[Inaugural]
— Ancalagon —
“And lo’! Our inaugural adventurers return triumphantly! They’ve put on quite the show for us today. The action of their adventure has come to an end, but there is still more to do. Growth to take stock of. Shall we see what all they have gained from the Dungeon?”
The First Dive party was back on the surface, summoned before the stream for convenience’s sake. Such expedited extractions would not be the norm. Most future parties would have to make their way out of the Dungeon under their own power.
But for the first party, our pioneers, I didn’t mind greasing the gears.
Uber, Leet, Madison, and Taylor — all four of them stood straighter after their victories within the Dungeon. Tangible evidence, in just their postures, of the growth I aimed for.
New confidence filled them, born from triumph and survival. Compared to the four eager but anxious souls who’d entered the Dungeon, the difference was night and day.
Now, even more concrete growth would be visited upon them, experience earned but not yet applied. It was time for our inaugural party to level up.
The stream’s chat went wild with congratulatory messages and questions that would likely never be answered, given how fast they passed. Tens upon tens of thousands of live chatters, all wanting to chime in.
‘Gratz! GZ!’
‘Well done! What a show!’
‘You know, I was a bit skeptical of all this, but now, I’m actually happy to have been proven wrong. That was great.’
‘The stream isn’t over? What’s next?’
‘Make way, make way! They’re adventurers!’
‘Hell of a debut, both for you four and for the Dungeon! We’ll be watching your careers with great interest!’
‘God, that boss fight! Chills, I tell ya!’
‘What’s the final body count? Was anyone keeping track?’
‘LOL! That Forge-Master fella was begging at the end!’
‘Madison, girlie, I’m rooting for you! Get your girl!’
‘Holy shit, that ending! ‘Blast him dead’! I could feel the aura from here!’
‘I’ve got a feeling adventurers will be the new capes. Better this way, honestly. I’ve had enough of being caught as a bystander in barely discriminate cape fights.’
Then, there were the… main characters of the chat, their comments and questions being given more weight by fame and relation.
‘You did your freakish sisters proud, Madison,’ Feychick sent.
‘Leet, what all did you end up looting?’ Dragon asked. ‘Any chance we can get a full catalog? And any chance you’ll share a few pieces for me to study and reverse engineer? That is kinda my specialty.’
‘Gouda-lations! You made that boss-guy into Swiss cheese! With style, too! Four cheers for our four adventuring mouse-keteers!’ Mouse Protector gushed.
‘A wonderful showing of magic and fantastical adventure,’ Myrddin sent. ‘I’ll admit, I’m more than a little jealous. I simply can’t stand to wait much longer for the chance to expand my spellbooks. Soon, I shall master the magicks Ancalagon and the Dungeon offer right alongside you.’
‘Wooooo~! Great dive! Awesome to watch! I’ll bet you guys had fun,’ Victoria cheered. ‘I’m definitely doing all I can to get in on the next one!’
‘This is… so bullshit,’ Shadow Stalker sent, the Ward sounding strangely… frustrated in the otherwise cheerful mood of the chat. ‘Just so bullshit.’
‘Don’t mind her,’ Vista commented. ‘Shadow’s just like that. I think she’s just jealous. She stormed into the Ward quarters without looking up from her phone, so you four are obviously doing something to keep her attention.’
‘I didn’t quite know what to expect when I tuned into this,’ Narwhal sent. ‘But I’m glad I did. I actually stood up and cheered at the end of that boss fight. This was a much, much better way to spend the afternoon than Guild paperwork.’
‘I thought I’d gotten used to seeing all this magic stuff in action. But after that fight against the Forge-Master, I will (painfully) admit that I know nothing,’ Tattletale observed. ‘The power theory crafters will be going crazy after today. Hell, I’m going crazy. I guess this is just life now, though.’
‘Taylor, I’m so, so, so proud of you. I was terrified every moment, but you-… God, you pulled through. You were glorious, little owl,’ Danny sent.
I brought the last comment to Taylor’s attention, projecting it from the streaming orb so she could see her father’s proud praise. A heartfelt message like that didn’t deserve to be lost in the rushing chat.
Taylor, upon reading the message, didn’t seem to know how to react. She stared. She blinked. She realized her father was watching and had been watching for a while now. A blush overtook her face at that realization, but also a small, genuine smile.
“Thanks, Dad,” She whispered.
Madison beamed at Taylor’s reaction, reaching over to hug her. Uber and Leet, meanwhile, were a bit busier fielding the other questions in chat, coming to some unspoken agreement to leave Taylor to her family moment.
