First War

## Introduction

**The First Discord Grail War**took place in an unnamed city, later revealed to be Fujitsu City. This Grail War featured the seven standard servant classes, with each Servant being paired with an original character as their Master. While there was a full seven teeams, only six players participated.

## Cast

###  Player Characters

#### NPCs

 Stefano Vanastokova | Master of Rider
 Anomander Rake | Rider | Killed on Night 5 by Berserker

## Notable Features

The **First War** featured a Day/Night cycle, in which characters could attempt to scout the map and recover as the planned for each Night's combat. Each day contained two rounds of activity, while each night contained three rounds of activity. The turns were divided into alternating day and night sections; the individual rounds themselves were not divided into smaller phases as is common through subsequent Grail Wars. Within this structure, any particular action a character could take was permitted at any point in the round, provided they had enough initiative to act before other relevant characters.

The map used for the **First War** would later be named Fujitsu City, which featured groupings of areas in which characters could interact more widely with areas they were not currently in.

## Synopsis

The **First War** began during the day with various characters meeting each other almost immediately. Most notably among these interactions was the first meeting of Jesse "Sanguine" Everett, who encountered half of the cast within the first day, and more members that night. Upon being beckoned by Massilimo and his servant, Sanguine returned only an obscene gesture. Immediately after, Satou Naoko and Adelina Gage formed a loose partnership, and offered to include Sanguine in the deal. The man replied by telling both women to "Piss Off" before leaving immediately. This began a trend of hostility towards Sanguine that managed to last the entire Grail War.

That night several characters began to work together to find Sanguine and bring him to justice. Immediately upon this agreement Sanguine's servant Berserker arrived and began the first combat of the War. Naoko forged a quick alliance with Nakajima as their servants, Lancer and Caster, did battle with a Boar mounted Berserker. The fight was interrupted by the next day.

Over the course of several days, Naoko and Lancer moved throughout the map attempting to hunt down Sanguine and Berserker, the latter developing a startling amount of infamy already. Nakajima and Caster assisted directly in this effort, almost pinning Sanguine into a corner when the dastardly cowboy fled on a stolen speedboat. Throughout the days of hunting Berserker a romantic relationship began between Nakajima and Naoko.

Eventually, the hunters suceeding in catching up to Berserker. Fighting at the church broke out as Sanguine and Berserker did battle against Gage, Saber, Nakajima, Caster, Naoko, and Lancer, while Ashton fled the area for safety. During the fighting, Sanguine took a lethal blow from Caster's Noble Phantasm after covering his servant from the attack.

With his master slain, Berserker fled the battle on death's door. Lost in the celebration of finally defeating their target, and deciding that Berserker was too wounded to be a threat, Nakajima left with his servant while Naoko continued on, her Servant more than willing to finish the job. As Massilimo made an appearance, posing at the moderator for the Grail War amd promising to clean up the mess left by the battle, Gage was able to remove the command spells from Sanguine's body without the other's paying much attention. The advantage now hers, Gage took Saber with her to find where exactly Ashton went, while keeping a careful eye out for Berserker.

As Gage chased down Berserker, she triggered a trap laid by Ashton. Deciding to save that fight for later, she continued chasing the wounded servant, eventually meeting up with Naoko. Unfortunately for the two women, netiher they nor their servants managed to find a fresh trail. While they chased Berserker in the north, Nakajima made contact with Stefano Vanastokova. While Caster was busy trying to recover from the newest battle with Berserker, Nakajima discovered a strange tombstone, but dismissed the revelance of the item.

Several days passed, without much event. Berserker was still missing, most people assuming he had faded away without his master. Nakajima and Caster slowly worked at surveiling the city, the local vigilante working with his powerful servant to set up an information network that would later nearly win them the War. As Gage entrenched herself, giving up the chase, Naoko made her way south to rejoin her ally and romantic interest, surprisingly bringing the nervous Ashton and his unseen servant along with her.

Joining Nakajima in the south, Naoko and Ashton also found the strange tombstone but disregarded it as well. While Nakajima had done so for his own reasons, these two simply had other plans. In a fit of betrayal that no one but Naoko herself had expected, the young women struck Nakajima, attempting to kill him while he was unaware. Fighting broke out that night, as Lancer and Assassin attacked Caster, almost striking the servant down.

While Nakajima did not expect the attacks, Caster was ever prepared, and manged to teleport both herself and Nakajima away before a fatal blow was landed. They were safe in their escape, barely. Through the power of a command spell, Assassin followed Caster via her own magics. Only Nakajima's own command spell saved the pair that night, from then on neither of them trusting the other masters whatsoever.

The nights that followed were peaceful, for all the frantic activity that various people were participating in. Naoko and her servant scoured the city, attempting to find Nakajima and Caster before the wounded pair had a chance to properly recover. Searching the northern side of the city entirely, Naoko and her partner missed Nakajima on several occassions. The young man being kept alive by the cunning and mobility of his servant Caster. The information network the two had constructed was demonstrating its value once again.

