It is good, just not good enough

I get what the developers are going for and commend them for their hard work and novel idea. However, there is not much meat on this bone. For the 25 USD price point the game has not met my expectations. Combat is lacking, some mechanics are straight up bad and should be removed, and the game can soft lock you repeatedly during random encounters

The 'Wordle' part

The setup of the game is simple. You type words to execute an action or attack. You find new actions or attacks by revealing words one at the time per character. The way the game helps you discover the words is through combat, which reveals 1 letter you choose, or through riddles, where the letters in the answer will apply to all of the characters speeding up the discovery proces.

Combat

The combat is based on the player typing these discovered words.

• One of the main gripes I have with combat is the cooldown mechanic. It completely removes the player's typing speed from the combat skill equation: How fast you can type only matters at the initial attacks, after that you just line up the words and hit enter after the character's cooldown expires.
• There is also not a lot of variety in attacks between characters
• Some words (like salmon or urchins) do the same thing on the same character.
• The overview of all the unlocked 'words' (i.e. attacks) mixes the important attack words with other useless 'memory' words that have no use throughout the game
• Enemies have a shield that can soft lock you. You unlock crack early on in the game for Jorro. If the shield enemies have armor you need to crack before being able to do damage AND a shield that states any of the letters that are used in the word to counter it, you can't progress and just have to wait for your party to die.
• The armor mechanic also makes heavy hitting attacks much less useful, as you have to remove the armor before being able to deal more damage. So knowing puppet, rattle or cackle (which are all, again, stacked on the same character) often does little

Exploring

The exploring gets old quickly. All areas start to look the same. Rocks, grass, a wooden door and rampart. It never really changes. The black and white visuals do little to redeem this and perhaps even add to the repetitive look of the dungeon. The rooms you will explore can be quite big. As a dungeon crawler it makes sense you want to explore these rooms, but the game does nothing to reward you for it. You can waste a lot of time navigating all the nooks and crannies of the map, expecting perhaps a chest or puzzle, but instead be rewarded with more black and white walls.

Puzzles and Riddles

The riddles are great and are a nice addition to the game. The mental switch from 'Wordle Dungeon Crawler' to solving riddles is fun and feels good. Not all riddles are equal though, some are unoriginal and you've probably heard before many times whereas others are quite clever and new. The one thing they completely messed up is that not all riddles have the correct answer.
Early on the game acknowledges this in the tombs. The riddle "What has an eye but cannot see" can be given multiple answers and the NPC will reply with "I did not expect that particular answer but it is also correct so here is your prize". You can answer blind, needle or storm and all will be true and counted as such.
Later in the game this completely goes away. For example the riddle "What do you have but never use, and others use all the time" requires the answer "name", but a) you do use your name to introduce yourself and b) In that case something akin to 'your reputation' should also fit. Or Your phone number. There are many riddles that can be given multiple answers to in this game and I was hoping, due to the core mechanic being trial and error inputting words, the game would accommodate this throughout the game.
This makes solving riddles much more frustrating and less fun. It makes it feel abitrary. It highlights the fact that the 'dungeon master' that you interact with has much more limited interactions than you'd expect at first.
The game also has a big difficulty spike at Ulara castle when it comes to riddles. There is one where you straight up need create an algebraic function and solve it. It makes the pacing feel weird and the new area feel like a brick wall which I am sure will discourage a lot of players. You can have the narrator literally give you the answer after 1 or 2 tries, but for a game about solving riddles, where is the fun in that.

The story

You are probably not buying this for the story but rather for the gameplay mechanics described above. If you mainly want a good dungeon crawler story, this is not the game for you. The characters in this story are weak and interchangeable. Your party of heroes consist of mutes. The game tells you to talk to NPCs and interact with them using action keywords like 'talk', 'use' or anything contextual. But 90% of the time you can't talk to the NPCs and the dungeon master gives you the same reply again and again. 'You will talk when I will tell you to' as you roll your eyes and move towards the next door on your map. The fun and interesting parts in the story are few and far between.

Conclusion

The game has an insane amount of potential. It just needs a lot more polish and more thought into the design elements of the game. The gameplay loop could use a review. The combat needs a complete overhaul that caters more towards typing fast while remember the words you unlocked, removing the cooldowns or making them much short will be a great start. Currently the game to me is a 4 or 5 out of 10 because of the reasons mentioned above. With some more TLC it can be a 7 or 8.

Made a post recently asking for all of your "hidden gem" or underrated roguelikes/lites that you have played.
You guys gave me so many amazing recommendations, and I really wanna thank all of you for that, and I hope some of you found some games to try with that thread as well!
I wound up picking up a lot of new roguelites I hadn't played, Fury Unleashed being one of those.
It's funny, cause I had heard of Fury Unleashed before having it mentioned by a few people in that thread, however I just assumed it was kind of a meh game cause I always see it discounted to basically nothing on the Nintendo Switch eshop. (Which in the past has led to me purchasing literal trash rogeulites before lmao). However after seeing it mentioned a couple times in the thread i decided to give it a shot, but I got it on PC as it looked like it would be better played with mouse and keyboard (I was right lol)
I gotta say, wow this game has blown me away so far. I absolutely love the comic book story they went for, following the author's troubles as his comic becomes less and less popular. The idea of playing as a character in a comic is sweet, and it is done very very well here.
The gameplay just feels so satisfying, dashing around meleeing everything, or staying back and shooting from afar feels very satisfying. I love how the weapons can have little modifiers on them that make them different each time, and the grenades and special abilities are really fun as well!
If i had to have any gripes, I would say the item variety besides the weapons (since those can have different attributes) is pretty low for a roguelite. Weirdly however, It doesn't bother me as much in this game as it would others (which is very rare btw, I usually hate games with little to no item variety) since every run still winds up feeling different enough for me, and the gameplay is good enough to justify it.
With all of this being said I'm only a few hours in so far, however compared to the other roguelites I picked up recently, this is the one that I have played the most which I DID NOT expect at all to be the case.
So TLDR, would highl;y highly recommend this game if it looks at all interesting to you! (It does seem like it wouldn't play as well on controller though, so probably buy on pc if you do get it)

Do you think shifters conserve mass between forms?
The physics of MoL is far more believable than most fantasy, and I love it for that, so I was thinking about how mass conversion could work with shifters.

The Problem:

If you don't conserve mass, then you can easily generate unlimited energy. Imagine a water wheel or some type of rotating turbine. A shifter sits on it, and when they're at the bottom, they shift into a small cat or bird, barely affecting the wheel. When they reach the top, they shift into a fat dude, causing the wheel to speed up. Bam, perpetual energy.

Solutions:

You can say that shifters must use mana and put energy into the shift that is equivalent to what they get out of the mass change. This has the problem that the amount of energy is not constant. You can theoretically make the wheel as large as you want, kilometres high, generating enormous amounts of energy per shift.
Therefore, for this option to work, the mana required to shift would either:

• Depend on the height difference from the last shift.
• Or always cost the largest amount of energy possible to recoup from gravity. Meaning the total gravitational potential energy of the mass difference. This kind of works, but that's potentially a lot of mana. Also, gravity isn't the only issue with creating mass, so this still has issues. Remember, Ilsa mentioned that her gold creation spells always pulled gold from elsewhere, they didn't actually creating material out of nothing.

One alternate idea is transmutation, or a transfer of mass. Perhaps if there's a difference in mass between forms, the mass is actually added/removed from the environment. AiDirt/Rock etc. It could be pulled in by the magic of shifting, and converted to the required mass to make up the new form. This still would require a lot of mana, because I can't imagine pulling in and converting mass to be cheap.
Another option is that mass is always conserved. This is how I initially imagined it with wolves and whatnot, but I'm not sure how it would work for cats and birds. Perhaps shifting into a bird makes a bird that is as heavy as a human? With dense matter? But then how then can it fly? Or, maybe cats and birds in MoL are a lot larger than on Earth. Maybe when he talks about cat shifters they are actually big ass pumas or something, and mass is indeed conserved? :)
Curious to hear other thoughts. And yes, I know it's ultimately 'magic', but it's fun to try to make it believable.

