Magnus arrived in a very familiar garage, with an old man before him that he recalled.

"You are late, for me." Mister Chang watered his plants, completely unperturbed by the explosive arrival, only slightly ducking a shard of metal. "But fate does not obey the wishes of an old man. Things have changed in the city. You have grown immensely, and your soul wound has healed. This is good."

"Your presence was once an irritant, and your legend is shrouded in fiction. Your mere shadow will cause men to quail, once they learn you are real." He smiled, setting the can down. "Your allies will rejoice and rally to their reborn savior. The city will become a warzone. That is bad."

"Tell me of your travels. What happened after the temple ended, my equal?"

Magnus appears with his full glory apparent. His hair is Blue-Green Fire and he radiates a huge Blue-Green Aura that has green lighting crackling around him. His eyes are glowing with the same Blue-Green light and have a spiral pattern in them. And he has Circuit-like veins of Blue-Green light.

I blink and look around Recognizing my bearings.

"Greetings Mister Chang. Thanks for teaching me before. Legend Shrouded in Fiction? It sounds like a lot has happened since I died

As for my Travels... There is quite a bit to go over. I have been in four worlds since I was here. The first was a high tech colony world that was a part of a galactic empire that was set up by a Verser like myself named the First Legionnaire that was basically Superman...Wait, Sorry I'm not sure if that character is in the media here. Anyway they where very oppressive and hunted versers like myself. I died when The First Legionnaire showed up in my ship and blow it up by punching it."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Tue 24 Dec 2019.

"It's been a few months since your disappearance. I was hoping you were going to survive. Tex had his own ideas, but I suppose they turned out well in the end as opposed to costing this city someone who could heal it. The wave of acceptance that rolled from you after Carmilla's accident was quite potent."

If he knew the specifics of that, his face did not show it. "The undercity has started to become a center for life again. The Rat disappeared - no one is sure what happened to him. He was a counterforce against the demons, though, and when they realize he is truly gone and not merely tricking them again, we may have some problems."

"Your legend is that of a man who bought this city some time to breathe. Your actions mattered to this city. At least one generation will grow up, seeing a shadow pulled back for a brief time, and seeing some light beyond the night smog. I cannot see if they will rise above it - destiny here has always been shrouded in darkness."

"And this Legionnaire, this kin of yours that bent the heavens to his will - he sounds too direct to truly threaten you or any of the rest of his kind." Chang waved a hand dismissively. "He is merely a brute. See past the mask, and realize that even a super man can be defeated. If he has no apparent weakness, then he is a rock - put him under pressure and let his own power destroy him."

"But you died confronting him, not having known that yet. Your journey did not end there, and was merely redirected down the river of enlightenment. What else happened to you?"

"Hmmm... Will abhors it's absence. The Legionnaire creates systems that shove righteousness down peoples throats. the only thing keeping the system from falling is a significant part of their strength is turned against the people. He has certainly caused countless beings to rise to oppose him.

Anyway, I picked up a few people from this verse out. I am still not sure how that happened... There was Anthony who was a low level member of the inquisition that had a job to make sure the population of that world didn't get too discontented to rebel. He didn't like his job and wished to be free. The Next one was Thirteen. He is a Sentient Robot.He actually has a soul. The Legion Hates. sentient robots so he had to pretend to be a dumb robot. He wanted to escape and be free. Then There was Lucian. A field agent of the Inquisition... The religion he was taught says that all versers like myself are Demons that are disguised as humans. He viewed that Freedom was a curse and thought humans had too much even in his previous oppressive world... He changes quite a bit...

Next world was basically medieval fantasy. Knights, Giants, Gods and Dragons. I woke up in the upper atmosphere and had to save myself and the others from atmospheric reentry. I used telekinesis and floated down yo a plane of ash as the remains of my previous ship impacted below. There was this... humanoid creature. it felt weird and a power I couldn't comprehend flowing through it. With a bit a Black mana's self interest mixed in. I tried to communicate with it. But it only drew a map. Then A Western style Dragon showed up. It was effectively an Elemental of Lighting and Stone. The Others where unconscious and in no shape to fight or run. So I had to fight it off. I managed to fight it off but I was knocked out in the process.

I woke up on a stretcher being taken to the city of the Gods, Giants and Humans. Apparently they where fighting a war against all the dragons of this world. I talked with a few of the gods. and determined that we needed to go to a great library because Thirteen was having a hard time moving because of this world's lack of technology. I needed info on golems to help him. They gave us Weapons and Armor because if we went outside we would be fighting against the dragons.