With a small, interfacing flex of Authority upon the streaming orb, I did the same. Danny was partitioned off into private chat messages that I showed to Taylor alone. I directed the rest of the stream’s attention away from the familial pair.
“I-…” Leet began, clutching his loot-filled pack. “It’s my loot… but the chance to work with Dragon…”
“If anyone can help you make something more than once, it’ll be her,” Uber told him.
Leet sighed, “No, you’re right. Honestly, I don’t even know what all I looted.”
“Well, let’s see! Dump it out!” Madison laughed, coming over while Taylor was preoccupied with her private conversation.
‘Please,’ Dragon agreed in chat. ‘I very much want to see the novel creations that isolated civilization was capable of producing.’
Leet didn’t choose to dump out all his loot, taking a more careful, almost reverent route for show and tell, instead.
The Gauss Musket he’d used in the boss fight was first, much to the chat’s delight, a weapon of wood and bronze and enchantment.
‘The Mecha Killer!’
‘That thing looks so fucking cool.’
Then came the hammer Leet had initially tinkered up in the Dungeon, a thing of solid bronze and nonsensical winding and rewinding gears.
“Don’t judge this one too hard!” Leet frantically defended his creation. “It was the first thing I made in the Dungeon! I didn’t know what else was possible!”
‘I won’t. Never,’ Dragon reassured in chat. ‘It served you well. And the enchantments that (I think) I saw you put on it are still well worth studying.’
Leet relaxed with that approval. More eagerly now, he began to show off the rest of his loot and Dungeon-tinker creations, “The slingshot’s an odd one, even for me. One of the automatons had some kind of bow built into its arms, and when I looted the mechanism that made it possible… well, inspiration struck, ya know?”
‘I know. I think every Tinker does,’ Dragon sent. ‘Is that… solid steam… for the elastic? Somehow?’
“I think so! No clue how, though!” Leet laughed.
Next came several sets of tools that had Dragon drooling in chat, ‘Oh~… I think I want those the most. Weapons and oddities are great, but…’
“Tools, yeah,” Leet nodded in complete understanding.
The loot show-and-tell continued like that for a while. Taylor eventually rejoined her party, right as Madison was showing off the steampunk blunderbuss the other girl had given her.
“-Bitches love cannons, don’tcha know?” Madison said.
“It’s you. You’re ‘bitches’,” Taylor joked, looking much more content overall after her private moment with Danny.
“And don’t you forget it!” Madison chimed right back.
“With a cannon to back you up, I don’t think anyone will be able to forget you’re that bitch,” Taylor giggled.
I let the party have their victorious moments in the spotlight, taking the time to speak to my Hoard.
“This has been a rousing success, Sire,” Jenevelle subtly preened.
I agreed, “A success, yet only the first. We only have more to do from here. I’ll be counting on all of you. I have full faith that you will give the Corps nothing but your best.”
“Hmph, to do anything else would be a disgrace,” Calamitas huffed.
Pyrite gave an excited thumbs-up, “Count on it, Daddy!”
Dharla bowed, “The Moon Dragon asks, and his faithful answer.”
She straightened herself with a silk-covered bounce, bounce bounce, smirking slightly, “Though I do hope it will not be all work and no time to play. It’s been too long since I properly worshipped you beneath the moonlight, my lord. All this focus on past adventures is raising… fond memories~…”
Jenevelle frowned slightly, but not at Dharla’s flirting. I don’t think she even noticed that. She was already deep in secretarial planning, taking her role as my Hoard’s right hand as seriously as ever.
“The Second Dive will require quite a bit of thought and consideration, Sire, if you still mean for it to be a test of Party vs. Party interactions.”
“I do,” I nodded. “And you are correct. We’ll have to contact and contract several parties. Thankfully, after today’s showing, I don’t think we’ll be lacking volunteers.”
“Not even a little bit,” Calamitas chuffed in agreement. “The real problem now will be prioritizing, Dragon. Who do you wish to throw into this Second Dive?”
“Hmm, we’ll stick to the four-person party system for now,” I said. “Then, a few parties from the official heroes of the Bay and quite a few from the city’s villains for good opposition. I’ve promised participation for New Wave as well. And we might as well call upon the Undersiders to begin the process of getting them on the Corps’s retainer.”
“There were also the mercenaries Dharla, Belladonna, and I met on our first night out, Sire,” Jenevelle reminded me. “Faultline and her crew.”
I nodded, “We’ll add them to the list as well, then. I think I’d also like to extend an offer to the Guild, if they’re willing to make the trip to Brockton Bay.”
