is evening on Luna on Saturday, July 22, 2299. Ariona, Nikolai, Unity, Vittorio, Adam have arrived at the edge of the Great Forest and been led to the site of the Heart Tree (and the ritual) by Brice, Jasmine, and Gerald. Ariona plans to start the rite inside the “bubble,” where other forces will be defending the central rite, while the rest of the group will be aiding Gerald outside the “bubble” in holding off any forces which may try to interfere after the rite has begun. Brice, of course, will be in both places at once.
Adam confers with some AIs, and winds up with a couple of additional units to help in the anticipated battle. Brice asks if anyone has any contact information for Noun, and Ariona offers to make him a portal to Noun. Brice agrees, so Ariona does so, and drops the portal once Brice and Jasmine go through. Ariona then spends some time preparing for the coming altercation.
Gerald draws a smaller sword, which begins to glow. A large bubble (around 10 feet in radius) appears around him. Any magic within the bubble ceases to function. When the effects leave the bubble, they begin to function again. Ariona grimaces and walks into the bubble to have a quick conversation about tactics with Gerald. Everyone within a fairly good distance can see her ears, clearly visible outside her ponytail, switch from round to pointy when she enters. She requests that if she leaves the big bubble later to aid in the fighting, that Gerald try to have as few enemies in his bubble as possible, so that her area effects will be able to affect the most people. He shrugs and says the other sword is more fun against noobs, anyway, because it lets people hit him more easily. Ariona is very confused, so Gerald talks her into trying to hit him with magic so she can find out. He stabs the smaller sword into the ground, and after about 18 seconds the glow stops. He then draws the other sword and says, “Go ahead.”
“OW!!! That ‘‘hurt! ‘’” she cries. She appears rather damaged. Now it is very obvious why Gerald is willing to have noobs hit him in combat.
Unity wanders around and asks random questions of anyone that will listen to them. Vittorio and mini-Vee scout the area and prepare. Vittorio is still wearing the hood of his cloak pulled down such that none can see his face. Nikolai fiddles with his computer, and makes sure that everyone who was interested has acquired toothpaste and the resulting minty-fresh breath.
Brice returns, with Jasmine, and appears shaken. Jasmine has dark circles under her eyes, and appears quite upset. The two of them, Ariona, and Cain then walk toward the large tree. There are a few gnomes and a larger number of royals standing around the tree, and there is quite intricate circuitry built all over the tree. The gnomes and royals appear to be making some last-minute adjustments to the incredibly detailed electronic work.
Vadril, Max, Zee, and Rae are standing near the tree, but no one is able to spot Matt. Another man is standing near them, whom Ariona guesses by his appearance to be the ancient Seeker. He is short, of Mediterranean descent, with a very, very long braid, bare feet, and a homespun hooded red robe with a belt.
There is also a twisted archway here, engraved with faeries and other forest creatures. It boggles the mind, seeming to twist in ways that don’t appear to be possible. It looks to have been crafted by Noun.
Merlin Huntington is also present, speaking with an important-looking royal named Alfadir. There are two dwarves and two gnomes around Alfadir, appearing to be bodyguards. Two are obviously spellbreakers, one of each race, and the other two are just as clearly mystics. Adana Cassenti, Elana Connendeol, and Eliza (wearing an acorn necklace) are also present.
Finally, Ariona spots four pixies hiding, invisible, in the trees surrounding the Heart Tree.
Alfadir says, “Well, it seems that all necessary parties have arrived,” and with that a gigantic ‘‘CRACK’’ sounds and a gigantic, 300-foot radius wall of force-bubble appears around this party. It appears, actually, to be layers upon layers upon layers of walls of force. The terrain on the other side of the bubble is visible, but rather blurry.
“The first step of the rite is to empower Cain with the souls that have been collected. Then, once this is complete, the merge can begin. Once they are one, they will power the Great Machine. Before we begin, please note: All of you here represent the last line of defense. If the wall should be breached, the onus will be on all of you to prevent the rite from being interrupted.”