I picked the heaviest Armor and weapons that I could wear so I could train my strength while wearing them.

We headed to the Library and then a boar tusk went through my armpit and into my heart. Killing me instantly. Even I can get unlucky."

"Men of power do that. Even when they are kind. You saw Kat. She despises me, because she believes that I do not destroy her because I have turned my power into stagnation. I have not. She wouldn't believe that, because she cannot, so such wisdom is wasted on her."

"You have another encounter with this Lucian. It is interesting that you have four children. Not surprisingly, all of you are learning. Lucian is a man who was never allowed to leave the faith, and thus his faith was never challenged. The other two...well, they didn't like it to begin with, so they likely took it well." Mr. Chang chuckled. "I'll bet your crazy power did nothing to convince them you were not somehow a demon."

"This strange creature, that said no words to you. It merely gave you a map and left? Perhaps it was like me. A guide for you. For a fateless man, you draw the attention of many powers that wish to make you less than you are." He waved a hand. "You are bothered more by the specifics of the death than by the death. You are still blossoming, even now. Even gods can err. What more happened?"

"... wait. What? Four children? I only know of three that came with me. Who is this fourth one you are talking about?"

I will let him explain that then continue.

"Ok. The Next world was also a sword and sorcery world, but in this one magic was limited to being very slow. But they had something very interesting. There where various sword schools that produce seemingly supernatural effects with mundane sword strikes. These Sword schools are fascinating. I wished that I managed to learn them all.
Anyway. There was a summoning of what is effectively an angel by a Priest of the Sun God of that world, Palor. He messed up and got me instead. It freaked him out because I was heavily Armed and Armored and he didn't have control. But I managed to talk them down. It turns out that Lucian showed up in this world before me and temporally allied himself with the followers of a god of death to quest for Faithful Avenger a sword that embodies the ideals of the Devoted Spirit sword school. I agreed that it was a bad idea to let him have this. So I agreed to quest for this sword as well. The Priest summoned a guide for me named Tariel. He was a lantern Archon. Which looked like a floating ball of sunlight about a foot wide.

I conversed with him on the way to the temple and he relayed the conversation back to Palor. Pelor managed to convinced me that I would do better if I when to The School of the Stone Dragon, learned there and quested for Unfettered.

Since he was just summoned to be my guide to the temple he had to go back.
So I contacted Pelor to ask to summon Tariel to be my guild to the Stone Dragon school. and he ended up sending me instructions for an oracular circle to contact him. So I ended up talking to Pelor Directly... Basically He said that he was looking for a verser like myself that was compatible with his Ideals so that they can carry his light into other worlds... I have previously run afoul with gods. specifically the Greek Gods. He agreed to help with divine politics if something like that happened again. So I swore fealty to him. Nice guy. He doesn't ask for much that I am not already inclined to do anyway. And that is how I became a Paladin."



I pause for a bit to let Mister Chang react to the story so far.

"The ring the Rat was using as a power source. That was one of your children, a detail I only caught when it was too late. A shadow making its way to a deeper one. It is a quiet danger, and unaccounted for after the Rat's defeat. I was hoping it simply left as you did, because I cannot track it in Yomi Wan."

He shrugged. "It has not found its way to its true master, though. We would all know if it had."

"And don't worry about what you did not learn. You remained long enough to learn the basics. The rest is your destiny to choose in time." He sat down, and tilted his head sideways at you. "...the touch of the Incarna. You have spoken to Sol yourself, or at least one of his many forms. The hold it has on you, though, is more negotiable than an Incarna's touch should be."

"Continue."

At the revelation that the ring now is a verser.
"... Damn it. Of course the sentient ring became a verser. I couldn't destroy it before and now it has verser Immortality on top of that... well I did encounter it's future but that doesn't tell me where it is now."

I continue the story


"Well. After that I traveled to The Forge. Where they teach the Stone Dragon school.
To test me about where I should start they asked me to name the toughest material that I could punch through 13 centimeters of with one strike... one student suggested that I and humans in general couldn't break the toughest materials there. She was a Goliath, a race of giants that are usually 8 or 9 feet tall. This annoyed my pride. So I told them to bring out Adamantine. It is a cyan material that has a fibrous nature.  It is also anti-magic. Magic was not outright prohibited.  So I used Do. And shattered it into a fine pieces.  The mundane part of the strike would actually have been enough... but it would have been a close thing.