Throwaway because she follows my main. But for about a year now I’ve been wanting to get an electric drum set. It never really worked out financially until recently. My girlfriend knew about this all along, she saw me watching videos, reading articles, and listening to songs with interesting drums.
I had ordered a drum set that arrived today, and before I even got out of my car I texted her to let her know they had arrived and I was excited. I got it inside and sent her a picture of the box, the started opening it up and getting it put together.
It was taking a bit to put together since it was my first time assembling one, and I was taking my time making sure I did everything right so I wouldn’t have to redo it. As I got to plugging everything in (the last step) my girlfriend facetimed me. I said hey and let her know i was still setting it up and pretty focused on that. Not much else was being said, I let her know once it was all plugged in, turned on, and working. She then told me I might wake up my sleeping roommate, my roommate who has slept through weather alerts, door bells, thunder, and notably rock band drum sets for as long as I’ve known them. Then my girlfriend asked if I wanted to tell her about my day at work, and seemed dejected when I said I just wanted to play my drums. She frowned a bit and said she’d “leave me alone so [I] can play” while frowning a bit.
I pretty quickly lost most of my motivation to play, and put it away pretty soon after. I just felt guilty for wanting to play them and my heart wasn’t in it anymore. I was hoping she’d be happy after how long I’ve been talking about them, but it didn’t feel like she was.
She’s apologized already but it’s still sticking with me for some reason. I’ll probably end up talking about it with her later, but I guess for now I’ll just mope and eat some pie.

I was a little late to the game, didn't get my first computer until 2002.
I was 36 at the time, and up until that point in my life I had never used one at my work, (I started working in the 80s), and I managed to make it all the way until 2004 with having jobs that didn't require use of a computer or knowledge HOW to use one.
When I got that first computer, barely knew how to turn it on! My GenX education back in the 70s/early 80s included no computer curriculum whatsoever, so when I got that first one, I was clueless how to use it, and learned as I went.
I had dialup internet, and when I first started using my computer I was scared about accidentally screwing up my computer from something in the internet, or that I would hit one wrong button on the keyboard and destroy the whole thing!
My first computer was an IBM with Windows XP, 128M of RAM, 1.1 GHz Celeron processor, CD ROM, floppy drive, 2 usb ports and a 40 GB hard drive.
Who remembers their first computer, its specs, and did you struggle to learn how to use it?

Im on PC. Im trying to figure out how I can use the left stick to move and the gyro to target enemies.
I figure this is possible now that D4 supports WASD if I can somehow make my controller appear as a mouse and keyboard.
I thought this would be possible in steam. I tried setting my steam controller settings to "gyro to mouse" and that dose allow me to move the cursor with the gyro. Although the gyro is disabled as soon as I activate a controller button...
I think the first step in figuring this out is getting the controller to simulate a mouse click. In my controller settings I set the R1 button on my dualsense to map to mouse click. Unfortunately D4 seems to ignore this or maybe I didnt set it up correctly? Can anyone click stuff with their controller?

Isn’t the lack of dash-spamming, it’s that it’s a lesser mode of mobility.
I played the first Hades for the first time just last week, clocked about 40-ish hours before trying Hades 2 just last night. I, naturally, just got done spam-dashing for hours as Zagreus, and it took me some time to adjust to Mel’s dash-sprint instead.
I’ve only made it to the Fields of Mourning thus far, but I feel like I’ve adjusted to the sprint now. I use it intentionally, as opposed to “accidentally” sprinting because my brain was still in dash-spam mode. I can see the benefit to the various boons that buff sprint. I don’t hate it like I did when I first started.
But.
Something I do hate about it? It doesn’t work with a lot of the arena layouts.
In Hades 1, when Zag was dashing, he could often dash through/over traps or otherwise-impassable gaps. Mel can’t, and I often find myself sprinting like the wind, feeling good about (un)life - only to stop cold because I clipped some rando rock in the Crossroads, or the corner of a pool in Oceanus. I don’t want to talk about how many times I’ve been running from Hecate’s swipes only to smash Mel’s beautiful face directly into a tree.
This is made worse by the fact that most levels are small, full of holes/gaps, cluttered with traps, or all three. I’m already often slipping out of sprint to get off an attack chain or Omega move - it feels like it breaks my flow when my sprint is stopped cold by the insurmountable wall of a small knee-deep pond.
I know that in the first game, Zag’s dash would sometimes extend slightly to get him over gaps he couldn’t cross otherwise. Imo, sprint would feel better if it did something similar - if it allowed you to phase over gaps or around (non-damaging) obstacles. It could be framed as Mel leaping ovearound whatever’s in her path, she’d still be open and vulnerable to attack, same as with Sprint as it is now, but with a better sense of flow and speed, a bit more ease-of-use. I think it also makes more sense if this game’s style is supposed to be more about long-range hit-and-run tactics: you can leap over arena gaps to put an extra barrier between yourself and melee enemies, but it’s not just dropping sprint or making it a mimic of Zag’s infinite I-frames dash spamming.
Thoughts?

If you prefer using Discord you can add me there! Username is rainbowsuplex (ALSO MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL OF MY POST BEFORE DMING ME SO YOU HAVE ALL INFORMATION ON HAND THANK YOU >:))Heyo, thanks for reading :) my name's William, I'm 18 years old, Swedish, I play the bass, and listen to rock and metal for the most part. Lately, I've been feeling very alone, in a bad and isolating way, not the good de-stressing, recharging your social battery kind of way. I haven't really had a connection with someone the way you have with a close friend in a really long time, and I'm longing for that quite a bit.
I'm open to VCing whenever, if that's how you prefer to communicate! I know some people have it hard with VCs, and some people prefer it over texting, so just let me know how you feel about it to make it easier for us both :) thank you!
Some bands that I like are Jefferson Airplane, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Budgie, Rainbow, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Dio, Helloween, and Mob Rules!
My sleep schedule is kinda fucked up so no matter your time zone I'll probably be awake :v but I believe my maximum time zone difference would be 9 hours (sorry!). When it comes to video games some of my favorites are The Last of Us, the Ratchet & Clank franchise, Terraria, Bioshock 1 & 2, Dead Space, just to name a few :)
I also have autism, so just blame whatever confusing habits I have on that :v I honestly don't know much about how it affects me, since I can't imagine a life without it, so I can't really imagine what a life with it would be like. It's one of those things I realize when I'm actually in situations that make it more obvious.
I would describe myself as calm, caring, welcoming, a good listener, willing to give advice if wanted, but I can also just sit back and listen if that's what you'd like. I also like to make people laugh, very original I know. I just feel that laughter is a good sign that someone's having a good time, and as an avid overthinker, that confirmation is quite important to me :v
And also, I'm a good listener, and my goal is to seem approachable and just someone who you can come to whenever you need someone to talk to. You absolutely don't have to, but I just want to be available 😌
But hey, you made it to the end, thank you for reading! If you made it this far, tell me your favorite fruit.
I'm not a girl by the way, I just have long hair due to the whole rock & metal thing lmao. IfSo if I seem of any interest to you, feel free to send me a DM here or on Discord :)

