Settle in my friends, this is gonna be a long one. And as a disclaimer, you may thank SylphofHope, Kess/Kay/9, and ParadoxLands on Tumblr for the names/descriptions of these lands. I did come up with five of them myself though ^^ Also, for those of you who know the classes and aspects, here's where you can really start speculating on the characters'. I've tried to have there be clues since chapter one, but here's where the more obvious clues start popping up.
Brendon was loving the Boxcar Buffer he'd created. It was soaking up bullets better than any armor he'd ever heard about. The Droog-like imps were all armed and dangerous, but he'd already taken care of all the ones outside with his Fireaxe. As it turned out, dry lawn grass is flammable, and the imps aren't fireproof. On the downside he couldn't go anywhere but up, because stepping outside would mean being immediately roasted by the flames his axe had set off. On the bright side, killing all the imps had left him with more grist, some of the basic blue Build Grist, as well as a purple kind called Shale.
"Might wanna make some new gear before you head up," Droogsprite said as he lit a cigar, "You'll have a big guy blocking your way to the gate. Consider it the first real challenge of the game. And no offense to your current gear, but it ain't gonna cut it."
Brendon was tempted to argue, but figured that if anyone knew what they were talking about when it came to weaponry, it was a member of the Midnight Crew. He looked at what he had on him. His Wake Up Call shotgun, the Fire Axe, the figures for the last two members of the Midnight Crew, and all fourteen Felt figures (technically he was missing eight, and there were meant to be fifteen figures, but for reasons unknown to him, that figure did not exist).
His first idea was to combined Crowbar's figure, number 7, with his axe. Crowbar carried an enchanted crowbar that could cancel out time based abilities. Between that and being unbreakable, it'd be a great attention to his axe. This plan was ruined by a hidden shale imp he hadn't seen. It leapt from behind a small pile of debris that had formed and swung with a cuebat, knocking the figure out of his hands and into Droogsprite.
It was in that moment that Brendon learned that sprites could/would absorb not just the first, but also the second thing they came into contact with. Droogsprite's form changed, his face gaining a more angular look, and his hat creasing at odd angles. A number seven now appeared over the diamond symbol on his chest, and his bat and gun both began to glow red. He looked like a combination, a perfect fusion, of Diamonds Droog and Crowbar.
In a fit of frustration, Brendon fired both barrels into the imp, killing it with just the first. He sighed, looking back to.. Droobarsprite? He seemed remarkably unsettled by his current predicament, and considering he was literally a fusion of the minds of members from rival gangs, this was understandable. He seemed to be stable though, if perplexed and unhappy.
Turning back to his alchemy, he decided to try for something else. Itchy, number 1 of the Felt, was known for remarkable speed. Brendon combined the Wake Up Call with the Itchy figure, creating the Speed Shot, shaving tons of time off of his reload. He looked over the remaining figures and grabbed Cans, figure 15 known for his incredible strength. Coming the figure with the Speed Shot resulted in the Super Shotty, a double barrel needing only one second to reload and firing like a cannon blast.
But with enough grist left for one last combination, Brendon combined with Fireaxe with his figure of Spade Slick, AkA Jack Noir. He was practically the cover boy for blackrom relationships, and was by far the best in a fight out of the Midnight crew, if not the most physically strong. The result was the Spade Sparker, a powerful black metal blade that allowed the user to attack with the flames of their own aggression. He smirked at the thought of having found a way to literally weaponized his love for Furlok.
He headed up the stairs, reaching toe roof and finding that Droogsprite hadn't been kidding about the enemy blocking the gate. On the room was what the health bar identified as a Shale Ogre. It was roughly ten feet tall, and six across with muscles like several brick shit houses strung together. It carried a tommy gun in one hand, a cuestick in the other, and did not look pleased to see Brendon.
Brendon covered his face to protect it from the hail of bullets that his outfit only barely saved him from. He waited until the ogre had to stop to reload as the ogre walked forward to strike with its cuestick. Brendon fired twice with his shotty, the force of it blasting the cuestick away as he took out the Spade Sparker, slashing the air in front of him and sending a slash-wave of black fire the ogre.
The fire hit and began spreading over the ogre's body, only increasing in power as Brendon struck the ground, sending a jet of black fire across the roof towards the ogre, engulfing it in flame. It fired out randomly as Brendon fired again, both shots hitting the ogre and bringing its health down low enough for the fire to finish it off, the ogre reduced to grist.
Brendon panted, wincing as the adrenaline began to fade and he became aware of the pain in his body, as the suit hadn't been able to block all of the attacks.
"Not bad." Droobarsprite began healing him, a ray of light washing over him and repairing the damage to his body.