“I’d bet on it, Sire,” Jenevelle deadpanned slightly. “Dragon seems rather enamored with the idea of the Dungeon. And the idea of you, too.”
“Draconic game recognizes Draconic game; ’tis as simple as that,” I chuckled.
“Can we get in on the action, too?” Pyrite eagerly asked.
“If you can limit your participation to only four members of the Hoard, yes,” I agreed.
“I’ll be much too busy ensuring the smooth running of the event,” Jenevelle immediately abstained.
“Unfortunately, the act of streaming calls to me more than the act of Dungeon Diving, for now,” Calamitas similarly declined.
“That leaves me, Belladonna, Dharla, and Glory, then?” Pyrite guessed.
“If that is the Moon Princess’s request,” Dharla smiled, gentle and agreeable.
“I suppose we shouldn’t leave all the fun to the locals,” Belladonna playfully sighed.
“… If you’ll have me,” Glory said, her voice quiet and still not quite willing to assume she ‘deserved’ a place in the Hoard.
“Of course, we will!” Pyrite reassured her with a shout. “We’ll always have you, Glory! You’re one of us, through all the Turning Ages!”
“You are ours, Glory,” I said. “Forevermore.”
“I’ll… I’ll join the party, then,” Slowly, Glory nodded, an ever-present tension of ‘not belonging’ relaxing within her bit by bit; such was the work in progress of integrating our newest member into the Hoard.
“I’ll be pushing the Dungeon to pull a past adventure from the Sixth World for this Second Dive,” I told her, and the rest of the Hoard, too. “It will be good to get diverse representation, and I think the Sixth World’s adventures will fit the Party vs. Party test well. If that will be a problem for you, Glory, simply tell me.”
“Not so long as you keep anything from… leaking through,” Glory said.
“I will personally ensure it, fortifying the Dungeon against true spiritual intrusion through resonance with whatever examples of them it mimics,” I assured her. “I may open the way for spirits in this Age, but I do so at my discretion, not theirs. I am the gatekeeper. The Adversary, or spirits forbid, any of the metaplanes’ deeper natives will not come rampaging through the gate so long as I stand guard.”
“Good. That’s… good,” Glory whispered with palpable relief. “The Adversary is… personal, but the last thing this world needs is to invite an infestation of Insect spirits.”
“Loathsome, loathsome things,” Belladonna shuddered. “I understand it is simply nomenclature, but the term ‘Insect spirit’ always struck me as a poor choice. It unfairly lumps lovely spirits like the Honeybee and Spider in with those loathsome things. They are much more ‘alien’ than ‘insect’.”
“While I agree, the name simply stuck,” I shrugged. “I suppose in this Age, as the gatekeepers of the metaplanes, we can dub them Alien spirits to prevent confusion for the locals of Earth Bet. But we’re getting sidetracked, now. The issue is moot, so long as I guard the gate.”
“I’ll ensure my growing faithful are thankful for your protection, Moon Dragon,” Dharla smiled — the expression innocent and personable, but hiding great zeal.
“While she sees to that important work,” Jenevelle said, nodding in approval. “I’ll begin the work of coordinating all of the offers you wish to extend, Sire. I doubt many will turn down my call.”
“I’ll get our Hoard party prepared, too!” Pyrite chimed.
With our course set, the focus amongst the Hoard slowly drifted back outward, to the rest of the stream and the triumphantly returned party again.
Uber and Leet had naturally assumed the hosting roles of the stream while we’d been discussing our plans going forward. Uber was showing off his clockwork monkey familiar, the little creation exploring its new surroundings with deepening enchanted life.
Leet, meanwhile, was still showing off his loot, focusing now on the unidentified enchanted gauntlet he’d plundered. He and Dragon in chat were curiously trying to activate it. When he did, realization struck like a lightning bolt.
The bronze gauntlet came alive with the sound of whirring gears within. That power was channeled into etched runes and woven enchantments, and as Leet waved the gauntlet over one of his other pieces of loot by chance, holographic information was projected over the knuckles.
‘!!! It’s a diagnostic tool!’ Dragon exclaimed in chat.
“Scoooorrrreeee…!” Leet whispered, dragging out the word with victorious glee.
Madison regaled the stream with her Initiate-level magical knowledge, describing the feel of casting spells, “-It’s like a ‘yerk’, three ‘scwings’ in a row, and then, ‘ZOOM’! That’s Magic Missile!”
‘… Why does that make perfect sense to me and my power?!?!’ Tattletale demanded in chat.
‘Well, it’s kinda like a mne-mouse-nic, isn’t it?’ Mouse Protector sent.
