<span class="mu-i"> In times of old, there stood many a great kingdom or realm, their lines proud, their kings great, and their works were legendary. It was a time of greatness for all, from all classes and races, for it was a time when the yields were abundant, the cattle fat, and the weather favourable.

This changed, however. A creature with a heart pitch-black and eyes of darkness and despair that rise and shrink with hate. All despaired at his coming and the hordes and legions he brought with him. Crowns were broken, castles slighted, and the kings lay broken. Like a vile black hand, his reach seemed boundless; with his fiery red eyes, his gaze kept his subjects obedient, and from a dark tower, this lord of evil watched over his realm as the land fell into darkness and despair, with hope fading like a dying ember.

But embers can flare up, and like the phoenix, a new generation of heroes and their hosts of light broke the chains, shattered his armies to the winds and finally brought an end to his reign of terror. As the morrow broke once more, it was thus proclaimed that nevermore should his name be uttered, nevermore should his remains be seen, and nevermore should there be fear of his tyranny. And so, the people rejoiced in their newfound freedom, rebuilding their shattered world with hope and determination for a brighter future. His artefacts and symbols, buried deep beneath the sands and earth, were so well hidden that not even the most fanatical cultist would find anything.

And yet in that lies the danger; dead though he may be, there are still those who revere him as though he were a god-king upon this earth, and his ilk have a tendency not to stay dead… There are still whispers, mutterings and vague prophecies about his return, though none have come true as of my writing this tome…. His name was struck from the lists of both paper and mind, so one would never again say that name which struck deep grief into the hearts of all peoples…. I shall end this book with a warning: if he does return, do not try to fight him; run. Run to the nearest authorities and alert them; fighting him alone shall surely be your doom, even if he's weakened, but the worst thing you can do is to let him speak; his words shall gnaw in your mind, his arguments shall be so persuasive that you will drop your weapons, and he shall weave a web of deceit that will ensnare even the strongest of wills. Hearken unto him, no matter his guise and form, and before too long you shall find yourself in eternal servility. </span>

Archive link: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=The%20Shadow%20Rises%20Anew
DeviantArt link: https://www.deviantart.com/adlershorst

A soft quiet hangs over the forest as you run through the underbrush. Compared to the lobby, it felt like a heavy blanket was draped over the arena and muffled everything outside. You do your best to not break the silence with your movement as you hurry through the forest. Spawns in an arena match are static but there were a few different locations where one could be spawned in. The limited amount of spawn points meant that anyone could narrow down the location of their opponent by heading over to them and seeing if they were there. That was, of course, assuming that their opponent hadn't moved in the interim. With how defenseless you were right now, you were sure that one or two direct hits from a simple spell would be disastrous. Not to mention her aim was far better than any newbie you ever saw. It would be best not to underestimate her, especially now that she had practice. You slide behind a fallen log and go prone. You strain your ears for any sound of your opponent but the silence persists. You needed to formulate a strategy.

The set up of your fight was quite simple, each of you had 3 healing potions and 3 mana potions. Not too egregious but enough to give each other a pick me up in case of a bad hit. You're not sure how well you'd be able to utilize the mana potions at the moment but the healing potions could come in handy in a pinch. You also had your ability to cheat death once per real world day. It was an ability that Serena didn't know about and you weren't really sure you wanted to use for a simple spar. Lifting up your coat, you make sure that your canister of fuel on your hip was locked in and ready to use. A quick adjustment of the wrist and the nozzle for your igniter, a miniaturized flamethrower, pops up and ready to use. You only had about 5 shots with a single can unless you decided to empty it completely for a large wall of fire. Finally, you reach down and pop off the small buckle on your belt. You flick the small lid off of the fake lighter and see the tiny grapple hook pop out, ready to fire and zip you towards your target or pull something towards you if it was light enough. These were just two of the gadgets you had built in what you hoped would be a small arsenal of tricks you could use. Even so, you weren't sure how well they could carry you now that you were playing a class without features.

You’re <span class="mu-b">ANTON PEAS</span>: mild-mannered frycook, stage magician, extradimensional tourist, and now a mafioso mulcher!