He looks at Vadril, Max, Zee, Jasmine, Brice, and Ariona in turn, but doesn’t appear to look at Rae. Rae, however, looks increasingly nervous as time goes on, beginning to shift uneasily and look around uncomfortably.
Outside the bubble, Vittorio asks if Nikolai can still communicate with Brice after the wall goes up. While this is possible, no one can contact Ariona (or anyone else except Brice) through the ‘Net.
Nikolai moves into position with Sledge and his crew. Unity follows. Gerald prepares his Dwarven forces for the fight. Adam readies his AI assistants, from exoskeletal suits of armor right down to the toasters. Vittorio offers his assistance to Adam. The armies stand ready.
A gate opens. A woman with an aura of confidence steps through. She has a rather feral-looking appearance, and several individuals in the group recognize her as Selena Sharptooth.
“It’s best you go away, little girl! People gonna die here!” Gerald yells harshly.
“That’s what I wish to prevent! You really wish to challenge us on this?” she demands.
“If you mean do I wish to fight you, ‘‘yeah!’’” he responds.
Nikolai hesitantly tries to call her back, suggesting that maybe that’s not actually necessary. Selena asks if he can stop this farce, and he says, “Well . . . it’ll be over soon enough, I guess. . . .” This is clearly not the answer Selena was looking for.
Sledge says, “But, don’t you want to save everyone?”
Selena still believes that the Caretaker has been deceiving everyone, and that we wouldn’t all die anyway. She asks about the mysterious planet, and why the people there haven’t been contacted, since they obviously would know more about the nature of this issue than anyone else. She continues with strong words about the nature of the rite, and that it should not happen.
Finally, she seems to end her tirade rather abruptly. Her face hardens. “I’ll allow you to stall no further!” she cries.
Gerald cracks his knuckles. “Well, it looks like we’re fighting.”
Portals open all over the grove. Hundreds of werewolves, pixies, and other Gaians charge through them, bent on attacking the forces outside
Adam attempts to use his oration skills to bolster his robotic forces. They surge forward to engage the Gaians. Vittorio uses his magical abilities to enhance the talents of the robots in his area for a time.
Nikolai attempts to demoralize the enemy. He fills a 100-foot radius with flickering shadows and Void Echoes for one hour.
Gerald and Unity both attempt to engage the enemy in physical combat.
Back inside, Alfadir asks Merlin Huntington for the crown. Huntington hands it over, but notes that he is still concerned with its safety. Alfadir replies that that is why Huntington is here.
He then turns towards Adana Cassenti. “Do you have the keepsake, for whose custody you were responsible?” She nods hesitantly, and pulls a large onyx stone out of her robe. “Please give it to Cain now.” She looks very uncomfortable, but hands it over. The stone is flawless, and appears somehow unreal and magnificent.
Cain stands there, and considers it for a long moment. Alfadir tells him, “It must be ingested.” Cain smiles, and his head begins to open much farther than a human mouth should ever do. He places the stone in his mouth. As his mouth begins to close over it, two motes of light streak forth from the crown Alfadir is now holding, towards Cain and the stone.
“I don’t think so!” Huntington yells, and a wall of force appears surrounding the red and white motes. They buzz around inside, but can’t escape it.
Seeker begins to move, impossibly fast, and stops in front of the sphere. He begins drawing runes in front of the sphere. Zee gestures as well, and another layer of wall of force surrounds the existing one, augmenting the defense against the motes.
Rae says, “Why won’t you ‘‘die?!’’” and appears quite annoyed.
Huntington is fumbling in his pocket, muttering, “I think I’ll need more than one,” when suddenly a brilliant idea appears to occur to him.
Cain is suffused by a brilliant blue light, and is standing with his head thrown back. Huntington gestures and the stone appears in his hand, displaced out of Cain’s body. It appears empty somehow. “YES!” Huntington says. He begins to chant.