"Thanks." He said with a sigh of relief as the pain ceased. "What now?"
Droobarsprite pointed to the circular gate, "Through there. That'll take you to your land. Game starts for real once you're through."
Brendon nodded, walking over and touching the gate. There was a bright flash of light, and Brendon felt the ground shift under his feet. Looking around, he saw that he was no longer on his roof, he was standing on a platform, a very.. meaty platform. White bone fangs jutting from the fleshy ground in various places, some dripping with blood. As he looked across the land, it's name came to him instantly, as though he'd always known it.
LoMaF, Land of Martyrs and Fangs.
Furlok's battle with the ogre had been trivial at best. She'd combined her paintbrushes with a knife set from the kitchen, creating the Blade Brusher set, and had combined one of her paintings, one displaying a powerful armored warrior with a painting smock, creating an armored paint protector. This alone might have been overkill considering all her imps only attacks were biting with rodent-like teeth.
Once she'd farmed enough grist from the imps, she'd retrieved a box of fireworks, most of which were illegal for their intensity, and combined them with jars of paint. The result was a weapon called the SplatterBomb, of which she could make three. She'd only needed one at the moment though, throwing it onto the room with her mouse eared ogre and sitting back as the explosion of heat and color took the poor fucker apart.
Once he was gone, and she'd retrieved the grist, she climbed up onto the painted roof of her hive, gathering the grist and walking over to the gate. She touched it, and was brought to her land. She blinked, looking around at what appeared to be a marketplace, an old fashioned one like you'd find at a fare.
LoSaF, Land of Shops and Frogs.
Aspico's hive being full of harpy imps had been less than pleasing. She didn't like the idea of fighting enemies that bore resemblance to her loving lusus, but she supposed it was her fault for having put her into the sprite, or perhaps Jeff's for recommending they play this utterly demented game. She would absolutely have to have a few words with that boy whenever she was done here.
In keeping with the theme, she felt it appropriate to utilize elements of her lusus. She combined a feather from her with her outfit, creating the Wingsuit, which she combined with a cloak, creating the Harpy Harness. If item descriptions were to be believed, it would provide moderate defense as well as gliding capability. But that left the matter of her weaponry.
Her rapier was already proving to be only decent against the imps, and so she combined with a talon from her lusus, creating the Hunter Point. Then, in a motion she didn't even think about until it was done, she alchemized her rapier further. She took a book off the shelf that she'd purchased a long while ago to help her with her at the time new romantic interest. 'Beginner's Guide to Black Romance'. She combined the book with the Hunter's Point, creating the Pitch Piercer.
Aspico blushed deep olive at this, but refused to think that there was any hidden reason behind her actions. She'd just alchemized something odd in the heat of the moment, that was all. She supposed it could still be useful, and headed up to face her inevitably harpy-like ogre. She jumped to the side to avoid the ogre's flight towards her, the Harpy Harness letting her follow the breeze that it left to follow it, slashing at it with her Pitch Piercer.
She was slapped to the ground by its wing, and rolled to avoid the feathers it launched at her like blades. It flew down after her, just barely missing her as she jumped up, slashing at its wing and preventing it from taking back off. She carved the ogre's body as she moved around it avoiding hits, stabbing it through the back of the head, killing it instantly.
Once she'd gathered the grist, she walked over to the gate and entered her land, appearing in a lush grass field with a town in the distance that appeared to have gone run down.
LoCaF, Land of Conscious and Frenzy.
Lurabo had just barely managed to make it to her kitchen thanks to a lucky draw from her tarot deck. Her imps seemed to have random features from her lusus. Some had canine fangs, others had ape hands and feet, others had the twin-hooked tails, which had been responsible for the gash in her hip which she'd been able to deal by drawing The Hierophant.
In her panic, she'd discovered that she could take a deck of poker cards with her in her Deck-Kind strife deck, but at the moment didn't have much use for them. She looked around the room for something to alchemize, combining a glass cup, one of the fancy ones she never used, with her tarot cards. It didn't change the existing cards so much as it added the Minor Arcana-Cups to the deck. She drew, lifting the 7 of Cups, who's connection to imagination and illusion generated an illusion of Lurabo for the imps to chase while she worked on a strategy.
Once she'd psyched herself up, she hurried up to the roof, finding the ogre there with a canine head and the twin hooked tails. It barked and ran towards her, Lurabo jumped away, letting her telekinesis carry her out of the monster's attack range. One of the hook tails caught her leg and reeled her in. She drew her crook, smacking it's jaws away before it could bite down on her.
