BLURB (Work in Progress - may change on the official or Royal Road Release)
***
The cancer eating away at the Kingdom of Trok has been dealt with. Eric Baxter along with his Summoned allies burned it all away. In doing so, they not only freed the kingdom from an internal threat of the deity corrupting the Titan, but also earned their places in the power structure of their new home.
With the internal threats dealt with, Eric and his allies now have time to consolidate their base of power. Their current goal is clearing the Twilight Depths, to reach the bottom and activate one of the five mechanisms that will allow for Indedroma, custodian and curator of The Paths, to cast out the Titan’s corruption, and insert herself into the nascent proto-deity.
However, in their haste of removing the disease festering in the heart of the kingdom, they left behind open wounds. Eric and his allies will have to deal with politics, scorned allies, a lower-city and outlying provinces struggling to survive in the aftermath of a supply system collapse, and coordinate an alliance with two other nations to survive the war to come.
Victory has left scars behind. And every decision Eric makes now brings them closer to unity . . . or collapse.
***
Indedroma: the dragon who gave her life to save all living creatures on Elyndor, has been watching the world. Ever since the arrival of Eric Mercer, and delving into the stored memories of his Paths Within—only to find messages from a future version of herself from a now-extinct timeline—she has been looking for one thing:
Who is helping the invader deity inside the Titan, and how are they accelerating the amount of time remaining until it awakens?
The search has produced mixed results. Despite contacting several high-level individuals who are on good terms with the custodian of The Paths, Indedroma has been unable to discern how the acceleration is occurring. The who, however, has been more readily identified.
The Summoned of Trok—Eric Mercer, Naomi Takinaka, Peter Steele, and Shannon Murphy—ventured into a wild dungeon, and learned that it was not a simulation of another reality that the Titan’s slumbering subconsciousness touched, but instead was an entire slice of that reality. The invader deity inside the Titan made a deal with the ruler of that region, and took the entire area, placing it into the wild dungeon.
A pocket dimension of sorts, a new type of dungeon . . . an invasion dungeon. If enough time were to pass to allow for the residents inside to acclimate and attune to The Paths, and fully identify as monsters within Indedroma’s system, then they would be able to exit the rifts and enter Elyndor proper to enact the corrupting deity’s will.
Thankfully, Eric was able to ascend to a final chamber and stop the dread vampire lord, destroying the fragment of the invader deity that had infested the dungeon boss, and thus closing the dungeon to send the slice of reality back to where it came from.
Upon returning to Tenebria, the Summoned were assaulted, and assassins almost succeeded at killing Shannon Murphy. Eric and Peter were able to intervene in the nick of time, healing her, and cleared their estate of any hostiles.
Spymaster Persim Mistra was sent for, and upon her arrival, she took the Summoned away to a place Eric was quite familiar with—Deepwater Hold. It was the base of operations for the Kingdom of Trok’s navy, and where Admiral Trisha Beauregard stationed her flagship. It was also the city where the same Admiral who had once, in a now-extinct future timeline, seduced and enthralled Eric.
The woman who betrayed him, was instrumental in his downfall after the war, and broke him.
The Spymaster charged the Summoned with taking down the Admiral’s criminal enterprise under the guise of a new, rival criminal organization. After tense negotiations, where Peter seemed far more agitated than usual, the Spymaster departed. Once things had calmed down, and some Gear upgrades were dealt with, the group came up with a name for their new organization—The Black Ledger.
They split up—Shannon and Eric to find evidence and burn down criminal business fronts, Peter and Naomi to tag buildings and disseminate fliers—heading out into the city as a unified front. Their endeavors were successful, and after meeting at a safe house and resting up, the group chose to tackle a larger target; they went for a warehouse full of spices which was intermixed with drugs.
The Summoned were ambushed by the Admiral’s troops. It was the first time the Summoned, save for Eric, had fought other people. Eric was merciless, killing those who attacked him, and destroyed the warehouse in a show to the public that had come to watch the carnage in the city square. They escaped with one of the criminals as a captive, and after a brief interrogation, learned how the Admiral’s operation worked.
There were leaders, and if they were taken out, then the network would collapse. After some intense discussion regarding morality and the correctness of killing, the Summoned set to their new tasks. With a new primary objective, the Summoned split up once more—Peter and Naomi to a warehouse near the docks, Eric and Shannon back to their looting and burning.