He turns to Zee and tells him to take down the field. The walls of force disappear, and the stone sucks the motes inside. Huntington smiles triumphantly.
Rae asks about the third one, and mentions that it could still be around, and Huntington replies that it would be a different scenario, as it was destroyed by a weapon of destiny. “However, it is possible that it could still be a threat –”
A figure appears, half in black and half in white, wearing a black-and-white domino mask. Ariona groans, “Oh, no, not ‘‘him’’ again!” The figure grabs Huntington, and begins to shimmer and fade away. It is clearly a displacement effect, but it seems to be slowed down in some way. A laser blast shoots towards the top-hatted creature, and Matt drops from a tree and runs towards them. Rae throws a mystic effect at the creature, trying to counter the displacement, and the effect fizzles. Both figures are solidly there once more. Ariona sends a blast of pyrotechnic energy at the creature, and it bursts into flames. It is immediately incinerated. Max appears to grow slightly translucent.
Brice feels reality splintering around him, as he ‘‘doesn’t remember things happening this way before!’’ It was the man who lives inside Matt that destroyed the creature, not Ariona! Brice rubs his head a bit.
Huntington appears a bit stunned, but all right. He does not appear affected by the flames that engulfed the creature holding him.
Adam inspires his unit to great feats of valor. Nikolai scares the crap out of a bunch of poor little Gaians. Unity wreaks havoc on a chunk of Selena’s army, while Gerald taunts the lieutenants in an attempt to get them to engage him in single combat.
Gerald is successful in drawing not one, but two of Selena’s three lieutenants into one-on-two combat. His opponents appear to be vampires, something that strikes many as odd, since vampires do not typically get along with Gaians. Nikolai, Vittorio, Brice, and Ariona, however, would recognize these two particular vampires as Hunter Savage and Kimi Eagle Talon.
Gerald charges Hunter and cleaves one of his arms clean off. Hunter and Kimi exchange horrified glances and begin to back away. They try to concentrate, but their attempts to go into mist form are ineffective as they are within Gerald’s bubble. Kimi dives away, and immediately disappears as she turns into mist form and sinks into the ground. Hunter, however, is stunned by Gerald’s blow and unable to escape. Gerald’s second blow destroys Hunter utterly.
The AI forces decimate their Gaian opponents, causing them all to fall or flee. Sledge’s unit and their opponents appear about evenly matched, losing a significant fraction of their forces without being terribly damaged.
Selena roars and transforms into her largest werewolf-hybrid form. “Aid me, whether you like it or not!” she cries. A wolf unlike any ever seen steps forth. She is silvery, large, and very fierce-looking. She is wearing a large collar on her neck.
Adam and Vittorio continue to augment the robotic meat grinder. Gerald taunts, but no one is stupid enough to take that chance this time. Nikolai serial possesses Gaians, warning them of the consequences of their actions, and Unity boots some head.
Suddenly, Brice’s foreboding crystallizes. He remembers what happened that he was dreading. Brice says, “Fuck! Mordred. . . .” A man steps out of a portal on the edge of the clearing. He is wearing dark, heavy armor, and is holding a gigantic broadsword which glows with dark energy. He is beautiful, with long, dark, curly hair, yet incredibly menacing and terrifying. He gestures, and hundreds if not thousands of portals open all around the clearing.
Strange, twisted figures step out of the portals. Orcs, goblins, drow, all the creatures of nightmare crawl, ooze, and flow from the darkened gates. Especially astute observers notice the remnants of humanity (or gnomishness, or dwarvenness, etc.) in these creatures of darkness.
Seeker turns to Merlin Huntington. “Watch over the rite. Make sure nothing bad happens.” Merlin nods, and Seeker steps into nothingness and is gone.
Selena’s forces divide themselves against the three pro-Caretaker units, concentrating most heavily on the robots. Mordred, on the other hand, appears completely unconcerned with the AIs attacking him and splits his forces one-quarter against Gerald, one-quarter against Sledge, and the remaining half as an arrowhead against the bubble. Gerald and Adam direct their forces to attack Mordred’s ghoulish minions, and Sledge splits his forces against the two armies attacking the rite.