I am the OP and this is going to be a long and unique story.
Last year me 21M and my gf 20F both jokingly brought up the idea of a threesome. We have been together for almost 5 years and our relationship has always had a little of trust and respect. We never call each other names and we literally never fight or argue, it was perfect. Fast forward to the threesome, my gf ends up picking the 3rd girl to join us. The boundaries we set were to communicate if we didn’t feel comfortable with something and making sure that we both felt respected still with another person in the bedroom. We end up “hanging out” with this girl 3-4 times and of those times we had sex multiple times. It was mostly me fucking the girl and I wasn’t giving my gf much. My gf and the girl only really gave each other oral, I will admit that I did not handle this correctly and let a “shiny new toy” steal all my attention. I did not have any feelings at all towards the girl, purely just saw her as something that I don’t normally have and got too excited? I will admit that I was definitely too friendly and almost treating the girl like my own gf. My gf didn’t really express herself until everything had happened and multiple times at that. I put a stop to the threesome thing immediately. Over the course of the last year till now, my gf acted as if she was just hurt and was trying to heal. She said she felt cheated on, felt like the 2nd option, she felt like I threw her to the side for a new girl we just met. When I’d ask her about it I could tell she was hurt but she made it seem like she would be ok and just needed time. I always apologized but I now know that I never made it seem sincere because I truly didn’t feel like I had crossed any lines since we had discussed our ground rules before anything happened. Our life continued pretty normally or so I thought. I did everything I could to make it up to her.
Fast forward to this year, my gf tells me that she wants to take some time apart so that she can work on her mental health and heal because it hurt to look at me sometimes (she is mentally unstable and has had depression in the past/still does). I know I shouldn’t have let the threesome happen knowing that she’s not stable but I can’t turn back time now. I decided to snoop thru her MacBook last month and I find out that shes been texting a bunch of other guys. This is not like her at all which really shocked me.
This is where it gets interesting because it all unfolds in a week. I find out that she cheated on me behind my back. She downloaded dating apps early April 2024 and didn’t tell me she wanted some space until mid April. I didn’t think much of it, just not spending as much time together. In her mind she was trying to break up, it was not clear at all and those words never came up. She cheated on me Sunday, April 21. While I was at home taking her Biology Final Exam for her (I’ll get to more about this in next paragraph) on Tuesday April 23rd, I try to talk to her to see how she’s feeling and also bring her clean laundry as I wash and fold her clothes. It was on this day that she made it a little more clear that she wanted a clean full break and not just “some time”. On Friday April 26, I wrote her a very heartfelt letter about how sorry I was because I didn’t know how much damage I had actually done to her. I went to her place to drop it off and this was the same night I looked thru her MacBook and found her texts. I confronted her after she got off work, we had a very heartfelt conversation with lots of tears. The next morning was when she revealed to me that she cheated. She had cheated seeking revenge and to satisfy her emotions. At first I was upset but was willing to accept it because I had already brought up the idea a few times to even the score so long as she told me everything beforehand. What made me go crazy was the following weeks worth of lies. She told me she didn’t do anything at first when I first found the texts, then once she admitted she did something, she said she used protection, I just found out this week she lied and we had unprotected sex afterwards as well. She told me her friends that are bad influences, drove her there and they all went like it was some kind of road trip. She eventually confessed that her friends did not take part in it after I texted her friends. There were at least 6-7 major lies in the story and for something this serious, I think it’s just plain messed up to be lying. If I gave you a chance after finding out, why not just keep it straight.
Now some very important details. Our relationship is very much one sided and I don’t mind. I pretty much do EVERYTHING for her. I cook, I clean, do her laundry, I manage 4 companies, I take her places, she is absolutely spoiled beyond belief. When we first met at 16-17 years old, her relationship with her parents was not great and I spoke up for her which was scary asf for a 17 year old. I helped her gain so much freedom within her own Hispanic household. I gave her so many opportunities within my companies where she was making $40/hr doing 1/2 the work of a fast food worker. After the threesome incident, she was very upset and depressed and we are both in school so I picked up some of her slack and helped her get A’s in multiple classes. I took her to Japan, she bought so much stuff and we had a great time. I don’t know how else to say it but I literally do everything for her, if you can name it, I’ve done it. From my pov, I’ve given her my life. So many opportunities. I come from a little bit of money, upper middle class Asian family. We have a lot of resources and I always provide her what she needs whether it’s food or financial support. She comes from a lower class Hispanic family. I feel so betrayed that she would do this behind my back after I’ve done so much to change her life. I called her selfish, useless, and ungrateful. The only thing I ever asked from her was loyalty and respect, she can’t give me that anymore.
The situation currently: 3 weeks ago she was begging me to not leave and that she will work on herself to be better for me. She said I can do whatever I want, even sleep with other girls. I told her to kick rocks, I would not give up my body and dignity to my own emotions. I’m not as stupid as her. As of this week May 19, 2024. She is back on medication to control her emotion and she still doesn’t want me to leave, she keeps telling me that she still loves me so much and does not want anyone else. I wanted to wait a bit to see if she was begging out of panic and distress. Now she is much more calm and isn’t breaking down quite as bad, still crying and the feelings seem more real and painful rather than out of terror and panic. Here’s the kicker, over the last year since the threesome, she became very rude and mean towards me. I’ll spare the details but it was like if I bought her flowers, she’d throw them on the floor and stomp them out. I knew it was because of what happened and she was bottling her emotions. But this took a tremendous toll on me especially since I work a lot and my time outside of work is all with her. I sleep only 2-3 hours a night. I cheated on her twice with 2 different girls over the last year out of sheer stress and trying to cope with the treatment I was getting from her. You may ask why didn’t I just leave, why cheat. How would it have looked if the threesome incident happened, she became depressed and I just left? The alternative would be to stay and just suffer thru her verbal and emotional abuse. I felt trapped
If you read this far I appreciate you and hope you can give me some feedback. Let me know if I need to clarify anything or give more detail

Hey everyone,
I've been lurking here for a while, waiting and looking at all of the options before I pick up my first ergo board. I'm currently stuck between the Elora, Piantor Pro, and Chocofi. I'm hoping this post helps me pick one.
For context, my journey so far has been as follows:

• Was looking into getting a new mechanical keyboard to replace my current Wooting Two. I'm not fond of the acoustics and size and wanted something a bit smaller that I could make sound a bit better.
• Looked into the mechanical keyboard world; was about to buy a Neo65.
• Looked into getting a Planck or similar but then read that some people had issues with ergonomics on OLKBs, so abandoned the idea.
• Discovered the Moonlander while watching a DistroTube video, and was intrigued. Looked into it before balking at the price tag.
• Was going to pick up a Lily58 from Typeractive, but was waiting for the nice!views to come back in stock.
• After lurking and reading similar posts, people seem to prefer more aggressive column stagger than the Lily58 and Corne.
• Looked into getting an Kyria from SplitKB, but have no soldering experience or equipment. Would also have to pay shipping to US + keycaps so more expensive than I thought.
• Discovered the Elora. Out of stock (supposedly should be available at the end of the week).
• Discovered the Piantor Pro and Chocofi through Beekeeb.

Now I'm a bit stuck here, trying to pick between the three boards. I've never used a split ergo keyboard, so I have no idea what I like or what to expect.
The first decision to make is wired or wireless.
I like wired for its reliability and lower latency than wireless. I plan on using the board for gaming occasionally, so the low latency is better for that.
However, I often move between my desktop PC and MacBook, and I'd ideally like to be able to use the board on both computers. Wireless would make it a lot easier to a) carry the boards around and b) switch quickly between my PC and MacBook.
Wireless also increases cost and decreases my choices of boards, so I'm leaning more towards wired, even if I have to plug things in to use my board on my laptop when I'm out.
Assuming I go wired, the options I've been looking at are:
Elora:

• (+) Largest layout, with num row and 7 thumb keys. Easier transition from 100% board, hopefully.
• (-) Large layout means large travel footprint, and as a student commuting between home and campus, portability is important.
• (-) Does require me to source keycaps (and optionally switches).
• (+) MX switches mean largest variety of switches/keycaps available.
• (+) Seems like solid build quality and parts, and plenty of options for customization.
• (?) Extensible via Myriad, but unsure if I'd ever use it.

Piantor Pro:

• (+) On sale, so cheapest option for now.
• (+) Choc switches and a lower profile case, according to the product listing.
• (?) Fully enclosed case seems nice, but I don't know how much having exposed components would bother me.
• (-) Thumb keys look to be offset slightly from my natural thumb position based on printed layout, but I'm not sure if that will be the case when I have the board.

Chocofi:

• (+) Smallest layout of the three, so most portable.
• (-) Going from a full 100% board to 36 keys is going to be a tough transition.
• (+) From printed testing, seems to fit my hand the best.
• (?) Option to come wireless.

I'd love some insight or suggestions for choosing between wired/wireless and between the three board options (or another one, if you have one). If you need any more information, I'd be happy to provide it. Thanks!

