Spice and Warforged/2

*Space and Warforged* is the sequel to *Spice and Warforged*.

#### Arix Stormbrood

Formerly known as Storm of Light, ROSELYN-2708, and any number of other names, Arix Stormbrood is the former chieftain of the now-extinct Stormbrood of kobolds, a victim of experimentation by Project ROSCOE, and now the leader of Isle Valo, the homeland of the Valorous Lucians. He has reformed the Lucians from fanatics to holy warriors of justice, fighting for their Goddess, Lucia, the Light of Judgment, and for the innocent and weak.

#### Carmen

Formerly known as Red, ROSELYN-15, or Ichigo, Carmen was a victim of experimentation by Project ROSCOE, and a result, shared a body with Arix for several months. She was chosen by Lucia, and -- if she is to be believed -- now hosts a fragment of the Goddess' soul inside her. Carmen has come to lead Nox's Family, a Lucian-controlled city in the most uninhabitable reaches of New Ascalon.

If the war against Khemed goes bad, Carmen plans to sacrifice anyone who has ever loved her to transform herself into Lucia, so that she may strike down Khemed herself. Ever moment of her life consists of dread for this plan, yet she sees no other option.

#### Cucamelon C. Cucumber

The son of Colonel Earwyn Cucumber, Cuca showed a great talent for druidic magic at a very young age. After being sent on an adventure with Arix by Earwyn, Cuca came to doubt his father's true intentions, and realized that he could never go home again. Despite being just a kid, Cuca is usually the voice of reason, and also has access to incredibly potent healing magic due to the blessing of a Phoenix, which allowed him to save the lives of thousands of Carmen's clones, including Poppy, who he personally raised and trained in druidic magic.

#### Jimkel Hillmarch

A gnomish survivalist engineer and one of Arix's oldest friends, Jimkel is the brains behind both the Stormbrood and the Valorous Lucians. After the Stormbrood was destroyed, Jimkel became paranoid and went into hiding, expecting the Cold War to become hot. His true love, though, was always caring for kids, so he has left his hiding-place and come to Isle Valo to help raise the many abandoned children who have turned up there.

#### Hope

Hope is the leader of the Namesworn, the holy warriors who answer directly to Arix and who were given holy names by him. He mans the ship *Transient*, a gift from Tyrfing.

#### Nebula

A crewmate of the *Transient* and Namesworn in training, Nebula is one of the teenagers who were rescued from the Island of the Ancients by Arix and Hope. She's a little cocky and immature, but idolizes Arix. She may have rescued Orion from drowning.

#### ROSELYN-901

A clone of Carmen and victim of Project ROSCOE, ROSELYN-901 served Project ROSCOE while secretly plotting to destroy them from within, planning a massive murder-suicide to kill all of the ROSELYNs, herself, and the leadership of the Project by calling on the powers of a Phoenix. She survived due to the intervention of Arix and Cuca, and was reborn into a male body. He has since lived a gloomy life on Isle Valo, contemplating the meaning of his life.

ROSELYN-901 turned out to secretly be a Weird Sister.

#### Escamillo

A fanatical worshiper of Carmen, who plans to be sacrificed as part of the plan by which Carmen will become Lucia.

### The Weird Sisters

#### Commander Joy Alya

The leader of the Weird Sisters, ALya was motivated to found the secret society after losing all of his family members in the War of the Ravagers and the First Divine War.

#### Colonel Earwyn Cucumber

A Murakaman colonel at Base Glenius, and the father of Cuca and Apple, whom he sent away on their adventures. Owing to a promise made to his wife on their honeymoon, Earwyn has dedicated his career to ending the Cold War. Lately, however, his actions have become more and more suspicious, ever since he ordered the raid that wiped out the Stormbrood. He has seized the tools by which the Confederacy could have carried out obelisk summoning, the act of calling forth the Hells as soldiers.

Earwyn is secretly a Weird Sister. His motivations are unknown.

#### Nadeko Sakuranbo

Earwyn's assistant. Previously she participated in a plot to frame Project ROSCOE for trying to assassinate Arix, and she is secretly a Weird Sister. Her motivations are unknown.

#### Kio Taro

A boy mentioned in the correspondence of Vaughn Weaver and Tsuyu Wang May, Kio Taro, or the "Damocletian Boy", is an incredibly powerful astrosorcerer who was raised by the Weird Sisters to prevent his powers from falling into the hands of wrongdoers. Even so, he was abducted by Tsuyu Wang May and used as an agent of Murakami.

### Ame-no-Murakami

#### Prime Minister Raon Lee

~~The leader of Ame-no-Murakami, Raon Lee has aimed to end the unsustainable Cold War, but has proven ineffectual in doing so, as her administration has been plagued by scandal after scandal, to the point that even her most trusted advisers have turned on her.~~

At the Chaorkartel Summit, Lee suddenly drew an automatic rifle and tried to kill Jan Steel, before being killed by seven bullet wounds in the resulting firefight. Her soul was destroyed on the orders of Vaughn Weaver.

#### Acting Prime Minister Vaughn Weaver

~~The general of Base Arimel and arguably the most influential general in the Murakaman military. Weaver is a friend to Earwyn Cucumber and a secret ally of Khemed and the Monster; he used them to further his plot against Raon Lee, but the party caught and imprisoned him.~~

~~Following the Chaorkartel Summit, Weaver has been released from prison, and declared himself acting Prime Minister of Ame-no-Murakami.~~

Shot dead by Kid Bill during the riot in Teichmueller.

#### Acting Prime Minister Cato Nema

A general at Base Glenius who has received power in light of Weaver's death.

#### Lana Cucumber

The wife of Earwyn and mother of Cuca and Apple. She is a caring mother who isn't aware of her children's adventures. She hates war, having lost several family members in the Battle of Lyapunov Tor when she was just eight years old.

#### Lt. General Tsuyu Wang May

A lieutenant to Vaughn Weaver, and a participant in his plot at the Chaorkartel Summit.

#### Sweet Buns

Apple's sensei, Sweet Buns was a grandmaster of the ancient Yamashitan martial art of saigo no bushido, before retiring to train her in his old age.

#### Sour Buns

A grandmaster of the tsujigiri school of saigo no bushido who fought in the Murakaman military, and the wielder of the lightning katana, Raiden's Edge. Sour Buns was present at the Chaorkartel Summit, but wasn't aware of the true purpose of the summit. After being defeated by Apple, he surrendered and agreed to train her in tsujigiri.

#### Amman-Ra III

~~An undead commander, who attacked the lunar city of Murkville.~~

Absorbed by Drake Amadeus while fighting Euler.

#### Amman-Ra IV

An undead commander, created to replace Amman-Ra III.