But, the entire time the Summoned were in Deepwater Hold, throughout their time in the Crimson Castle—the invasion dungeon—they were being changed. Eric didn’t feel it as strongly, because he had a will of iron, but the other Summoned were starting to feel the effects of their primal forces. The powerful pieces of creation began to influence them, and Peter was the first to feel the full force of his.
After eliminating one of the Admiral’s top men, Eric and Shannon rushed to the warehouse and descended into the boat Peter had boarded. The man had awakened a deeper understanding of his primal force by giving into it—unlocking a new Trait which did not count against the Trait cap—and was able to see the sins of others. Turning his gaze upon Eric, he saw all the sins that Eric had committed.
That is where Indedroma came in. She opened a piece of Eric’s Paths Within, and let Peter get a glimpse of one of the horrors of Eric’s past, to show Peter why the violence was necessary. To show the Paladin why Eric was okay with killing anyone aligned with the Admiral or the Steward. With Peter fully in control of himself once more, the man’s resolve hardened, and he committed himself fully to the cause.
After regrouping, freeing some slaves, killing some of the Admiral’s marines, and getting those slaves to a guard post, the Summoned retreated to a safehouse to recover. The next night, they switched groups—Shannon went off alone to infiltrate a records office to find information on the Admiral’s leadership structure, while Eric and Peter went to go and take out another of the larger business fronts.
It was then that Eric used his Blackflame Meteor, destroying a section of Deepwater Hold’s walls, and obliterating people who Peter confirmed with his new vision were guilty of some level of sin that in his eyes meant they deserved death.
Returning to the safehouse once more, the group finalized their plans with the Spymaster, who encouraged them to finish up and leave before the army arrived, thanks to Eric’s meteor causing massive panic and a large, coordinated, armed response to be called for. The Summoned agreed that Eric should take out the remaining ships, warehouses, Head Bosun, and Admiral herself, while the other Summoned took out the remaining members of her power structure.
And so Eric made his way to the seediest bar he knew the bosun frequented. It was there that he saw her, the woman who had snared him with lust and sex in a prior timeline. She was the person who had torn him away from the other Summoned with her wiles and seduction, and who had ultimately betrayed him. Playing a role of being interested in her and utilizing all of his past knowledge of the woman, Eric was able to get her to take him back to her flagship.
Once there and alone in her quarters, Eric mutilated her. In the monochromatic light of a Silence Node, he revealed the truth of his existence to her, reveled in her suffering, and poured out emotions he had thought dealt with long ago. Finally, he burned Trisha Beauregard away to ash and dust.
After looting the ship, he jumped into the bay, dropped a meteor on the flagship, destroyed the other ships, and got back to shore where in the confusion of people rushing to save drowning sailors, he ignited the remaining warehouses. Confident in his task being completed, he made for the safehouse.
Only, the three people he met on the way were not the other Summoned, but dungeon divers, hired by the Steward, Alp Nash, to stop The Black Ledger. Eric was almost killed during the encounter, but managed to come out alive and regroup with his allies. The Summoned, their task now completed, fled the city and headed to the capital.
Along the way, they encountered a wild dungeon, and upon entering, discovered it was an invasion dungeon. After some discussion with Indedroma, it was determined that the closer to a Ley Line a wild dungeon was, the more likely it was that it was in fact an invasion dungeon. Continuing forth, the Summoned entered a slice of reality ruled by sinuous dragons.
After several deadly encounters, the Summoned were defeated. Everyone died to a massive surge of electricity from several hundred insects deep underground—all but Eric, who only lived because of his constant self-healing from hundreds of active Blackflame Blazes fueling him with siphoned health. For the first time, he used Nothing’s Certain, and wrenched his allies’ souls back from whatever force was taking them beyond the black veil of death.
Shoving them back into their bodies, his allies took some time to come to terms with their mortality and Eric’s ability to pull them back from death. After some intense conversation and heart-to-heart moments, they were able to piece themselves back together and push forward, venturing deeper into the invasion dungeon, up to a plateau, where they saved non-infected residents. Dragon-people.
They called themselves the Steel Wing Rebels, and their goal, before being ripped away along with the reality slice, was to kill the bound spirit of the mesa dragons’ clan leader. Eric and his allies pledged themselves to the cause, knowing that the clan leader was most likely the dungeon boss. Initiating a Pact, the Summoned gained new abilities. Each of them obtained a defensive augmentation in the form of a Rote or Skill; they were powerful new tools in their arsenal.