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/1cxj7h8/comment/l52vtd5/?context=3
*****

The Palatini of Orias journey took nine grueling days of traveling down the peaks of Torness Mountain Range. But at long last, they reached the Coralus Valley. While the temperature was far below what the half-elf usually enjoyed, it was far better than the mountain peaks.
They traveled through the valley, trying to avoid the multiple hostiles, villages, and anyone else who could tip off their enemies. They had to take every tedious path imaginable to prevent possible contact with the enemy.
Staring at their destination, Fraeya Holiadon could not decide if she should be thrilled or distorted at the sight. "Is this the place?"
"I believe so," Raegel said. "The pattern of the structures matches my drawings and the map. See the remains of the two walls?"
"And the stone rings that direct out," Henness said.
"So, you have read the legends," Raegel said, surprised by the centurion's knowledge of the temple.
"I always prepare before a mission," Henness said. "Those half rings, are they stone or artificial?"
"They look like stone, so I think they used the ground stone and molded them," Raegel said.
Fraeya Holiadon carefully stared at the temple ruins. All she could see was the destruction—fractured stone buildings, walls, weed-infested stone pavement, and so on. While there were still many stone structures, most were destroyed. She could only see death, not the walls her father could see.
She turned to ask her father what he was talking about but saw Centurion Fionntan Henness pointing toward the walls and other details.
Watching the two communicate about the features of the temple, she realized how out of depth she was. Her father spent generations studying ruins like this, while Henness is an experienced soldier. For Fraeya, this was her first mission outside the academy supervision, and she realized how different the world was compared to the classroom.
As the two spoke, her elf ears overheard Henness mention that he saw green webbing. As the two men debated what creatures could create that webbing, she already knew based on the type of webbing. Being an excellent student, she recalled the topic regarding intelligent monsters. While many species produce a web, only one creates a thick green. Goblins.
"Father," Fraeya said. "I think goblins made those webbings."
"How could you possibly know that?" Henness asked, unconvinced by the theory. "It would easily be Rorgo or a Kipt."
Fraeya reached into her backpack and pulled out her notepad. She flipped through the pages and responded, "Kipt is more silk-like, while Rorgo is more for capturing prey. Both are white. Only Goblins make green."
"She is correct," Raegel said. "The green should have been a given."
"Alright," Henness said. "That complicates things."
"How so?" Fraeya asked. "The academy said they are weak. Adventures and local militia kill them constantly, so your men should be able to wipe them out with your weaponry easily."
"Goblins are weak in small numbers, but they are a nightmare in large numbers," Henness said. "And depending on the horde, they adapt to who their enemies are quickly. For all I know, we could be fighting a nest that is as heavily armed as we are."
Fraeya looked back toward the next with much confusion. She knew about the goblin's ability to adapt. However, her teachers never stated how formal they could be. Only treating them as barbarians is a functional civilization. "I would think the academy would mention something like that."
"If you are going to be out here in the world, you must understand that life is very different from the classroom," Henness said. "The difference between someone who lives behind a desk versus someone on the ground. Now, I need to get my forces ready for our attack."
Once the centurion left, Fraeya looked at her father. "I am starting to get the impression that my schooling wasn't as truthful as I once thought."
Raegel chuckled at the statement from his daughter. "That is what I said when I left my academy in Thali'ean," he said with a short chuckle before he spoke. "Henness was correct; there is a large gap between the classroom and out here in the world."
"I see. So, now, what do we do?"
"We wait for the legionaries to form a plan. Because time is not on our side, he will want you to assist with your magic. Do you think you can assist? If you are uncomfortable, tell me now, and you can stay here where it is safe."
Feeling a nervous chill creeping down her spine, she looked back toward the temple and breathed heavily. "I admit, I am scared, but I didn't come here to babysit the camp. I want to help."
She felt her father pat her on the back, feeling a sense of pride from his touch.
"That's my daughter."
After an hour of planning, the Palatini of Orias began their assault on the temple ruins. The plan was for a primary team to assault the temple directly, triggering a response from the goblin. The second team would remain on the high ground and pick off the horde.
Fraeya ended up on the right side of the group team. To her surprise, many soldiers were thrilled that they were finally getting into a fight. She wondered, after two weeks of crawling over the mountains and hiding like rodents, they finally got a chance to be soldiers.
The primary assault group she was attached to advance toward the temple once the signal was given. Passing one of the few remaining wall structures, they entered the temple ground. As they swept through the old temple's front sections, the goblins huddled around a fire pit, noticed them, and prepared for battle.
Three legionaries known as circilmen, from the palatini positioned themselves to engage the incoming enemy. Carrying a ranged projectile weapon known as a circiletum, they hid behind the front shield men and fired upon the incoming enemy. They picked off two of the three goblins as the last one quickly crawled under a piece of rubble for cover. Then, the palatini heard a painful screech from the hiding goblin.
Fraeya couldn't help herself but stand there noticing the two fresh corpses. She then watched as two of the swordsmen rushed to the hiding goblin. They reached in and pulled the little green monster out of its hiding spot.
Two swordsmen grabbed the goblin and dragged it from its cover, it jumped on top of one of the legionaries, stabbing its blade into its armor, unable to break through. With a short struggle, the legionary could slam the goblin onto the ground. The other legionary stomped on the body before thrusting his gladius into the monster.
Hearing another screech, Fraeya looked down the stone path and saw goblins popping out of every crack and corner.
One of the legionary officers ordered the unit to reform. The swordsmen took the front with their large scutum shields, creating a two-line protective shield wall. Behind them were the circilmen, taking cover behind the scutum.
The group of goblins charged forward. As they approached, the legionaries saw the raw, starving rage within their dark green eyes—a thirst for primal instincts of food and lust and nothing else.
"Fraeya, is it?"
Hearing her name, she turned to the commanding offer of this group.
"When I give the order, shake the ground." The lower-ranking Centurian said.
Fraeya acknowledged the order as she understood what he was planning.
Turning back to the incoming horde, she watched the three circilmen open fire. The circiletums cut down the forward group of goblins. The ones behind that row suddenly stopped from the shock but were cut down by a second volley.
"Now. Before they scatter."
Fraeya placed her hands together and chanted. The two tiny mana crystals on her gloves blew green as she felt a raw energy channel through her body. A moment later, that glow expanded to the point that it encompassed her hand.
Channeling the mana needed for the spell, Fraeya placed her left hand on the ground.
The stone ground beneath them shook the stone terra, stunning the goblins. Right down the center, cracks formed, and the terra broke apart. The road slightly uplifted into an elevation, forcing the goblins to focus on what was happening.
With the ground disinformed, it prevented the enemy from scattering in an organized manner, allowing the circilmen to fire another volley.
The front scutum marched forward and started cutting down anything that moved. The other line split into two groups. They were marching down the street in an almost synchronized manner. They held their shields high toward the ruins, protecting the circilmen from any incoming projectile. Arrows and magic.
Fireballs flew and impacted the scutum infantry, protecting the flanks. Some of the shields glowed from the impact. The flames engulfed one of the men's arms, and he started to scream from the pain.
The circilmen returned fire, and a firefight began. The sound of their weapons crackled throughout the surrounding area, amplified by the ruined walls. Above the sound of battle were the voices and cries of the wounded—the circiletum that were deployed on the ridge above rained fire from the suppressive team.
The Palatini of Orias pushed deeper into the temple ground as the battle continued. That was until the town began to be consumed by this thick haze, providing cover for the goblins, and restricting visibility for the Lat forces. While not educated to the standards of civilized races, Goblins were not stupid.
"It is a haze," Fraeya said. "They must have a mage somewhere within the nest."
Centurion Fionntan Henness approached their forces and began to regroup. "Can you counter it?"
"No," Fraeya replied. "I never studied Aeromancy magic."
"Nebulo," Henness said. "Our armor and weapons will be less effective."
Fraeya understood his concern. From what she recalled from her classes; goblins have sharp senses. Based on the density of the haze, it was clear even to her that they were planning to force them to huddle and expose themselves to be surrounded, making their ranged weapons worthless.
"We will just have to work around it," Raegel said.
As Frayea prepared herself, she felt a strange feeling throughout her body, almost like some field affecting her body. She saw a female legionary in light armor and a cloak checking over the wounded. One of the few women in the legionary, she could tell she was the unit healer specializing in Sanamancy magic. The women must have placed a barrier to help protect against any poisonous gasses lying within the haze.
Orias advanced through the haze; this forced the soldiers to clump together for safety. As the assault group progressed, they were hit non-stop by the goblin's arrow fire, spears, and fire shots from sling guns. Most of these projectiles caused minor damage thanks to the heavy armor legionary’s wear. However, this did not remove the damage as it brought discomfort and limited their progression to a crawl.
Barely noticing two figures on top of a rooftop through the haze, who were firing slingshots toward their position, she pointed her hand toward a piece of rubble and, with her magic, lifted the debris and projected it through the haze. The rubble temporarily formed a gap in the haze that increased the line-of-sight.
She then called out to the fire battle mage within the unit. The mage realized what was happening and fired multiple firebolts toward the tower. Five bolts impacted the building from different directions, engulfing the structure in flames. Everyone could hear the faint sound of goblins screaming as the building burnt.
With the tower collapsing suddenly, arrows rained through the thick haze, hitting the legionaries in retaliation. While most arrows bounced off the armor, some found exposed spots. Two more legionaries fell to their knees, with one vomiting blood, forcing the healed to focus on the sick over protecting the group.
It became clear that the goblins changed their tactics and poisoned their arrows. While worthless against armor, they could still puncture the underneath clothing and scrap any exposed part of the skin.
A luperca legionnaire picked up an old broken wagon and used it as a shield to protect. With the cover, the lower ranking commanders directed the circilmen to pick off any goblins that peaked above the surface.
Combined with the haze and change of tactic, this formed a strange stalemate between the two sides. The Orias was forced into a defensive; they were well equipped to deal with any goblins who dared to get within melee range. However, the goblins had surrounded and had the range advance as they could see through the haze, allowing them to snipe any legionary who adventured far from the group.
Fraeya saw a blob of acid impact a swordsmen's scutum. The scutum started being consumed by the spell, slowly falling into pieces. The man screamed as he felt his arm burn, desperately untieing the strappings to ditch the heavy shield.
"We need to kill their shaman before we are picked off," Raegel said.