She drew from her tarot deck, getting 8 of Cups. The ogre wailed as pain spread across its body. She dropped down, drawing again, getting Strength. She grabbed the ogre by its leg and hefted it, her muscles screaming as she threw the ogre into the air, drawing the Magician and firing a blast of telekinetic energy, killing the ogre in mid air and letting the grist rain down on her.
After Chimerasprite healed her leg, Lurabo walked over to the gate and passed through. After the flash, she appeared on a well lit platform that appeared to be floating unsupported in void. The only way off the platform she could see was a massive ladder leading to another extremely well lit platform with nothing but darkness in between the two.
LoLaS, Land of Ladders and Spotlight.
Jeff had quite happily been out of his bedroom by the time the monsters showed up. The various imps had the traits of the four kinds of consorts, turtle shell, gator jaws, etc. He'd already alchemized his baseball bat with his posters of Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth, creating the Slugger Slammer, a bat that he was pretty sure was nearly indestructible and sent imps flying on the few occasions they managed to get to a room before he did.
Unfortunately for the imps, by the time they manage to catch up with Jeff, he'd made it to his garage, where he kept his pitching machine. Under normal circumstances, the machine's automated baseball launches would hit with hardly enough force to annoy the monsters, less than that if it hit one with an armored turtle shell. But on this occasion, the machine had been alchemized with various machine parts Jeff had picked up from around the house, and had essentially been McGuyvered into a baseball turret.
With the invading imps reduced to grist, Jeff set to more alchemy, going to his collection room, looking over at the various dead things he'd gathered. It was only for studying really, but his friends didn't seem very comfortable with the fact that there was a room in his house full of dead parts. He combined a skull with a baseball, creating the SkullaBall, infusing it with necrotic power.
Jeff wheeled the baseball turret up the stairs to the ogre, letting the baseball barrage weaken it before batting the SkullaBall into its cracked shell to kill it. After gathering the grist, he walked through the gate, appearing on a metal floor with a cog beneath it.
LoGaK, Land Gears and Keys.
Arvis could hardly believe he was not yet dead. All his imps had extended, curved claws like his sprite, and in the first ten minutes of being within the game, he'd been all but flayed. His entire body was cut up, and he was only alive because his sprite was able to interpret him as helpless enough to require assistance on multiple occasions, and was capable of healing.
About the only thing good to have happened to him so far was his idea of combining the fish hook with the fishing rod, essentially created a full on hook blade. It was amazing, but he swiftly found that he was not amazing with it, only making it to his roof through sheer dumb luck on his part. And when he got there, seeing a shale ogre with four inch hooks jutting from its knuckles, he suddenly regretting even speaking to any of the others.
Arvis bolted back down the stairs to avoid the ogre. As he panicked on the stairs below the roof, an idea came to him. He used his hook blade to pry open the air vent and crawled through it, winding up immediately behind the ogre. He lashed out quickly, slashing the ogre's ankles and letting it fall off its feet. He rushed forward quickly, cutting at the monster's neck, killing it.
A cheap shot, perhaps, but Arvis felt like a fucking god as he collected the grist. Seeing the gate, Arvis walked over to it and passed through, appearing on a deep red patch of dirt. There was a street next to him leading towards a town. Said street looked upsetting like a trail of blood.
LoBaV, Land of Bonds and Veins.
Patior had thankfully managed to kill quite a few of his mechanized shale imps before they got close enough to return fire, his sniper rifle finally coming in handy. He'd had to pry it off of its position at the window, and found that his accuracy was slightly more geared towards its former location.
To help with this, he gathered the grist the imps dropped and began alchemizing, combining his rifle with his telescope, then with a knife from the kitchen, giving it a scope and a bayonet blade. As a final touch, he combined it with an air compressor to increase the firing power of the gun, creating the Air Target Bayonet Sniper.
By this point he was, of course, out of grist. But with his new weapon in hand, he collected a few potentially useful items from around his room for later, an umbrella, a set of weights, a few books, a set of tools, storing all of them in his code modus.
Once he'd gathered enough to feel like he was prepared for whatever might come next, he began climbing up his hive towards the gate, more accurately, towards the cyborg ogre guarding it.
The ogre was massive, with metallic plating across its body. It's left eye was clearly a targeter, both shoulders had rockets to fire, and its right arm housed a hidden turret gun; all features that his lusus had.
Thankfully, the ogre didn't seem capable of noticing him until he actually climbed fully onto the roof. Taking advantage of the enemy AI, Patior took aim with his rifle while still on the stairs, shooting out the ogre's eyes, then damaging its systems one by one until it was essentially dismantled, held together only by the meat between the metal plating.