That got the attention of the Grandmaster of the school.  A Dwarf named Duke. He recognized my strike as magic and said that I am a colossal cheater pretending to be a powerful Martial Artist. But then he said it is impressive that I destroyed an anti-magic material with magic. He decided to let my achievement stand and train me. Ether I would become what I want to be or he would break me.
And since I was his student I had to quest for Unfettered.

The first part of the quest is to forge a sword without food or rest. Although water is permitted.  I spent 36 hours straight forging a long sword. And managed to complete it the first time. Here let me show you the blade I made. It was the first time I made a sword."

With that I pull the sword I made out of my pocket dimension. Then I'll let Chang examine it if he wants to. And return it when I am done.


"The Next part of the Quest is to kill a Jotun Chief. Jotuns are ice giants and are part spirit. Duke gave me some scrolls that detailed the basic techniques of Stone Dragon. I learned the most basic ones and that night I Dreamed about all the styles. Some where Glorious,  others where terrifying,  others hurt the soul to behold and some where just plain weird. I got insight into all of them and transcended the limitations of their forms. Formless but able to apply the principles of their techniques to whatever I want.

Anyway,  on the way to searching for the Jotun tribe, I found a Jotun Raiding Party that was looking for slaves. I tricked then out of the two slaves they had with them and then ended up decimating the Raiding Party. Obviously I freed the slaves. And their sorceror priest ended up causing demons to whisper into the minds of the party by pushing a spell that located me and made it harder for me to use magic with these floating eyeballs. That actually drove one of the Jotun's insane. I found her and couldn't leave her there to die. So I corrected her chi flow and cured the insanity that way. This caused her to have a Life debt to me.
Her name is Frath.

I continued to the Jotun Tribe and the others tryed to convince me this was a bad idea. Frath had two contradictory duties. Due to her oaths and life debts. So I freed her. By destroying her oaths. The backlash blew me up and sent me to Niflheim along with Frath. But it didn't kill me."

I'll let him comment on the story so far.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:26, Sun 24 May 2020.

"This is not the weapon you made." Chang wasn't looking directly at the weapon as he spoke. "It was once. Now it is Unfettered, the weapon of those who refuse to be chained."

He turned back to you, returning the weapon. "I suppose your pride got you where you needed to go. The universe guided and chose you well. And your treatment of an enemy along with taking a personal risk in destroying their oaths? You have internalized the nature of Invictus, although why is for you to hold."

"You might not have picked up on true wisdom yet, so I will test you. Ask this: if you had said, 'no, I will be killing no chieftain', what would the world have done in turn? What were the stakes in refusing to act, and would it be different than acting and failing?"

"Once you have an answer, please continue."

"The World's reaction to that would depend on how resolute I was in my decision to not kill the Chieftain. The other students would try to convince me that killing him is ok. Duke would tell me the history of all that the Chieftain has done. And Tariel would say that eliminating such a darkness from the world would be furthering my oath to Pelor rather than going against them. Pelor would probably say that if I was committed to such an action. Go and try to redeem the Chieftain. That would have been very unlikely to succeed. The Chieftain was a paladin of the Jotun's god Thyrm, god of Winter and Bloodshed.

If I continued to refuse, that would have slowed down my mastering of Stone Dragon. and I would have never gotten Unfettered. The path would have flowed down a different route. I would go to another school and quested for the weapon there. The Chieftain would remain. And easily a hundred or more people would suffer under slavery to the Tribe of jotuns at a time. The surrounding areas would suffer slave raids from the jotuns to replace those slaves that died. This would continue as long as the chieftain was in power. something that had the potential to last for a long time.

Acting and failing would at a minimum, set him back quite a bit as I killed a lot of his troops.Maybe enough that the slaves that I managed to free could escape without pursuit since there isn't enough jotun to go and find them...

I thought I was a thing that needed to be done. That is a part of my oath to Pelor. Bring Light to the Darkness.  Do not allow evil to harm or corrupt the innocent. and Even if I didn't have my oath to Pelor. I would have done it.


I ended Up in their home plane. Niflheim, It is a plain of cold snow and wind and not much else. I did manage to free Frath from her oaths and debts. And she decided to guide me back. We took shelter in an Ice cave and I killed the giant centipede monster that was lairing there. I decided to gather information on the jotun fortress I was going to assault. I used one of Frath's knifes as a connection to view the fortress through the Akashic records. I got the layout of the fortress. but i also got a vision of the jotun Chief abusing one of the slaves I freed.

