Defender Text: Letters Home

AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF THE LIBRARY DEFENDERS HAVE BEEN RUSHING TO RECOVER TEXTS FROM THE PAST. SOME HAVE EVEN SPENT TIME TO WRITE NEW ENTRIES INTO THE LIBRARY.

BELOW ARE TEXTS ADDED DURING THE LAST FEW DAYS. THESE DEFENDER TEXTS ARE ALL WRITTEN FROM ONE PERSON’S POINT OF VIEW AND BELIEF…

Dear sister,

Today was an eventful day. A flare rose above the Lunar Docks, but when I arrived, there was no danger. Alyseris had come on duty, and was there with General Kieran and Gaburieru. She explained she was going after her mastery target, the Corrupted Raiden Wyrm Druemvor. With the Cure having been collected some time ago, she now sought to cure Druemvor to eliminate the threat, as opposed to granting him eternal rest.

I cautioned that this idea may not work, depending on how long he’d been corrupted, but Alyseris wanted to try. As opposed as I was to working with those chaotic Doonga, no one else is crazy enough to sail the Sea of Dawn. With the arrival of Rin and Atyus, we set sail.

The voyage was bissfully smooth for a venture into the Sea of Dawn. We arrived to an island full of crystalline and basilisks. The doongas were happy to collect fuel here. No sign of our target though, so we went on our way.

As we sailed deeper into the Sea of Dawn, something surged under the water. A head rose up from the depths – it was our target. Rin, Alyseris, General Kieran, and Gaburieru had ammunitions coated in the cure, and opened fire as the wyrm descended on our boat. But none of the bullets, shells, or arrows, could piece its hide deep enough to administer the cure. I held the line, keeping its attention while Atyus supported me, and the others tried to weaken it.

Alyseris had the idea to try and administer the Cure orally to Druemvor. Failing her attempt to climb the enraged wyrm, General Kieran summoned a mammoth. Alyseris was successful in mounting his beast to get in reach. 

At that moment I called out, telling her to coat her spear – her ACTUAL weapon – in the cure, much as I coat my sword in my sleeping poison. (Which did find purchase in the wyrm’s system, for all of a second). 

Alyseris changed her tactic, using her last vial of the cure to coat her weapon and resume the offense.

The longer the fight went on, the more enraged the wyrm became and the harder it struck.

For a mastered champion, Atyus does well as a cleric now. Perhaps it’s that perfectionist streak in him. Our venture would not have gone nearly so well if Atyus had not been there to keep me up and fighting. 

Nearly spent, we all stopped our attack as we saw a change in Druemvor. All our blows against his hide had finally yielded success – the cure finally found purchase in the wyrm’s blood. It grew docile, and dove back into the sea. From the spot it jumped, three small creatures rose up and jumped across the deck of the boat. They looked like baby wyrms almost. Serpentine and elegant and tiny, the size of a needle bee in Zant. Atyus called them wrealiths. One of them cried in a strange voice ‘We can’t take it anymore!” Before hopping off the other side of the boat and swimming away. 

Our attention was recaptured by Druemvor breaching the sea, shedding frozen scales from its back and flying away – reborn and given new life, free of the Corruption. I applauded Alyseris on a job well done. We all did. 

But we were still caught in a raging lightning storm, and quickly we told the Doongas to sail us back to shore. 

With that, Atyus said Akrize was heading to Orlo to deal with his mastery target. As Alyseris reported to the Elders of her mastery task, Kreuz, AkramKingdom, and Yellow all rallied in the Orlean portal. 

I informed Akrize that Ashure was dead, killed by a new mated pair of manticores that had taken its territory. Akrize agreed that this pair was his new target. 

With everyone rallied – Lady Delia, Rin, General Kieran, Alyseris, Varzious, Atyus, Akrize, Gaburieru, and Myself, we set out for the wastelands. We all successfully passed through the shifting sands. Upon arrival, we saw the Demon Corozal heading into the wastes – towards a cave full of trapped terrasaurs that Atyus was hunting – and made our way to the eastern Wastes where the new manticores made their nest.

