen. She rested her hand on the wooden railing and looked out over the fields. "She seems to be handling it quite well."

Felgin raised an eyebrow but shrugged. "Raf was a great Captain. Do you remember that time he did the figure-of-eight to escape those mechanical condors?"

Varen grinned. "Ah, the day of the broken propeller."

"Hey!" said Felgin, "That was not his fault. Would you notice you were flying a little too close to an elm tree if there were three oversized vultures were tailing you?"

Varen raised her hands and shook her head. "No, no. I wasn't saying that."

Felgin was about to tease her further when the entire ship juddered and the rigging dropped onto the deck. A few moments later Killn burst through near the stern of the deck and sprinted over to Varen.

"It's the keel." He paused and clutched his stomach as he panted. "We hit some turbulence and it's just gone! We're ... sorry ... we're almost at the jungle. We just ... Jackie doesn't think she can-"

Before he could even ask her to, Varen was darting over to the hatch and lowering herself through it. Felgin frowned and strode after her. As soon as Varen reached the captain's chair she shoved Jackie out the way and landed heavily on the chair. Jackie threw out her hand and shot a bouncy glop of pink out to cushion her fall, then turned round and nodded her understanding to Varen.

Felgin watched Varen's expression as she tilted the controls back and forth, yanking them off their course whenever they started to move too fast. He tried to look out of the porthole to monitor their trajectory but choked from motion sickness and fixed his eyes back on Varen.

"Felgin!" Killn shouted.

Felgin's eyes sprang to Killn. "Aye?"

"Could you help me with the mainsail?" he asked.

Felgin gulped but nodded. He followed Killn back onto the deck and clipped himself onto the rail with a rusty carabiner. Not helpful. He grabbed the rope on the end of the sail furthest from the mast, and Killn grabbed the one near the mast. Felgin heaved on the rope with a hundred and thirty-four years worth of strength. The sail creaked, but started to right, then finally steadied in its usual position.

They were still jerking about, but Varen must have been getting a handle on it; with every second the bumps decreased in their severity. Finally the juddering ceased altogether and Felgin sighed a deep, giddy sigh.

"Keep your lunch down?" Killn asked.

Felgin nodded, unclipping himself from the railing.

"You might not want to do that just yet," said Killn, "We're about to land."

Aristocles

The jungle that surrounded Aristocles was dark and damp. Flies buzzed around him, and snakes snapped at his shoes. It smelled like an animal died in a patch of flowers. Sickly sweet, with a hint of rotten. But... there it was. A ray of light. Ohh yes. No doubt about it, praise the level designers. His cufflinks were tingling. They sensed... tourists. Mmm. High level tourists, too. Unf. Could this truly be? At level twenty he might have doubted his trusty accessories, but they'd pointed him in the right direction too many times for him to be a cynic now.

He moved towards where the tingling was stronger, but shortly, he didn't even need that. The trees were battered and the underbrush torn, as if some great wind had blown through the flora, or some great object fallen from the sky. He hesitated, hand gripping a branch. Another meteor? Impossible. He was certain the name of this expansion pack wasn't Money From The Sky. A few more steps and it was confirmed: the devastation had been caused not by a meteor, but an airship. Smoke was trailing from its back and chunks of metal were scattered all about.

Aristocles' targets were in sight now, also. Four warriors, in supremely expensive gear. Wonderful, if a bit dated. Did they not keep up with Pixel Fair? The dwarf lounging by that tree there was an affront to his sensibilities. Be strong, he thought to himself. You made it all the way, backing out now would be a crime. He scanned the others. A woman in pink, a mage, judging by the staff -- and the only one who followed something resembling a fashion sense, at least -- a stone-faced crusader, and a shady individual in a similarly shady cloak. It appeared he was doing his best to avoid the flowers.

"Hello fine folk," he said, stepping into the clearing they had caused. "You seem lost."

"Who are you?" the crusader woman asked, hand dropping to her sword. The others perked up, turning towards the newly arrived.

"My name is Aristocles. I will be your tour guide through these dangerous lands," Aristocles replied, without missing a beat.