You heard right! Life’s been a whirlwind ever since you woke up in <span class="mu-s">ZORAL:</span> a fantasy world shrouded in perpetual darkness. There’s your fuzzy memories, of course, not to mention the fact that your gun-crazy ex-girlfriend <span class="mu-s">LIZ</span> somehow found her way in after you! Oh, and let’s not forget how your soul’s being held hostage by the eponymously-named <span class="mu-r">RED</span>: an archdevil who–in return for the demonic power you inadvertently pilfered on your arrival–wants you to slay <span class="mu-r">THE FOUR LORDS OF ZORAL:</span> a rogue’s gallery of godlike tyrants, monsters, and all-around persons of low moral fiber!

Thankfully you’re not alone… you’re more popular than ever, in fact! There’s <span class="mu-s">TZAH-TZIE,</span> of course: your feisty ladyfriend and a brash bard, <span class="mu-s">VOLKA</span>: Grand Marshall of a neighborhood safety group called <span class="mu-s">THE LAMPLIGHTERS</span> whose kindness is only matched by her dizzying size, <span class="mu-s">MOROOK</span>: a quiet, but competent ranger and Volka’s half-brother, <span class="mu-s">REZALITH</span>: once a fearsome foe, now one of your most powerful–and loyal–allies, <span class="mu-s">OTI</span>: skilled sorcerer with a chip on his shoulder, and <span class="mu-s">TOPPEL:</span> a manic mage with a penchant for less-than-ethical experiments and running into trouble!

Your arrival in <span class="mu-s">UMBERAL:</span> the gem of the North and self-proclaimed ‘<span class="mu-i">City of Tomorrow</span>’ was anything but uneventful. Despite being watched by the cold, unyielding gaze of <span class="mu-r">ARCHMAGE TRIER:</span> one of the many lords on your death docket, Umberal is also well-known for being home to the infamous <span class="mu-r">SPICE CARTEL:</span> a criminal enterprise whose reach spans all of Zoral… and maybe even beyond!

Well, it <span class="mu-i">did</span>, anyways. In search of ways to defeat the aforementioned archmage, your search inevitably led you to cross paths with the cartel, along with their leader, <span class="mu-r">VHALE NESSURMOS</span>--Tzah-Tzie’s ‘betrothed’ and Five-Star jerk! The feud reached its breaking point when he and his lackeys kidnapped your favorite catthing, and in a climactic clash in the cartel’s compound you managed to not only best Vhale and reclaim your girlfriend, but also acquire <span class="mu-s">NOTES</span> on how to defeat the seemingly-invincible archmage!

The battle may be won, but the war is far from over: Vhale’s lieutenants may not be as dead as you hope, and their troops won’t forget the blow you struck any time soon! Not to mention you’ve got an appointment with <span class="mu-r">TRIER</span> at dawn whether you like it or not! For now, however, all you can do is sit back, relax, and watch as your spunky Spinner’s concert comes to a close!

Ears still ringing from the bardic brawl’s aftermath, THIS is where your tale continues…

https://youtu.be/1lR8VLt1Xlk

May 5th, 2015.
It's final weeks on Tokyo-3's Municipal First Junior High School Academy and it's been hell on all the students.

Thankfully, you're too old to be going through math exams, mister school counselor! It's your 4th year since you've been hired to take care of these kids, and so far, it's been an alright job.

Having majored in said field straight after your degree in psychology, you were more than happy to have some security as opposed to dealing with flaky patients and the usual folks who just walked away after a "free trial". Frankly, from Cognitive Behavior to psychoanalysis, all forms of therapy were subjects you loved to deep dive in your free time despite being done with college for a while, and that's exactly what sets the mediocre scholars apart from the true specialists! Now if only your pay wasn't barely above minimum wage despite all your efforts...

It wasn't any school, no less. Tokyo 3's First Junior High's students were all, in one way or another, motherless. Either by accidents, coming from adoption, divorce, it was almost certain that no child from that school ever had both sets of parents in the house, and you knew very well what that meant. Extra steps went into advising teachers and staff, Parent-Teacher conferences, workshops, class conferences... Really, everything that involved giving support to students had to go through you first, and while it was exhausting work, none of the classes ever had a major fight thanks to 29 year old Date Kurono at their service.

Since finals week meant everyone was either silent in class, studying or going straight back home, it was an unusually leisure day for you, which given how active you were used to be there, meant you were tapping your feet at your desk in the teacher's lounge while everyone else your age was either in class or silently checking papers. Not like you were super friendly with any of the staff or anything, for they weren't much more than colleagues.

