100th Post!

It's the 100th post! Come one come all! And you know what that means: FINALLY that uber-special chapter of The Diadem! Here's the epilogue to the previous chapter and the story by me to get you caught up:

Prequel: Melting Fear

By Caroline Dawnrunner

    I trembled, feeling suddenly cold all over. I felt a warm, reassuring hand on my shoulder. I turned around and I saw Rebecca’s faceless expression staring at the bed.

    “What happened?” I asked shakily.

    “Well, uh, you started whispering, ‘ehh, go away’, and then you started shivering and turning over. Then my elbow got really cold, and I, uh, realized the bed was turning to ice. So I unstuck you from the sheets and bed (which were all turning to ice) and I got you in the kitchen to get warm. I, uh, also started breathing on you, does that bother you? Naw, it doesn’t bother you, I can tell.”

    “Oh my gosh, really?” I muttered.

    “Uh, yeah,” Rebecca replied. “Listen, you, uh, should get some sleep. You probably shouldn’t sleep on the bed; sleep on the floor. You can have my sleeping bag if you like.”

    I thanked Rebecca and crawled inside the sleeping bag.

    I woke up a bit later with my head feeling cold and wet. I looked up behind be and saw that the black ice on the bed had melted. I looked back down at my sleeping bag-covered body. I pulled the cover closer to me, but I still didn’t feel safe.

Part 1: Meowiarty, the Crime Boss

    “You ready?”

    Valerian Seasong stared at me hard.

    “Yeah,” I said quickly.

    I stared up at the sign Big Ben. It stared back at me, as though repeating Valerian’s question. I looked now at the 1700’s style elevator with the intricate designs on it. Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the gauntlet and started the countdown. I heard Valerian join behind me. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—in.

    Ding!

    The elevator stopped at the first floor. The doors opened and the two of us scrambled outside, but only to be attacked by rats! We leaped into combat with the first challenge in the tower. Luckily our turn was first. Whew.

    I casted a Myth Blade on myself and Valerian used a Fire Blade. Then the rats used those things I really, really hate—Weakness. Awful spell. They casted both on me. That wasn’t a good start. I rifled through my deck, looking for my wand attacks. There! Super Clash. I used it on the next turn I had. One of my weaknesses was gone. Valerian used a trap. One rat used a blood bat. Very injurious. The second one passed.

    Third turn I used my second wand attack, ridding me of the last weakness. Valerian used a Kraken on one of the rats, making the rat fall over on its feet and fade away. The remaining rat passed again. The next round started and I got a power pip. Yes! I casted the Minotaur spell on the last rat, ending the fight.

    “Meowiarty, finish them!”

    Malistaire vanished, leaving behind a puff of smoke

    “Omigod, he’s gone!” Valerian hollered.

    “He said something about a Dragon Spyre…”

    Valerian and I were on the top floor of Big Ben, which was inside the clock. You could see the cogs and the flywheels and the gears turning on the clock. In the center of the room was Meowiarty, in the flesh and proud of it. Next to him was the Agony Wraith (I think Wraiths are actually supposed to be ghosts, but natural definitions don’t work that way in the Spiral.) Next to the two was one of the constructs from Katzenstein’s Lab. All three looked like they meant serious biz.

    Valerian eyed the three nervously. “Nobody told me there would be THREE foes at the end of Big Ben! Maybe we should come back next time with a friend—”

    “C’mon, the construct doesn’t count! And we’ve come this far. Besides, do you wanna get to Mooshu right away or not?”

    Valerian grinned. “Alright. For Mooshu!”

    So we jumped into combat.

    “Caroline!” Valerian shouted over the music (annoying music I should mention—really pierces your eardrums.) “I’m gonna target Meowiarty! You get the construct!”

    Ok: He gets Meowiarty; I get the construct—no fair! I brought prisms—what if I wanted to fight Meowiarty too? He gets all the boss glory and I don’t. That’s not cool.

    So on the third round I casted a Minotaur and defeated the construct. The horned menace struck the damaging blow on the thing and then it started bobbling its head around, just like when you defeat a wizard in PvP. Not as exciting as Meowiarty falling flat on his face. Then it was Valerian’s turn, and he casted a 2k-damaging Seraph—on the Agony Wraith! How unfair is that? He gets both bosses while I only get the construct.

    So the duel went on. Valerian used all his Storm Treasure card buffs: Storm trap, Elemental trap, Stormwind… it felt boring to keep passing. Meowiarty attacked Valerian a lot, but he didn’t seem to really care. It wasn’t fair. He was all greedy for fighting the bosses and I got left in the dust. He’d been my friend for… how long?

