A Rebuttal of the Shut Up and Sit Down Marvel Champions Review

Let's get a few things out of the way. Caveats, y'know? I owe my love of board games to SUSD. My gaming white whales, Twilight Imperium and Gloomhaven, are due in part to their reviews. Heck, I own Arkham Horror because of those dudes. They're also the giants in the room, forget elephants! I highly doubt they'll take my critique seriously. They're in a position where they don't really need to, and that's fine. I'm a little blogger who posts incredibly dark and ridiculous RPG posts. I'm hardly even a presence in the Marvel Champions community, usually because I play the game in my off-time, as a way to de-stress from my own time playing ridiculously intense gaming sessions. This game is a bit of a meditative thing for me in a way that no other game is. So I don't pretend to be an objective or important figure in any way, shape, or form. I will continue to watch SUSD and enjoy them.

But that above review? There's some problems.

Well, one problem, really.

It's objectively wrong.

I do not have issue with them preferring Arkham Horror. At all.  I totally get it. I own both games. I'm still waiting on that stupid Miskatonic Museum pack to come back out so that way I can play the next chapter of The Dunwich Legacy. I don't even have issue with them saying they prefer Arkham Horror in this review. That's all fair.

But they get the game wrong. They actually miss something that is a basic component to the game. And that's not good. It makes the review objectively bad.

For those of you who were looking at this review to find out if they wanted to get the game, there is one part of this game SUSD completely missed. Any time you want to during your turn you can ask someone to play a card with the word "Action" in it. You can just turn to someone else and ask for them to play a card. People can ask you if they can play a card. And it produces some of the most hilarious moments I've seen in a game "PLEASE ASK ME TO PLAY A CARD. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE" is an exact quote from almost any game I've played in, as I bounced in my seat during other people's turns. Amused,  my little sister would pander to me and let me play a card. Or the other way around, although she was much less excited about it. Which is fair. I'm strange. She is too, but not quite in my way. This is incredible co-op play. We play with closed hands, as the game designers intended, and that is the honestly the best thing ever. "Ooh ooh ooh pick me!" is a key part of this game. It is no turn solitaire. It is some of the most interactive fun I've had in a game in my (admittedly very limited!) experience. The game rules allow for some genuinely awesome conversations. That's not a question of taste or feeling or anything else. It is a fact.

And that is the objective failing of the review. I can see some of their other issues with it and agree with them on some level, but this one thing? Where they call it turn solitaire? When there are rules that can create an environment that is completely the opposite of what they say it is? It's  misleading. And I take issue with that. Don't like one of my favorite games, that I use to de-stress? That's fine. But at least frickin' get it right.

I expected better of SUSD. I am not silly for doing so. And I am disappointed. They can do better. I hope they do.

The Giggling Dark: Session Twenty-Four

Xellous: The fifteen year old human character, played by Kurlak. Recently his amnesiac wife, Kora, found out that she had been married to him before she'd lost her memories. Given that by this point Xellous had been talking to her for a good three months she wanted to know why. After saving her from a few flamemous lads and finding out that King Varlur was dead, Xellous told her her entire story. She told him that she had no way of knowing how she would handled it either. Xellous has a pair of gauntlets from an Apocalypse Beast's skin, which give him phenomenal hand-to-hand ability, along with a ring that lets him know a good amount about khen-zai tech. He is Ikuinen Lampo's celestial knight, which allows him to see and manipulate auras.

Kora: Xellous' wife. She has a son by the name of Gerard, who was the product of being raped by her father Altous, who she had killed herself. Kora was kidnapped by the khen-zai and somehow had all her memories removed in the process.

Ikuinen Lampo: The world's soil is corrupt; those that die come back as zombies or worse. Stars fell to the earth and died there to sanctify the ground. Ikuinen Lampo is one of those stars. She has possessed the body of Xellous' dead sister, Genevieve, in order to help him in his fight. She's also deeply in love with Xellous, and he seems to have been the only one to not notice, up until last session. She gave him a stone of star metal, which came from her star body.

Flammeous Lads: perverse creatures created by mothers killing their children.