The Entrance on the Niflheim side was near. I descended on them. My mark blazing with my anger. I actually had a plan. Fight and force the Jotun to focus on me. and Rally the humans together if I can. This would allow me the best chance to succeed and hopefully keep human casualties to a minimum... But no plan survives contact with the enemy. They summoned a Demon of war. A servant of their god Thyrm. He roared and both Human and jotun where enraged. The fighting and conflict enpowered the demon to the point where it just healed any wounds I inflicted on it. I had no other choice but to draw it toward the portal and lure it through.

If I removed it's presence. then Everyone would stop being Enraged. This would let the humans actually fight tactically. Which would give them the best chance of survival..."

This actually bothers me a lot that I failed here. But I don't see how I could have done better.

"The Demon's form changed while going through the portal. He turned into some sort of Plantlike Frost Hydra. I tried to continue fighting him. But he infected me and my old sword. The old one I made out of magic... with a spirit eager for battle. My mark saved me by burning out the infection with solar fire. But I couldn't save my blade. So I Destroyed the magic holding it together and hurled it against the cave ceiling to collapse it and trap the daemon.

I then fought some orks and freed a bunch of slaves. I was heading to the front of the fortress when the Chieftain teleported in and attacked. Rejuvenating the Daemon with our fight. We fought and he tried to force me to stay in place so that the daemon would get me. Eventually I killed him and escaped with his sword.

The Jotun ran. The White Dragon that was under the command of the Chief also ran. I let the daemon die from the lack of conflict. Then headed back in but the portal was gone.

I returned to the Forge. I had saved about a fourth of the people enslaved.
I trained for a little bit the when on the last part of the Quest for Unfettered.
To travel to a distant treacherous Mountain and meditate in the tomb of One who helped make Unfettered and used it to free himself.
Unfortunately that White Dragon That was the mountain for it's lair. So I had to fight a Dragon while climbing up. I found a cave where I could rest. Then I enacted a ritual to make a tunnel to the top of the mountain. The Dragon examined the tunnel as I shot out. Grappling the Dragon and forcing it to the ground as I killed it.

I made it to the tomb and met the ghost of Kan the Goliath. He said normally he would dual me to test my worth. But I killed a dragon to get up here. So he decided to guard me while I meditated."

I pause again to let him comment.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:17, Fri 27 Dec 2019.

"I see. So you did what you felt you must. That is as valid a reason as another. I, however, choose to doubt that any aspect of Sol Invictus would order someone to redeem the irredeemable. Except you - he knows you could take it. More likely, however, he would have approved of the decision you made. The Sun is no fool, and most of his aspects despise evil."

"So, the spirit at the mountain top chose not to fight you?" Chang snorted derisively. "Old skinflint. What else is keeping him bound to life if not conflict? He should have fought you, and taught you further techniques that only a master can teach through example."

"'Killed a dragon so you get a pass.' Bah!" Chang chuckled. "He was probably frightened of you and trying to 'play it cool.' Impressive, however, to put fear into the heart of the dead."

"So, tell me more of your adventures. What happened next?"

"At the time I was still disappointed with myself that I didn't save the humans in Niflheim on my previous quest. Pelor suggested that I should go to the School of the White Raven and learn there and quest for the Spear of the Last Citidel. Battlefield tactics sounded interesting so I went.

I learned the basics for a bit there before the Grandmaster decided to send me on the Quest for Last Citidel. The first part is to Seek and Find Atonement. This was difficult for me. Normally the quest is to find someone you wronged and find Atonement from them. A Meditated and Meditated to figure this out. Eventually I realized that the only thing that I thought was bad enough to need Atonement was my failure to save the slaves in Niflheim. I meditated some more and realized there is not realy a way for me to make it up to the dead. I fought alone. So I could not support them in their fight for freedom.

I resolved to do better in the next situation like that. And rally the people to fight with me if the situation calles for it.


That immediately came up because the next part of the Quest is the Rite of Selfless Defence. I found an Ork army marching towards a walled town that I knew about. I rode day and night on Tariel and...

Oh. By this point Pelor has assigned Tariel as my personal servant. Usually he manifests as the spirit animating a divine steed that I csn call. Here he was a stallion. In my next world he was a big and fast motorcycle.

Anyway. I arrived and managed to warn the town about the Army. I rallied the townsfolk and trained them in fighting in formation with spears. Along with archery.
I saw that the orks had two siege engines when I spotted the army. So I built very strong bow made for me to use. Then I made arrows the size of spears for it. Using a ritual to Charge them with Destruction. I managed to take out the Siege Engines before their shaman figured out how to stop the arrows from exploding.