### The Confederacy of Ash

#### President Jan Steel

The President of the Confederacy. Though the presidency was supposed to be a ceremonial position, she has absorbed more and more power by repeatedly appealing to the emergency powers clause of the Confederate constitution, using the recent domestic incidents as well as the War on Great Solister. During her tenure, the League was massacred by Khemed, leaving her the de facto dictator of the Confederacy until replacement Senators can be elected, something she has made a point to delay.

#### Queen Nessa Gyro

The newly appointed Queen-President of Thelalia and Gyro. She came to power in a time of crisis for the Gyran royal family, as their guardian Frederick was stripped of his immortality by ROSELYN-901, Galois accidentally mortally wounded her mother the former Queen, and Arix and Cuca turned her brother into a gnome. The Queen is a financial backer of the Monster, and ordered them to assassinate Arix and Cuca.

#### President Novato Mumford

The former president of Poetsbane, Mumford was stripped of his title and imprisoned on orders of President Steel after the ROSCOE Incident, ostensibly due to his history of insider trading and financial support of Project ROSCOE. Nevertheless, he was confident he would be acquitted until he was abducted by Khemed, handed over to "the traitor", and then tortured to death by the Dread Captain. Now he has returned to the Confederacy.

#### Leonhard Euler

Euler is a gunner in the Gyran Space Force, stationed on a base on the moon Borns-Weil.

Euler's alter ego is the terrorist and murderer Evariste Galois, who traveled with Arix and Cuca on their adventures, who aided Khemed Gogz in his war on the Confederacy, and who defeated his rival, the dreaded Viktor Bunyakovsky.

#### Danu Asmara and Mercury

Two strange figures, a gnome and a Warforged, who have quickly risen to power in the Gyran military, and the leaders of the Gyran Space Force. They plan to restore the immortality of Frederick by calling upon the planet that is a divine dragon, to defeat Khemed once and for all.

#### Terra Motori

The CEO of Gyran Motors, a distant descendant of Helix, and the father of Orion. Since his wife's untimely death, his relationship with his son, Orion, has been strained.

#### Commander Wrench

A Warforged mechanic from Akadeos, who is an expert in the design of both cars and spacecraft. Formerly a repairman at Gyran Motors and the mentor and closest friend of Orion, before being sold to the Gyran military by Terra. Now a member of the Gyran Space Force, based on Borns-Weil.

#### Commander Tall Gun

~~A Warforged soldier from Gyro who lead the Confederate troops in the Battle of Lesser Solister and Battle of Lahaina.~~

Commander Tall Gun was slain in the Battle of Lahaina by Khemed.

#### Remy Vaillaincourt, the Rising Sun

~~The head scientist of Project ROSCOE, who went into hiding. He experimented on himself, giving himself unnatural powers, and blamed others for all his failures.~~

The Rising Sun was interrogated and slain by the party in the far north of New Ascalon.

#### Drake Amadeus

~~A pop sensation based out of the lunar city of Murkville, Drake Amadeus is secretly a powerful necromancer who mastered the Shadowarts.~~

Killed in a three-way scuffle with Euler and Amman-Ra III, after absorbing Amman-Ra's powers.

#### Louisa and Johnny

A pair of young lovers from Pastel Caramel. Louisa's anxiety has grown far worse in the wake of recent events.

### Tyrfing

#### Joy Naome

A diplomat from Tyrfing-on-Ascalon who liaisons with Isle Valo, which is working towards autonomy in exchange for retaking the Lovlos Sea on behalf of Tyrfing.

#### Admiral Nagisa Mulberry

An admiral of Tyrfing-on-Ascalon, who lead the Tyrfing fleet in the battle of Sentimentarchu.

#### Trent and Sara

~~The ghosts of a husband-wife pair of long-deceased once necromancers on Lyapunov Tor. After their eldest daughter Claudia was killed in a bombing raid, Trent and Sara bound the souls of every civilian casualty of the Battle of Lyapunov Tor to avenge Claudia and destroy the Confederacy, before they and their other children were also killed. However, in the four decades that have passed since then, they've forgotten everything except that they must avenge.~~

Trent and Sara were exorcised by Orion and their great grandniece Apple.

#### Claudia

~~The ghost of the eldest daughter of Trent and Sara and cousin of Lana, Claudia befriended Orion and worked with him to free the souls bound by her parents.~~

Claudia was exorcised by Orion.

#### Stephen and Megan

~~The ghost of the two younger children of Trent and Sara and cousins of Lana, who were killed in the Battle of Lyapunov Tor. Megan took a liking to Apple.~~

Both were exorcised by Orion.

#### Shinomiya Sahir, the Dread Captain

~~The leader of the pirates on the Monster, the Dread Captain enjoyed gore and torture above all else.~~

Slain by the party beneath Sentimentarchu.

#### The Monster

~~The soul of the island known as the Monster, the center of the evil of the Tyrfing Archipelago. Its physical form was a demonsgate which could crush the enemies of its "pet" -- the Dread Captain -- to dust.~~

Slain by Kid Bill and Poppy beneath Sentimentarchu.

#### One-Eye

~~A one-eyed dwarf on the Monster, One-Eye has a propensity for calling anyone and everyone "mate". He was defeated by the Dread Captain and nearly executed, but just as the Dread Captain cut his eye off, One-Eye swore fealty, so the Dread Captain spared him and made him his first mate. The original owner of Tainara.~~

Slain by Kid Bill by six railgun shots to the brain and drowning, then used in a Weekend at Bernie's-esque scheme that led to his corpse being incinerated in a car bomb that leveled much of Sentimentarchu.

#### Oak Tuske

A sovereign citizen carrying out illegal necromantic experiments on Apollonius, Oak Tuske was arrested by the Namesworn and handed over to the authorities in Tyrfing-on-Ascalon.

#### Bahira

The leader of the rakasta on the Monster.

#### Samira

The captain of the guard of the rakasta on the Monster, and a friend to Poppy.

### The Nation of Thor

#### Khemed Gogz

The Sixth Paragon of Thor, Khemed the one-legged cleric united the Nation of Thor during the War on Great Solister, driving out both the Confederacy and Ame-no-Murakami. Since then, he has gone on a rampage of revenge against the Confederacy for their crimes during the war, wiping out much of their government and causing another war between the Nation of Thor and the Confederacy. He wields the dreaded hammer Thor's Mercy. Though Khemed and Arix were once close allies, they have since had a falling-out. Apparently, Khemed was secretly supported by Vaughn Weaver.

#### Garagin

A spy for the Nation of Thor and one of Khemed's most trusted advisers, Garagin would do anything to protect the people of Sputnik, and especially Khemed.

### Other factions

#### Gymnosophy

The ancient white dragon who has ruled Chaorkartel for centuries.

#### Tainara

An acid blaster, who betrayed One-Eye for Kid Bill.