You barely had the social battery to socialize your way into a full shift, so you couldn't imagine having to balance that out with being an extrovert, which meant having no work to do and being stuck in your head was all the more alienating, since all you had left then was to ruminate about the past.

Really, why did you choose professional babysitting as your calling? Guess it all started back in the 80s when you were born, back when Tokyo 3 was just called Tokyo, your parents were an aspiring couple, each renowned in their own way, with your mother always being needed her job thanks to her revolutionary discoveries in neuroscience, and your father being a famous athlete, rising up the ranks to get the Japanese Lightweight Boxing Belt, aiming to go for the world.

Despite having big shoes to fill, back then you were too busy choosing who you should spent the most time with when they actually were home.

>Mom, she was from your field, afterall.
>Dad, who wouldn't love to have a boxing star for a father?

Mars. Shattered terraforming spikes encircle habitats half-buried in chlorate sands. A wan sun peaks through an skyline veiled behind drifting dust.

Your pilots stir, stretching pale limbs against the tug of centrifugal gravity. The mission briefing pulses in your mind like an imprint.

//INITIAL COMPANY OPTIONS:

> STRIKE LANCE. [+ ASSAULT/CAPTURE CONTRACTS].

> SALVAGE MANIPLE. [+ SALVAGE/EXPLORATION CONTRACTS].

> HOLY ORDER. [+ VENGEANCE CONTRACTS].

> FINAL VANGUARD. [+ CIVILIAN DEFENSE CONTRACTS].

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Welcome, everyone. I've been super busy with my inpatient rotations lately so I don't really have the time to render updates for SOLSTICE, but I wanted to try something much lower effort. VANGUARD quest is a simple, story-light multiplayer quest where players can customize their individual mechs and participate in shared missions. I welcome everyone to play, and apologize beforehand if my update schedule is irregular.

The sun rises over the Smoky Mountains, revealing dew- and fog-covered valleys, the remnants of East Tennessee after the veil fall. The parting fog reveals a settlement, a mixture of old and new buildings with a definite medieval flair, a castle on a hill overlooking a medium town with people beginning to truly leave their homes for work. Whether it be working fields and shepherding herds or more skilled work like blacksmithing and carpentry.
However, to you this is the new beginning; your father lies buried in the graveyard next to the small orchard the family has maintained for generations. With his passing you are now the duke of Stone Bridge. A man you had once thought indestructible layed low by a poisoned arrow from some Swail clan scum. His armor had stopped dozens of arrows, spears, and axe strikes, but there is always one. What had been an attempt to open some communication to at least lessen the constant hostilities between some of the mountain clans and your own house, not to mention all the other houses and noble lords that dotted the rivers and hills just below the mountains, instead ended in the death of your father and some of his retinue by ambush.
Now though is not the time for grieving, for you are a Duke of Stone Bridge, and you must take your vengeance as all lords of the hills and rivers do through reiving, and you shall not just stop at some lives of their boys and whatever herds you can claim from Clan Swale today; no, you shall destroy their main winter settlement if you can as you stand from where you were kneeling before the cross that marks your father, and you begin sending riders to all who swear their arms to you in the outlying villages as you order your servants to prepare rooms for the lords and knights with a mustering space for their respective retinues.
This is a quest set in a post-apocalyptic America where, at least to your knowledge of the surrounding regions, it is anything from forest and mountain clans who only wear their highest chain and live a semi-nomadic lifestyle all the way to the early modern period, circa the English Civil War, with everything in between being possible. You and the lands you control have a tech level of mostly the hundred wars era equivalent with some things that are more advanced, like stagecoaches. Your stylings and culture are somewhat inspired by English border reivers, but you're more likely to have some full plate, but you will have more medium and lighter cavalry in the form of hobelars and similar things. Monsters and magic similar to fantasy do exist with monsters being not uncommon, some even talk of different races, but magic of any real power is incredibly rare.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have this my first time running a quest here
<span class="mu-g">What is your name [ write in ]
Are you married or at least betrothed already [ yes/no ]</span>

Your name is Vincent Cruz. You work in a shady government-backed facility in the middle of the New Mexico desert. You're not here of your own volition, but you've grown used to your new life. By all accounts, you are a complete and total nobody to the Powers That Be.