    “Where’s the museum, where’s the museum, where’s the museum…”

    Since the week before I started Big Ben. I guess that wasn’t very long.

    “Do you need help?”

    Valerian. That’s the first time I met him.

    “Actually, yeah. Do you know where the museum is?”

   “Yeah! You can follow me.”

  Pretty much how it started. We’d gone through Marleybone side by side, from Hyde Park to the Counterweights. It kinda burned knowing that now he was being selfish when it came to beating bosses. I don’t think he knew he was being selfish either.

    Valerian casted another Storm Treasure card, but instead of it boosting him, I had a Storm Blade. Whoops. I thought he kind of deserved to make a mistake there. Then the next round came, and Meowiarty used a Minotaur on Valerian, bringing him down to 3 hp. Then he used another Treasure card—this time Elemental Blade. On me. I thought it was a coincidence that he messed up his buff a second time, but then he threw a Storm treasure card at me—Stormzilla. He wanted me to deal the damaging blow. He wasn’t so selfish!

    The next and final round began with Meowiarty. He smiled and used a Bloodbat on Valerian, dealing 75 damage. Not a lot, but Valerian was defeated. His head spun around like he was dizzy.

    So then I used the Storm Treasure card on the cat—the spotted yellow egg appeared at the center of the swirling vortex, then split appeared and unleashed the huge dinosaur. It hopped up and down a couple times, then blasted 6k damage at Meowiarty. The evil feline comically fell flat on his face, and the duel ended. I received the Mastermind badge, but Valerian didn’t. I kinda felt a little bad for thinking that he was selfish.

    “Hey Caroline?”

    Valerian was whispering to me from Regent’s Square.

    “Yeah?”

   “Sorry I died. You think we could do Big Ben again so I can go to Mooshu?”

   “Sure. That’s what friends are for.”

That was from a post before this one, but since so much time has passed...

Oh yeah, and Aedan did a story. I didn't actually understand the whole plot, but he said it was an assault by The Cold Master...

The Snow Devil

By Aedan Thunderpyre

    “Uh…whoa.”

    Yeah. Whoa. Rebecca and I watched as a bright purple blimp soared over our heads, then disappeared into the stormy gray clouds.

    “What…was that?” Rebecca asked.

    “Noooo idea,” I replied.

    Marleybone was turning out to be a weird place from the moment we stepped outside. For one thing, it was only nighttime there. For another, I had had enough of these Twilight Zone people. The dogs in Krokotopia were just a taster for the people here. All the people were cats, dogs, rats, frogs, or something or the other. No human exceptions, except for wizards doing quests.

    “Hey Aedan?” Rebecca asked.

    “Yes?”

    “Look! A water fountain!”

    Rebecca ran toward a drab-looking water fountain with murky water and jumped right in, getting her whopping Marleybone dress wet. She didn’t seem to mind at all. She just splashed around, making ripples and laughing. Her Heckhound was just as crazy. It was swimming all over the place, doing doggy paddles and such. A couple dogs shot disapproving looks.

    I shot Rebecca a look. She didn’t notice. Instead, she plugged her nose and went under. I sighed and walked a few blocks away—and almost fell when I met the end of the world.

    I didn’t fall. Instead, I toppled over. Beneath me was an endless stretch of sky with twinkling stars going on forever. I gripped the edge of the sidewalk before I could fall into the chasm and pulled myself back up. I decided I would walk back over to Rebecca, but instead I stood at the edge, staring into the void and wondering why all the realms in the Spiral are so small. Well, actually the entire spiral was supposed to be one big world like all the other worlds in the universe, but during the war between the Dragons, Frost Giants, and Tritons the world was broken up into little hubs that created the Spiral. The space between each realm was sort of the intersection between worlds. I wondered if I jumped down there I would fall somewhere else in the Spiral…

    “Hey Aedan?”

    Rebecca stood behind me.

    “We’re supposed to be at the Museum,” she said, sounding a little annoyed.

  

    Twenty minutes later I was on a balloon ride with Rebecca to Hyde Park. Whatever this mysterious mystery was, it started here. Once the balloon landed, I couldn’t take it anymore. I jumped into combat at the first rat I saw.

    The dueling circle lit up and the spinner pointed at me. I was first. I took out my Adept deck and consulted my cards, then chose Lighting Bats. This rat had to know who he was dealing with. So I pulled out the card, traced the Storm symbol, and let it rip.