With this done, the blue blood stepped fully onto the roof. The ogre took one step forward, then dropped onto the ground, vanishing into grist, which Patior happily collected before stepped through the gate. He was immediately drenched by the torrential downpour in his land, and was quickly glad that he'd brought an umbrella.
LoRaR, Land of Rust and Rain.
Java was having issues with her imps. It wasn't that they were especially powerful, as they were the first enemies in the game. It was that their mobility made them difficult to actually attack. They all either had plane wings or rocket boosted feet, allowing them to fly around Java, taking swoops to attack her.
Eventually she managed to knock enough out the air with her brass knuckles to get some alchemy going. She gathered a meat tenderizer and a pair of drone plane boosters, combining them with her brass knuckles and creating the Bloody Knuckles, powerful, reinforced brass strikers with mini-boosters in them to increase the striking power.
Before heading up the stairs though, she took the second drone booster and combined them with her boots, creating the Burst Boots, flight enabled footwear. Well, less flight and more controlled acceleration in any given direction, including up.
This done, she headed up the stairs, using the boosters on her feet and her knuckles to beat down a few more shale plane imps before reaching the roof, where she saw her first ogre. It to had plane wings sprouting from its back, and once Java was on the roof, it took off into the air with a roar.
Java considered just sprinting hell for leather towards the gate, but figured that the game wouldn't allow such a thing. With no distance weapons, she didn't have much that could handle the rocket powered ogre.
She did have a plan though. She burst into the air as the ogre tried to ram her, grabbing onto one of its wings as it shot upwards. Java grit her teeth as her bones struggled not to separate from the force of the monster's upward movement.
When it had slowed enough for her to function, she drove her knuckle into the wing of the beast with as much force as she could. There was a cracking sound and a groan from the ogre, and java repeated the process three times before jumping off and bursting towards the roof.
She managed to land with only one sprained ankle as the ogre flew towards her. The damage to its wing caused it to break apart when it reached a good speed, and it spiralled out of control, crashing to the roof and thankfully disappearing into a cloud of grist rather than showering shrapnel over Java.
Pilotsprite flew over, healing the damage to Java and praising her on the victory. "Top level tactics there." She said, Java smiling at the acknowledgement as she waited for the healing to finish.
When it had, Java stood up, gathered her grist, and went through the gate. She appeared in a field, staring directly at a giant table fan about twenty feet tall, evidently plugged into the ground.
LaFaB, Land of Fans and Biplanes.
Dustine couldn't decide if he'd lucked out or not. On the bright side, his imps didn't seem to have gained any incredible powers from Mirthsprite, just silly faces and haunting laughter. On the downside, in order to proceed, he had to crush dozens of little imps that all bore resemblance to what was essentially his religious icon.
A combination of Mirthsprite's words (more his laughter, as the clown demon didn't seem capable of human speech) and Dustine's growing frustration with the imps attacking him eventually got him to begin flattening them with his mace, which he quickly alchemized with his second edition Book of Mirth to create the Mirthful Mace, a bludgeoning weapon infused with the amusing powerful of the clowns of old.
Weapon in hand, Dustine began tearing through his house, smashing the clown-like shale imps with reckless abandon, finding an extreme level of catharsis in having something to actually fight, being able to take out a little pent up frustration on someone without anyone he knew fighting out.
He got so caught up in his rampage that he actually had to stop for a breathing before heading out to battle the mirthful ogre that had appeared to guard his gate. It's limbs were long and striped with monochrome, its forearms thicker and clearly stronger than the rest of him.
It roared and drove its fist towards Dustine, who jumped back, striking at the weak part of its arm with his mace. It dislocated with a sickening crack, and Dustine ran forward, slamming him mace into the creature's hip, then finally into its skull to kill it.
He panted as he gathered the grist, heading through the gate in hopes of there being more for him to fight there. He appeared standing in a marsh. The land was dark and foul smelling, and the sounds of battle could be heard in the distance.
LoMaW, Land of Moats and War.
Risura did not like that his imps had the features of his lusus. Long, thin pointed claws sprouted from their hands, and they lashed out at the jade blood ruthlessly. He guarded with his arms, and while the attacks stung, he could endure.
As he used fist-kind for battle, his combat with the mole like imps involved a series of well placed haymakers and backhands, as well as one flying downward strike towards an imp who'd been trying to sneak away for a surprise attack.
Taking the grist they left behind, Risura combined his clothes with a medical kit, creating the Curative Clothing. While he fought through his hive, the clothing passively healed the damage done to him.
He found and stored his lucky book, as well as his flashlight, and a few other miscellaneous items in his dice modus for later, then headed up to fight the ogre guarding the gate on the roof of his hive.