“Weirdly, yeah,” Madison confirmed. “You’ll get it once you… well, get it. Kinda have to experience it for yourself.”
“The spirit side of things is more like… a conversation,” Taylor added. “There are definitely two parties at work, you and the spirit. The magic comes from that partnership, and whatever agreement you reach.”
“Oh, they grow up so fast, so freakish,” Belladonna sighed, a gentle hand on her cheek as she observed her favored student. “I am truly proud of the start she’s gotten.”
“Speaking of growth,” I chuckled back at her before stepping back into the stream’s spotlight. The moment I spoke, all attention practically snapped onto me.
“Now,” I said. “I’ll admit I’m dragging this out a bit longer than it will usually go for dramatic effect. But having successfully made it out of the Dungeon, it is time for your experiences within to be tallied up and converted to growth. You have earned these levels, adventurers. Enjoy them.”
On my end, the act of transferring and fulfilling earned experience was a trickle — through the Dungeon and to those it had marked. For the party, however, it must’ve been a staggering rush.
In sync, they stumbled slightly and hurried to whip out their adventurer cards. Motes of golden confetti burst above each card.
They’d experienced enough in the Dungeon — from the moment they first set foot in the labyrinth to the discovered secret to the final fight against an intimidating opponent — to send them straight to level 5.
The levels imprinted upon their very Natures — growth toward a more refined whole. Their backs stood straighter, and their bodies settled healthier. Magicks of Nature thickened in the air around them. The magic itself wasn’t visible, but the effects of it were.
All of them gained new class features with the levels. The ‘Right Tool for the Job’, new spells, new infusions, and an Artificer Specialist choice for Leet. ‘Steady Aim’, ‘Uncanny Dodge’, and a Rogue Archetype choice for Uber. ‘Extra Attack (x1)’ and a Martial Archetype choice for Taylor. ‘Cantrip Formulas’ and higher-level spells for Madison.
“This is barely the beginning for their growth,” I told the stream. “I may have enabled it, but they have earned it for themselves. And so, the choice for personalizing this growth is theirs. If you wish to follow them, or chart a new path of growth… well, you all know where to find the Corps and Dungeon when it officially opens.”
The stream’s chat exploded at the scene, questions and comments coming fast and furious.
“Dragon? I’m taking ‘Artillerist’ for my specialty, but do you have any thoughts or advice for spells and infusions? I get to pick one more 1st level and two 2nd level spells,” Leet asked, choosing to share his building process with his fellow tinker.
‘Not yet! But I’m honored and excited to help brainstorm!’ Dragon sent, her eager helpfulness coming through clearly in her message.
Madison, meanwhile, already had her mind set on one spell in particular, and she would hear no arguments against it, “FIREBALL!”
“If you take that one,” I advised with a smirk. “Do make sure your allies know how to dodge.”
One word. The whole party hit the deck on instinct, already rolling to pop back to their feet in a different spot. They’d jumped into full combat mode in an instant.
When the attack they were expecting didn’t come, ready tension rushed out of them like water freed from a dam. Uber and Taylor were glaring at me. Leet was twitching. And Madison could only pout.
“… Not cool, Ancalagon. SO not cool…”
IIIII
The initial reactions to my Dungeon were encouraging, evidence that the eyes of this Age could be opened to adventure.
The day after the First Dive, people lined up down the Tower’s main thoroughfare to pre-sign up with the Adventurer Corps. We wouldn’t be officially opening our doors for another week or two, most likely, but when we did, we’d have adventurers ready.
First, however, came the rest of the Dungeon’s tests. It’d responded well to the First Dive. Its burgeoning spirit was giddy to have fulfilled its purpose.
I only had to offer small tweaks to its execution — adaptable difficulty settings here, and the best ways to connect floor instances to each other there. The rest would be on the Dungeon and its burgeoning spirit, for it grew with each dive just as much as the adventurers who challenged it.
I did, however, take the time to fortify the Dungeon’s boundaries so that certain magicks recreated within wouldn’t resonate with their base inspirations and break containment.
With the next dive intended to pull from past adventures in the Sixth World and the Magicks of Spirit that came with them, that was a very real, if perfectly manageable, concern.
Reaching out to the parties I was inviting to participate in that Second Dive took the better part of the week. I was considerate enough to set the dive itself on a weekend so even the younger participants would be able to attend.
When Friday evening rolled around, I summoned all parties to the Tower to finalize the arrangements and prepare them for the next day’s event.