Your job, frankly, sucks. You wake up, you spend hours upon hours studying fickle anomalies that could kill you at a moment's notice, you go to sleep, 30 GOTO 10. All so you can make money for the Abnormality Regulation Coalition (also known as ARC), the group who kidnapped you.

On the bright side, at least, you've been doing good at your job so far. You've been recently promoted for your hard work and you've been steadily earning more and more money from your research. At least you're making more money in one day than you did in a week during your last job.

It's cold comfort though. You can make all the money in the world but it doesn't change the fact you're stuck in the same ol' wringer. The same old rat race. Will you manage to make it out of here, you wonder, or will you die here? Left as nothing more than a rotten corpse in some random hallway in the facility.

Who's to say? All you can really do is to keep moving forward. One step at a time.

As for a recap of some notable things that happened recently?

You had an awkward, if friendly, reunion with your younger brother. He has gotten REALLY invested in religion and hey, if that helps him, you're not going to stop him.

You had another dream about the <span class="mu-r">Heart.</span> It's obsessed with you, but you still don't understand what it sees in you. Apparently it's also been pestering your brother and one of the corporate reps you work with, so who knows what its end game is?

You got a new anomaly called HARD TIMES but you don't know much about it still. All you know so far is that it REALLY loves to work and, hey, at least that's something you share in common with it.

You managed to resolve the situation Liz got herself involved with through some clever equipment usage and pure brute force. It feels nice to help people, you know? You even managed to help resolve a dispute she had with her friend Nicole.

Lastly, you subjected yourself to an incredibly painful shift by accepting five sponsorships that are going to make your job a nightmare. It'll make you a lot of money, yes, and it'll earn you a lot of respect with corpos. So the pain will be worth it, won't it?

That's your motto, Vince! You'll ENDURE at any cost! No matter how much your job sucks, no matter how much pain is inflicted on you, you'll keep moving. You are a flesh automaton and nothing, and you do mean NOTHING, will stop you from finishing your shift.

It's your obligation as a worker, after all!

ARCHIVE: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Low%20Rung
VINCENT SHEET/INVENTORY: https://rentry.co/VINCENTSHEET
ALLIES: https://rentry.co/COWORKERLIST
ANOMALY/SAMPLE NOTES: https://rentry.co/RESEARCHNOTES

The world is flawed.
It is not imperfect though, just purposefully made that way.

Life is full of suffering and conflict, a race where the living fight to find meaning and solace, either by giving themselves and each other meaning, or by taking it from those weaker.

An unwinnable race, a race against time, a race against “The World”.
A losing battle from the moment one is born, the pure soul is slowly drained of its myriad colors, then cast away once it has been consumed.

There exists a gate beyond “The World”, and past that gate is the infinite.
A cold and unfeeling infinity, impartial and silent, an infinity where despite the existence of suffering, you witnessed the radiance of all souls of all ages.

So you, <span class="mu-i">[????]</span>, decided to bring “This World” into the infinite.
Not for anyone in particular, you… don’t exactly have many people you care about to begin with, not out of resentment for the life you had to live, after all that’s just how life in this world is.
Simply because you felt like things should be as they are beyond the Gate.

Another five? joined you out of their own volition, together you worked for millenia to bring the world beyond The Gate, and failed.

The Gatekeeper sent two away, who knows where. Another had to merge with the world and keep it from breaking apart under the immense strain from The Gate… And you’re not sure if the other two even existed.

As for yourself, The Gatekeeper pushed the world away using you. Your cultivation burned away as it set the skies ablaze, your body shattered as it tore through the ocean and the world’s crust, and your soul was fragmented into infinite specks of spiritual energy, leaving nothing behind.

But that doesn’t matter, you reached the gate and went beyond it. You learned things that even The Gatekeeper itself is unaware of. Your existence is perpetual, it will simply resume some indeterminate amount of time in the future. Fate is simply <span class="mu-s">ABSOLUTE</span>, and your destiny is <span class="mu-i">ours</span>

"Next time... I will..."

....
....
....

Axle Era, Year 3266

Your consciousness begins to awaken once more in a mortal’s body, who had been gazing at the stars after a long day’s work in their master’s estate.