Khen-Zai: A race of evil humanoids that are trying to re-conquer the planet. They cannot bear the presence of the stars that have died upon it without much pain, and so are trying to subvert and remove the stars who have died there. They talk and do everything through aura manipulation.

Komas: the prime minister. He had previously helped Xellous get to see King Varlur, who had knighted him as a reward. Komas had married Kora after she had her memory wiped and helped her deliver her son, Gerard. He now knows that Xellous is her previous husband, and has not really seemed to be at peace with that yet.

Xellous made his way to the main hall, where King Varlur had been killed. Seven flammeous lads, still warm hours later, lay on the floor. Xellous saw that Komas was giving directions to personnel. Xellous found himself pitying Komas; the man had not meant to take Kora from him, nor had he asked to be in charge of a whole kingdom. And here Xellous was, about to not just leave, but take Kora with him as well. And Xellous felt a twinge of guilt about that.

But first: reagents from seven flammeous lad bodies!! Time to get to work!

The aura of the room changed as Xellous work, to an environment that was passively annoying, like a constant high pitch whine. Komas came up to Xellous. He was pissed off: where the hell had Xellous, a sworn knight if the realm, been for the last few hours??

Xellous told Komas had been calming down Kora, Komas's "wife".

Taken aback, Komas told Xellous that wasn't his place. He was the one who had found Kora, not Xellous. Far as Komas was concerned he was Kora's true husband and Xellous had overstepped. Kora had transformed Komas's life and he wanted the world to be a better place for her. At any rate, Komas needed Xellous to go to the eastern reaches of the kingdom (the opposite direction from Xellous's home) because the instant the new of King Varlur's death hit that hotbed of treachery there would be an uprising and Xellous needed to be there to head if off. Xellous agreed, but after that he needed to be on his way. Komas was confused, where did Xellous think he needed to go?? To that silly off-planet mission he'd been talking about with King Varlur? The king was dead! The kingdom was in trouble! He was needed, here, now.

Xellous told Komas he thought that short-sighted. The whole planet was at risk, and Xellous had sworn an oath to that cause, which trumped anything going on in any one kingdom on the planet. Komas told him he was fighting the khen-zai by staying and making sure they didn't get a foothold in this kingdom, which was the most powerful on the continent. Xellous told him that was clearly too big of a view: the farmers and cows were just as important as the kingdom! Confused, Komas told Xellous the cows were a part of the kingdom. Xellous told him that was exactly his point; without making sure the whole wasn't protected by getting Ikuinen Lampo practically unlimited power the problem of the khen-zai invasion, which was causing problems with their kingdom in the first place.

Komas's mouth opened. And then shut.

Xellous told Komas that his duty had to be to the whole planet, that he genuinely wanted everyone to be safe. Xellous wasn't running. He cared about everyone. Komas said he knew that.

And then he pulled out a pistol. A khen-zai pistol. With practiced ease.

Xellous dove under the shot and knocked over Komas in one clean swing. He wasn't out, but he was down.

All of a sudden the aura interference snapped. It became a crushing presence, so strong that every human in the room, Komas included, passed out.  The pain and suddenness of that pain was so intense that nobody could be expected to remain conscious. But Xellous did not fall. His hands were white, holding the piece of star metal that Ikuinen Lampo had given him. he held it up, weathering the onslaught.

It ended.

Xellous still stood. He laughed: "Nice try", he taunted to the room through his aura.

All the flammeous lads in the room reformed, stood up, and charged Xellous.

Xellous laughed and grabbed Komas by the ankles and swung him in a wide arc, hitting three of the flammeous lads so hard that they burst open; Komas's skull cracked and he caught on fire. Fending the other lads off with Komas's flaming corpse, Xellous killed a few more with the remains and the rest ran off. Xellous set Komas's flaming body down.

Ooh, more bits of flammeous lad to recover!

There was a scream of anguish. Kora came running in, followed by Ikuinen Lampo. She somehow recognized Komas and hugged his broken frame to her chest, sobbing. She yelled at Xellous, demanding to know why Komas was dead.