## The Dusk of the Rising Sun

### 15 December

Following the massacre of the League of Legends, the formation of the Alliance of Ascalon, and the impending Confederate invasion of Great Solister, Arix Stormbrood calls an emergency meeting of all Valorous Lucians and their allies. He proposes that they try to avert the war, while reconquering the Lovlos Sea so that they can win their independence from Tyrfing, and predicts that the Alliance will turn on itself before long.

Arix assigns a team, to be lead by Kid Bill and Clay Dallas, including Orion, Poppy, and Apple, to travel north to Nox's Family, New Ascalon, where they will learn information about how to defeat a god from Carmen. Accompanied by Apple's mentor Sweet Buns, they are teleported by Cucamelon to the ranch in Cosumnes, Thelalia-Gyro, and begin trekking east -- first by oxen, then by truck -- towards Nox's Family, beyond the edge of the world.

### 17 December

The team arrives in the town of Virtuoso, Thelalia-Gyro. After Apple's attempt to get into a bar, and then run-in with some errant firemen, Kid Bill wins it big at poker at the saloon. Meanwhile, Orion and Poppy, while dumpster diving next to a facility that manufactures spacecraft, finds a piece of a flight log from a Gyran Space Force. They deduce that Leonhard Euler and Wrench were on the flight, and contact Euler, who reveals that he is, in fact, on the moon Borns-Weil with Wrench. As much as Orion wants to go to the moon to meet them, he has no means of getting there, so the party continues their trek east.

### 19 December

The team arrives at Three Races' End, New Spanos, which is blanketed by snow. After making some trouble for themselves at the gas station, they travel east, with Orion and Apple both insistently sitting in the truck bed and nearly getting hypothermia. The road turns into a narrow, windy road, that takes many hours to drive on, but they arrive at Nox's Family.

In Nox's Family, they are greeted by Escamillo, who becomes especially insufferable after realizing that Orion is descended from Helix. He introduces them to Carmen, who reveals her plan: if the war against Khemed turns bad, she will travel to Skull's Peak in Farglance, to obtain the sacrifice of the steadfast, becoming Lucia. Knowing the horrible cost and side effects of the sacrifice, Carmen dreads this plan, however, and hopes to never have to use it.

Carmen also reveals what she has learned about the Confederacy's operations against Khemed. The Gyran Space Force's purpose is to travel beyond the asteroid belt and obtain the power they need to reconstruct Frederick's immmortality, by which Khemed will be defeated. Meanwhile, the head scientist of Project ROSCOE, Remy Vaillaincourt -- who also calls himself the Rising Sun -- was to be executed to take the fall for the Confederacy's crimes, but instead went into hiding near Nox's Family; his research may also have work on godslaying.

Carmen proposes that she and the team capture Vaillaincourt. After Bill and Orion enjoy some unethically-procured wine, they prepare to depart.

### 20 December

After a difficult drive, the party found a cave identified by Carmen to be the hideout of Remy Vaillaincourt. It was guarded by a bloody angel, the Jaegar, sent by the Confederacy to assassinate Vaillaincourt, allegedly by order of President Steel herself. Though the Jaegar left Orion nearly mad with guilt over an imagined crime, it was handily slain.

The party entered Vaillaincourt's hiding hole by setting off all the traps guarding it. Vaillaincourt immediately recognized Clay Dallas as a bounty hunter and fled by calling on his powers as not just a scientist but an experiment of ROSCOE to turn into a being of ice and fly away. The party pursued him in the truck all the way to a hilly field in the remote far north of New Ascalon and persuaded him to turn back into his mortal form for long enough to be interrogated, though Vaillaincourt stressed that the Confederacy would send much scarier threats than the party after him if he talked too much, and that the knowledge he was about to impart was dreadful enough that he would have to kill the party to protect their minds from it.

On pain of death, Vaillaincourt confessed that he knew of two means by which the Confederacy -- who had ordered Vaillaincourt to develop these techniques to destroy Ame-no-Murakami, but recognized that they would be just as useful for godslaying -- could kill Khemed:

* They could use the ROSCOE-developed technique of obelisk summoning, calling forth an army of balrogs of Migalo that would be implanted with the souls of loyal but fallen Confederate soldiers. While a god could easily slay one balrog, an army of them would easily prevail. However, ROSCOE never perfected the technique, due to Earwyn Cucumber's sabotage, the inability of the Confederacy to test it on Great Solister due to the party winning the war too quickly, and Light's party destroying ROSCOE's laboratory.
* They could -- and Gyro is planning to -- travel beyond the asteroid belt, to a planet that is entirely a massive elder blue dragon. The Royal House of Gyro believes that the life essence of the dragon could restore Frederick to his former glory. However, while Vaillaincourt had planned to assist Gyro with these plans Akadeos withdrew his funding because they viewed the project as ridiculous. As both Bill and Vaillaincourt recognized, this plan is dangerous because there is no reason to believe that Frederick would retain his soul after being implanted with another dragon god's life essence.

Vaillaincourt viewed the failures he encountered during his research as primarily the faults of others, and eventually provoked Bill to shoot at him. Thus Vaillaincourt revealed the form that he had been gifted by ROSCOE's dark tampering: he became the Rising Sun, he who brings the blizzard from the north.

After a long battle that nearly took Kid Bill's life and drove Vaillaincourt insane, Vaillaincourt was slain. His last words were to curse the Confederacy and plead for the party to avenge him.

Searching Vaillaincourt's hiding places, the party found some magical artifacts, as well as his extensive notes on obelisk summoning.

### 28 December

While perusing Vaillaincourt's notes, Orion worked out just how difficult an obelisk summoning would be to pull off. One would need approximately 20 million gold ($100 million US) of reagents, including some especially rare reagents; cardinality that could only be extracted raw in Mochizuki-Yamashita or by stripping it from tens of thousands of live humanoid souls; a team of hundreds of high-level wizards; and the souls of a deceased army of soldiers. It seemed that only the Confederacy or Ame-no-Murakami could possibly have the resources to carry out such a spell. However, Vaillaincourt had worked on developing apparati that would reduce the resources needed, before some of them were stolen or destroyed by Earwyn's spies, and the rest were destroyed by Arix during his rampage in ROSCOE's laboratory.

### 2 January

Back on Isle Valo, Arix updated the party on the situation in two fronts:

* In the Battle of Lahaina, on Great Solister, Khemed was able to call upon the Five Paragons of Thor, killing around 20,000 Confederate troops, including many who had fought alongside Arix in the Battle of Lesser Solister just six months prior. Khemed won the battle exactly because he had been aided by a traitor to the Allies. Cucamelon's team of healers remains on Great Solister tending to the wounded.
* Closer to home, the Namesworn had successfully taken back part of the Lovlos Sea for Tyrfing; the island of Apollonius is expected to fall in a few days. Next, they will move on Lyapunov Tor and the Baby Monster.