Surprisingly, a trap laid by Lancer found a target, thoughit was certainly not who was intended. Gage, long standing ally of Naoko, quite literally ffell into Lancer's trap. Helped out of the pit by Massilimo once more pretending to be the War's moderator. Ignoring the man and calling his bluff, Gage marched onwards, setting up camp not far away.

Shortly after, Lancer and her young master encountered the lone master Stefano. Seeing another opportunity, they struck, almost killing the man instantly. Rider was busy chopping up Assassin's master, Ashton, when his own master came under attack, Returning to the parkade, Rider showed his true form as he joined Lancer in combat, taking the form of a giant black dragon, must to Naoko's horror and Lancer's glee.

The battle was short, as Rider quickly found himself taxed in the fight and used the last of his mana to transport him and Stefano away. The two landed safely inside Caster's territory, a location they were granted privelege to only for emergency situations. Unfortunately even the security of Caster's own realm was not enough, as Lancer tracked her favored prey steadily there.

Arriving as Rider and Stefano were attempting to patch their wounds, Naoko was joined by her new ally Ashton. The young man had nearly lost his life at Rider's hand, and was looking for revenge. Assassin joined the fray in tandem with Lancer once more, the two servants battering Rider as Lancer unleashed her most powerful ability. Trapped within Lancer's reality marble with no mana, Rider was left helpless as Naoko and Ashton felled his master, the latter draining the last bit of life out of Stefano with a surprising sense of malice.

Ashton's triumph was short lived. The young man was smart, but he was also naieve. Naoko's betrayal was almost as surprising to him as it had been to Nakajima. With Rider now masterless and trapped within Lancer's Grand Arena, the Monster Hunter lashed out against Ashton and Assassin. Assassin himself was uncomfortably familiar with betrayal, and the servant quickly took control of Lancer, The fight continued with Assassin possessing Lancer, using the servant to batter Naoko mercilessly. The young girl felt the sting of betrayal that she had to this point inflicted so casually onto others. Fearing for her master's safety Lancer struggled for control, eventually breaking free of Assassin's grasp. Immediately she let the Arena fade away, dismissing her reality marble and preparing to escape, Unfortunately for everyone present the night's surprises weren't over.

Berserker lived. Several nights before, shortly after Assassin's assault of Caster following Naoko's betrayal, Nakajima had found the body of Sanguine hidden in the Church's depths. While he wasn't present to see Massilimo carry the body away, he at least assumed the man had been well and thoroughly dead for a while. Only he wasn't. Sanguine had apparently regained consciousness at some point and had been spending the last several days attempting to repair his battered and broken body. Whatever the man was, alive was only a partially accurate descriptor.

Having spent many nights feeding off of civlians and evading his enemies, Berserker had just recently began recieving mana from his master, but was nonetheless ready for battle. While Lancer did battle with Assassin and Rider in the marble, Berserker waited outside. Surprisingly, the mad man took the time to fish while he was waiting. But as soon as the survivors emerged from the marble, he struck. Even a fishing rod was deadly in that man's hands.

Ashton had taken mortal damage in Lancer's reality marble, Rider was on deaths door, and even Lancer was fairly wounded. Berserker struck with the force and ferocity of 5 men. In his first sally, he struck Rider dead, and wounded Assassin and Lancer deeply, Unable to cover his master, Assassin fled as Ashton bled out. The young man was not healthy to begin with, and his wounds were serious enough that his future was deathly certain.

Seizing the opportunity, Berserker launched a barrage of teleporting strikes against Assassin, nearly killing the servant before he could flee. But Berserker was not without victims. His second barrage, fueled by his momentum and rage, had included Lancer. The armour clad Monster Hunter was struck dead, her existence on barely saved by the palico heplers who carted her dying form from the area. Somewhere in the confusion, Naoko escaped unseen.

Perched atop the bridge partway across the city, Archer sighed. His rifled had been primed and ready for action for quite a few days now. Watching the battle through his high powered scope, the silent man slowly packed up his gear. He had a bullet intended for the girl Naoko, under his master's orders. But he couldn't see her: certainly, a blur here or there was notable. But the marksman couldn't see through Naoko's invisibility without extra time to study what was happening. Patience was the sniper's friend, and being in the last 5 was definitely a time to be cautious. Ignoring the weakened Assassin, Archer let the easy prey go. His master was playing this cautiously. He would listen, for now.

## Trivia

* Jesse Everett, aka Sanguine, was almost never referred to as such. He became revealed as Berserker's Master, and was only ever properly introduced to one character: Ashton. In his first day of the War, Sanguine made obscene gestures and scathing insults towards Teams Archer, Lancer, and Saber. That night, he attacked Teams Lancer and Caster openly. Due to his insults and demeanor, Sanguine became better known as "Mr Piss", and his servant best known as "Boarzerker." Collectively they were referred to as the Boar Riding Menace.