It was much larger, with noticeably stronger claws. But it had inherited something else from his lusus: blindness. The ogre couldn't see, and was sniffing the air for signs of the troll's presence. Risura grinned, rolling dice of his modus. He rolled a lucky seven and his deodorant was ejected from the modus.
It landed across the roof, breaking when it landed and spraying the smell everywhere. The ogre roared and turned towards it, hurrying over and slashing at nothing as Risura snuck up behind it, leaping at the monster from behind.
He grabbed it around the neck and pulled back hard, essentially suplexing the ogre. Unfortunately this by itself didn't kill the beast, and he was nearly knocked off the roof by a powerful slash of its claws.
He managed to dodge the follow up strike, letting the ogre bury its claws in the roof. A powerful punch to said claws broke them off, and Risura pulled one free, throwing it like a javelin into the Ogre's eye. It howled in pain before Risura jumped up and punched the claw the rest of the way through, killing it instantly. He gathered the grist, and walked through his gate.
He couldn't see shit when he appeared, his natural luminescence letting him see the dark soil beneath him, the only sign that he'd gone anywhere and wasn't just lost beyond the veil.
LoDaL, Land of Darkness and Laughter.
Valtina had never been more proud of herself for choosing the Garden-kind strife deck. All of her imps had taken on features of her vast garden. Some had vine-like whip arms or rooted legs, others had venus flytrap or pitcher plant mouths. Some were leaking sap or covered in bark and thorns. Some were even covered in fungus or just growing flower petals from their bodies.
And this allowed her to take the phrase 'cutting down the enemy' to a more literal meaning, as she severed vines and roots with her shears, flattening imps with her shovel and stabbing her spade into the ones that got too close.
When she'd cleared out all but the ogre at the top, she set to alchemizing. Combining her gardening gloves with a set of flowers resulted in the petal palms. The gloves had taken on the color of the flowers, but passed that she wasn't sure what use they had.
Next she combined her wood saw, which she used so very rarely because Brendon lived nearby and was always happy to cut down any invasive tree she found growing, with her shovel, creating the Sawvel, a serrated saw bladed shovel.
She combined her spade with a jackknife to created the Spade Blade. She fused her shears with her seeding drill to create the Drill Cutter, and finally she combined roughly ten or so different poisons, used normally to kill weeds or insects, together with a spray can, creating the Spew of Unforgiving Toxic.
When she reached her roof, she found the ogre rooted to the floor, with his fists on the end of several different thorned vines and his head replaced with a massive venus flytrap. He looked disturbing like Audrey Two from Little Shop of Horrors.
When it tried to crush her with its vines, she side stepped the strike and cut its vine arm off with her Sawven, deflecting the follow up attack with her Spade Blade. She spun on her heels and threw the Drill Cutter, watching the blade spin as it buried itself in the chest of the vegetation ogre and cut deep into it.
As it recoiled in pain from this attack, Valtina ran across the roof, aiming the spray from the Toxic Spew at its root. The roots began to shrivel and die, the ogre dropping to the ground with a groan of a pain, writhing for a moment before vanishing into a pile of grist, which she happily collected before heading through the gate. In a flash, she was standing on a rock in what looked like the bombed out remains of a town.
LoGaR, Land of Glyphs and Ruin.
Mutosi was slightly relieved that her imps all gained the traits of her lusus. As confident as she was in her combat potential with a broom, she didn't feel remotely ready to combat an army of imps, half armed with scorpion pincers, the other with venomous scorpion tails. Not in a straight fight.
But thankfully, as a bronze blooded troll, she had a rather helpful special ability. Brown bloods could commune with animals and inforce their will over them. As the insect-like imps surrounded her, she closed her eyes and focused. The imps all lowered their claws and tails, no longer hostile towards Mutosi. They followed her commands, killing themselves to give Mutosi grist for alchemy.
Mutosi used it to combined her broom with one of their scorpion claws, as well as venom she already had stored from her lusus. The result was the Scorpio's Cleaner, a venomous brook with sharpened bristles and a pointed handle. She smiled, using her powers to direct the remaining imps up to the roof. The ogre had both pincers and a tail, but it couldn't handle the dozens of imps all attacking it at once, pinching and stinging it.
Only about four imps were left by the time the ogre was killed, which Mutosi killed before they could get any ideas. She rubbed her head to clear the throbbing that had started to form from controlling so many for so long. She gathered the grist and went through the gate, appearing on top of a massive sand dune with blazing heat beating down on her.
LoDaC, Land of Desert and Cathedrals.