Xellous told her that Komas had been working for the khen-zai. He produced the pistol Komas had used. Xellous copped to killing Komas for his treachery, that even if he had let Komas live the khen-zai would have killed him anyway.

Gently laying down his body, Kora stood up. Looking down, wistfully, at Komas's body Kora told Xellous there had always been a darkness inside of Komas, that he had always struggled with. He had called her his light. What had happened that he had turned? This wasn't the man she was. Xellous told her he wished he knew, because he would have told her if he could.

They stared at his body awhile, deep in thought.

May the Power Protect You: Kat Hillard (MMPR Pink)

The next few posts are going to be on the second generation of MMPR. I will not cover zords in these posts, as they're relatively self-contained and advising on them wouldn't change terribly much between the differing characters. Yes, these are Kickstarter-exclusive characters. They use the same deck with a different character ability, which changes their playstyle quite a bit. Well. Most of the time.

What's worse for the monsters than a character who can tac-nuke? A character who is really hard to hurt and is also a tac-nuke! For most of these Gen 2 Rangers I find that my advice significantly changes based upon the character's ability. This doesn't surprise me all that much, given how much of HotG's DNA is founded upon 4e D&D, where the interaction between class abilities and powers are what makes the character unique. Kat is the only Gen 2 who does not need a set of advice about how to use her deck that is contradictory to her Gen 1, Kimberly. All advice in this post is in addition to Kimberly's post. Well, Kimberly's ability excepted, of course. I think Kat is much more flexible, while losing hardly any of the damage potential Kimberly has.

Kat's ability lets you draw two cards when you defend, picking whichever one you like. I cannot begin to overstate how powerful this ability is. Kat is easily in the top three defenders in the whole game. She can weave and dodge hits that nobody else can, by the simple virtue of having an actual choice of cards when defending. Personally, I greatly prefer this ability to Kim's. The one damage at the beginning of the round is nice, but Kat's ability syncs with her deck so well that I feel foolish for recommending Kim over Kat. That one damage usually makes quite the difference, but I personally prefer being able to soak hits over damage when it comes to MMPR Pink's deck.

Acrobatics comes into its own with Kat. You can choose a card that you know you want and, even if it goes into the discard pile, you can grab it! This makes Kat ridiculously flexible, capable of adapting to almost any situation. Granted, this can make Kat's Recovery actions pretty limited, because what sane man wouldn't pick Acrobatics?? I mean, you'll be discarding attack cards and whatnot, but as soon as you get your go-to cards like Flying Kick out of the discard pile make sure your Acrobatics cards are back in your deck. Actually, I don't even think that may be true. When in doubt pick Acrobatics.

Literally the rest of the advice I would give would come from Kim's post: you are the killer. No monster is safe from you, while you are much safer from them than practically anyone else in your team. Be fearless! They can barely touch you and you can hurt them, badly. Go forth and conquer!

Kat is easily my favorite of the MMPR pinks and my second favorite pink ranger (more on that in the future). Tough and incredibly powerful, she can walk through most situations with ease, whether it be attack or defense. Yeah, that one damage is to be missed, but the utility you pick up in exchange literally can't have a value put on it. Kat is a touch more challenging to play, but the increased utility is so important that I would hesitate to point a newcomer to anyone but Kat. I mean, yes, technically Kim and Kat are balanced, but I know for a fact who I would pick, every time. Sorry Kim. Maybe I'll write you a "Dear John" letter, like you did to Tommy.

Meh, too much work.

Besides, I'm more of a blonde sorta guy.

The Undertow: Session Seven

Mikansia: The main character, a female elf played by Lena. Previously she had somehow helped Tyce, a human that she had slept with, to overcome The Music. He had left. She's still wondering what the hell happened.

The Music: A discordant noise that Mikansia can hear when she's near certain humans, who can also hear it. It's driving them crazy, wiping them of all they ever were.

Akseli: Mikansia's commanding officer. He had followed Mikansia to the surface when she chased after her evil father, Krakeru. Since then he's been stuck in the human fort Elfwatch, which is currently under siege. Akseli knew Makirta, Mikansia's mother.

