In reply to Scord (msg # 76):

After a couple of minutes of careful thinking you're able to create a two yard long and two inch wide Shard.  Then the visualizing of the hammer strikes as a blacksmith making a sword forms the Ingot technique.  You don't seem to get that one as well, but it works.  And you can tell it will be stronger.  Possibly because its more detailed, more emotional energy invested into it.  It is noticeably different.

"Enough for now." You fellow student says, and then gives you a demo of making a sword both ways.  "Soon, you and I could do some practise saber duelling."  he looks hopeful.

"Sure!" And if I've nothing better to do, I practice with him.

"By the way, what can you tell me about Umbral beings?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:43, Fri 28 Aug 2020.

In reply to Scord (msg # 78):

"Ah, well, um the Umbra exists next to us.  And its dark and usually pretty nasty, and some very powerful things in it would like to get here.  But rips in the fabric of the universe are rare.  And even if there is a rip they are self healing, and the things on the Other Side can't usually get to the rip in time.  We ah, we travel to other stars by going into the umbra or shadowside of a planet, opening a really quick gate, jumping through, and arriving a couple days later...like at New Texas.  There we open another gate back from the Umbra and into our Universe.  Its usually pretty safe as teh Umbra is like really huge, maybe bigger than our universe.  But sometimes you get unlucky and a starship gets eaten."

"Wow! A whole starship can get eaten!? How often does that happen?"

Reflecting on what was said to me when I first arrived about the worldwalls being ripped open and the umbral travel method, I say, "I'm worried there might be a rip into the Umbra that has remained open. When I entered this world I heard something that makes me think my arrival caused a rift."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:46, Sat 29 Aug 2020.

In reply to Scord (msg # 80):

"Something like one in a thousand trips I think for good ships.  Faster ships are better, and Shayan Marines have good ships.  You get a tramp freighter with its drive out of tune and slow and singing its distress all over the place....not so good."

And as you say those words about a rift, you feel a sickening twist all around you, and your sabre partner laughs scornfully.

You are now Cassandra.  Prophesy of my coming please.  Soon a starship will come full of moving bodies, but ther mind will be mine.  And I will show you my revenge.  You should not have stolen my Hungry One from me.

I think/speak back to the entity, I don't know Cassandra. Whom shall I say is coming? The Hungry One acted freely under no coercion. I merely informed it that eating by coersion is the way of darkness and death. If darkness and death remain your food, they will uterly consume you. If, instead, you eat the freely given love of the merciful One Who Is, you will live.

In reply to Scord (msg # 82):

You will learn of the curse of Cassandra.  Tell them Striglath the Dragoneater is coming if you like.  You believe the Great Liar.  He claims to be many things, but He lies!!!!  That last bit is shrieked in rage.

If you would accuse my God, Yahweh of lies, you name yourself the accuser - ha sah-tahn the father of lies, and therefore you call yourself greater than Yahweh.
If you have a complaint, tell the One Who Is about your grievance. I am a priest, a temple and an idol of my God who created me - Yahweh - the One Who Is. What you say to me, you may consider said to my god. What is your complaint?

In reply to Scord (msg # 84):

Your mind could not comprehend the tenth bit of my fury.  You have only touched the outer bits of the Light of Shaya.  Why would I seek to expalin myself to such a one as you?  No, I merely rejoice in your fear.  And I give warning, as is required, by Laws most ancient.  But I do so with cunning.

Foul laughter trails off and he is gone.

If I'm experiencing any fear, it's the fear you feel when you're in the presence of a hungry lion who wants to eat you but is caged and impotent. Worst case scenario, he could kill me, and that's not that bad. I've still got my God's love.

I find my superiors and report everything it said to me.

In reply to Scord (msg # 86):

And they laugh at you.

"Striglath Dragoneater?  He was killed twenty millennia ago before the spread of Humankind."

One of your supervisors suggests that perhaps you've had too much strain.  Perhaps you need to go to a nice vacation resort.  You can retry the Marines later.

"So my guess is that Cassandra warned people of an impending doom, but no one believed. Am I right?"

As for too much strain, "Maybe it's just an aftereffect of contact with the Umbral creature. But where might this vacation take me?"

If there's a library, I look up any plot sensitive information available on the curse of Cassandra and on the Dragoneater.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:58, Thu 03 Sept 2020.

In reply to Scord (msg # 88):

There is a spot high up on the TREE where ill people can recuperate.  It is very pleasant.  But going there is a failure, and it means you'd have to retry out for the Marines later with at least a gray mark in your file.

You check out the curse of Cassandra.  Its ancient Earth history.  Cassandra was a woman of Troy who had the gift of prophecy from the gods, but the curse that no one would believe her.  She said 'no, no, you morons, don't bring in the Trojan  Horse given to us by the Greeks.  It is a trap."  They said 'ah shut up, ya' crazy girl'.  We all know how that ended.

Striglath Dragoneater was a dark god who made a habit of killing dragons.  It seems like some of the races that exist are Human, Shayan, Dragon, Demon, and that of the non Human, all have been created by gods.  And Dinis, god of fire, was a dragon god who killed Striglath, but died in the process.