Adam and Seeker, on opposite sides of the battlefield, attempt to point out to Sharptooth’s forces the horror of allying with Mordred’s fell creatures. Large numbers of creatures around Seeker slowly begin to throw down their weapons or stand confused, wandering out of the grove in some cases. Adam concentrates his attentions on Selena, who appears to be weakening.
Mordred extends his arm. A large raven, black as soot, lands upon it. The raven sits for a moment, then flies away to peck out the eyes of Mordred’s enemies. Meanwhile, as one of the twisted creatures falls, Mordred plunges his huge broadsword into its heart, seeming to draw sustenance from the creature’s death.
Vittorio and Ariona attempt to use their magic to protect Adam’s robots. Brice offers to clear a path to Mordred for Gerald, and a line of fireballs erupts between them. Gerald walks along it, growing closer and closer to Mordred. Just as he is about to reach the evil general, a figure steps between them. He looks like a twisted version of an elf, but with black skin and white hair.
Across the field, Ariona squeaks. She stops what she’s doing, and appears to be staring into space. She sends an anguished mental message to Gerald: “Please, try not to kill him! Please? Just incapacitate him?”
Gerald asks incredulously why, and Ariona replies that he is her grandfather. He says that she has a really fucked-up family . . . although not as fucked-up as Nikolai. She just sort of whimpers.
The evil elf-creature attempts to cast a spell at Gerald, whose anti-magic bubble causes it to fizzle. Gerald then attacks him, causing him to stagger back and clutch his chest, grievously wounded. Nikolai tries to uses his new whip of shadows to catch Evan, but misses. Evan then makes some threats, and displaces himself away.
The Defiant, one of DEE’s Apostles, contacts Adam at this point. “Prophet: dire news!” Adam sees a video feed of a gigantic ship shimmering and appearing, bearing DEE’s sigil, but it is an unfamiliar ship. A huge beam shoots down from it, directly at the bubble protecting the rite. Adam confirms that the ship is not in any of his databases, nor in the Defiant’s. Adam decides that the obvious course of action now is to contact DEE.
Inside the bubble, Rae disappears, and it seems that the Caretaker has caused this to happen.
The crown is then used to summon Luna. She appears as a five-year-old girl, who yells, “'’No!’’” She begins crying. Alfadir, who is holding the crown, orders her to stop crying. She does, as Cain approaches her and embraces her. The horror in her eyes is visible as his arms surround her, and the blue glow moves out to encompass them both. At this point, everything goes white, and those with magical senses realize that somehow the entire interior of the bubble has been transported to another plane of existence.
Just before the light become too bright to see through, Luna turns to Adana with anguish on her face and says, “You weren’t supposed to let this happen!”
Unity, Gerald, Nikolai, Seeker, and the robots continue to wreak havoc on Mordred’s forces. Ariona and Vittorio support the AIs. Brice sends video feeds in both directions across the planes.
Adam confers with DEE. “A heretic emblazoned with our symbol attempts to usurp our legacy.” DEE lets Adam know that he will be coming to deal with this problem and assist Adam in his task.
There are no more gates in the grove, but people are beginning to appear. They seem to be using displacement to arrive. The most notable is someone jetting in from above the combat, trailing a line of fire behind them. It resolves itself into a metallic, graceful yet strong-looking being, whose great shining armor is also hot pink. Some people recognize this individual as the head of the World Mystics Guild, “Lefty.”
Ariona joins Seeker, Nikolai and Gerald in an attempt to reach Mordred himself. They somehow manage to dodge around Mordred’s vampire companions, successfully engaging Mordred directly.
Mordred stands, looking oddly compelling despite his horrifically evil nature. Gerald glares at him. “You’ve got a pretty face. We’re gonna have to fix that to match your inner self.”