Yngvar: Mikansia's First Sword. He really doesn't seem to like Mikansia at all, and has made many an off-color remark about her character


Lore Note: While elves do not have the same issue with being wiped clean by The Nameless like humans, they still cannot bear direct contact with them for long. The site that's touched becomes a nasty scar and never fully heals. Intense memory loss is usually associated with the wound, although motor functions remain intact. This process is called hulling by the elves.
 
One week passed. Multiple people began to hear The Music at the same time and grouped together; they started tailing Mikansia. She began keeping her bed under her door, sleeping on the floor in the far corner of her room. Firstsword Yngvar had been getting nastier and nastier to Mikansia, and finally consigned her to painting all the myriad rocks in the fort, out where all those groups were roaming. Mikansia became even more tense. Captain Akseli started to become distant and a bit weird.

Eventually the General called a meeting. Supplies were almost out. No one had gotten through from the outside, and so the General was organizing one last push through the lines, to ask for help. He would not force anyone to go on such a mission; he wanted volunteers only. Mikansia's hand could not shoot up fast enough. But Akseli forbade it, openly, in front of the other officers.

Yngvar and Mikansia stared at Akseli, dumbfounded. Yngvar started arguing with Akseli, publicly. He told Akseli hewas letting his emotions cloud his judgment, particularly because of what had happened between him and Makirta. Realizing Mikansia was still there, Yngvar commanded Mikansia to leave the meeting, that this did not concern her. Akseli, against all form, countermanded the order, shooting Mikansia a look that would have spoiled new milk. So she stayed.

 Finally realizing where he was, Yngvar tried to back out, but Akseli commanded him to speak. Yngvar pleaded for reasons of decorum, but Akseli told him to finish his tirade, in a voice cold with fury. Yngvar told them he didn't think Akseli's judgment was clear on Mikansia because he had been in love with Makirta, who had been a whore, a spy, a dark elf, just like what her daughter was turning into.

Akseli was on Yngvar in an instant. The human officers pulled them away from each other. Akseli's hair came off in the struggle.

It was a wig.

Akseli was actually bald.

A nasty scar, still looking like it had not fully healed, traced its way acrost the back of his head; it could only have come from fighting The Nameless. They had attempted to hull him. Akseli grabbed his wig, blushing from embarrassment. Mikansia was seized with pity and horror at the sight. Yngvar left immediately. Akseli asked Mikansia if she would come and talk with him, in private. She agreed.

They went back to Akseli's room. Akseli told her that he had been injured by the Nameless after Makirta had left, and could only remember one thing about Makirta: when she had come clean about being a dark elf, working on behalf of The Lone Keep. Akseli had Makirta escorted out by his servants. He would not talk to her, as she came to his villa for the next week, beginning forgiveness, telling him she truly loved him and he was why she had revealed herself, that she wanted to change. Akseli ignored her. At the end of that week he left to fight the Nameless and received his wound and lost almost all of his memories. Makirta had left shortly after he had, fleeing house arrest. It took Akseli twenty years to recover from his wound. By then the trail had long gone cold. He couldn't even remember Makirta's face, her smell, how she sounded. He guessed that Mikansia looked like Makirta, only because he had met Krakeru a few times and she didn't look very much like him. They mourned, together.

There was a knock on the door. Akseli let in a sheepish Yngvar. He apologized to them both for the public outburst... and then proceeded to tell Akseli he didn't think Mikansia should go out, after all. He'd had a moment to actually think about it, and Yngvar didn't think Mikansia really had it in her to be a sword singer, period. She was showing Makirta's lack of character; she'd been drinking herself under the table whenever alcohol was available, had slept with Tyce (Akseli paled at that) and, if rumors were to believed, had screwed anything with two legs, male and female alike. Akseli looked like he was checking out.