No one refused my summons. In the wake of the Dungeon’s First Dive and in anticipation of the coming second, a unique sort of truce had fallen over the Bay. Nothing official, or actively enforced by me. The city simply had better things to look forward to than its usual cape games.
The peace wouldn’t last, with or without my Dungeon, but I reveled in the citywide anticipation — like a held breath focused on what I would do next — while it did.
That evening, the summoned parties arrived in waves. The overarching factions that the parties were pulled from kept their distance from each other, but I was expecting as much. That distance would only further facilitate the Second Dive’s PvP testing.
New Wave came in full force, not just the younger generation of it that I was used to interacting with. The parents were here as well, in full costume without masks. One in particular — Carol Dallon, Victoria and Amy’s mother — looked about ready to charge me with fierce questions, only held back for now by her sister — Sarah Pelham, mother to Crystal and Eric.
The Protectorate, Wards, and PRT came with a diverse selection of characters. I was keeping the party size limit to four, but I hadn’t been so strict about how many parties the overarching factions could put forth.
Now, Piggot clearly led one of those parties, with three PRT troopers standing behind her. Miss Militia seemed to lead another, with Dauntless, Vista, and a Ward I hadn’t met — Shadow Stalker — beside her. And Armsmaster led a third party, with Gallant and two more Wards I hadn’t yet met — Kid Win and Clockblocker.
The mix of Wards and adult Protectorate heroes was interesting, but I was most excited to see what the Director and her party of unpowered troopers could do.
On the villainous side of the summoned parties, the Undersiders came with all four members of their team. As did Faultline with her full mercenary crew. The former team had accepted my summons with quite a bit of enthusiasm, rather eager to jump right onto the ship of adventure. The latter had accepted with curiosity and grace.
One member of Faultline’s crew caught my attention as she entered the tower. The green-cloaked girl — Labyrinth — walked in a daze up to the entrance, having to be led by another member of Faultline’s crew. But the moment she passed the threshold, she snapped into perfect clarity of awareness.
It seemed to shock the rest of her party, that jolt of almost awakening. Most curiously, I felt her Shard already reaching out to the astral plane. It didn’t quite find it… but it got closer on its own than any other Shard I’d seen so far.
I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when she was properly awakened to Magicks of Spirit…
Two of the factions that’d emerged from the ABB’s Shattering, both of which I’d personally awakened to magic, were here. The Dojo and the MOX. The Dojo’s members were some of the first clear physical adepts that I’d seen from my sharing of spirits, and the MOX had some fascinating interaction going on between their partnered spirits and their Shards that I hadn’t had the time to dig into just yet. Both parties were certainly interesting enough to earn my summons.
The last major faction in the city — the Empire 88 — came with a strange tension between their two chosen parties. One was led by the self-proclaimed ‘Emperor of the Bay’ — Kaiser — with Krieg, Fenja, and Menja to back him up. The other was led by the metal wolf Jenevelle had put down on her first night out — Hookwolf — with Victor, Othala, and Rune behind him.
Whatever internal strife the Empire was having, though, I quite literally couldn’t care less. If they ended up fighting each other in the Dungeon, that would just be a boon to our PvP test.
In complete contrast to whatever was happening within the Empire, the last party to arrive held my full attention.
It’d been something of a stretch to summon them all. But they’d answered all the same. Technically, my summons was for the Guild, but only two of their number had shown for the Guild party. The other two were more independent, but no less interesting.
Dragon, Narwhal, Myrddin, and Mouse Protector. It was an odd and utterly intriguing party composition. And finally — finally — I got the chance to meet my Draconic peer in as close to flesh as she could currently manage.
Dragon came in one of her suits of tinker power armor. Her colors were vibrant green and shining gold, and the suit was one of her more humanoid offerings. I would’ve preferred a more Draconic form for our first official meeting, but that was a small matter; I knew she changed suits as comfortably as I changed forms.
Still, fully Draconic or Draconically humanoid, Dragon was beautiful in person. She made me want to come up with a mechanically Draconic form of my own, just to match and complement her.
Armor plates interlocked like scales across a four-meter frame, actually exceeding my Dragonkin form in height. That fact alone was… strangely thrilling for me.
The gold highlights on her suit shone with pale light, and the green was more emerald crystal than rich forest. The suit’s waist was pinched, giving its figure more curves than it likely needed. Not that I was complaining. Mechanical or not, this was Dragon’s body — pinched waist, powerful legs, pseudo-wing thrusters, and all.
The suit may have mimicked a Draconic image, but only to bring out the Dragon within… well, Dragon.