Fighting forward through solo encounters and with a giant centipede in lava pits while running along falling pillars, the Summoned made it to the final boss of the invasion dungeon. The invader deity within the Titan was fully present there, and when Eric’s Blackflame threatened to burn it away entirely from the dungeon’s environment, it surged into the bones and fused mountain of the ancient dragon skeleton, manifesting as an unkillable, infinitely regenerating monster.
Fortunately for the Summoned, Eric was the perfect counter. His build was also, with Shannon’s Netherdark damage-over-time Skill, able to infinitely burn away at this foe, generating healing and mana restoration. Peter was able to hold the creature’s attention, while Eric burned his way into the creature to find the Sigils binding the ancient dragon spirit to the mountain and bones. Only by defeating the host—like the vampire lord before—could they kill the dungeon boss, cleanse the corruption with a primal force like Eric’s Blackflame, and close the dungeon proper.
The experience took a toll on Eric, as the inside of the dungeon boss constantly assaulted him. It was the same as when he had been executed over and over again in the future timeline, and if not for his infinite healing from his over-tuned Blackflame Blaze, he would have perished. But, Eric persevered, destroyed the last of the runes, and the Summoned were ejected from the dungeon, successfully clearing it out.
After recovering in the rain-drenched, grassy field, and setting up their tent, the Summoned discussed their new discoveries with Indedroma and Darius via the communication function of their bracers.
The most important discoveries they made were twofold. First, that the deity of infection was like a fungal superorganism: every fragment was a complete instance of it, carrying its consciousness and connected to the whole. Second, that it had been infecting people on Elyndor’s surface, turning them into asymptomatic carriers.
Thankfully, Indedroma had a plan. She was in contact with a high-level healer from Flescion, and could pull upon Eric’s prior knowledge stored in the Paths Within, to develop a new Skill that the healer could acquire upon her next level-up. A Skill that Eric could infuse with an Ember to allow for an antiplague to spread and wipe out the infection.
That was a new discovery the Summoned made as well: they could merge primal forces, to some extent. After some experimenting, Eric was able to obtain a healing Rote from Peter, blending Truesteel and Blackflame, and Shannon was able to obtain an area-of-effect damaging Skill from Eric, merging Blackflame and Netherdark.
The Summoned rested in their tent, Naomi crafted with the Dungeon Cores, and the Spymaster came to retrieve them, depositing them in the lower-city at Mama K’s refinery. The woman gave them shelter, and the Summoned planned. They were to find the lost princess and bring her back for extraction. With a plan in place, and more crafting completed to kit themselves out in new Gear, the group headed out.
Eric had an incredible stroke of luck while undercover in a brothel, when he ended up meeting with the Prince, Richard Tremaunt II. Eric was able to ply the man with alcohol and knowledge of him from the prior-timeline, when they were actually decent friends before the betrayal, and was able to not only kidnap the Prince but rescue the exiled Princess.
The Summoned spirited both back to Mama K’s, where the Spymaster arrived to take the unconscious Prince to a holding cell, and the Princess was taken to the d’Orveil estate to be re-Classed to her rightful one.
With the most immediate need dealt with, the Summoned elected to blow their cover and have Shannon use her prestige-pull on the Chancellor, Bortis Faltear, to get all of the criminal organization heads and their second-in-command in one location. The Summoned got to the warehouse first and set up an ambush.
It was a slaughter: Eric dealt with a powerful combatant, but ultimately everyone was killed who needed to die, and the Summoned were able to get rid of all the major players in the lower-city’s criminal underworld in one fell swoop. With their mission complete, the Spymaster took them back to their estate, and had them lay low while her network finished setting up the remaining pieces on the board.
The Steward, Alp Nash, was to have a trial, which would be attended by many, many people, including a Judge from Flescion—a theocracy across the ocean. She would be able to determine if people were telling the truth or lies.
In the downtime, Eric was able to visit his two romance interests: Misty Baxter, and Xeraphine d’Orveil. After spending intimate quality time with both of them across the span of a few days, the time for the trial arrived. Eric and the other Summoned testified, but the king declared the Steward clear of all crimes despite the overwhelming evidence.