Mikansia declared this was beyond ridiculous. She was a sword singer and have proven her place, over and over again! Yes, she'd had a slip of judgment following Krakeru to the surface, but Mikansia felt she had more than a right to go on this mission. She then asked why Yngvar thought she'd slept with Tyce and the whole base. But Yngvar was stubborn; he reiterated that he knew that Mikansia had used Tyce like an animal, why else would she have had the connection to bring him back? Mikansia felt the sting, but ignored it. Yngvar went on, saying she clearly had the same proclivities to vice and evil that her mother had, who had slept with anything that moved in order to get her information for the dark elves, including a pass that she had made at Yngvar at one point. Miksansia said that made no sense: she had done nothing to deserve this level of vitriol and besides, soldiers said a lot of ridiculous things, particularly about the elves, so why was Yngvar listening to them only about her? Voice dropping almost to a whisper, Mikansia told them how she'd already had a chance to turn, after Krakeru had raped her, when he'd channeled that scream. Mikansia had made her decision then, and she was not going back.

Yngvar told her how sorry he was that had happened to her, but that it wasn't a question of that one decision. Mikansia may have millennia ahead of her. There would be many more decision points like the one she had already been through. And yet Yngvar didn't think Mikansia had it in her to keep making that decision, just like her mother Makirta. Mikansia said she knew it wasn't a one-time decision, but she would not go back. Becoming like Krakeru was not an option. She demanded to be taken seriously, on her own terms. Mikansia did not claim perfection, but she was tired of being coddled and reviled because of someone else. She deserved to go on the mission and that was all there was to it.

Yngvar was speechless.

After a minute he said he heard hear, but he couldn't stop worrying anyway. He was coming with her. They looked to Akseli, who nodded in agreement. Yngvar and Mikansia would leave the next day with the humans.

A Lamp and a Ring

So this was a one-shot with Bryna and her husband David. They grabbed some pregens, Beren the dwarf (Yes, Bryna caught the troll in his name, Mr. Olavsrud and Crane! I should have recorded her rant and sent it to you.), played by David, and Karolina, played by Bryna. This session was a bit of a tech demo of sorts. After many failures at running Torchbearer I was seeing if I could run even a single session without a TPK. David had tried RPGs before but apparently had a bad experience. Bryna was probably trying to see how many things she could kill that session. Well all had our goals. Off we went!

A hurricane hit the port town. A galley, rumored to be overladen with gold from a far away and exotic land, was upborne by the winds and lodged betwixt two cliffs near the town. It somehow sat there until morning, suspended many feet above the roiling surf.  The townsfolk knew about the ship, of course, but the town itself was in shambles, so what eelse was there to do for the moment?

Beren and Karolina felt differently.

The pair trudged up to the beach, towards one of the cliffs that the galley was lodged between. Beren had a grappling hook and some rope. With Karolina's help he threw it up the cliffside. It lodged in a crevice and held. The wind was still howling. They pulled themselves up the rope and walked over the abyss where the galley was suspended. It was obvious from their point of view that the galley was rapidly falling apart; they needed to hurry. So Beren hooked to the top of the cliff and practically threw himself, gleefully, along the cliff. Rolling her eyes, Karolina followed behind, a bit more slowly, cautiously, telling Beren to stop screwing around with the wind.

Getting onto the deck of the ship the pair encountered almost hurricane force winds. They managed not t o be blown off the ship, but only just barely, breaking a rib or two as they were batted about by the wind. Steadying herself, and nursing her ribs, Karolina began to examine the deck, pointing out areas that were critically damaged. Turns out that Karolina had been a carpenter in a previous life. Beren then looked around for any healing herbs or medicinal, and managed to find some inside of one of the barrels that had pushed against the railing of the galley.

The deck of the ship had cracked in half. Beren made his way to the rift and looked down into it. The hull had partially broken on a jutted section of the cliff; a leather strap wrapped around the outcropping. There were corpses in the hold. The stairs were behind Beren, but the clearly glorious thing to do was rappel down and grab the bag that was probably on that strap.  Using some of Karolina's pointers about the deck, Beren attached his grappling hook to said deck and launched himself down, confident he had place the grappling hook correctly.

The hook slipped. And then held. it took Beren a minute to recover from the shock.