## The Princess Fair in Loveless War

### 2 January

The party decides to help retake the Lovlos Sea, possibly planning to seek out the traitor at a later date.

### 3 January

Following the discovery of a portal to the normally inaccessible Lyapunov Tor, the party teleports there to retake the island and make it inhabitable to mortals. Lyapunov Tor is haunted by the ghosts of civilians who were killed 40 years ago in a Confederate bombing raid during the Futuristic Revolution, a world war in which Bradamante attempted to conquer all of Ascalon, and the original cause of the Cold War.

Upon arriving on the island, Orion and Bill discover that the island is scoured of fauna, save for fish, insects, and certain avians -- in particular, they discover the footprints of an incredibly large bird.

En route to the ruins of the adobe town of Santanjou, the party encounters the ghosts of three children attempting to play volleyball, though they have neither ball nor net, and in fact cannot interact with the corporeal world at all. Orion befriends the eldest ghost, Claudia; the youngest ghost, Megan, tries to possess Apple, who she has an uncanny resemblance to. Claudia and Orion resolve to dispel the ghosts, who have long forgotten the purpose that they were bound here, and are now bored with undeath. While they are talking, Orion discovers that Claudia once lived with necromancers.

Bill and Poppy decide to investigate the bizarrely large birds, who were probably produced in the magical experiments of certain sovereign citizen mages on Apollonius. In search of the bizarre birds, they climb Mount Lyapunov, and, after almost being crushed by an enormous boulder, they encounter a dire parrot, nesting on an egg and a rock that it mistook for an egg.

Apple speaks to the dire parrot using her haiku-sending magic, persuading it to give up the false egg. Bill then tames and mounts the dire parrot, which flies him down to the foot of the mountain, while Poppy realizes that the rock, which has a magical power, can be used to cast a suppression spell if it is given blood. Poppy uses her own blood to attune to the rock, and the party climbs down the mountain.

Meanwhile, back in Santanjou, Bill decides to exorcise the ghosts by shooting them down. This process, while agonizing for the ghosts, does not dispel them, and they attempt to possess him and force him to brew a potion that could heal the damaged ghosts. Though Bill's brain suffers severe damage from the strain of being tormented by ghosts, he is able to outsmart them and fend off possession. Terrified of the cowboy, the ghosts flee Santanjou.

The rest of the group arrives in Santanjou at nearly midnight and decides to rest for the night. While investigating Claudia's home, Orion discovers a picture of the children in life, with their parents -- necromancers both -- and a girl who looks almost identical to Apple. Orion discovers that the girl wrote a letter mentioning Earwyn and deduces that the girl must be Apple's mother. He and Bill also break a magical bottle, which does not dispel the magic.

### 4 January

In the early morning, Orion tracks the source of the necromantic field to a dead palm tree on the beach of Lyapunov Tor, where he is greeted by Claudia.
She confirms that the girl who is not Apple is her cousin, Lana, who was not in Santanjou during the bombing, and who would later become the wife of Earwyn Cucumber and the mother of Apple and Cucamelon.

Orion dispels the magic on the palm tree, exorcising the ghosts. Claudia thanks him as she fades. Furious, the ghosts of the necromancers refuse to fade, and repeat mindlessly:

WEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGEWEMUSTAVENGE...

But the necromancers could not remember whom they must avenge.

The necromancers call upon the bodies of the ghosts they bound, to serve as zombies to kill Orion. Bill rouses the rest of the party to fight off the zombies, who are so rotten they stand little chance, and Poppy gives Orion the egg of suppression, which terminates the zombie spell.

Upon seeing the daughter of their once niece, who worships them as ancestors, the memories of the necromancers start to return. They remember that Claudia was killed first in the bombing, and that in their last moments they bound the civilian casualties of the bombing to never rest until she was avenged and the Confederacy destroyed. When they remember the names of their younger children, they relent and fade from this mortal coil.

As she fades, Megan possesses Apple for just long enough to reveal that the broken ship is a gift, that washed up on Lyapunov Tor a decade ago, for Apple and Poppy. She also reveals the location of an old motorboat from the war that they can use to leave the island.

Before departing, Orion casts a spell on the dead palm tree so that anyone who visits it will be reminded of the stories of the deceased on Lyapunov Tor. Aside from the story of the necromancers and their children, Orion retells the stories of:

* Azura, a once priest whose lover Joelle was shot down during the Battle of Delmorev, and had spent her days after her undeath patiently waiting to rejoin Joelle in the afterlife
* Lee, a once ombudsman who was shot dead by fanatics while trying to negotiate a truce between the islanders, the Bradamantians, and the Confederates
* Anraki, a jailer who was conscripted by Bradamante but never got to leave the island.

### 5 January

Piloting Megan's gift and following the voice of his mother, Bill pilots the party to an island of sailors. They are greeted by a one-eyed dwarf, aptly named One-Eye, who welcomes them and offers them a meal. One-Eye then draws his sentient acid blaster, Tainara, on Bill and demands that he help the sailors capture and kill Arix and Cuca.

One-Eye reveals that the island is the dreaded pirate island, the Monster, and they are in the Moralia Drydocks. After a standoff, Bill kills One-Eye, and with the help of the rest of the party, terrifies the rest of the pirates in the drydocks into fleeing in terror. They try to escape on a stolen pirate ship, and then on a plesiosaur, only for the island itself to taunt them and force them to turn back by hijacking the ship itself. After the Monster mocks them enough, Bill resolves to raze the island and escape alive. Tainara joins the party, because Bill promises that he will let her kill more people than One-Eye did.

The party destroy Moralia, burning every building to the ground and stealing or wrecking all the pirates' jeeps. While ransacking One-Eye's quarters they discover that the pirates are privateers with powerful sponsors, including Queen Nessa Gyro, and General Vaughn Weaver of Ame-no-Murakami, whom Apple recognizes as a friend of Earwyn. The Monster then taunts them to confront it at the pirate city of Sentimentarchu, deeper inland.

After driving past a lake and using One-Eye's corpse to talk to a local pirate leader, who gives them the road to Sentimentarchu and warns them not to wake the nearby dragon. They talk to some orcs and rakastas and then arrive at a bridge guarded by a dire parrot. After searching One-Eye's corpse they discover that the password the parrot wanted was *We are the servants, and you are the Monster* -- the inverse of the Monster's command to the pirates: *We are the Monster, and you are our servants.*

### 6 January

After passing a mountain inhabited by the aforementioned dragon, and climbing the dormant volcano of Terekyuasta, the party approach the city in the volcano's crater: Sentimentarchu. There they discover a theater where the pirates entertain themselves with twisted games that seem to involve a Wheel of Misfortune (with chances to roll for Respite, The Race of Doom, Good News, Let's Make a Deal, The Pit and the Pendulum, Poison Roulette, Agony, and Beheading) and cutting off the limbs of old men. They talk their way into the main hall of Sentimentarchu and ransack the office of the Dread Captain, whom the Monster seems to view as an equal, and who had letters personally signed by Queen Nessa and General Weaver. They learn that the Monster and the Dread Captain are aware of One-Eye's death and are conspiring against the party.

