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Lakas' Desolation
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At first, Runa and Limac were unsure how they would accomplish this. For millenia, new bug species were created by natural selection, and now, to play god, to just shape a new kind of bug?
But after a long period of research, a testing egg at last cracked, and out crawled this beauty:
With the new knowledge of what may come, Jaeger calls in his most worthy soldiers to help bolster their defenses.
Also, individual challenge please. @Sammysammyson
"No, Hegwin, but thank you. I just had an awful nightmare, and you are correct that I didn't sleep a wink after it. Still, no matter. How could I count myself as worthy of this position if one sleepless night would take me out of commission?" She smiled a weak smile.
"A nightmare you say? How peculiar... If you wish me to craft a sleeping draft for you for tonight, I can promise a dreamless sleep."
"Thank you, but I will pass. Nightmares almost never happen; this was an merely a unlucky happenstance."
Hegwin bowed. "As you wish, my lady. Know that if you change your mind, I am here."
At the council meeting later that day Hegwin noticed that every person there seemed to be exhausted. After two hours of fruitless conversation, a break was held, and he corralled Bregam, one of Chaemar's closest friends.
"Bregam, you don't look well. Have you been getting enough sleep?"
"Of course, Hegwin. I know how to take care of myself. This is just-"
"The residual effects of a nightmare from last night, involving a giant, snake-like creature that invaded your home?"
Bregam's eyes widened. "Yes, how did you know?"
"That wasn't an ordinary dream. By my guess, everyone here had it. I had it, Queen Rhysmerea had it, and now you. Everyone here is sleep-deprived, and it is seriously affecting our judgement making. This is more of a psychic attack than anything else... I will need to take care of this."
Immediately after the meeting ended, Hegwin went to his workshop. Nahri was there, working on his studies of healing herbs.
"Master Hegwin?"
"Nahri, remember when I told you about the seals? You displayed good work on the already known ones, and wished to try to create your own."
"I remember perfectly well. You thought that it would be best to avoid any chance of an accident, and refused."
"Well, now is your chance. We need some variant on the basic protection..."
Hegwin and Nahri worked throughout the rest of the evening and far into the night. By dawn, they had completed the work: https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/seal-of-analysis
(How did I get here? I could of sworn I was walking towards the East Post...)
The desert air begins to roar as Setra’s vision is lost upon the sheer darkness that fills it. Using a spell she had learned when she was only ten, her sword runs aglow, but to no avail. The brightness of her sword was no match for the all-consuming darkness. She quickly realizes she has somehow managed to walk into the Desolate, but how? Just earlier, it was so far away. Just a moment ago she was in the village, staring into the darkness from hundreds of miles away. But now, none of that matters as she soon notices beings emerging from the darkness. Wretched creatures that threatened her very existence.
As she turns to run away, she collides with an object. A sign falls down on top of her, one that reads “East Post”. She pushes the sign off of her, and as she rolls to stand, a giant monster destroys it. She can hear screaming in the distance, but its whereabouts are muffled by the harsh winds of the Desolate. With her coordination barely regained, she runs to wake Sanova...
Feeling her way through the darkness, she finds the door to Sanova’s Quarters, only for it to open.
“Sanova! We have to go!”
“Is this... happening for real?!” Sanova replies, seemingly in a daze.
“Are you alright?”
“I just had a terrible dream! We need to go!”
“A dream? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry about it! Everyone is going to die if we don’t leave now!”
Setra knew there was no more time to question him. In her mind, visions flashed. Sanova dying, the village being cast into oblivion, and the inside of a beast. Gathering what soldiers remained, they abandoned the town and ran to warn the others...
Apparently, the whole System had reacted to the intrusion. Reaching for a command rune on the main control panel of the chamber, Davanos cut the alarm. "What was that ?" he slurred, still half-asleep.
Alvir was trying to recollect what he could. "It was a signal, distorted, but still clear somehow. A predator, threatening us. It could be a warning of some sort..."
Davanos was fully awake now. He delved deep into his memory, catching the fading signal. Reforming it. Retracing its source. And there is was. The wurm. A coiling nightmare, feeding itself to spread the Desolate. "There's a signature on the signal. It's... Ekos." Alvir turned to look at the chamber's third sleeping casket, closed and silent since the awakening. The dark shape laying benath the casket's crystaline lid was, Alvir knew, what remained of the third Triarch.