    The bats swirled out of the dark void thing and circled around the rat, getting rid of half his health. Past him, I saw Rebecca walking by me, her eyes avoiding the fight like the plague.

    It was the rat’s turn now. He only had one pip, so I was sure he couldn’t inflict too much damage. He took out a blue card and grinned. He traced the ice symbol, and something happened that I wasn’t expecting.

    He had a Snow Angel card.

    The scene went all chilly, and the not-so-angelic Angel appeared and took a swipe at me. I jumped back in surprise and fell out of the dueling circle. The circle disappeared as though I’d fled, because if you leave the dueling circle, the fight’s over. That’s why you have to learn how to keep your eyes open when someone slaps their hands in your face in Ravenwood. But the Snow Angel was still there.

    The rat that attacked me walked on as if nothing had happened, but the Snow Angel took another whack at me. I ducked. Bad move. My head slammed into a building. Hard.

    I pulled out my deck and frantically looked for a card that might get rid of the Snow Angel and found Meteor Strike. I frantically outlined the Fire symbol and let the spell work its magic.

    The Meteors came out of the sky and rained down on the Snow Angel. We weren’t actually in a duel, so I had no idea how much health it had, but all I know is that the spell only did 235 points worth if damage. The Snow Angel took out a gold card and traced the Ice symbol, and out came a Frost Giant!

    The giant hit me with such force that made me lose over half my health, and stunned me. Luckily I got 5 stun shields thoughJ.

    Since I was stunned, the angel (or should I say devil) was free to cast another spell on me. This time it took out a blue card and cast Evil Snowman. Evil Frosty hit for 310 damage. After that I wasn’t stunned anymore, so I looked at my health globe. Man, I wasn’t doing good! I only had 125 hp left. I used pixie to restore my health, but it didn’t do me justice. I regret not choosing Life as my secondary school.

    Next the Snow Angel used Ice Wyvern. It nearly took all my health away. I used Meteor Strike again, but it didn’t help me too very much. The Snow Angel pulled out another Ice card, going for the kill…

    …And was blown to bits.

    An Efreet stood where the Snow Angel/Devil had been, then vanished. Behind it stood Rebecca Duskglade.

    “Hmm… good thing I have this Efreet Treasure Card,” she said. “How did a Snow Angel get in Hyde Park?”

    “Rebecca,” I said, “I think you just saved my life!”

    “Well I hope you’ve learned something from this.”

    “Huh?”

    “STOP BEING SO IMPULSIVE!!!”

And this is my friend Valerians' story, and the narration is omniscient. I know it's much better than the first two, but that's cuz Valerian took creative writing classes.

Katz Lab

By Valerian Seasong

    Sherlock Bones looked through his papers, searching frantically for some hint…

    It had been three days since Dr. Katzenstein had unleashed his army of automatons in Chelsea Court and stole construct parts from a scientist studying some of the clockworks. Why… he had no idea. For the first time in his career, Sherlock Bones was stumped.

    “Bones?”

    Watson stood in the doorway of Bone’s office.

    “Just a moment, Watson. I need to look this over first.”

    “Well, actually…” Watson shifted his weight from one paw-foot to the next. “I have somebody here who you’ve met a while back. His name is Valerian Seasong, and he has been working tirelessly on Knight’s Court to help the residents for the past couple days. He thinks he can help you with the case.”

    Sherlock’s ears perked up. This person might be able to help find out what Katzenstein was planning.

    “Send him in,” Sherlock said confidently.

    A wizard stepped inside the office. He looked confident and stood up tall.

    “Hey,” he said. “You might remember me from the other day, when I was talking with you and Baxter.”

    Sherlock stared at the boy for a moment, then remembered the events that had taken place a couple days ago.

    “Oh yeah! I remember now. Your name is Valerian, right?”

    “Yep,” Valerian replied. “And I want to help you against Dr. Katzenstein. How should I start?”

    “Well, if you would go infiltrate his lab and find out what he’s up to, that would be a dream come true…”

    “I can do it, Mr. Bones!”

    Valerian beamed at Sherlock, his green eyes shining from the light of the overhead lamp.

    Bones smiled, because if the wizard was as confident as he sounded, Sherlock might be able to crack the case after all.

    “Well, if you really think you can, Katzenstein’s lab is located on the remote side of Newgate Prison. I’m sure Watson can help you from there.”

    “Sounds good to me!” Valerian said. Valerian walked out of the office with Watson following steadily behind him.

   

    In the next half-hour Valerian defeated several clockwork bosses, right next to solving a few insignificant puzzles until he was finally ready to defeat Katzenstein.