I look up the story of Dinis and Striglath (as well as other Striglath stories) to search for clues on Striglath's possible weaknesses, blind spots, motivations, joys and fears. As much as my referee feels might help me deal with Striglath once it arrives since warning people is useless.

I also ask Sargeant Willis about Dinis and Striglath for his thoughts on those two.

In reply to Scord (msg # 90):

As you read the books in the library, you begin to learn the difference between one planet, with a unified and rather short history on the one hand.  And a galaxy where only part of it is known, but it is known more is out there.  And the history of many races reaching back ten and twenty thousand and a hundred thousand and more years.

The Last Dragonflight was ten thousand years ago, and the Godswar was maybe thirty thousand years ago.

There were human like creatures living then, but Earth was yet to go to the stars.

The Librarians guide you as they can, but most of the history section is centered around the Planet Shaya for the last ten thousand years.  And even that has large holes.

They do mention that other libraries might have other information, but there is no such thing as a general archive.

You do find one book about Striglath.  He used Shadow for Magic.  And instead of creating Demons to worship him, and thus boost his power as is common, he instead made a practise of ambushing dragons and eating them to boost his power.  He was said to be unusually good at this.  Finally, in rage, Dinis, one of the many dragon gods tracked him for many years and finally caught him and they duelled.  Both died about where the Hand of Dinis is now.

I pray for Yahweh to lead me and show me what I should do to help as many people as I can.

Reasoning to myself, I think, I don't have the power necessary to overcome a god, if Striglath is anywhere near as powerful as Shaya. I might be able to save a few, but even that is doubtful and depends on what Striglath would do.

I search for information about how Striglath fought, how to contact whatever remains of Dinis or a current Dragon god and also how to become a god myself.

If these are dead-ends, I'll go back to training with my light powers and focus on challenging others and encouraging them.

In reply to Scord (msg # 92):

You pray, and it occurs to  you that general bestiaries of dragons and demons might be of use.  It turns out that 'demons' is a bit of a misnomer.  Bipedal, vicious drones that increase in power and intelligence but are not innately evil although highly xenophobic, impatient, violence prone, and cultish are the demons.  Dragons are stronger by a wide margin, but have far fewer numbers.  And they can range in power from beasts that a dozen humans might be able to handle to things that have lived for twenty thousand years and could kill you just by looking hard at you.

Neither side likes the other.

You do read a couple books on fighting techniques.  There is just one suggestion of a 'Striglathian egg ambush', a hollow small asteroid that tumbles for a long time while the ambusher sleeps inside waiting to break out and attack a passerby.

You could try to go to the Hand of Dinis, or the Eye of Dinis (which is further away by two times).

Becoming a god.  It helps to absorb power. To visit sites where dead god body parts lay about.  And there is quite a long list of such in the nearby galaxy.

I look into:
-Are there any celestial bodies on a trajectory to come near Shaya? (Such that could be concealing Striglath)
-How long would it take to go to the Hand of Dinis, and how can I get there?
-How long for the Eye of Dinis?

If I don't find any asteroids or such, and it isn't too long, I'll head for the Hand of Dinis

In reply to Scord (msg # 94):

There are three.  One is the smallest and will be here in six months.  The others are two and three  years.

Merchant? Four months.  Military? 1.5 months. Tramp freighter? One year.

Double those times for the Eye.

Doing my full prayer ritual (OOC: I can type it out it it will help my chances) I pray, "Yahweh, my King, send me where You want me to go."
My intention is that I get to the Eye of Dinis ASAP - by miraculous teleport or mundane transfer or anything else - I'm open to God's will, whatever it may be.

Then I look into getting transferred out to the Eye immediately (or Hand if not the Eye).

In reply to Scord (msg # 96):

You get a definite sense of 'Yes', and thats it.

Next day, you're called to the chief trainer's office.

"Ah, we have an ambassador from New Texas.  He needs to go to the Hand of Dinis, and he asked if we had any Humans who could come with him.  I immediately thought of you.  This would put your Marine training on hold, but it would not be check against you.  In fact, its a benefit.  You'd be getting experience with higher levels of society and you could get fire magic to add to your light magic.  If  you do go, just remember your training to not get too toasty, and remember you represent the Shayan Marines, so do us proud."

"Thank you sir, I am very happy to accept this assignment! I will do my best to represent the Shayan Marines with utmost dignity."

In reply to Scord (msg # 98):

An hour later, you meet a man who has a green Stetson, black jeans, a belt buckle made of a dragon's talon, and shiny white boots.

"Howdy ya'll." He smiles.  "I am ambassador William Blake, call me Bill."

"Hi Bill! You've got quite the outfit. Is there a story behind that talon, or just your style?"

In reply to Scord (msg # 100):

He looks confused.

"This is what cowboys wore in Texas on Old Earth."

Anyways, you heading out with him to the shuttle which takes you up from a launch pad in the TREE to orbit.  You see several shuttles out the port window, and two in front of you. But they part, and let you through.

"Ambassadorial privilege." He chuckles.  At least that sounds right.

Once docked with a ship, you go down a near transparent tunnel to the Shayan Navy ship, Branch of Gold.  The XO greets you both.