It was a hard fought battle and we took some losses. But we did manage to cause the orks to route. They outnumbered us 2 to 1. And orks are generally bigger and stronger than humans along with being fierce warriors. But the townsfolk's discipline held. And I managed to maneuver myself and the others well enough to keep ahead of the ork's tactics. And I kept their morale up.

I helped rebuild the town and bury the dead. Then I moved on.

The last part of the quest is to meditate for the three nights of the full moon at the grave site of the previous wielder of Last Citidel. The previous two quests echoed his story. I ended up conversing with his ghost and sparring with him. The ghost approved of what I was doing and my path.
"

"It is interesting that you chose to atone for the actions of that world rather than a prior one. You carry your gifts from life to life. You carry your wrongs as well." Chang rubbed his nose in thought, a finger going down the bridge. "Or perhaps you do not. But dwelling on failure is never healthy - you addressed in yourself what needed to be addressed."

"I can see Tariel within you. He is merely an extension of you at this point, just as the line between you and your patron is blurred. Honestly, you don't even need Sol anymore, which is quite the statement."

He smiled. "At least this ghost sparred with you. I suppose the mountain spirit figured you needed nothing. This other one is more pragmatic, and wanted to make sure."

"You spent some time here. I know it comes to an end."

"I thought about that while meditating. I thought that returning to the same world was extremely unlikely. So I thought it would be better to Atone for something I did in that world, So I could do something about it. Rather than something that I would have to go back to a previous world to correct.


Anyway, I was feeling pretty confidant at this point and it made sense for a Paladin to learn a Sword School based on Devotion and Faith. So I quested for Faithful Avenger.
The first part is to go to the Temple of Reflection and Meditate for 24 hours on On my past action and what path I will choose in the future. Between being Humane and Ruthlessness. I decided that there where some things I would be unwilling to do under any circumstance. So the path was obvious.

Then I had to Find a Big Evil Thing and defeat it.
So I went back into Niflheim and started beating the daemons there and freeing any humans I could find and leading them back to the Mortal World. Eventually I found this Really large daemon in his fortress there. I Defeated him and then Utterly destroyed his fortress.

I headed back and the Next thing is to go to a shrine to the Reaper And stay there for 24 hours. But Lucian Showed up With a sneak attack from an Anti-tank Pistol. That hurt. I fought against him. He was like an Akuma of your world. But Greater. Magic flowed easily through him and His Daemonic nature made it so that his magic didn't need to follow the slow nature of magic in that world. And He also Had the Ring of The Shadow of All things. He was tricky and hard to hit. He turned into inky darkness and flowed around my attacks. I Tried Infusing my Weapon with sunlight. But that didn't help much. I did the best I could. But I was outmatched. I was Defeated. But for a moment I refused to go. I Pushed a sword technique Well Beyond the Breaking point. Well beyond what anyone as seen in this world. I stuck the Ground, Producing an Absurdly sized explosion of Sunlight and the Temple of the Reaper was no more. And I was no more."

"Lucian..." Chang mulled that name. "The inquisitor who became as you. And he picked up your ring? Your kids are banding together. Still, I can only hope neither of them followed you here. Time flows strangely around you, and he advanced a great deal more than your story would indicate."

"So, he bested you, and you came right here, hair full of the fire of progress?" He waved a hand. "There is more. I eagerly await the story."

OOC: Tune in next time to "Witness The World Engine".

We will occasionally come back here from time to time. Chang might have a reaction to this story at the stranger parts.

-------------------msg #15: Witness the World Engine---------------------

Chang raised a hand. "Hold on. You could have been of immense value helping them build their walls, homes, and vehicles, if I recall your crane work well. Why would you choose to direct your talents to violence, and pretend it is your only talent?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:48, Sun 19 Jan 2020.

"I was going to help them build their things anyway. But If there was a danger to their town I needed to find out about it immediately. And Telling them that I was good at that would be the quickest way to do that."

"Carry on."

--------------msg #38: Witness the World Engine----------------

"So, you have learned the language of the cloth." Chang chuckled. "Perhaps you should make that part of your identity here."
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:47, Sun 19 Jan 2020.

"I suppose I could. I didn't go into much detail about religion last time I was here. I suppose with Christmas being a thing, Christianity tried to wipe out everything else in this world as well. Then again. This is a different world from my home world so they might be a bit more tolerant here."

--abandoned for now, have an idea--