While all that was going on Karolina took the stairs as cautiously as she could, taking a swig of wine from the skin at her belt. It was just as well that she didn't go down the stairs quickly: the corpses were beginning to move! Brandishing her spear, Karolina threw herself into the fray. One of the zombies bit Karolina she felled it. Karolina felt sick, violently so.  On the ground near her foot was a ring. She pocketed it.

Beren had come back up with the bag, which held a lamp. The both of them found there were still bags of gold aboard; three bags apiece. Karolina downed the rest of the wine she had on her and loaded herself down with the gold. The ship shifted; it was time to go. Leaning into the winds, they came back up top. Beren got his grappling hook to the top of the cliff again, despite his ribs. Once he'd climbed up he Karolina, feeling feverish, wrapped the rope around herself and winced as she was pulled up by Beren.

They went back to town, laden down with the Ring of Power from acrost the sea and a magical lamp.

Final caveat: The scenario idea came from the Torchbearer's Discord server. When I get home I'll look up who did it. The folks on there are awesome, thank you!

How To GM: How I Come Up With Villains

Last week I wrote about antagonists, and how I make them. I defined antagonists as those who oppose the players, that did not mean that antagonists were in some cosmic war between good and evil with the players. In fact I think the opposite should be true; antagonists proper need to be morally grey, or at least sympathetic and vulnerable, in the player's eyes. There should be questions, on some level, about the justness of the player's goals when they meet an antagonist.

None of that should apply to villains.

Villains are a type of antagonist. So all the thoughts I have on villains start with my antagonist article, so go read that again. Make an antagonist using those guidelines in your head, and come back here.

You're back? Cool.

You've made a character who has was hurt by a part of the setting that your players don't like, has a primal need that is sympathetic, and who cannot be ignored by the players cause he keeps getting in their faces? Got him in your head? Good. Here's the next step.

You're going to make the dude weaponize his pain.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

So in the previous article I talked about that little twinge of sympathy, of pain, that I think someone should feel for an antagonist. The dude is hurt and is trying to solve the pain he is in. He is trying to rise above it, to do something positive, with his pain, even if his methods are messed up in the players' eyes. The fact that he happens to be opposed to the players is tragic and a sign of the breakdown of the setting and the people within it, as opposed to a problem with the antagonist himself. The person may not be on your side in whatever conflict you're in, but they are clearly trying to rise above something. They are using their pain as a tool to better themselves and the world they are in. They just so happen to have a methodology or ideology that your players can't allow. Villains take that center spot of pain, that little twinge that you feel when you think about where they came from, sharpen it, and use it to hurt others. They have given up on being better than their past and do not think the world can be made better. Or if they do think the world can made better it's so inimical to what's actually good that no one in the story can allow him to go on as he is doing. You could almost certainly convince an antagonist, given enough time, of the rightness of your path. It may not be likely, but it is possible. Villains have made a choice that cuts them out of society fundamentally. You can't "convince" them. Convert back to the common way of doing things? Maybe. Possibly. But they are lacking something that is so fundamental that you cannot just hope to reason with them. Nor should you.

All of this is to say that you oppose an antagonist's views and mission; the opposition is not necessarily personal, although even if it is it probably has more to do with petty reasons on the parts of the players than anything genuinely wrong with the antagonist. You are opposing the villain for being him. You might be able to respect an antagonist for having the guts to stand up for what he believes in, and even if you don't that may on the player, but a villain properly speaking doesn't believe in anything. He's in the  black pit of his own mind, rejoicing in a pain that no one in their right mind should. And if he cannot be turned, he must be destroyed.

Villains are so much more personal. They get under your skin and make you like hating them. That's because villains have taken their life experiences and made them into a weapon that they can use against others. You can't reason with them, you can't commiserate and even really sympathize. They must either return to being like the rest of us or be destroyed, lest we be destroyed first. And yeah, there's a tragedy in that, but most people aren't going to mourn what they're killing as they're doing it. And kill them we must.

Sabina's Castle: Session Twenty-Two

Anneli: the main character, a female elf played by Andy. Last session she had gotten back the toy sword that would allow her to go onto the Island of Eternal to make a wish and become part of the group Those That Sailed, along with a Dagger of Betrayal, from her dark elf sister Nomi. Confronted by the complexity of her sister, Anneli left her with her friend Marian.