"I agreed," Henness replied. "As long as this haze is here, my suppressive team is useless."
"If I recall," Fraeya said. "A Shaman should be nearby. Someone close enough to maintain this haze and give commands but not put themselves in danger."
"Then I know where it should be," Henness said. "Let's go half-elf."
She felt her ears perk up once she realized the centurion was talking about her. She looked toward her father and saw the 'it is time to prove yourself' look. Taking a deep breath and preparing herself, she gathered behind Henness and six of his men.
The assault unit left the main one and adventurer deeper into the temple grounds. As they reached what remained of an intersection, goblins stormed out of the stone buildings to ambush the legionaries.
With their disciplined reaction, the legionaries immediately adjusted their formation and sliced down the attackers. Henness stood at the center, holding his sword out as flames wrapped around the blade.
As the goblins attacked the swordsmen, Fraeya broke apart the ground on the right flank, knocking many goblins. The one that fell, she entangled them by summoning vines - which trapped the goblins and pulled them into the ground until their death or burial.
She then turned and lifted parts of the ground on the left flank, blocking some of the goblins. This prevented the legionaries from being encircled.
"Reform," Henness ordered. "We need to advance quickly. Stay close."
Once the path was clear, the unit moved toward the building where the goblins had fortified. Henness moved in front of her to provide protection. He held up his shield, deflecting arrows.
"Stay behind me," Henness said.
While not being a military woman, Fraeya quickly learned to accept the chain of command on this quest. On the battlefield, her father told her to listen to Henness as he was a man of war. She realized that the structure and safety of the city and the academy are vastly different in the countryside. Getting behind him, she followed him close behind as he pushed forward, arrows striking his shield, allowing her to get in range for her spell.
The legionaries stopped engaging the incoming goblins, allowing their centurion and the young mage to get closer. Henness reached around his scutum and pressed the amulet attached to the outer shell's center. Once pressed, the large shield briefly glowed before darkening, returning to the standard red with white lining design.
Up ahead, Fraeya saw in full display of the nest. Spikes, fortification, and green webbing filled the gaps between the ruined structures. Skeletons and decomposing bodies littered the areas of their past victims. The goblins were standing in the bunker sections, preparing for battle. With how heavily guarded it was, she concluded that this must be where the Shaman was.
"Fraeya, now!"
Fraeya moved around the man to cast her spell. With a quick chant, her hands glowed green again. As she channeled her mana, an acid attack impacted Henness' scutum. While the added hardening enchantment from the amulet increased the scutum resistance, the acid slowly ate through the large shield.
Stepping from cover, Fraeya aimed her hands at the nest. The ground trembled a little as the front of the nest collapsed on itself from the summoned sinkhole.
With the front entrance open, Fraeya saw the Shaman in plain view—a female, being one of the few within a goblin nest. The Shama looked scared as she looked around where to hide.
Fraeya did not give it time as she cast a spell that created a spike from the ground below the Shaman and pierced straight through the vicious monster, killing it instantly.
As the Shaman staff hit the ground, the haze started to disappear.
Believing that her work was complete after killing the goblin leader, her ears quickly heard footsteps surrounding them.
Noticing that the goblins were about to swarm their position, she took cover behind Henness to protect his rear. She took a deep breath as she felt exhausted from the battle and cast so many spells quickly.
Starting at five goblins that emerged from the ruins, Fraeya watched as they charged toward them. Before they got close, however, each one was sniped from the ridge-side suppressive team.
With a moment of confusion, she stared toward the cliffside and saw the suppressive team. Now that the haze is disappearing, they could snipe off the remaining goblins from their elevation position.
"Good job, half-elf," Henness said, slowly stepping back with a shield aimed at the flames, guiding Fraeya back.
"Stop calling me half-elf," Fraeya yelled. "I am out here risking my life with the rest of you, and don't give me that war is a male-domain thing! I am willing to see this through. Most of my kind would stay home and let you fight, so why do you keep degrading me?"
"Because ideals get people killed," Fionntan Henness replied. "Out here, you must earn that respect within the brotherhood of warriors, especially if you are used to living inside the city walls. People with a self-protected mindset usually end up as food for the worms or get my soldiers killed because they do not understand what it takes to survive."
The centurion then turned to the destroyed nest. "I will say, though, what you did here. It is a good first step for a half-elf." He then turned to give her an approving smile.
Not understanding the humor from the Lat, Fraeya accepted it. From her experience, Lats always had a strange sense of humor. Insults are sometimes seen as compliments while praising could be considered offensive. Saying one thing but meaning another is a common trait for them.
With the remaining palatini coming after clearing the remaining goblins, Fraeya saw her father. She rushed over and hugged him and teared up.
"You did good, my dear," Raegel said as he patted her.
"Is this really what it is like out here?" Fraeya asked.
"Sadly, it is," Fraeya replied. "That is why I never brought you around on my digs."
"I am sorry to interrupt," Henness said. "We are on borrowed time, so can we get at it?"
Fraeya looked toward the centurion with frustration as she wanted a moment with her father. After taking a deep breath, she realized that he was right.
After finishing her hug, she brushed off the goblin's blood and clothing.
"Then we better begin searching for what we came for," Raegel said as he reached for his bag. She watched as he pulled out a perfectly smoothed, pure black orb. By itself, it didn't look impressive. She had seen hundreds of these orbs at the academy or the many workshops within the city.
Raegel held the orb in one hand and activated it with his mana. The orb glowed light blue and fainted, barely emitting any energy. He then took it against the mountain and began scanning.
Not wanting to miss anything, Fraeya quickly pulled out her journal, skipping past all her notes until she reached a blank page. She then began documenting everything her father did, taking in every world and detail.
The palatini began walking through the ruins, heading toward the mountain wall. Raegel explained in his research that the temple extended inside the mountain, like a dwarf borrian. While others who came before him came up with this theory, they were still looking for a way to detect the hidden door markings and find it.
Raegel moved down the side of the mountain, holding the orb high.
"Why are you not using a door-detecting amulet?" Fraeya asked.
"Because people have been using that for generations and found nothing here," Raegel replied.
After a reasonable amount of time when nothing had happened, Fraeya began to wonder if everything was for nothing. Seeing the lack of progress, Henness inquired if the orb failed to work. As Raegel replied, the orb suddenly blimped orange for a moment.
Witnessing the sudden change, the group backed away as they did not know how to respond to the sudden glow.
Noticing a renewed excitement from her father, she followed him closely as they investigated the mountainside.
As they searched, her father noticed that the faint blue glow from the orb had changed to orange. It then disappeared and slowly appeared, like it was slowly pulsing. When they continued walking forward, the pulsing light increased in speed.
"I think it is directing us, father," Fraeya said.
"Possible," Raegel said. "There must be some type of link."
The palatini followed the direction the orb gave. As the group approached a mountainside wall, the pulse frequency increased until it looked like the orb glowed a solid color.
"I think we found it," Raegel said. He lifted the orb toward the wall.
As the orb drew closer to the mountainside, these blue lines appeared all over the rocky wall. The rough chips of rock melted away and turned smooth as the light traveled through the grooves, slowly creating what looked like a giant door of light.
Once the bright lights finished designing a massive door, Fraeya placed her hand on the wall, shocked at how the natural bulky rocks turned into a marble-like wall.
"I would step aside, Fraeya," Raegel said.
As Fraeya stepped backward, she watched her father open the door with a magical spell. Like most magical doors, the door brightened as she expected it would fold into the mountain. To her surprise, the door didn't fold away but melted into the ground.
"What happened to the door?" Fraeya asked.
Raegal placed his hand on his chin. "It seemed that the wall was not solid but some liquid matter. These people are impressive."
The wall began to shake as dusk from the cracks spread through the area.
A large opening formed as the door walls folded into the mountainside. A passage leading deeper into the mountain. The walls were black and smooth, while the floor had these textiles in perfect order, leading deeper into the mountain.
"This has to be a dwarven design," Fraeya commented. "Only they could do something like this."
"I'm not sure," Raegel said. "This is not a design I have seen from dwarves."
Fraeya understood what her father meant. Dwarven doors into the mountains took a lot of work to find. While there were many designs of such hidden doors and the means to open them, it was doubtful that anyone had ever seen a secret magical door like this before.
Raegel started to walk into the chamber but was suddenly stopped by Henness. Stating that he wanted his men to go first to ensure no trap, three legionaries moved through the large chamber. Once they gave the clear, the rest of the group entered.
While walking, Fraeya stayed close to her father as she took notes. The soldiers ahead of them set up torches to add more light. To her surprise, the walls and floor were smooth. The air was stale, probably trapped within this chamber for centuries.
As they walked inside, the room lit up. Everyone stopped as they looked toward the end of the hall. The chamber was empty, with only a strange-looking platform at the very end. Noticing that the orb was pointing toward the platform, they approached it.
"Is this it?" Henness asked. "It does not look that impressive."
"Not everything is based on size, centurion," Raegel replied, to which his daughter giggled.
Fraeya then analyzed the platform. It was smooth, almost marble-like. However, she doubted whether it was marble. The fundamental details that she noticed were a strange-looking blue crystal at the center of the platform and another in a hole on the side.
"This is interesting," Fraeya commented. The design looked surprisingly simple. This orb must act as some command orb for this device. They must be communicating in some manner."
"Assuming that the legend was true, the orcs were the ones who summoned the lats from Altaerrie," Fraeya said. "Maybe, when this place was lost of that time, it was never turned off. Being left in a state of slumber, waiting to be reawakened."
"Possible. It would explain why the orb directed us here. The orange pulse is now pointing down at a rapid pace."
"I think it goes into that hole, father," Fraeya said. "From what I can tell, the crystal in there connects to the one on top of the platform."
"I see," Raegel said. "The pulse is pointing toward it too. I recommend that everyone step back."
"Be careful, father," Fraeya said.
Stepping back from the platform, Fraeya watched as her father placed the orb into the hole. This was the moment her father had been talking about for decades, and it had finally come true. The Bridge between two worlds had finally been discovered.
As Raegel placed the orb into the platform, it glowed orange in a solid state, no longer pulsing. The blue crystal in the middle of the platform slowly lit up, like it was waking up after a long sleep.
The air suddenly chilled as the air flowed toward the platform. A bright light beamed out of the crystal and slowly faded away, leaving a light as if on standby.
To their dismay, the orb changed to red, dimming and brightening in a slow, tired pattern.
"What is it doing, father?" Fraeya asked.
"I have no idea," Raegel replied. "It must be waiting for something."