Bill rigs the jeep with One-Eye as a car bomb, and sets it off under the main hall, destroying much of Sentimentarchu. During the explosion, the pirates of Sentimentarchu attack the party, quickly imprisoning everyone except Apple in a force cage. After weakening and sleeping Apple, they abduct her. Meanwhile, Poppy escapes from the force cage, and fends off the pirates' magic with just a single hit point to spare.

Poppy flies away from the burning ruins of Sentimentarchu and vows to return to save the others, who are locked in a completely dark room occasionally punctuated by sirens deep beneath the city. As she flees, she sets fire to the docks, sinking a pirate ship while its crew was distracted fending off the fire started by the truck bomb.

### 7 January

In the night, the prisoners are taunted by the Dread Captain. Orion begs the Dread Captain to give him tools to work with, so the Dread Captain gives him a bomb. However, Orion outsmarts the Dread Captain, wounding him with the villain's own bomb.

Poppy awakens in a camp of rakasta, who have long been enemies of the Monster's pirates. The captain of the guard, Samira, and the chief, Bahira, propose to use the bombing of Sentimentarchu to invade and drive away the pirates.

That afternoon, the prisoners are forced to play the Wheel of Misfortune, in which the Dread Captain wounds Kid Bill, and Orion outsmarts the Dread Captain's tricks and escapes unharmed. Meanwhile, Bahira's parrot-riders call forth a comet that levels the barracks of Sentimentarchu, killing many pirates and creating a distraction that allows Poppy to enter the theater of the Wheel of Misfortune. The Dread Captain activates a trap door and fights the party in the grotto beneath the theater, accompanied by the physical form of the Monster -- a demon wall -- and his pet, an aster aboleth.

Though the aboleth takes control of Orion's body and attempts to use it to drown Apple, the party slay it and the Dread Captain, before Kid Bill lines up shots that blast down the demon wall, shattering the soul of the Monster. The corpses of the Dread Captain and the aboleth are left as fodder for the alligators that infest the grotto.

Meanwhile, outside, a naval host jointly lead by Arix and Admiral Nagisa Mulbari of Tyrfing is bombarding the ships fleeing Sentimentarchu. Cucamelon had used the pillar of storge to find his missing sister and had called upon Isle Valo and its allies to attempt a rescue mission, only to find that Poppy, Kid Bill, and the rakasta had already leveled much of the city.

Back at Isle Valo, the party gets news from the Alliance of Ascalon: President Steel has formally declared a Second Divine War on Khemed, and an army of Murakaman undead was seemingly hijacked and sent to attack the capital, Teichmueller, before standing down at the last second.

### 8 January

The remnants of the Monster surrender to Mulbari, ending the battle of Sentimentarchu and the pirates' reign of terror over the central Lovlos Sea.

The party resolves to investigate the alliances the pirates had made with Queen Nessa Gyro and General Vaughn Weaver.

On Borns-Weil, Euler visits the city of Murkville, where he is attacked by a zombie -- none other than Amman-Ra III, a Murakaman commander, who wanted Euler dead for reasons unknown. Euler is rescued by the pop singer Drake Amadeus, who turns out to be a master of the Shadowarts. Amadeus absorbs Amman-Ra's necromantic energy, trying to become all-powerful, but is slain by Euler.

Beset by claustrophobia, Orion declares that he will never be captured again, and purchases explosives and tools to break himself out of any prison.

### 11 January

On Isle Valo, the Valorous Lucians celebrate the defeat of the Monster. Admiral Mulbari announces that, as a reward for the reconquest of the Lovlos Sea, Isle Valo and the Island of the Ancients will be granted independence. She also proposes an assault on the Baby Monster and the Twenty-six Pariahs, the last holdouts of the pirate empire.

Orion laments the misery of war, and Bill and Mulbari try to cheer him up. Mulbari gives the party a gift: the corpus of magical research undertaken on the Monster. She warns the party that if it is too dangerous, it should be destroyed.

Apple and Cucamelon observe that their father, Earwyn, has been acting even stranger and more secretive -- dishonorable, Apple would say -- than usual recently. Considering that Earwyn may have had a part in the alliance between Weaver and the Monster, they decide to talk to him.

Mulbari and Arix reveal that while searching the prisons of the Monster, their troops found an elderly dying man who claimed to be the president of Poetsbane.

That night, Orion steals two bottles of vodka from the party and drinks far too much of it.

Apple and Poppy have a vision of the toy ship that Megan gave them, speaking with Megan's voice, asking them to teach it what is the meaning of friendship.

### 12 January

Orion wakes up in the home of Nebula, one of Arix's other trainees, who noticed him passed out and and risk of drowning or choking in vomit on the beach. Nebula wakes Arix, who berates Orion for his misconduct before expressing remorse for the psychological toll that the missions that Arix has ordered Orion on have inflicted upon him.

The following day, Cucamelon heals the supposed president of Poetsbane and questions him along with the party. Using Orion's mind-probing magic to get around the man's memory loss, they learn that he is, indeed, Novato Mumford, former president of Poetsbane. Mumford was imprisoned for insider trading on orders of President Steel after the ROSCOE Incident, probably as part of Steel's power-grab. Then, in spite of heightened Confederate security measures, Mumford was abducted by Khemed and handed over to a masked figure, who turned out to be an authority figure at Base Arimel in Ame-no-Murakami. The masked man thanked Khemed, remarked "So this is what it is like to have true power," and paid the Dread Captain to torture him to death.

Mumford begs Arix to let him return to Poetsbane, where he is confident that he will be acquitted on what he claims are dubious charges. Not wanting to anger the Confederacy for holding one of their prisoners, Arix allows Mumford to leave Isle Valo.

Bill observes that General Weaver would have control over the prison at Base Arimel and concludes that they must present the evidence against Weaver to the civilian leadership of Ame-no-Murakami.

### 13 January

Ex-President Mumford returns to Poetsbane. The party arrives in Teichmueller, which is still under high alert after the attempted zombie attack from a few days prior. After speaking with some bureaucrats, they present evidence to the Investigation Bureau of Teichmueller III. The Bureau, seeing the danger, asks the party to return the following morning for an emergency briefing with the Prime Minister herself.

Bill hits the oldest saloon in the city, and drinks their oldest drink, while Apple, Poppy, and Orion explore the weapon shops downtown. Apple and Poppy buy new weapons.