In the chaos of the aftermath, Eric was able to escape the courtroom before the doors shut, chased Alp Nash down to his room, and discovered a hidden invasion dungeon portal. Storming the dungeon himself, Eric tore through the prison reality slice, slaughtering the denizens who he viewed as monsters.
Once he reached the dungeon bosses’ chambers, Eric eavesdropped and learned that Alp was working for the Titan, and he was not the only one. Others were working towards infecting the entirety of Elyndor, via these invasion dungeons spreading the infection as the monsters interacted with Elyndians, or escaped the confines of the rifts themselves and made it onto the surface of the world.
Eric readied himself for a surprise attack, and thankfully the dungeon boss was a schemer in his reality, not a fighter, and thus Eric killed them in one strike. He and the Steward were ejected from the dungeon, and Eric blinded the man, incapacitated him, and took him to a dungeon cell. After using his bracer’s function to destroy any listening devices, Eric got his revenge.
He tortured the man, telling him the truth about the future—just as he did with the Admiral—and revealed everything. Eric burned the man to near-death, over and over again, then healed him up, using his own injuries to fuel his healing. Once the man was an incoherent mess, Eric fed him an elixir that rendered him effectively brain-dead and catatonic.
Taking the Steward back to the courtroom, he was sentenced to death, and Eric carried out the deed. With the king freed from the mind control, the Summoned returned to their estate. It was there that Eric was confronted with a choice that would shape the course of his future in Trok. He had to choose between romantic interests: Misty Baxter, or Xeraphine d’Orveil.
Eric decided to go with the pick that would help to rehabilitate his image after being branded the ‘Blackflame Butcher’ due to his role in killing hundreds of criminals. The Baxter family was beloved by the masses, and while Eric knew he would be making an enemy of Seraphine d’Orveil and some of the upper-crust of the nobility, Misty was one of the four old-blood families. By choosing her, he was ensuring that the Summoned had all four of the families in their pocket: solidifying their position in Tenebria, and therefore the kingdom.
Misty and Eric went to the Baxter estate, where Eric was welcomed into the family. After a few days, they headed to the citadel for their wedding. Being of the old-blood, it was tradition that the king oversaw the ceremony, since the four families were so instrumental in founding the kingdom in its early days, and were still so instrumental in its operation.
Eric was confronted by Seraphine, and after calling on Darius for support, revealed the truth of the Titan, the war, the mega dungeons, and primal forces. After swearing her to secrecy, she agreed to help them and pledged her resources to the cause.
After that, Eric and the other four Summoned stood before the king. The King revealed that he had disowned his son, Rick, and sent him to Flescion to face judgement for past diplomatic incidents, the Princess was named heir. She performed the ceremony for the four newlywed couples, as Shannon had been able to arrange for all of the Summoned to have their marriages on the same day.
During the ceremony, she did something wholly unexpected; Princess Amber Tremaunt named Eric Baxter as a knight-errant—the first in centuries. The role was a prestigious one, which would give him the latitude to travel across Elyndor on official business with the royals’ personal seal of approval—all thanks to Indedroma’s meddling within The Paths using mana constructs to subtly nudge the Princess’ decisions.
The four Summoned were wed in a single ceremony: two out of actual love—Eric and Misty Baxter, Shannon and Cecil Valagonia—and two out of convenience—Naomi and James Marshall, and Peter and Isabella Ghulara. After a few nights and days of passion with their new spouses, Eric was informed of the king’s demise, and Amber’s rise to the position of Queen.
With a new monarch on the throne, and a plan to bring Flescion into the impending diplomatic meeting between Trok and Bhlast, Eric and the Summoned elected to focus their efforts back to the Twilight Depths. They would go in, clear a floor, then return to Tenebria to deal with what politics and city-building was necessary to ensure Trok would be able to survive the coming war.
After acquiring their third Classes, and acquiring some new Body Enhancements, they returned to the mega dungeon, and headed to the fifth floor. Fighting glass-grass shambling mounds and a lava kraken, experimenting with new Skills and Rotes, and testing their new prowess, the Summoned were not hard-pressed, and excelled at the tasks laid before them. But, as they were preparing for the third chamber, a message appeared, as Indedroma could only tell the five Summoned who first touched the stones upon their arrival.
[We now have thirteen years until the Titan breaks free.]