Commander Aloysius: the commander of the human army outside of the ruins of Argentum Prime. He had entrusted command of a group of special forces to Anneli so she could get the whereabouts of her sister, Nomi. He and Anneli had made a promise to kill her together.

Herminus: formerly a friend/minion of the dwarf Spar, Herminus was killed in the advent of the Dragon of Sabina's Castle. He came back as a revenant, swearing revenge against Salt, Spar's daughter; Salt had disowned her father, and Herminus blamed her for starting the events that led to Spar's death.

Fingar and Thungal: two of Anneli's companions on the ship The Sidereal Companion. Thungal had been kidnapped by orcs thanks to Nomi, and Fingar had left to find her shortly afterwards. Anneli hasn't been heard from in over two years.

The wreckage of a great battle lay before the fort, most of the corpses were orcs. Commander Aloysius was on the field of battle, covered in orc blood.  He was happy to see Anneli. The orcs had attacked without Nomi, and Aloysius's forces had won. They were going to find Nomi and kill her for a victory lap. Anneli told him to knock himself out, she wasn't going to do it.

Commander Aloysius was flabbergasted. After everything they'd been through, after what they'd promised each other, after all Commander Aloysiu had done for Anneli, she was abandoning him?? Unacceptable. Anneli told him her debt to him had been rendered null by virtue of the destruction of the orc forces. She wanted him to arrange passage to the coast, so she could continue her quest for the Island of Eternal Youth. Commander Aloysius refused, so long as Nomi was alive. If Anneli helped him kill Nomi he'd provide passage for the coast. Convinced that Commander Aloysius would never be able to take on Marian and Telos, Anneli grumpily accepted. She stomped back to the fort, sore and tired, looking for a place to rest.

Herminus came walking out of a nearby building.

Anneli's sword leapt to to her hand. She demanded to know what Herminus was doing here. Herminus was confused; he worked for Commander Aloysius. He needed something to do until he kill Salt, after all! Anneli shook her head and turned to leave. Herminus complimented her on her dueling skills as sincerely as a revenant could possibly be expected to. That did not improve Anneli's mood.

Later on in the day Anneli was summoned to see Commander Aloysius. With him was Herminus.. and Fingar (who was missing a finger or two). And Thungal (with a bandage wrapped around her head that suggested fashion, as opposed to necessity). Anneli wavered for a moment. Fingar and Thungal were excited to see her again! Anneli asked how this was possible. Thungal explained that the humans had saved her a day after being kidnapped, killing the troll with an efficiency that boggled her mind. Fingar himself had been saved from an orc ambush literally the day after that.  They had been scouts for Commander Aloysius ever since. Anneli said it was surprising how little Commander Aloysius had told her. He protested; he didn't know all three had known each other until Fingar and Thungal had returned from a scouting mission, just recently. When he'd known Commander Aloysius had called her in! That part was on the up and up, as far as he was concerned.  But that wasn't why she had been summoned. It had been brought to Commander Aloysius's attention that Anneli had an object that would help Herminus control the dragon living in Sabina's Castle. Commander Aloysius commanded that she hand it over to Herminus, immediately.

Anneli was incensed. She pulled out the Dagger of Betrayal and threw it at Aloysius's feet. Finger and Thungal jumped back, disgusted. Herminus looked at the Dagger with a gleam in his dead eyes, but Commander Aloysius did not command, and so therefore Herminus did not move. Anneli asked Commander Aloysius if this was really the route he wanted to go down. Commander Aloysius told her that the Argentum Empire was falling apart, which meant that they were vulnerable from Golau to the east, from across the sea, and from Telvra, to the north. Someone needed to unite the Empire, and quickly, before the people suffered from two invasions. Anneli told him this was a deal with the devil himself. Commander Aloysius said that he would pay out that deal, gladly, if the people were protected.

Anneli got the Dagger back up.

Herminus snarled, but Anneli was unfazed.

Fingar and Thungal formed up around Anneli.

Commander Aloysius whistled. A dozen men with spears burst in upon the room.