We found the nest empty, aside from two dead Guardians the manticores had taken for prey, and chose to set up here in wait. Miraculously, Josh also appeared and joined us for the hunt.

Sleep poison in hand, I told the others that I would handle one of the manticores, while they focused the other one down. Akrize chose the blue one as his focus. And we eventually chose to set out and look around for our targets. 

If only things went as planned, sister.

We found the blue manticore and immediately attacked. And we all fell, one by one. With three different badges and only one proper cleric in a wild land, everyone was without support. The only one who did not fall to the manticore was Rin, who stayed behind in the Wastes.

Everyone else, recuperating in the Portal Room garrison, was preparing to venture out again. Then the Portal Temple was besieged by fiends of the fire, aero, and light varieties. We even saw an Herbakul, that final stage in fiendish evolution prior to becoming a full demon. 

We all ventured out, determined to defend our foothold in Orlo. Some crossed blades with SeathCross, that Nephilim traitor of humanity, who accepted Renegade’s experimentations to become a half demon. We spotted bonfires as we fought, and realized the demons had lured a Terrasaur to us. Judging by its size, it might have even been Whiptail – one of the chiefest threats among the Orlean sands, the apex of the Terrasaurs.

And then came the announcement from the Observatory – Rin, who had stayed in the Wastes, had been critically injured. 

We fought fiercely to dispatch the remaining fiends and drive SeathCross away. His demise eludes us yet. 

Atyus and General Kieran immediately set out for the Wastes, seeking to find where Rin’s body lay. We had precious hours to find him and bring him to safety. 

Alyseris, Akrize and I, all stood watch as General Kieran tried twice to reach Rin. The General said Rin’s body was in the manticore nest, guarded by one of the manticores, a field of gebcod, and a devourer. After his second failed attempt saw him returned to the Garrison, General Kieran told us to follow. We rallied with Varzious and the five of us rendezvous’d with Atyus in the wastes. 

Boarding my whambulance cart, I attempted to reach Rin. But the gebcod, the devourer, the manticore… if I managed to evade one threat, I drew the attention of the other 2. 

Withdrawing to the Oasis, I told the others that without some means of distracting the creatures, we couldn’t reach him. Remembering my herbalist training, I asked the General if he had any meat. Atyus piped up that he had gebcod meat.

I proposed a lure, lacing the meat with essence and burning it, to draw the creatures away from Rin’s body. Everyone agreed to the plan. 

Pulling from my stored inventory, I laced Atyus’s large quanity of gebcod meat with 1300 doses of essence, and set the meat ablaze. 

At the very least, the lure drew away the attention of the devourer. Possibly even the red manticore, but that bit I cannot say for certain. 

We approached the nest, but we could not get access to Rin’s body. Not with the blue manticore still living. Varzious had been knocked out. So Alyseris, General Kieran, Akrize, Atyus, and I engaged the blue manticore. Akrize held its attention, the General set his Floc-y on it, and Alyseris and I dealt hits as best we could. Finally, we granted the manticore rest and it fell to the ground, dead. 

We wasted no time, sister. I got on my cart and loaded up Rin’s body and started driving.

But it was now, that the red manticore returned. Its rage of the loss of its  mate had it target me. 

Manticores fly so fast, sister. And my cart is not as fast as a grieving manticore. It dropped me, and I dropped Rin as I woke up in the garrison. 

I vowed to end that manticore personally with a great cry of anger. With no seals of my own to try and return to the Wastes, I could only pray to the Charter for the others to make it back with Rin safely. 

And they did. Akrize, Atyus, General Kieran, Alyseris. They all made it back, and the soldiers of the garrison quickly took Rin through the portal and hurried him to the Faction in Zant for treatment.

And then scavengers descended on the Portal Temple. General Kieran, Varzious, Gaburieru, and I fought them off. An archer said they were like blood hounds, and I realized I may have blood on me. I quickly went to wash, and then retreated to Junon while the others finished cleaning up. 

And that is where the day ended. Akrize reported his success to the Elders. And Rin will make a full recovery from the manticore attack. I return to Eldeon tomorrow, to continue my training and watch for the impending unrest as Kera takes control of the planet.

Your sister in the Charter,

Ranna