### 14 January

Taking a call from Arix Stormbrood, the party learns that ROSELYN-901 claims to have a mole inside the Murakaman military, but refuses to say who it is. ROSELYN-901 says that, according to the mole, the military elite of Ame-no-Murakami despise the civilian government, whom they blame for not letting crush the Confederacy -- they despise the Confederacy, too, but only because its continued existence is a reminder that Ame-no-Murakami is still a democracy. The mole warns that the military especially resents Prime Minister Raon Lee, who they view as weak and too willing to negotiate with President Steel over their differences, and suspect has entered into a secret pact with Khemed.

Following the phone call, the party departs for Chaewon Tower, the office of the Prime Minister. They are escorted in by an officer, and after a run-in with a metal detector, enter the high-security area. There they encounter General Weaver, himself waiting for a meeting for the Prime Minister. After Weaver and Apple insult each other, the party meets Prime Minister Lee, a tiny elven woman who looks far older than her true age.

Lee reveals that, following an investigation into the invoices of the Monster, Murakaman officials have concluded that Vaughn Weaver and Nessa Gyro were in fact signatories to the Dread Captain's financial deals. In particular, Weaver arranged for the torture of "a VIP" and Gyro ordered the assassination of Arix and Cuca. Neither signatory seems aware of the other's existence.

Bill explains that the VIP is likely Mumford, who was a gift to Weaver from Khemed Gogz in exchange for services rendered. Since then, Mumford has returned to the Confederacy, and his torture, along with the attack on Murkville by the treasonous Amman-Ra III, has caused a major diplomatic incident. Steel and Lee plan to have a summit at Chaorkartel to negotiate out the dispute, and Lee decides to have Weaver arrested, court-martialled, and extradited to the Confederacy before then, as a first repentance for Murakaman sins. She admits that it will not be enough, but it will be a first step.

As the party is leaving Chaewon Tower, they notice that Weaver has disappeared. Bill finds him in a restroom, where he has apparently been for close to fifteen minutes. Weaver goes to meet with Lee, and after a few minutes, exits the meeting room and is immediately arrested by the building's security and dragged off to prison.

Bill steals Weaver's phone from security, and after some work the party manages to deduce that before he was married, Weaver was a huge fan of the elfgirl group Pink Candy. After some more research, they deduce from a music video that his favorite member, Kei, was born on 10 June, 319 YD -- exactly the password to his phone.

Searching through Weaver's phone, Apple finds that he destroyed most of the history and email on his phone prior to his arrest, but three very recent emails remain:

* An email entitled **Troops**, from his Lt. General, Tsuyu Wang May, which says "We need a team of geas-masters and necromancers -- make sure they’re loyalists. Anyone who would question the chain of command cannot participate in the mission. And we need some troops -- mortals. We’ll need undead too in case things go south, but we need actual blood to be shed. We can’t just lose expendables if we want to win the battle of public opinion. The Damocletian boy won’t be ready by then but that’s fine -- he would make too much spectacle for the mission to look like an accident."
* An email entitled **Dinner**, from an unknown kbkg@military.grothendieck.gov, which says "30 for dinner party. Expenses admissible: 800 gp. Make sure TWM is there."
* An email entitled **Meeting with Prime Minister**, from an unknown shscp@military.grothendieck.gov, which says "Make sure you are not late. Lee is already furious even though she knows you are plotting against her."

The party deduces that Weaver's faction had been planning some sort of military disaster in order to win public support and usurp the Prime Minister.

Bill presents the new evidence against Weaver to Lee, who thanks and then immediately dismisses him.

### 15 January

The next day is Apple's birthday. The party decides that they should attend the Chaorkartel Summit in case something bad happens there. Arix concurs, and admits that he isn't sure what to do about Nessa Gyro, who was almost certainly spurred to action by the fates of her brother, Frederick, and her mother. He suggests manipulating Jan Steel into imprisoning the Queen of Gyro.

Arix and Carmen agree to send the Valorous Lucians and Nox's Family to the Chaorkartel Summit as an emergency measure, but fear that it will not be enough to avert disaster, even with Weaver in prison. Bill calls on an unlikely ally to also attend the summit.

Apple and Cuca suspect that Earwyn is somehow behind the plot against the Prime Minister.

For her birthday, Apple decides to meditate above the Waterfall that Flows Backwards across the Bridge that Mortals Don't Cross. There, she manages to meld the water with the power of her mind, creating a statue of Sweet Buns. The statue, however, has a mind of its own. It produces a book from its pocket which it attempts to read, but causes its head to explode.

### 16 January

Bill observes that the Murakaman media is in a full-on anti-Prime Minister propaganda blitz, bombarding her with all sorts of (largely false and misogynistic) accusations.

En route to Chaorkartel, the party arrives at Dayra Zinfiel's hometown, the eternally dark city of Dawn and Dusk, near Arakelov. Owing to the presence of Cuca, Poppy, and Kid Bill, the undead population of Dawn and Dusk seems far more terrified of the party than the other way around.

### 17 January

In the middle of the night, a young vampire plays a prank on Poppy. Poppy then chases the vampire around, to its horror.

The party drives through the disputed city of Hurthi, an underground city ruled by dragons which is claimed by both New Ascalon and Arakelov.

That night, the party arrives in Chaorkartel. Despite the rumors that the city was largely abandoned due its distinguished status as a major cause of the Cold War, they find a massive automated carport and a sprawling underground city populated with kobolds, dragonkin, and dragonborn, ruled by a council of white dragons led by the ancient dragon Gymnosophy. The crown jewel of Chaorkartel, however, is above ground: the Ice Palace, an enormous structure made entirely of ice, which glistens in the sunlight.

### 18 January

A host of Murakaman undead arrives in Chaorkartel. Poppy observes that they are being brought in from airships parked a mile to the east of Chaorkartel.

Troops from Nox's Family also begin arriving in Chaorkartel.

### 19 January

Apple notices that a Gyran airship has landed near Chaorkartel, bringing a small division of Warforged. However, they are vastly outnumbered by the Murakaman forces, which now no longer just include undead.

Arix, Carmen, and the Valorous Lucians arrive in Chaorkartel.

## Born to be Weild

### 20 January

The entourages of Jan Steel and Raon Lee arrive in Chaorkartel. They angrily shake hands as they enter the Ice Palace.

Nebula observes that tens of thousands of Murakaman troops have just landed in Chaorkartel, and are mobilizing as if they are preparing for war, rather than as bodyguards for their Prime Minister.

Khemed sneaks into the Ice Palace to observe the meeting, but is ambushed by sorcerers of unclear allegiance. Though he is able to kill several of them, they are able to seize Thor's Mercy from him in the scuffle.

Posing as a Murakaman soldier and his children, the party sneaks into the Ice Palace. Poppy is ambushed by the sorcerers, and though she and Kid Bill are able to defeat them, at this point they are attacked by Murakaman troops, lead by a necromancer and a samurai, trying to keep them out of the main hall and accusing them of being Raon Lee's "coconspirators".