Seeker begins drawing strange runes in the air. They sizzle and crackle, colored energies appearing to hang in the air. Gerald throws a bolt from his sword at Mordred. It hits him, but Mordred appears unconcerned by the blood dripping from the joints in his armor. Then a wave of fear emanates from Mordred, sizzling outward but halting in the area around Gerald.
The raven flies from Mordred’s arm, attacking Gerald’s eyes and attempting to blind him. The attack is pitifully unable to faze Gerald, who with a massive blow cleaves the raven in two. Mordred also appears entirely unfazed by the death of his apparent familiar.
Now, Mordred’s eyes bore into Gerald, but Gerald is able to resist Mordred’s penetrating gaze. Then he turns his attention to Seeker, who easily resists the temptation of Mordred’s gaze. Finally, Mordred tries to work his wiles on Nikolai, who is utterly captivated by Mordred’s beauty.
Ariona pulls out the disintegration rifle, and shoots Mordred solidly with it. Ashes fall from his body, yet where they fell from, there is still the boy of Mordred underneath. “Hah! You fool!” he laughs. “I can’t be killed!”
Seeker completes his runes, just as Gerald charges into him with everything he has. The runes touch Mordred’s body at the exact instant that Gerald’s Sword of Destiny begins its journey through Mordred’s body . . . causing an explosion of white light. A terrible scream rings out through the battlefield. “'’NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! This is impossible!!!!!!. . . . ‘’” The voice fades away with the light. There is no sign of Mordred remaining.
The twisted creatures have their morale broken as they witness the death of their supposedly unkillable general. They break and begin to flee or cower, and slowly the remaining defenders begin to realize that Mordred’s forces are no longer their enemies. The twisted aspects are even beginning to fade gradually.
The aftermath is rather chaotic, but a few occurrences stand out.
The large silver werewolf stops in confusion. Vittorio approaches her, and engages her. He tries again and again to remove the collar from her, and finally succeeds in removing it just as she slashes through his ghostly form and causes grievous wounds.
At the moment of Mordred’s demise, Ariona and Nikolai catch a glimpse of Lefty pursuing Selena through a portal away from the grove. Ariona and Nikolai confer on their course of action, and Ariona creates a portal to Selena. Nikolai steps through, and tries to convince Lefty to bring Selena back. Lefty doesn’t like that idea, and says she’ll just hang on to Selena here for . . . a while.
Selena begins to cry. “I couldn’t stop it!” she wails. Nikolai is sympathetic, noting that he wished it could have been any other way, but there was nothing else they could figure out to do.
Nikolai returns through the portal just as the blue glow, once again visible through the light, begins to merge the two bodies inside. The astral glow fades, and standing now where the two were, is a single figure. She appears to be about nine years old, with straight black hair falling to her waist. She has two small horns, and on her forehead is a strange orange mark. It appears to be both the mark of Cain and a third eye. She is wearing a garment of shimmering, pale moonbeams. She appears to be unconscious, and collapses.
Alfadir yells, “We must revive her! Quickly!” He and Vee begin channeling massive amounts of healing energies into her, as the void echoes grow in volume and urgency all around. The girl sits up, and Alfadir cries, “Quickly! There’s no time!” He leads her to the archway, and they begin channeling far more mystic energy into the arch. It is obvious from the amount of energy that Alfadir is using that the power of the Caretaker flows through him.
The bubble bursts, and everything begins to shake. Alfadir yells, “Everyone! Flee the system!” Merlin Huntington, clinging to a tree, yells, “Everyone! Come back with me! To Lupus!” Max, Vadril, and Matt disappear on their own, and Merlin then leaves on his own.
As everyone else is standing in confusion, shocked by the implication that the ritual has backfired and is causing the destruction of the Sol system, two more people fall to the Void echoes now deafening the party.
Brice collapses, wracked with pain, and those near him realize he is dying. At the same time, Jasmine screams, clutches her head, and falls to her knees. She shimmers, and is gone.