    As Valerian navigated his way through the machine spiders, he prepared his deck with Myth Treasure cards. In duels, Valerian’s Treasure cards were his trademark in a boss fight. Whatever class the boss was, he always countered it, ever since General Akilles. This time he had some of the highest level Myth cards, like Minotaur, Earthquake, Orthrus, and Medusa.

    A few minutes later, Valerian stood in the entrance to Katzenstein’s inner chambers. He took a deep breath, gripped his staff and his deck tightly, and rushed to meet the cat.

    Dr. von Katzenstein stood down a small flight of stairs from Valerian. The feline taunted Valerian for a bit, but Valerian jumped into battle right away.

    Dr. Katzenstein’s turn was first, which meant he had an advantage. Valerian looked through his deck for a good spell to start out on. He thought a good Treasure card to use first would be Balanceblade, but Dr. Katzenstein might be one of the bosses that used Weakness, so he decided to play it safe and use one of his wand attacks from his Life staff. Sure enough, Dr. Katzenstein’s first move was Weakness—but Valerian easily eradicated it with his wand attacks. Katzenstein looked a little annoyed that Valerian had predicted his wand attack so well.

    On the second turn, Dr. Katzenstein put a Storm Trap on Valerian, and he used a Myth Blade. On the third round, Valerian used a Myth Trap on Katzenstein’s minion, and next he used Humungofrog which slayed the minion and took away a fraction of Katzenstein’s health, but it wasn’t enough to beat him.

    Valerian and Dr. Katzenstein spent the next few rounds using traps and blades and different boosts. Finally the round came when Katzenstein pulled out a gold card and showed the other side of the card to Valerian from the across the dueling circle, grinning. Valerian swallowed hard.

    The Treasure card said ‘Leviathan’.

    Valerian gulped. He may have been a Theurgist, but he didn’t have enough health to withstand such a big attack. He crossed his fingers in hope that he would have enough health left to heal after the assault.

    Dr. Katzenstein activated the Storm symbol…

    And fizzled.

    Valerian could barely keep himself from breathing out a sigh of relief. He was safe! The spinner landed on him next. He desperately needed this one not to fizzle, because then it would be over. He pulled out his best trump in the deck: Medusa.

    The snake-woman appeared in the dueling circle and gave Katzenstein the beating he deserved. Valerian had hoped that the cat would have been defeated, but Dr. Katzenstein still stood adamantly in his little circle. But it didn’t matter, because Katzenstein was stunned! There was no worry now in finishing him off.

    Sherlock Bones sat at his desk, flicking through papers but not actually taking in a word on them. It had been nearly an hour since Valerian had left for the Katz lab. Had he succeeded in his task? Or was he recovering in Regent Square? All these thoughts flashed through his head, but were interrupted when the creaked open.

    In stepped Valerian and Watson, both grinning from ear to ear. Valerian’s Aeronaut badge had been replaced by Smogger Smasher. Bones gazed at the two elated men, until Valerian broke the silence:

    “I beat Dr. Katzenstein! He was making a clockwork that knew where Meowiarty is hiding. He’s in Big Ben!”

    Sherlock jumped up.

    “Quick! Go over to the Museum! I’ll meet you there. We have no time to waste!”

    His blood pumping, Sherlock Bones watched as Valerian sprinted out the door. This kid is really something, Bones thought to himself. Could he be the one who will actually beat Malistaire?

That's it. Not very long, huh?

I would've posted this on Friday, but my family and I were going on a mini-vacation that day and only came back on Sunday night. Oh yeah, and I started playing this MMORPG called Dragon's Call.

It's this free Browser game that gets you started right away. As in right away I mean RIGHT AWAY. It's literally like, you register your email and password, you pick a server, you choose a class, gender and name, and that's it. End of story. You're on your  way.
    The game is really fun up until you lose all your newbie health packs. Then you have to start buying a bunch from the Tavern in a town or city, which is a real pain in the neck, plus it eats up all your money. I'll probably never play it again.
    Rereading the short stories makes me kinda homesick for Wizard101. Tears actually spring to my eyes as I realize there might me zero chance of me ever playing Wintertusk...
    Today was pretty cool too because I went on a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village. It's my second-to-last field trip until my 7th year of schoolin and it was fun!!! I got a bonnet in the Gift Shop and it looked nice :)
    I'm pretty amazed that this blog reached the 100th post so fast. I'm also encouraging you to read some of the past posts of A Spell of Role-Playing Games and Randomness.

--Have fun Gaming!
-Caroline Dawnrunner