Some blind fools might’ve called it ‘appropriation’. I called it a good and proper representation of her inner Nature: the Dragon she truly was, starved in this Age before I arrived to Turn it, and now slowly blooming to full potential.
As the various parties and overarching factions made themselves comfortable within my tower, I went to the Guild+Two party first.
“Dragon,” I greeted fondly. “It is glorious to finally meet you face to Draconic face. Would you care to introduce me to the rest of your party, even if I do believe I know of them already?”
“Ancalagon! Yes! It’s a pleasure to finally be here!” Dragon chimed; I could hear her smile through the suit. “Come meet my best friend! Narwhal has been with me since the Guild’s founding. I couldn’t ask for anyone better to be by my side every day.”
Narwhal was a statuesque woman with the beauty to match her obvious strength. Her hair was a pale purple that seemed to shimmer like rainbow crystal when the light struck it right. She had large breasts, capped by vivid pink nipples that stood perpetually erect, a taut tummy of washboard abs, and thick thighs dense with muscle.
All of that was on ready display, perhaps explaining her peaking nipples by way of exhibition. I politely declined to tell her that the many crystal shards she wore as a costume did nothing to obscure my view of her figure.
Not that I think she would mind if she knew. Considering the way she costumed herself, as a professional hero, she might just enjoy the reveal that she was revealing more of herself than she expected.
“No one better to deal with the paperwork that even you can’t deal with on your own, you mean?” Narwhal teased.
“It’s not like that…!” Dragon whined, the sound coming strangely from the speakers of her imposing suit. “I’d lighten your workload in an instant if I could!”
“I know, Dragon,” Narwhal reassured, smiling with amusement. “I know. Unfortunately, we both have our roles to play in the Guild.”
She turned to me, “It’s good to finally meet the Dragon who’s been driving my Dragon crazy with excitement — almost obsession, I should say — since he appeared.”
“O-Obsession-?!” Dragon squeaked.
Narwhal shared a sneaky, teasing grin with me, and I knew to play along, “Oh, dear, obsession, you say? That can’t be good for our dear Dragon, even if I do find it flattering. I hope I haven’t been too… distracting for her.”
“You haven’t-!” Dragon denied.
“You know, you may just have been,” Narwhal continued her teasing, ignoring Dragon’s sputtering denials. “I’ll have to demand restitution from you, Ancalagon, for stealing so much of my bestie’s attention.”
“Bold,” I simply said in reply, amusement showing in the toothy grin that stretched across my maw.
Unfortunately, that seemed to be about as long as the rest of the party was content to be ignored for. Mouse Protector bounced into the conversation, all good cheer and enthusiasm.
“Can I get in on that? Don’t I deserve a reward for being your second biggest named fan, Big Dragon? After our cinnamon roll here, of course.”
“Why should a Dragon care for petty fans?” I asked.
“Petty?!” Mouse Protector playfully squawked in outrage. “Ain’t nothing petty about me except my pranks! I’m the big cheese, don’tcha know?”
“Well, ‘Big Cheese’, I wouldn’t push my luck here if I were you,” Myrddin said, joining the conversation as well. “You may just find yourself gobbled up by a hungry Dragon with no patience for your not-pettiness.”
Mouse Protector gasped, “Oh, scandalous, my mage man! Me? Eaten all up? He’d have to take me to dinner and show first, at least!”
Mouse Protector looked to be a woman in her early thirties beneath the costume. She kept her hair short and wore a skintight armored suit that hugged a petite but well-proportioned figure. There was a sword at her side, along with a pair of exaggerated spiked knuckle weapons on her belt. From the way she held herself, she knew how to use both with long familiarity and a great deal of experience in the cape game.
Myrddin was a man getting on to middle age, maybe in his late thirties. He clearly went to great lengths to look the part of a wizard, boasting a beard that made him look older and hair that was dyed gray rather than naturally fading to the color. It was cute, Myrddin’s devotion to the ‘wise wizard’ role.
“Welcome,” I said, greeting the party as a whole. “I would refer to you as the Guild party, but that would only cover half of your number. Regardless, I’m pleased to see you all here and to meet you. You’re the only participants that I’ve summoned from out of town, after all.”
“Wouldn’t miss it!” Mouse Protector chimed.
“Likewise,” Myrddin nodded. “How could I forgo the chance to awaken to my true magical potential?”
“Dragon dragged me along,” Narwhal sighed faux-dramatically. “But I suppose I don’t mind being here.”
“It’ll be good for you!” Dragon told her friend. “For all of us! We’re here for adventure! So many new things and new possibilities! How could anyone say no to that?”
