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Friday, August 18, 2023
Book 3: Convergence - The Only Path
Hey there, heroes!

This week, we're continuing Book 3's main story!

With the successful assault on the Rose airship, it's time to take a moment and prepare your next steps... Does the Magesterium really have the answers? And with new revelations, will your allies remain such?

Head over to Outpost Yeden to continue Book 3's main story in this week's quest: The Only Path.

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A new cosmetic item has been added to Cysero's Superstore of Savings! Go to Alghuru's DC Cosmetics shop or the Time Shop in Book 3 to purchase the Gears of Timeless Destiny! (Also available as Rune or Hourglass only!)

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Also, a fix this week!

• Fixed an issue where training Guardian in Book 3 where the Guardian Blade shop was not going to the correct shop.

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And that's all for this week!

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Found it a bit morbid that Yix was hooked up to an Ignomonious to sustain himself but since that person is basically dead anyway, or their soul at least is potentially piloting a golem, might as well use it to save someone else's life, eh?

As for Alteon's and Sepulchure's little talk: Seemed Alteon was hoping that Valen was laid to rest after the conflict of the Orb Saga was resolved though it kind of sucks that he knew Valen had become Sepulchure this whole time and just didn't say anything nor mounted up a force to stop him when he invaded Falconreach though granted some of that is Xan's fault I guess. It is interesting that Alteon doesn't appear to be remotely angry with Sepulchure either. I know that he blames himself for a lot that's happened with the Rose but that he doesn't seem to remotely hold any animosity towards Sepulchure for his actions would seem to indicate that he blames himself most of all for Valen turning towards the Shadowscythe for power and rule. Makes me even more curious as to to the specifics of how their story went down here. Glad to see Yix hasn't forgiven Sepulchure for his assault on Popsprocket too, but what I like most of all is the attention to the fact that Sepulchure is not remorseful for his actions as a Doomknight but at least has learned that doing that kind of crap is not sustainable anymore.

As for the Magester's plan to handle Akanthus:
Didn't expect to be right about tossing Akanthus to be the best solution when it came to handling him but it does make sense. If we can't hurt him or keep him restrained with measures bound to Lore then it's reasonably sound to yeet his butt to another dimension entirely where he ideally would have a hard time finding his way back out, it's effectively a Phantom Zone solution. Should work too since we know he had to enter through portals to go to and from the Wastes. The only question I have is whether or not anything in the Void could harm Akanthus. There are tons of monsters like the Void Elementals, Spawns, dragons, and worse hanging out in there to keep him occupied but I'm mostly curious if their magic could actually touch him. There's also Void madness to consider here though he might be immune to that too if none of the magic from the Void's inhabitants can affect him either. The risk here I think though is that this pearl device of the magesters might actually just break open a hole to the Void and allowing its influence to leak through to Lore as well so there is that...it also might let something in. On another note, I'm curious to see what Magesters have in store to deal with Jaania's weaving skills, it won't erase her danger as she's still a powerful ice mage but it'll be nice to have her new found skills on lockdown.


On more positive news, Brittany is finally awake and chatting! Glad there doesn't seem to be wrong with her after all and even better that she'll give Victoria an out if she doesn't want to continue to wear the crown before this business is over with. Even if she chooses to remain Queen she has the support to keep her up and grounded, a far cry from where she was mentally shortly after the attack on the Gala and I absolutely love to see it.

Lastly, our unknown blue textbox friends. I say its safe to say that last bit of dialogue was from whichever of the higher echelons that's overseeing the invasion from the water elementals that are coming out of the Deadlands rift. What I find curious is that they refer to the Deadlands to being a preferable home to the chaos and imbalance of the Elemental Plains. I previously believed that because the Deadlands rift was pouring out solely water based elementals that it was likely the rift led directly to the Elemental Plane of Water, a section stabilized by Neso, yet this comment would seem to imply these elementals have experienced the chaos of the Wastes instead. I think this comment could mean one of two potential things. The first is that these Elementals inhabit a portion of the Wastes that they managed to control solely on their own for the element of Water but not under the oversight of Neso or her entourage however because of this they lack the resources and backing to hold onto their section of Wastes as they are constantly under assualt by the constant fighting and chaos that goes on in the Wastes for control. The second, and the one that is more likely and terrifying in my opinion, is that these Elementals do hail from the Plane of Water and are her people but the problem here is that without their Avatar to aid them they've steadily lost ground, due to the chaos of the Wastes knocking on their door, to protect their well of power and were conveniently given a portal to the Beyond as a means of expanding their territory much like the Lagohmorphs except unlike the Lagohmorphs they are in a far more desperate situation regarding their own Plane.

Ah but that concludes my thoughts.





< Message edited by Vaalirus -- 8/19/2023 0:48:33 >

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Let us find tranquility.