Apple defeats the samurai and Bill and Poppy kill the necromancer. Meanwhile, Khemed overcomes the sorcerers, losing the Book of Titanite in the process, and makes it to the main hall, where he finds that Murakaman and Confederate bodyguards are engaged in a firefight. Raon Lee is dead and Jan Steel is too shellshocked to speak. He calls down an earthquake to force the troops to stop fighting and teleports away with the two heads of state.

The earthquake causes the Ice Palace to collapse. As the party escapes with the samurai, Sour Buns, in tow, they recover the Book of Titanite and one of the sorcerer's orbs, which Apple identifies as resembling a former possession of Earwyn's.

Furious at the loss of the Book of Titanite and Thor's Mercy, Khemed returns Steel to the Confederacy. Strangely, Lee's soul has been bound, preventing her resurrection; he surrenders her body to the Murakaman government. He learns that Vaughn Weaver has been released from prisoner and declared Acting Prime Minister in light of Lee's death. Khemed also orders Garagin to retrieve Thor's Mercy from the mysterious sorcerers.

The Murakaman military exits Chaorkartel and begins marching west. The party gets in their truck and tries to outrun the Murakamans, and after a wild chase and a yeti stampede, they arrive in Nox's Family, the easternmost town in New Ascalon.

At Nox's Family, Arix shows the publicly available footage of the Chaorkartel Summit: after a tense argument between Steel and Lee, Lee suddenly produced an automatic rifle and tried to kill Steel, resulting against the firefight between Confederate and Murakaman bodyguards that Khemed witnessed. Bill contacts Khemed, who reluctantly agrees to come to Nox's Family to retrieve the Book of Titanite.

Arix and Carmen resolve to hold Nox's Family against the massively numerically superior Murakaman army.

### 21 January

After a spat between Carmen and Escamillo over the sacrifice of the steadfast, Arix points out that the defense of the city is probably hopeless; but Carmen suggests Nox's Family play its trump card: Poppy. Ame-no-Murakami has mobilized the Three Laws, its three mechas and answers to the Blasters, to attack New Ascalon. Carmen suggests that Poppy capture the Second Law and pilot against against the Murakamans. Poppy offers to sneak into the Second Law, overpower the pilot, and take the robot, but Carmen doubts that this is possible, as the Three Laws are piloted by a crew, unlike the solo-pilot Blasters. The party departs with three Lucians -- Nebula, Mercy, and Radiance -- to ambush and capture the Second Law.

Around 1 AM -- perhaps an hour before the arrival of the enemy in Nox's Family -- Poppy finds the Second Law. The party attempts to ambush it, but are noticed by some of the crew, who leap into the cockpit and open fire. The party is able to break through the shielding of the cockpit, storm the cockpit, and kill the crew, seizing the Second Law. They then storm Nox's Family with Poppy piloting the Second Law, which has been surrounded by Murakaman troops, easily turning the battle. As the Murakamans are repelled from Nox's Family, they find themselves assaulted by the newest Confederate Blaster: Locke, which annihilates hundreds of undead troops in one blast.

After the battle, Khemed arrives in Nox's Family to retrieve the book of Titanite, and Arix gives it to him, conditional on Thor's Mercy staying out of Khemed's hands.

Cucamelon and Apple call Earwyn and demands to know what his part in the recent warfare has been. Earwyn denies all involvement and insists that he is opposed to Weaver's faction for ideological reasons. After a suggestion from the party that they overthrow Weaver together to prevent a war, Earwyn agrees to contact his "allies" and see if he can get support for Weaver's overthrow. However, Earwyn warns that Weaver's views are highly popular in the Murakaman military, and Weaver will be replaced by another of his same faction.

Carmen departs to Skull's Peak, against the wishes of the party, claiming that the Lucians need emergency measures in case they are not so fortunate in the trials to come.

### 22 January

The party leaves the Second Law with Arix to assist in the defense of Nox's Family, and travels to Teichmueller, the seat of Weaver's power. They resolve to overthrow Weaver and destroy his reputation, allowing a more reasonable leader to seize control of Ame-no-Murakami and end the war.

Posing as a soldier from the battle of Nox's Family, Bill manages to get an audience with Lt. Gen. Tsuyu, and convinces her that a Confederate convoy is moving through Poetsbane towards New Ascalon. Orion uses Bill's meeting with Tsuyu to sneak into the Capitol building while invisible.

Meanwhile, in the streets of Teichmueller, Apple and Poppy manage to use some magically enhanced persuasion, and the disastrous battle of Nox's Family, to incite a riot. The guards of the Capitol building, unequipped to deal with a riot and unwilling to use lethal force on civilians, are quickly overrun as the crowd, chanting "Fuck Vaughn Weaver! Fuck Vaughn Weaver!" break through the front door.

Orion follows Tsuyu to a meeting with Gen. Weaver, who he then pickpockets, recovering a wallet and keys. The Capitol guards who are not occupied dealing with the rioters attempt to capture Orion, allowing Bill, now posing as a janitor, to attack Weaver with Tainara, killing him and dissolving part of his corpse. Attempting to capture or kill Bill, a channeler in the guard calls forth a Yumxacian spirit, a spectral being which represents nature itself. Though the Yumxacian spirit calls forth life from the various paintings in the Capitol building to aid it, it is slain by the party.

Orion captures Weaver's corpse and uses his keys to ransack Weaver's office. There, he finds various policy documents, and a book in a cleverly hidden vault: The End of Brotherhood.

As the party is escaping from the Capitol building, the statue at the front door -- Alice Minzú, the personification of Ame-no-Murakami -- draws her sword. Though she knocks out Apple and Poppy, and mentally assaults Orion, the party is able to destroy the statue, and fly away.

After escaping from Teichmueller, the party steals two vehicles that they use to escape to Serre. Gen. Cato Nema addresses the nation, blaming the attack on the Confederacy and vowing revenge, declaring "If you have any loved Confederates, preparing to mourn."

### 23 January

That night, Orion steals a lot of money from a casino, and the party rents a boat that they use to sail to Isle Valo.

En route to Isle Valo, Orion finds a note in the End of Brotherhood -- an encrypted letter of contingency that outlines how Ame-no-Murakami should respond to Gen. Weaver's death. Though the cipher has some giveaway properties, Orion does not break it. The End of Brotherhood itself is an ancient Yamashitan spellbook which teaches the spell Familicide.

Orion reads notes detailing the acquisition of a weapon -- the Damocletian Boy -- by the Murakaman military on Weaver's orders. The Damocletian Boy is capable of destroying a lesser moon.

After arriving, the party has Cuca reincarnate Weaver into a deep gnome. The party interrogates Weaver, who asks Bill his thoughts on responsibility, denies any knowledge of the location of Thor's Mercy, and reveals that he has planned for his successor to retaliate against the Confederacy for his death with the Damocletian Boy.