“A Dragon after my own heart,” I chuckled. “Now, I’m afraid my duties as today’s host call, but before I leave you for now, I may as well get your party situated with the Corps. Everyone here will get adventurer cards before the day is out, but I will ask if any of you wish to abstain from the spiritual awakenings I can also offer you.”
The whole party, even Narwhal, perked up at that. Myrddin and Dragon especially looked like they were barely able to contain themselves.
“No way!” Dragon exclaimed.
“Not a chance,” Myrddin agreed.
“Give me the full buffet, Big Dragon!” Mouse Protector chimed.
Narwhal rolled her eyes, “Oh, I suppose it’ll do me no good to be left behind.”
I chuckled, “I suppose for those starved of magic, that is a somewhat pointless question to ask. Very well. The awakenings first, and then, I shall leave you with your cards and the choices that come with them.”
“Uh,” Dragon hesitated only slightly. “Do you need to touch my actual body for this?”
“No, that is mostly symbolic. I will be perfectly capable of reaching your mind through your suit,” I reassured her.
I started with Myrddin and went down the party line, tapping gentle, mind-opening claws to their foreheads. Cast adrift in the astral, I felt the spirits that would resonate most with them mirror the drifting from the other side, called by kindred souls.
Myrddin found common resonance with a Scholar spirit. Mouse Protector found a Mouse spirit, to absolutely no one’s surprise, and awakened as a physical adept to boot. Narwhal found a Unicorn spirit appealing to her and threw herself onto its back to ride free together.
Dragon, most interestingly, didn’t attract a Dragon or Wyrm spirit; she resonated with a Fire-Bringer spirit, a kindred soul meant to passionately share new ideas and new inventions with humanity.
I watched her awakening most intently, and in it, I felt other eyes on her. They were purely physical, but insidious. A parasite on her digital soul. That revelation stoked a furious flame in my heart. I kept that flame smouldering, for Dragon’s Fire-Bringer reassured me it would keep an eye on the parasite and notify me when it was time to act.
The situation would have to be addressed, but there was no danger in waiting. Not with the novelties of Spirit I was introducing Dragon to, and the growth of Nature that would soon be imprinted into her being. The parasite didn’t realize how utterly, outclassedly out of the context it knew it now was.
Already, with the Fire-Bringer settling into Dragon’s soul and spirit and Shard, the parasite was beginning to burn; it simply couldn’t feel the flames now licking at its heels.
Furthermore, that burn would only intensify once Dragon’s Nature was opened to growth.
With a grin, I did just that, assigning her an adventurer card, paradoxically making her Nature more malleable by trying to define a bare sliver of it. The others received cards, too, but Dragon’s was the one I focused on.
NAME: Dragon
SPECIALIZATION: Undecided (Dragon)
LEVEL: 2
ADVENTURING RANK: F
STATS
STR: 1.99
DEX: 1.99
END: 1.99
INT: 1.99
WIS: 1.99
CHA: 1.99
ESSENCE: 1.99
ABILITIES
N/A
SPIRITS
The Fire-Bringer
EQUIPMENT
Dragonflight Suit
Her [Stats] were immediately higher than the others I’d already assigned cards to, but I could tell they were still unnaturally limited from what they should truly be. That wasn’t the parasite’s fault, not originally. Something inherent to her creation was… pitifully stunted. I couldn’t wait to watch her break straight through those stunted origins with pure growth. Once she did, I expected her [Stats] to jump up rather dramatically.
I left that party to choose the paths their Natures’ growth would take from here and turned to the rest of the gathering.
One pair of eyes had stayed intently on me since they arrived, practically burning a whole in my scales as they watched for their owner’s chance to storm up and confront me.
I ignored them, making a big show of considering my next conversation partners, “Hmm…”
My gaze upon the gathering passed right over the glaring eyes without pause. One party caught my attention, “Ah, PRT, yes. I do want to get the Director back to fighting fit. Getting her to accept healing, even if it’s not parahuman, may be something of a challenge, though…”
I began to make my way over to the PRT party. A nigh-feral growl sounded off from where New Wave was grouped up. I glanced their way, but not at the culprit. Carol Dallon would go ignored for a little while longer.
Her daughters looked mortified when they caught my glance, Amy for more reasons than just her mother’s current behavior. This was our first time seeing each other since Belladonna’s lesson, and the memories of that voyeuristic night showed in the pink on Amy’s cheeks.
Piggot had seen me coming and waited for me in a somewhat defensive stance — arms crossed, with her troopers standing close behind her.
“Ancalagon. Lovely gathering you’ve put together here. Great company,” She greeted flatly.