"That's impossible. His spirit-core is completely blank. We checked mutiple times."
"It is empty, not destroyed, replied Davanos. I think he might have... escaped somehow ? And broadcasted the signal from somwhere else."
Alvir stood up and paced, his mind racing. "Could it... you know, just be an echo ? An older transmission that came up just now ?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. I will search deeper. Anyhow, this dream-message of sorts wasn't sent by accident. It's either a warning, or some kind of trap."
As Davanos entered a meditative transe, Alvir walked up to his personal control panel to run a check-up of the available troops. Whatever was out there, the Aljaxi would face it, no matter the odds.
Speaking of odds... they are not in our favor, he thought as the status report appeared. 60% of the System's units were destroyed or unresponsive. The derelict forges would have to be set in motion again.
"This world's time... has come."
Check your messages for something! I had the epiphany while writing my response to your card that I should probably message people these to avoid the problem of people seeing the positives and negatives I write, then using that to their advantage.
Thank goodness that was only a nightmare! Assaya thought to herself. But as she went to clean up the mess of books on the table, she began to doubt herself. The house in the nightmare was old and forgotten, but it looked exactly the same as Lakas' entrance to the Infinite Athenaeum. And the table too, small and round, just like the one Assaya passed out on.
There were too many coincidences to simply dismiss as nightmare shenanigans. It had to be a prophetic vision. Assaya had heard of people dreaming events that later turned out to be real, but she never experienced one herself.
Then she came to a sudden revelation. Oh no! If that abomination is in the Infinite Athenaeum, that could lead to a vast bank of knowledge being used for a malicious purpose! She thought. Her home was a place meant to give knowledge to those that needed it, not to give them the ability to cause mass destruction, especially on a scale that the vision shown her. She had to put a stop to this creature's plans. But first, she had to find it.
It would be no easy task to find a single horror in an infinite scape, so Assaya decided that clairvoyant books held the key to this puzzling task. However, each book she read only made her more confused, as each of them held predictions that were entirely false.
"No, it was the Maviol who won the war of Trekt, not the Fliens!
"Oh please, the otherworldly company that innovated the business of delivery was called WISH, not MIRACLE!
"'The Infinite Aethenaeum will never be discovered.'... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
Each "prophetic book" only fueled her frustration, until she found an otherwise plainly looking book. Not too raggedy, yet not in mint condition. On the title it read The Kindly and Precise Predictions of Nancy Appler. In contrast to all of the other books, there was nothing that made it stand out, other than the fact that it was in the prophecy section. She scoffed, thinking that it would be chock full of incorrect garbage, until she dropped it, where something magical happened.
After reading exactly seventy-two books on the subject of foretelling the future, a young lady in red robes will pick up this book, only to drop it and open it on page 594, where upon she will be baffled that this detailed of a prophecy came true.
Assaya was utterly baffled. Everything that the book said was true! She indeed dropped it on accident, causing it to open to page 594. And the fact that it knew how many awful books she had read only piqued her interest more. She quickly picked up the book and ran excitedly to the nearest table, eager to absorb all of its information.
"Hopefully this can provide more information on what I saw!" Assaya exclaimed, and she dug her nose into the nice thick book.
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Ooh boy, now this was fun to write!
http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/1284/faq-s-and-common-suggestions#latest
This is already giving me ideas for how I need to run the next challenge that I do like this. Probably will be limited to 4 people next time because whew this is a lot. Having tons of fun reading over everything and seeing all of your unique replies!
He quickly thought about the possibilities, then decided to increase the city's defenses and gave a few fast orders to a guard he called. These preparations were just in case the actual defense measure would end in a failure. That measure were his most skilled subduers who were supposed to gain control over some wurms, preferably all, learn their weaknesses and lead them into a different direction.
5/10 for me
Edit: Hype
Plans for today:
- Finish replying to the active challenge.
- Yeet out the challenges to folks who've requested 'em.
- Something else maybe
- Try to keep things organised, but with us Cardsmiths? Unlikely.
Love the non-reference to Good Omens
The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.
Did you watch it or read it?