Bill declares that the world is "twelve seconds from midnight", as he fears the Confederacy will retaliate with its own weapons of mass destruction if the Damocletian Boy is used, and decides to try to free the soul of Raon Lee and resurrect her, so that he can clear up the true nature of Chaorkartel and persuade the world to give up the war. However, Weaver reveals that he ordered the destruction of the soul of Raon Lee to prevent anyone from resurrecting her. Orion suggests using the Sacrifice of the Steadfast to repair Lee's soul.

Weaver gloats that the party has no choice but to restore him to power to prevent the use of the Damocletian Boy. However, Arix calls the party to inform them that Earwyn's faction and Khemed have also learned about this threat against humanity, and have proposed an alliance to stop it. In particular, if Orion could fix up the Second Law, it could be used as a weapon for extraterrestrial combat to defeat the Third Law, which, according to Earwyn, defends the Damocletian Boy.

Following advice from Jimkel, Orion travels with the party to Pastel Caramel to obtain the rare metal neohormium from a Warforged gangster named Funky Fresh. After bribing Funky Fresh with apple pie and cash, Orion also breaks into a journalist's apartment to destroy records of Funky Fresh's crimes, where he learns that Funky Fresh's gang, Keystone, has been secretly working for both Gyran Motors and the Valorous Lucians.

Funky Fresh leads the party to the tomb of King Narragansett the Breaker (720? BP - 679 BP), a king of the ancient Daruud people. The Daruud frequently built idols made of neohormium. The tomb of Narragansett includes murals depicting He of Many Faces, a sort of syncretism of the three gods of war -- Loki, Migalo, and Kiri Jolith -- wielding a hammer quite like Khemed's. Though Funky Fresh abandons the party once they are deep inside the tomb, and though the party is attacked by kissing bugs after Apple set off a trap -- several of which are captured by Apple -- they manage to make it to the end, where they are assailed by an idol of He of Many Faces made of neohormium.

Though Orion is badly injured in the struggle, the party manage to destroy the idol of He of Many Faces, and after escaping from the tomb, they are surrounded by Keystone. Funky Fresh demands that the party "hand over the boy", to which Kid Bill responds by shooting the gangster dead. Keystone flees and the party returns with Funky Fresh's corpse to Nox's Family.

### 24 January

Orion and Jimkel repair the damage to the Second Law, and then have Cuca reincarnate Funky Fresh into the body of a cow. Interrogating the gangster, Orion confirms that Terra Motori sent Funky Fresh to capture his son, and that Terra had taken an interest in the aerospace industry because of Orion. When the cow expresses no remorse for nearly causing Orion's death, Bill murders the cow.

Orion confronts his father, who expresses remorse for neglecting his son, and shock that Funky Fresh put Orion in mortal danger when his orders were clearly to bring Orion home unharmed. Terra begs for Orion to come home, and finally agrees to help Orion with whatever he needs in exchange for Orion trying again to live with him for a month.

At Apple's request, Terra's engineers use the leftover neohormium to forge a giant katana for the Second Law to wield, as well as making various upgrades to the mecha.

Carmen returns from Skull's Peak with the sacrifice of the steadfast, though she has not used it.

Poppy calls upon Bahira's tribe to assist them in battle for the Damocletian Boy.

Apple, Poppy, Cuca, and Kid Bill teleport to the Scarlet Devil's Hell, in search of the book of water. After enlisting the aid of a family of xorns, they retrieve the book of water from the Infinite Library. The book of water turns out to be a cursed book called The Truth, which frequently turns its readers insane. After reading it, Poppy only survives by the most narrow of margins, and concludes that she is just a fictional character in a game known as "Dungeons and Dragons". The xorns join the party, in search of more aboleths to feed on, and in hope that they could be found on Borns-Weil.

Following a request of Vaughn Weaver, the party speaks to him, but the man has been driven by mad by guilt. They put him out of his misery by leaving him with The Truth; the book drives him insane and causes him to shoot himself dead with five guns at once, but not before screaming something incomprehensible about Lucia.

### 25 January

The party takes off in the Second Law, and docks with the *Damocletian*: the ship of the Weird Sisters, a multinational conspiracy that exists to prevent total war between the superpowers, of which Earwyn is a prominent member. After a tense meeting, the Weird Sisters and their allies, which now includes the party, prepare for battle against the *Fei-Meng*, where the Damocletian Boy -- or as his true name is, Kio Taro -- is held, along with Thor's Mercy.

While on the *Damocletian*, Kid Bill notices that a device that Earwyn claims is part of the ship's engine is, in fact, identical to the ROSCOE-made cardinal transfer device that Arix destroyed several months ago during the battle in ROSCOE headquarters. He sets a bomb to go off three weeks from now in the ROSCOE-like room.

The Second Law, piloted by Poppy with a crew led by Apple and Orion, disembarks from the *Damocletian* and engages the *Fei-Meng* in battle. The *Fei-Meng* deploys the Third Law to defend itself, and the Laws engage in battle over Borns-Weil.

Meanwhile, the *Damocletian* uses the Second Law's cover fire to forcibly ram into and embark the *Fei-Meng*. Arix and Cuca lead the bulk of the allied forces to assault the projection bay, where Kio Taro is held, while Khemed and Kid Bill storm the flight deck, hoping to recover Thor's Mercy and hijack the *Fei-Meng*. They are met by Tsuyu Wang May, who challenges Kid Bill to a duel to avenge the death of Weaver. After an intense shootout, Tsuyu is killed when a stray bullet knocks down a heavy piece of sheet metal which crushes her to death.

Though the Third Law unleashes its curvature field, the Second Law breaks the Third Law's defenses with a barrage of all-out attacks. The crew of the Third Law evacuates and the Third Law self-destructs, seriously damaging the Second Law, which manages to make it to the *Fei-Meng*. Underneath the battle, Kio Taro's spell calls forth a black hole over the lunar city of Murkville, which begins to be sucked into the black hole.

Khemed destroys the defenses of the flight deck and, after a dense standoff, Khemed and Bill capture the flight deck, killing General Cato Nema along the way. Outside the projection bay, both sides suffer heavy casualties, but Orion is able to turn invisible and run through the gunfire to reach the projection bay. After tricking the defenses of the projection bay to stand down, Orion captures the Damocletian Boy, ending the black hole summoning spell and causing the boy to faint from exhaustion.

Khemed announces that he has captured the *Fei-Meng* for Solister and demands that all other factions evacuate the ship. After Arix boards the *Damocletian*, he notices Earwyn -- the true wielder of Thor's Mercy -- channeling its energy into the ROSCOE-like device. Earwyn unleashes the power of the device to shatter Arix's mind and call forth an army of balrogs. When confronted by the party for his actions, Earwyn merely smiles and says, "Hello, Apple. Bear witness to your mother's victory."