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Banishing Akanthus to the Void is basically tantamount to admitting that our efforts of finding his weakness have failed. A last resort. An "out of sight, out of mind" solution, which I'm wary about. If his disconnection from the core also happened to give him an increased lifespan then we could well end up creating a proverbial genie in the bottle for the adventurers of a distant tomorrow to uncover. I can only hope this desperate solution actually does puts him away once and for all, rather than create a root cause for some hypothetical Book 5 crisis in the same way many Book 3 crises originated from Books 1 or 2.

On the plus side, the hero's finally been alerted to Jaania's secondary class training. Thank goodness for that! It was beginning to somewhat concern me how we were closing in on the big clash without our character knowing that she's more than a highly talented yet vanilla ice mage. Akanthus is an immense danger but he wasn't the only significant opposing force in this arc with undisclosed fonts of power. Now perhaps the hero won't be caught entirely flatfooted when Jaania reveals her artificial soulally soulslave.

...And something tells me we've possibly just seen the first statement from a possible Book 4 antagonist. Or our mystery speaker was just a refugee like the Atealans had been in Book 2, but either way, this may be the beginning setup for post-Book 3 DragonFable. Most interesting stuff.

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Vaalirus said it all, really.

It's nice to see Ignominous used as more than a magester's personal battery. DF doesn't seem to be one of those settings where power is the be-all and end-all of magic, but surely there are much better uses for living, walking energy factories?

I'm honestly shocked that Brittany's healing did not go horrifically wrong. Given Jaania's warped headspace and the **** she's done with the souls of innocents, I fully expected the princess to go full Remthalas or worse.

As for the last segment, I honestly forgot there was still a rift open. I was racking my brains trying to think of whom that stranger might be, but I think Vaalirus might be right on the matter. I admit I don't remember much of the Wastes lore, but I look forward to seeing how this particular encounter goes. Honestly, it feels like Deadlands could use a good infusion of water element, and I'm hopeful that, for once, we could resolve the issue peacefully and actually work to make at least a part of Lore a better place instead of just putting out the fires.

All in all, a surprisingly info-dense interlude for such a short segment. I look forward to seeing how it goes.

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I must say, it was interesting watching... Amadeus (guess I'm gonna have to get used to calling him that) berate Alteon for doing nothing to resist the scourge of Sepulchure, but I suppose he does deserve it. I like Yix's pragmatism towards Amadeus (better than the Hero could do) but seeing him hooked up to an Ignominious still makes me uneasy. Hopefully it's only temporary.

And it seems the Magesterium's solutions to all of their problems involve portals to other dimensions. I'm also not entirely convinced that sending Akanthus away will be a suitable long-term solution. Even if the portal successfully seals him away and doesn't result in other Equilibrium Gate situation, I ponder whether the powers of the Void may interact with his unique condition in some way and end up making him into an even bigger problem later on.

It was nice to see Brittany on the mend. I like that Victoria didn't have her wig on as they were talking, it's a neat detail. And she was wearing her boots too! She was Robina the Hood, Cinquefoil the double agent, and she'll be a great Queen of Greenguard, no doubt.

And Vaalirus is right about a blue speech box friend being a Water elemental from beyond that Deadlands Rift. That "the dam will burst" was a good hint. It seems they've been biding they're time... I'll doubt they'll be as reasonable as the Lagohmorphs. Or as cute.

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Banishing Akanthus to the Void is basically tantamount to admitting that our efforts of finding his weakness have failed. A last resort. An "out of sight, out of mind" solution, which I'm wary about. If his disconnection from the core also happened to give him an increased lifespan then we could well end up creating a proverbial genie in the bottle for the adventurers of a distant tomorrow to uncover.

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And it seems the Magesterium's solutions to all of their problems involve portals to other dimensions. I'm also not entirely convinced that sending Akanthus away will be a suitable long-term solution. Even if the portal successfully seals him away and doesn't result in other Equilibrium Gate situation, I ponder whether the powers of the Void may interact with his unique condition in some way and end up making him into an even bigger problem later on.

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obviously, I'm joking that's the last thing I want to happen.

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I agree with @Primate Murder: it'd be great if we could make peace with whoever's coming through the Deadlands rift and help build something up, instead of having to just smash stuff and put out fires.

As for the Magesterium's plans for Akanthus: this feels like a repetition of old mistakes. As isolationists, the Magesterium seems to go with 'out of sight, out of mind', largely downplaying and disregarding matters outside their territory until and unless something comes back to bother them. Like Akanthus. Like Jaania. Like Volkenraand. Now Imagine Sobieslav returning with void dementia and an army of Voidspawn and Decadere at his heel...

The Magesterium's general attitude of superiority has brought them to grief, and they still haven't learned. Right now, only the Golden Hand seems borderline redeemable, and Project Casca just a show of hubris.