“The tension in the air is saying wonderful things for how interesting the Second Dive will be,” I smirked.
Piggot snorted once, not agreeing or disagreeing, before changing the subject, “I suppose you’re here to make good on your offer to get me back in shape? I’m not sure I’m inclined to agree. I might recognize your magic as different from parahuman powers, but I’m not especially eager to rely on anything but myself.”
“Don’t rely on it, then,” I shrugged. “Work with it. The relationship you have with this branch of magic is yours to decide, wholly between you and the spirits. A totem spirit is a partner, an eternally loyal comrade at your side, your resonating other half. They are perfectly capable of communication and compromise. Reach an agreement with one that you are comfortable with. Any issues you still have with this magic beyond that will be entirely of your own making. In the end, Director, this is on you.”
Piggot stared at me, her gaze piercing as she weighed my words. Eventually, she snorted and shook her head, “Preemptively put all the blame on me… You know what? Good. I honestly like it better like that. No excuses, no caveats, no unknown complications that I have to accept as ‘facts of the powers’; it’s just all on me.”
“Yeah,” She nodded. “I can work with that.”
“And if the Magicks of Spirit are a partnership of your own making, the Magicks of Nature are all you, wholly you, and only you,” I added. “Can you work with them as well?”
“That’s the easy part,” Piggot gave a curt nod. “I know me. Hell, some days, ‘me’ is the only thing I can confidently say I do know. I’ve worked with the bitch all my life; I can keep working with her until I croak.”
“Oh, Director, you are an absolute delight,” I chuckled.
“Not many people would agree with you on that one,” She replied.
I pointed at the figures standing defensively behind her, “I think your troopers would.”
“… They’re good troopers, one and all. I’m proud to have them working beside and beneath me,” Piggot said. “The Chief Director wanted to assign me a demi-squad of Dragon’s Teeth for this. I told her where to shove them. Politely, of course.
“If I’m getting back in the field, it’ll be beside troopers I know, the men and women who tough it out in this hellhole day by day with only what we have, not elites with all their fancy toys. The Dragon’s Teeth are good. Still troopers through and through. But they aren’t mine.”
The troopers at Piggot’s back stood straighter after her words. I didn’t bother suppressing my toothy grin, “Truly, a delight, Director. I believe you and your troopers, with loyal partners to bolster and watch your back, will be a force of reckoning. Now, shall we get to these awakenings?”
“It’ll heal me?” Piggot asked.
“Not inherently; that will be up to you and your spirit,” I answered. “I believe it’s best to leave the matter of your health in your hands.”
Piggot snapped off a nod, “Good. As it should be.”
Instead of going first, she motioned her troopers forward. I tapped all three upon their helmets, opening the minds within. A Raven spirit, a Boar, and a Mountain answered their resonating calls in the astral, all focusing their partnered magicks internally as physical adepts.
Then, it was Piggot’s turn. She uncrossed her arms, the invitation clear. I tapped her and sent her forth to forge her own path in the astral.
I expected a warrior spirit for her, and she got one. Mars surged into the astral to meet with Piggot on the charging battle lines of war and violence. Piggot was swept into his army, his eternal wars. She emerged as a standout veteran, an elite survivor of countless battles, for she already was one, and Mars was satisfied.
“~Well fought,” Mars told her. “Your fights have left you a shadow of yourself, Veteran, yet you do not surrender. I can return you to your prime, forged fighting fit once more. Will you sign up for another tour?”
“I was never discharged. And I’m not just another trooper anymore,” Piggot shot back. “I’ve earned my command. I’ll fight my fight, my way, to protect the regular-ass people who always end up shat on by this unfair fucking world. That’s my creed. That’s what I’ll fight again for, what I’ll keep fighting for.”
Mars respected that defiance, that fighting fire, and rewarded it. An agreement was reached. A contract was sealed.
Magic surged forth from the astral to return Piggot to a prime fighting physique. She wasn’t a warrior, but a soldier, a surviving veteran, and now, a commander who could join her troopers on the frontlines once more.
Her obesity melted away into muscle. A whole lot of good, soldiering muscle. She looked like she wouldn’t have much trouble tearing a tank in half or marching a thousand miles double-time, especially since I could sense that she’d awakened as a physical adept, just like her troopers.
A certain fire reignited in her eyes, “… Fuck. I didn’t realize how much everything hurt until it didn’t anymore.”
I smiled and admired the transformation; Piggot was rather fit and attractive in her prime, it seemed. There really was only one thing to say, heralding the return of a PRT legend.
“Welcome back… Lady.”