Setting: Homebrew world mirroring 1945, with the USA as the UNO (United Nations of Oberon) Location: An anti-magical prison on Alcatraz Island Current Party Level: 7 Current Party Composition: Paladin/Rogue 🛡️🗡️ Rogue/Warlock 🔮🗡️ Homebrewed Plant Summoner 🌱 Champion Fighter ⚔️ About the Campaign: Welcome to "The Rock," a gripping dark fantasy D&D campaign set in an alternate 1945. In this world, magic is real but heavily restricted within the confines of Alcatraz, an anti-magical prison. As an inmate locked up for at least two years, you must navigate the harsh prison life and the sinister happenings in the medical wing, where inmates are disappearing. To regain your magical abilities, you must find gaps in the anti-magic system, obtain magical pills, or discover stones that work beyond the system. Will you escape "The Rock" alive, or end up in a body bag?
Campaign Highlights:
Deep Role-Playing: Delve into your character's backstory and their intricate ties within the prison. Mystery & Intrigue: Uncover the dark secrets of the prison and decide your fate. Survival & Strategy: Navigate the treacherous environment, forge alliances, and strategize your escape. Magic Under Constraint: Find ways to circumvent the anti-magic measures and regain your powers. Character Creation:
Background: Your character has been incarcerated for at least two years. What was your crime? Were you framed, or are you innocent? Connections: Establish ties with gangs, prison guards, overseers, the Mafia, or grassroots activists. Motivation: What drives your character? Survival, revenge, redemption, or something else? Session Details:
Frequency: Every other Thursday Time: 9:30 pm EST to 12:30 am EST Duration: Campaign will run until level 14 How to Join: Briefly introduce yourself and your experience level with D&D. Let us know if you have any character ideas or preferences. Comment below or send me a direct message with your interest. We are looking for dedicated players who enjoy immersive storytelling, complex characters, and dark, challenging worlds. This campaign is perfect for those who love a blend of mystery, strategy, and survival. Ready to face the shadows of "The Rock"? Join us and see if you can make it out alive!

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92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance (HSR) - Shuttlecraft - 01. En Route to the New Lorisa Forests LZ.
Lysara
“Touching down in ten seconds.” I announced, my voice emanating from the encounter suit’s speakers in a language that, until just days ago, was an enigma.
Yet in a matter of days, this deceptively simple translation suite, a triumph of xenolinguistics, was now able to match my tone perhaps better than ever before.
Which explained exactly why Evina had responded in the way that she did. “Nervous, Lysara?” She offered in a snide, yet well-meaning jab.
I didn’t respond, not yet at least, as the last five minutes on approach were more often than not the most dangerous aspects of aeronautics; that much I learned from the pilots and armed service members I worked with over the years.
It was only after we’d touched down, and the final safety checks were complete, that I finally turned towards Evina. “I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t at least a little bit unnerved about this whole situation.” I offered, gesturing towards the back of the shuttle, as the both of us unbuckled and left our seats. The whole mission was already memorized in our minds as we’d already run through every plan and backup plan we had over the entirety of the flight time down here. “And to be quite frank, I’m surprised you’re taking this whole thing so incredibly well.” I continued, going through the final checklists on the deployment of this platoon’s worth of combat drones as I did so.
“I think we’ve long since sailed past the point of no return the moment you told me that there was an intergalactic, eons-long war going on, Lysara.” The felinor offered with a shrug. “A bunker with potential ties with that aforementioned malevolent cosmic entity is nothing compared to that bombshell.”
“I’d have assumed that the nature of the bunker, and this mission being issued by said interloper, would’ve been the sticking point here.” I offered, genuinely curious as to the nonchalant attitude projected by the felinor.
“Eh. When you’ve lived in the wastes for this long, you’re bound to have heard the whole ‘the aliens did it’ conspiracy more often than you’d like. Now I’m not saying I believe every wastelander with a conspiracy theory… but I can’t admit the fact that the bunker has always been something that radiates a really weird aura about it. I mean, compared to literally everything else out there in the wastes? It exists in almost this time capsule of complete isolation. The beasts that roam the area, preying on anyone that gets close, don’t really help out much in that whole weird vibe either. So yeah, ever since my first iteration tried to drill her way into it, Far-Reach Point has been a point of great mystery amongst the survivors of the waste. Which lends itself really well to the possibility that your alien enemies could actually be behind it.” Evina shrugged once more, before adding a cheeky self deprecating comment. “The fact that it’s been broadcasting all this time should also be a dead giveaway to be honest. Because you definitely won’t see anything felinor-made still functional without constant maintenance after a few years into its lifespan.”
I chuckled at that statement, if only because it seemed to be made in genuine jest. “Well, we can’t say for certain that interloper tech is involved in its construction. What we do know is that the interloper has some vested interest in the facility.” I shot back, attempting to temper the felinor’s expectations and keeping everything to the limited facts we had on hand. “Or more specifically, the individual living within it.”
“And you got all of that just by putting two and two together huh? Your mission to find this person-of-interest, and the weird anomaly that is this signal station.” The felinor shot back with a disquietingly critical stare.
“It’s our one and only lead.” I shrugged. “It’s either that, or we comb through every living felinor on this planet. So in light of this massive lead, my hypothesis is that our person-of-interest, is in fact, somewhere within that facility.”
“Eh.” Evina once more shrugged. “A better conspiracy theory than the nutjobs. Or rather, good enough that I’d buy it.” She grinned, baring her teeth in the process which, at this point, I’d become accustomed to. If anything, it was after hours of ‘cat videos’, as Vir called them; that I finally started to become accustomed to these fangy grins. Moreover, it was becoming a point of endearment more than anything.
“In any case, drones are online and ready to go.” I continued, moving the conversation out of speculation and back into action, as the rear of the shuttle opened to a charred and lifeless forest floor.
“Man, Vir really did a number to this place, didn't he?” Evina whistled out.
“I… do apologize for all of the collateral damage we’ve incurred on your world-”
“Are you kidding me?!” The felinor interjected with a devious grin. “I hate forests! Heck, maybe it’s a carry-over from my perpetually-indoors first iteration, but forests have always been a place of danger and death lurking over every corner! So yeah, nah, don’t worry about it. If anything, Vir did us a favor by doing this; so be sure to like… let’s make sure to grab him a souvenir or something when we come back.”
The felinor’s frankly erratic behavior worried me sometimes.
But then again, this was to be expected given the nature of cultural barriers. As such, I simply ‘smiled’ back a smile of my own, bearing my blunt teeth as best as I could. “Noted, Evina.”
It was around that point where Evina finally donned her helmet, clasping it into place as she began testing the communications suite with surprisingly little difficult.
“Alright. Can you still hear me through this thing?”
“Loud and clear, Evina.” I nodded.
“Right, let’s get this party started.”