"Tour guide?" echoed the girl in pink. "The mission briefing didn't mention anything about a tour guide." She pouted.

Aristocles plucked a flower from a nearby branch and, in the same cat-like movement, swept the mage off her feet. He leaned in close.

"The forest, milady, is full of surprises." Aristocles gave her the flower and twirled away, leaving her very bewildered-looking.

"Your interest in vibrant colors disturbs me, stranger," the one in the cloak said. "I dislike you."

"Yeah," the dwarf said, nodding. "What Killn said."

Aristocles raised his hands to the air and assumed a knowledgable smile. "I know, I know," he said, as if talking to a child. "It's all sudden but, come on, guys, I saw the quest too. "He winked. "I'm here for the same reason you are. I've just been here a little longer and am a little more prepared."

He walked forward casually. "I've found the meteor site. It's stone zero as far as clues though. I think the quest's been misleading us. I'll take you there though, maybe you'll be able to shed more light on it than I was able to. Five heads work better than one, am I right?"

There was silence for a few seconds as the group contemplated what he had just said.

"Alright," the crusader said. "Lead us there. Let's go." She began walking forward as if she knew where she was going.

Aristocles stepped in front of her. "Wait a minute!"

"What now?"

"Accessories! Tools! Traps and tricks! Maps, bug-spray, nets, water and snake-resistant boots, alligator paraphernalia. I've got something for everyone, and it's half off today. I've been wandering around this jungle for longer than you have, and trust me when I say you'll want the boots."

It was one of those days when nothing went according to plan.

It was also one of those days when Killn thought the entire world was made up of stupidity.

But then, that was most days.

He eyed the so-called tour guide with suspiciously, already dislike was brewing inside at how jaunty and damn happy he was. Why did he have to be so…..perky.

“Killn, put on the boots.” His rant of the world’s idiocy was rudely interrupted by a sharp jab from Varen. Throwing a withering look her way, he followed the line her finger pointed and sneered.

“Those boots? They look absolutely horrific. Why do they have flowers on them,” he bent down and lifted one boot up, squinting at the pattern, “THERER ARE PINK FLOWERS ON THIS!”

“It’s to blend into the surrounding scenery.” Aristotle piped up behind him, holding a cluster of other junk in his hands. “Don’t be such a girlie-pant and put your leg in it.” He waved a hand in Killn’s face absently, completely missing the ominous aura that rose around Killn before he spat out a brittle ‘fine’. Pulling the boots onto his legs as if they were torture devices.


“Are we all set then?” Aristotle placed himself at the start of the group, scanning the group with a practiced eye before clapping his hands together like a demented chicken. “Let’s go!”

The group trudged behind him, as he picked his way through the dense jungle. Killn sniffed disdainfully at the humid air, keeping an eye out for potential flowers as he walked. Jackie and Varen walked along side each other, with Jackie scanning the surroundings like a child on Christmas day and Varen cautiously eyeing everything.

“Hey, Aris’whatle, do you know where you’re going?” Felgin called out roughly, after trudging through what seemed to be an endless landscape of similar tree species with vines dangling over their heads.

“A little debriefing wouldn’t hurt, peacock.” Killn spoke up from the back, seemingly rather please with the apparent nickname he has bestowed on their guide.

“Killn!” Jackie’s face twisted into a pretty scowl, her eyes narrowing in sharp disapproval. He offered her a poker face in return.

“No need m’lady, I will tolerate the runt’s rudeness.” Aristotle spoke with a smile, if it weren’t for Felgin’s firm hold on Killn’s arm and a low threat in his ear to squish him again. Killn would have killed him right there and then.

Varen chuckled.

“Shall we walk as I talk, we don’t have much time to spare, time is precious after-all.”

Killn mumbled something incoherent under his breath.

“The jungle in which you’re in is-“

“We know what jungle this is, cut to the point, peacock.” Killn spoke through clenched teeth, punctuating each word with a glare in said peacock’s way.

