The Squires

**The Squires** are the three main protagonists of the Center Soul Stories journey. This page will keep track of their movements.

DalronThe McKnightRemi

## Definition

Squires are holons who take on potentially dangerous escorting missions to bring "nobles" (anyone who can pay) from A to B. Recently, the portals in the Terminal were shut off citing security concerns, so their services have been more greatly needed. Holons may take on this job for the chance at a decent brillit payout.

## Summaries

### Part 1: Willowisp

The three squires McKnight, Remi, and Dalron teamed up for the first time for a well-paying job. When the noble arrived however, it was without escort or password. The holons decided to trust the noble, a young ogre child going by the pseudonym Willowisp, when they confirmed her supposed unique ability: a ghost who followed her around. Upon questioning the child though, they soon realized that whatever attacked the initial escort could not be far away. After a short planning session, their attempt to sneak outside was soon revealed to have already been anticipated. They were set upon by a team of two powerful holons, obscuring their faces with cloaks, and a strange jellyfish creature that seemed tailor-made for capturing fauna. Despite their best efforts, the cloaked holons were kitted out with anti-holon weaponry, and the squires soon fell to the onslaught. With their noble taken, the squires would have to decide what to do next.

### Part 2: Missing Child

The squires unanimously decided to aid the sugarwasps in tracking down their noble. They followed a pheromone trail for some time, crossing a road lined with farmers trying to enter the city, apparently held up by the Children of Manos. Eventually, they found where the ogre child had been -- the ruptured corpse of the jellyfish simili, frozen in place, and footsteps of the holons and the ogre moving away. It was unclear what had happened here, but moving forward, the squires encountered the hooded holons, arguing with each other in a circle of trees ahead. When confronted, the holon claimed it was the child who had destroyed the simili. The confrontation quickly exploded into violence, but the squires had the upper hand this time, having circled around and surrounded the holons in secret. Though a wood golem and a false core allowed one of them a chance to flee, they were brought down by Remi's keen shooting in the end. However, the pheromone trail had become too weak to follow, and there was still no sign of the noble.

### Part 3: A New Deal

By interrogating one of the captured holons, the squires were able to have it lead them to its pick-up spot. They followed it all the way to Saccharum, hoping to gather more information on who was chasing Willowisp, but the holon revealed at the last minute that it had sent a message ahead of time, and this was an ambush! Unfortunately for it, the ambush backfired, and its employer destroyed the holon instead. The employer, a holon determined by Remi to be Dr. Leilah-Kwine, led them back to her office, where they made a deal to replace the hired holons who had failed so poorly. Dalron bartered for more brillit than they were getting from their initial contract, resupplied, and then head out again to search for Willowisp.

Their travels took them to the ogre city of Tang, where Dalron wrestled the local champion in order to win favour. The champion turned out to be the mayor, Liudiya. As a reward for his victory, Liudiya offered information, and the squires asked about Willowisp. Eventually, it was learned that she had been spotted escaping into a ruin nearby. Liudiya felt guilty asking the holons to help her, but she also felt she had no other choice.

The squires located the ruin quickly, half-sunken into a mire. They battled the denizens of the ruin: mutated, half-deranged glazheen, poisonous and slimy, and proving to be very hard to strike directly. Remi recalled their severe weakness to cold, and took full advantage. After triggering and evading some traps and meeting up with some sugarwasps with similar goals as themselves, they made it to the heart of the ruin, where a slime disguised as a sugarwasp lured them into a battle. After their victory, Willowisp, revealed as the ogre child Taovana, was found unharmed. With carefully chosen words, the squires took on her guardianship once more -- though some of the squires were finding themselves favouring protecting the fate of the child over the completion of the contract.

### Part 4: A New Direction

The squires were split on where to go, but with some discussion and the exchange of brillit, decided to travel as a group to The Golden Arches, where the McKnight once apprenticed. They escaped the mire dungeon barely, as Liudiya had already begun to set up a proper search party just beyond the entrance. After wading through muck, Dalron suffering from a hallucinatory episode, and a swift battle with a very tasty fish, the group rested and moved on from the place.

Deciding to avoid contact with others for now, the squires headed eastward. Upon cresting the hill overlooking Aghallyfae, they were stopped by a flying vessel containing a royal guard from Saccharum, who immediately implied they were working for the Doctor. It didn't take long for the conversation to turn to blows, and a bloody battle ensued. Taovana, despite her reservations, released a mighty icy blast, and Remi ended up using the holo.B bomb she had pilfered earlier, devastating the battlefield. In the end, Taovana was protected, but more would surely come.

### Part 5: Petricka's Pies

In an attempt to flee to a less open area to evade future capture attempts, the squires bumped into a creant peddler along the road. Unable to resist bartering, the McKnight drew them into a conversation which ended up in them taking on a task to receive a reward. Stray portals had been appearing recently, and one nearby seemed more dangerous than others... Indeed, the squires soon found themselves in a strange, isolated realm, benign and artificial, yet overgrown with plants. Strange holon-like creatures known as nullons existed here, but their minds were robotic. While the others fought, the McKnight sensed a god-like figure in the aura of these creatures, and awakened it. They escaped in the end with a mysterious and powerful relic, and were gifted the ability to call on the creant peddlers whenever they desired.

### Part 6: Wanted

The creant Petricka revealed that wanted posters for the squires were currently in circulation - though she herself bore no ill will. Just to be safe, the squires slipped away from her, travelling south and east towards the Forest of Eden. Soon though, Dalron became separated from the others, and stumbled upon a group of two squires who had just picked up their bounty. The two were tenacious, but Remi and the McKnight located Dalron soon enough, and the fight was decided. They moved on, crossing the Pilgrim's Path with due stealth, and coming across an unmarked village of crocfolk. Again, the McKnight could not resist bartering, and ended up healing their wounded. They discovered that there was a secret war afoot - but before much could be learned, the village was assaulted by a devious spell, one that rended aura from fauna. The squires fled for their lives, the fate of the crocfolk unclear, and with the mysterious name "Nimue" sitting on their tongues. With nowhere else to turn, the squires dove into the Forest of Eden.