92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. New Lorisa Forests LZ, En Route to the Signal Station (Far-Reach Point).
Evina
We were parked approximately seven hundred or so meters from the signal station.
Though that distance was measured from point to point, and definitely didn’t account for the obstacles and terrain that stretched from here to the station.
Despite that, and what my memories had warned me was a treacherous trek through dense and uncompromising foliage, the world outside was now anything but.
However, despite the constant mission briefs and the logical part of my brain telling me that what awaited outside was nothing like my prior iterations recalled… the power of several lifetimes were just too powerful to overcome.
That was, until the exit ramp opened, and I saw the flattened devastation that awaited me. The charred forest, and the open landscape, quickly sent any doubts incurred by my prior iterations back to whence they came from.
So with one of the greatest obstacles out of the way, and the raw and unbridled power of human-driven alien technologies at our disposal, our deployment out of the shuttle and into the forest was a piece of cake.
More than that, I now had front row seats to the shock and uncompromising efficiency of automated combat.
Needless to say, I was more than happy to be on the other side of the barrel when it came to this engagement.
Four distinct squads of robots formed up and ran out of the back of the shuttle, forming into cohesive units comprised of ten or so felinoid bots, accompanied by a whole host of flying, crawling, slithering, and galloping machines that secured the perimeter for us within a matter of seconds.
Upon a single urging from Lysara, we walked out, flanked on all sides by a remaining detachment of bots, consisting of five felinoid units and a flight of five more drones.
For the first time in any of my prior iteration’s lifetimes, I finally felt like I was on the winning side.
It was a good feeling.
And one I hoped continued as we made our leisurely march through the decimated forests and up towards the station.
The whole scene was just so… jarring.
Especially as memory after memory came to the forefront of those trials and tribulations from the lives of my first, second, and third iterations that had all made this trek several times over.
The massive tileroot tree that dominated the area next to the station… was now just gone. The same could be said for the thick pipewood vines that obstructed the path every couple of steps, and even the earltail moss that kept growing thicker and thicker on the front entrance of the bunker.
Most importantly, the air around me was now silent and still, interrupted only by the near-silent whirrs from the robots and the crunching of ashen foliage beneath our boots.
This was perhaps the first time in my life I actually enjoyed the devastation, a thought that was both ironic as it was troubling.
Regardless, we eventually made our way to the front of the facility in a staggering seven minutes; arriving in front of a circular door with gear-like cogs that were sunken into the facility itself.
“So… why didn’t you try blasting through the walls or the other surfaces of the facility?” I inquired bluntly, pointing at parts of the facility that weren't built into the hillside.
“Countermeasures.” Lysara responded, his voice resonating into my ears, a weird and alien sensation that still sent shivers down my spine. “Our scans were incapable of determining the detailed makeup of what was inside. And as a result, we have the be on the lookout for potential countermeasures against unauthorized entry. In addition, given the fact the facility still has enough power to maintain that broadcast, we can be certain that we not only have to worry about passive countermeasures, but active ones as well.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded. “Is this why you wanted my expertise to begin with? In the hopes that I might have some intel on this place?”
“Correct.” Lysara nodded.
“Well thankfully, you’re in luck.” I responded with a cocky grin, pointing towards a not-so-insignificantly sized hole drilled into one of the door’s massive cog-like edges. “Like I told you in the briefing, my first iteration had tried her hand at breaking into this place. It didn’t work out, obviously, but she did have some theories as to how the whole door system works.” I began walking towards the hole, as a flood of memories from my first iteration slammed into me hard. “So, just beyond this hole should be an emergency release mechanism. Apparently most fallout shelter doors have this as a failsafe or something; accessible only from the inside but capable of being accessed from the outside if you're willing to dig through twenty or so meters of solid metal and rock. This is the mechanism I’m talking about here, so not actually the door itself. My memory’s a bit fuzzy on the specifics but… I’m sure that if we drill deeper into that, angling the hole sideways so we don’t actually go through the door itself, we should hit a mechanism that can be manipulated. Now if you have some fiber optic camera wire and a master lockpick or something, I’m sure you can do it in a few days. But considering we have the power of artificial intelligence on our side… I’m sure we can do it in five minutes.”
That vote of confidence for Vir was rewarded with a ping and a notification in front of my visual field. The existence of a HUD was again, just as jarring as literally everything else right now.
With a heavy breath from Lysara, who at this point was scanning the hole with a whole host of scientific instruments, I received my answer as to how it was we were going to proceed. “One of the bots can be repurposed as a multipurpose drone.” He gestured towards a combat bot that was quickly switching from its main weapon, to what looked to be a seriously well-kitted out multitool kit masquerading as a hand. “We should be able to bore through this in about five minutes, from there… I’ll switch things over to Vir, and I’m sure we’ll be inside that bunker in under fifteen.”
The confidence was palpable in Lysara’s voice, giving me hope that today was the day that the burning curiosity in my first iteration’s memories would finally be addressed.
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(Author’s Note: We arrive on the planet, and make our way towards the signal station! All the while, we observe the tireless preparations Vir has made in ensuring that the landing zone is cleared of threats! Evina elaborates further on exactly what her first iteration had done in order to try to get in, let's just hope that this time around, they can make more progress than her first iteration! :D The next chapter is already out on Patreon as well if you want to check it out!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 97 of this story is already out on there!)]

This FYI will focus on giving you a strong start in my faction, Apart from Live events and Towers, your two main issues at the start will be Proving Grounds (PG) and Faction Wars (FW).
I will discuss faction wars later in the article as some of the strongest cards in the game, even at present, are located there. But to have an easier time in faction wars you will need good card to begin with. So hers how to get a head start on some great Sapphire and Ruby Cards.
In regards to your starter pack choose whatever you prefer, you will receive emerald evo cards which, by meeting specific requirements will evolve gem levels eventually reaching Ruby 80 overall. I tend to go for Strikers as they are easier to meet the requirements and MFP match actions for PG, Lives and Towers.
MyRise and Showcase:
Completion of these modes unlock various my faction cards and some of them are very strong.
Cheesing Myrise and Showcase: If you just want to blast through the modes, set it to easy and go to balancing, then turn everything in your favour, reversals, kick outs, health and regarding submission, change it so the AI is punished for wrong button presses, you not so and correct button presses are strong for you and weak for AI, you will be submitting people in seconds unless the match has objectives or stipulations to meet first. Is it scummy? Yes. Does it matter? No.
I would recommend showcase first, this can be laborious as you cant just win it but have to complete all objectives, again the difficultly adjustment will help but the part that rewards you is the end. It involves you taking part as the first entrant in a 30 man battle royale, to meet all objectives to unlock the showcase cards you need to survive and also eliminate 10 individuals during the run. Choose your wrestler wisely! Someone whos strong can reverse but can survive!
For completing Showcase Royale Rumble with 10 eliminations and winning you receive the following my faction cards which in my opinion are the best starting cards in the game prior to the FW bosses:

• Ruby Shawn Michaels '94 (83 Overall) - Amazing Agility, he will be your ladder match card
• Ruby Bianca Belair (82 Overall)
• Ruby Charlotte Flair (82 Overall)
• Ruby Rhea Ripley (82 Overall)
• Ruby Becky Lynch 81 (Overall)
• Ruby Ricky Steamboat (80 Overall)
• Sapphire Asuka (79 Overall)
• Sapphire George "The Animal" Steele (76 Overall)
• Sapphire Ken Shamrock (77 Overall)

My Rise is split into two Story's One male (Undisputed), one female (Unleashed), the female is linear and requires only one playthrough as long as you do all optional objectives to get all of the cards. Unleashed provides far more cards and far better cards:
Unleashed will provide the following My Faction Cards:

• Gold Psycho Sally (67 Overall)
• Gold Meilee "Fanny" Fan (66 Overall)
• Gold Geneva Rose (68 Overall)
• Sapphire Ava Moreno (76 Overall)
• Emerald Odyssey Rift (73 Overall)
• Emerald Justine (72 Overall)
• Emerald Carly Prime (74 Overall)
• Ruby Asuka (81 Overall)
• Ruby The Manifestation (82 Overall)
• Ruby John Cena (82 Overall)
• Ruby Batista (82 Overall)

The Male undisputed story will require completing the story twice and completing all optional objectives also, the main branch is during a choice to stay with Miz or go to NXT. The undisputed cards you unlock are as follows:

• Gold Cole Quinn (65 Overall)
• Gold Gabriel Slade (69 Overall)
• Sapphire Chosen (75 Overall)
• Sapphire Slade (79 Overall)
• Sapphire Zero (78 Overall)
• Ruby Gigi Dolan (80 Overall)
• Ruby El Ordinario (81 Overall)

LOCKER CODES:
Check which locker codes are active and enter them. Some expire, they provide free packs and cards, free agent cards can be scrapped for MFP, DO NOT ASSIGN THEM! Find recent locker code links here, also this is a great resource.
WWE 2K24 Locker Codes List for MyFACTION (May 2024) WWE 2K24 Coverage (thesmackdownhotel.com)
FW Bosses:
This section will be quick as I may do a whole FYI article on Faction wars and the best cards and why but my list in order are as follows:
Best Males:

1. Stone Cold Steve Austin
2. Rock (either, same stats and badges if not Cena will suffice the one that matches rocks badges)

After this its your choice, another rock or Cena couldn't hurt, YOKO and Andre were beast but the stamina nerf has affected them. Undertaker has terrible badges for his class but his super finisher is a submission and coupled with his space invader badge he can make submitting foes easy. I am not the biggest fan of Cody card but he's okay,
Your 4th card for the line up should be your showcase Shaun Michaels, TRUST ME!
Honorable Mentions:
The FW Sapphire Roman, Bobby, 78 Cena and Randy can be good.
Females:

1. TRISH STRATUS WITHOUT A DOUBT. OP, still one of the best female cards.
2. Bailey - Trust me her badges, she stuns easy and her stuns drain enemy special and finisher.
3. Either Charlotte 84 or the Becky 84 but go for charlotte, quicker limb attacks, on a stun bar can do three leg attacks, Becky does one! Furthermore, she has purple space invader meaning her subs are stronger.

Honorable mentions:
FW Sapphire Trish Stratus, Asuka, Chyna.
My starting line up after a while was this:
Males: Stone Cold, Rock, Rock, Shaun Michaels Showcase
Females: Trish, Bailey, Charlotte 84, Becky (84) (But Bianca, Becky or rhea from showcase are good also!).
I hope this is useful and Sub please chime in with your own advice. The more discourse the better. And again to the new players! Welcome!
PS Apologies for typos. Did this on my android.

I made a classification (and ranking) of music, based on levels of meaning.
I am curious to see what do you think of this system?
Level 0 - Noise, random sounds
(analogue in language: inarticulate sounds and screams that can't be written down)
Level 1 - Incoherent - stuff like integral serialism, which, while it has tones (it's not noise), and structure, such structure is imperceptible to humans, and virtually impossible to remember. It sounds like random sequence of well defined tones, but still random. You could listen to Boulez's Structures dozens of times, without remembering a single musical idea from it. Each time you listen to it, is like the first one. And it's intentionally made that way. Boulez said, the idea was to make the listener focus only on the present moment, practically deleting the past, erasing the memory, so that every sound sounds fresh, like new sound, unrelated to what came before it.
(analogue in language: random sequence of letters: weoquifgqwodihwqiudghiuzdgziuwqdbv
Level 2 - Coherent, but meaningless - music that is well structured, its structure easily perceived and often enjoyed by humans, its structure respects all the rules of making good music, sounds good, can be remembered, can be learned and enjoyed. But... it's basically forgettable. It's music that sounds goods, that speaks in a musical language that humans can easily understand, but that ultimately doesn't say anything. It uses good language, but says nothing. It feels kind of bland, generic. In that category could easily be included some less important Haydn symphonies, or maybe even, large parts of output of most composers. It's like most works sound decent, maybe they try to say something, but they end up saying nothing and people tend to forget them.
(analogue in language: "Shurdles have zandily dorfed little cangles all across the Handerland." Or perhaps: "Meaningless green ideas sleep furiously.")
Level 3 - Meaningful - this is the music that contains timeless ideas, you need to hear it only once, and you'll remember it for your entire life. As if such ideas always existed in Plato's world of ideas, and only waited to be discovered. Such ideas don't need to be particularly profound, but they are always musically meaningful. Your brain perceives them as meaningful and readily remembers them. This category includes all the catchy melodies in the world, in all genres of music. So, it includes Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, but it also includes "Jingle Bells". It includes Handle's Messiah, but it also includes "Smoke on the water" guitar riff. It includes Vivaldi's Spring, but it also includes Gloria Gaynor's "I will survive".
(analogue in langauge: I think, therefore I am. A penny saved is a penny earned. All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.)
Level 4 - Profound - All the works that are profound are also meaningful, but only some of the meaningful works are profound. Profound works, not only contain meaningful and memorable melodic passages, but also combine them in meaningful and profound ways, that often communicates some deeper ideas or emotions to the audience, or gives the listeners a unique and deep intellectual, aesthetic and emotional experience. I think top 10% of the output of famous composers belongs to this category. Examples: Bach's Mass in B minor, Beethoven's 9th symphony, or 14th string quartet, etc...
(analogue in language: Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, Hamlet by Shakespeare, etc...)
I think music quality and artistic merit also follows this categorization, with Level 4 being at the top, and Level 0 being at the bottom.
So here's how I would rank some musical works.

1. String quartet no. 14 (Beethoven), Mass in B Minor, Symphony no. 3 (Beethoven), Carmina Burana (the whole work), Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's 9th symphony, etc.
2. Spring (Vivaldi), Für Elise (Beethoven), Jingle Bells, Sweet Child O'Mine, Yesterday, Bolero, Radetsky March, O Fortuna, Hotel California, Schubert's Ave Maria
3. Random Haydn's symphony. Random Vivaldi's violin concerto. Random pop / rock song. Random Schubert's art song.
4. Boulez - Structures 2; most of integral (and not just integral) serialism stuff, A cat walking on a piano, a child playing random tones on piano
5. Vacuum cleaner sounds, washing machine sounds, car engine...

There are exceptions though.
Musical works can be profound for non-musical reasons, but this is a rare exception, and often a bad excuse for a work, that is in essence bad.
Perhaps it could be argued that John Cage's 4'33'' is profound because it communicates meaningful ideas about the importance of environmental sounds and how they can be considered music, or perhaps Boulez's Structures are profound because they represent an attempt to erase the memory of trauma caused by World War 2, and start anew. So their importance comes from general artistic statement that they tried to make (more like conceptual art), not from any merit of their music itself.
What do you think of my controversial ranking of Jingle Bells above "a random Haydn's symphony", and also a random Haydn's symphony, above pretty much any work of integral serialism?