Aristotles sniffed delicately at a flower he’s manifested out from his sleeve.

“The meteor site is not far off, it’s situated in the North-eastern part of the jungle. The jungle will look the same until we reached at least half way through, but I’ve been around for a long time. I know what I’m doing and I’ve seen the meteor fall. “

“Why are you in on this quest, peacock? A bit suspicious if you ask me, you crash in all of a sudden and claim you know where you’re going. What proof do you have of this?” Killn smirked, crossing his arms over his chest, raising one eyebrow in challenge.

“I believe even runts had the courtesy of not interrupting other people, but apparently not.” Aristotles popped the last vowel in the sentence, “as for my proof of identity. I don’t see why I have to tell someone like you.”

“Enough.” A low growl and well-aimed look from Varen silenced the two of them. “Aristotles, please explain. And Killn, pucker up.”
“

Varen spent most of the tour thinking about guild matters.

Specifically, Varen thought about where all the guild's money was going to come from. From memory, Raffy had made most of their gold by selling magic carpets on the auction house for thousands of gold a piece. Varen, sure, had made some spare change with legendary armor and weapons, but from memory it hadn't really made a dent in guild expenses.

That's when she began to think about Aristocles. Suave. Debonaire. And certainly good with cash. She grabbed Jackie by the arm and sat her down on a moist log alongside Varen.

"We need to talk."

"I love it when two females talk! It makes us look good in the eyes of the gaming community!"

Varen adjusted her face. "It's about a man."

Jackie crossed her arms and blew a heart-shaped bubblegum bubble. Then her eyes widened and she gasped. "Varen! Are you in L-O-V-E??!"

Varen twitched. She just twitched and bit her tongue and let the vein in her forehead throb.

"Are you in love with KILLN?!"

Killn turned his head from the fireside. "Did someone say my name?"

Varen barked: "SHUT UP KILLN THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU JESUS."

A pause before she returned to Jackie.

"Aristocles. I think he would make a nice addition to our guild."

"Oh." Jackie leaned back on her log and created a parchment out of stray pixels. She conjured a pen out of a nearby firefly and licked the tip before writing

://guildinvite Aristocles

>Include Message?
>>Yes.
>>>Message: Varen thinks you're cute and good with money. Join our guild and we'll let you adventure with us!~* xoxo Jackie

Varen narrowed her eyes. "What did you write as the message?"

Jackie looked off, aloof, as she sealed the parchment and thumped it through the air, across the campfire, and into Aristocles' lap.

He blinked up to the two women. They waved. He blinked down to the invitation. He looked back up. Wave. Back down. Up. Down. Jackie's pen turned back into a firefly and skittered away. Aristocles hit accept. The fire exploded in a radiant plume of pink. He stood.

"Ladies and gentlemen," began the fanciest sentence Varen had ever heard, "it would be my absolute pleasure to join your grand company of heroes; and allow me this opportunity to reveal to you that I am a beta player who has been entrusted with the key to the dungeon instance: The Invasion."

He winked at Varen. He struck a pose and role checks appeared over the heads of all present. Varen hesitantly clicked tank/healer and could already feel the anxiety building in her stomach.

"I am obligated to instruct you that this dungeon is a point of no return, and that you may not speak to those remaining in a non-specified area after completing the instance. Do you all agree to these terms?"

Everyone signed off on the disclaimer.

Aristocles collected the pages of pixels and stowed them in his suit before checking their roles.

"Four Damage, One Tank that is also a healer." He put a finger to his lips and hummed. "Well, my mother always did say that offense is the best defense." He turned to Varen. "Would you like a moment to respec? I've noticed that you have a lot of Intellect on your gear and not much Stamina - I wouldn't want such a beautiful elven mistress to be laid low by common aliens."

Varen, face flushed, sat back on the moist log and began messing with her stats, cringing as she felt her spell power lowering.

Aristocles nodded, placing his hands behind his back. "This dungeon is technically one boss fight, but the boss has several phases. All I can tell you is that it is crucial that you kill adds as they spawn." He grinned. "Very crucial."