You’ll run a check on your “Body” and “Soul”.
>roll a 2d20 for body and soul in that order.

The body is that of
>A male
>A female

You can ask yourself a question to refresh your knowledge about something (optional)
>write in

//If any of the old players from last year end up here, stuff happened and I lost everything noteswise, I will be re-using a few things from that first run, but you can consider this a complete reset for the most part, I can only apologize for not properly backing things up.

The tale of Pavillion is coming to a close. The forces of unmaking, of erasure and annihilation, those whose stories were not told and condemned to oblivion rise once again. Those closest to the problem wage war, chasing revenge instead of preserving the future, each believing they can handle the problem alone. Time will tell.

> We are not accepting new players at this time

>>6363031
>Habitun Cult
Adamant Runes. The very idea is seen as frankly ridiculous at first. Adamant is quite nearly impossible to effect by any means, magical or physical, even the simple act of carrying it is quite difficult on account of weight. Typical rune work relies on storing magical power within the object itself, a fact that Adamant utterly ignores. Setting aside the difficulty of even carving such runes (requiring a frankly comical in scope supply of fracture blades), the fundamental designs of runework must be completely upended. An adamant rune cannot rely on the magic within it, it must rely entirely on the magic around it, a self assembling spell of tremendous complexity that the adamant rune imprints onto the world. The designs that spring forth call for a number of concessions in the theoretical objects they would create, chief of which is that they must always be in motion, carving paths through the ambient magic of the world. These techniques flow into an ambitious project, one where a Shadow is encased within an adamant frame, etched with a complex design of runes that empower and provide it with a flexible set of shadowy limbs.
For many centuries (or as the Barzans call them, years) the elves of the cult have worked to support and provide aid to their brothers and sisters across the span of “Could have beens”. This tyrn a measure of that debt is repaid, for crates of snarling beasts and manuals of hard earned experience wrangling and managing them is delivered through the portal network. The beasts are settled into their new homes in the dark forests of the Habitun, while a cadre of geists is trained on how to manage them, use them, and perhaps most importantly avoid their predation.

With the Tournament of Power brought to a close, the Seventh Universe has emerged triumphant once more. Led by the Saiyan warriors, the Seventh's victory was secured. And with the wish on the Super Dragon Balls used to restore the other universes that were eliminated and erased, the final hidden trial was passed, and all eight of the universes up for elimination were allowed to remain. Yet, even with this victory, peace doesn't last in the Seventh Universe for long. As old hatreds rise and long-buried grudges resurface, will you have what it takes to keep everything you've worked the last 28 years of your life to build? Or will those who seek your end ultimately triumph? That all depends on you, and your choices.

You the players will (most often) control Karn. A Saiyan man who has grown from his lowly beginnings as a mid-tier Saiyan Brawler with a sub-3000 powerlevel in Age 733 to become not only the strongest Saiyan of his time at AGE 759, but also personal friend to the former emperor Lord Freeza, father to over a dozen powerful and unique children, a mentor and teacher to his fellow Saiyans, and the indisputable winner of the Tournament of Power. Wielder of the Berserker Soul, and the powerful Stand Divine Dragon Force, you're fully equipped to handle any threat that comes your way. But what will you do when the threats aren't always physical, when you can't simply punch all your problems away?

Character sheets and other info:
https://controlc.com/46ec566d
https://pastebin.com/u/GrandDragonQM
Archive:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=Saiyan+Conqueror+Quest
Help fund quest art commissions and get exclusive side stories as well as artwork by joining the patreon for only $1/month at https://www.patreon.com/GrandDragonQM

Quest rules are as follows(unless otherwise noted):
>30 minute vote times
>Pick ONLY ONE option when voting
>Dice rolls are all best of three correctly-rolled dice
>At ten minutes past your previous roll, and there are not yet enough rolls, you may roll an additional roll
>Crits are 100 on a d100
>99s or paired rolls may net you extra bonuses
>Crit fails are a 1/100 with no passing rolls, or if two 1s are rolled regardless of the third
>Write-ins are both allowed and encouraged, but OOC options will be ignored
>If your goal is simply to troll, at least put in enough effort to make it funny
>Have fun

SCQ will usually start on Saturdays at noon Eastern Standard Time, and run throughout the weekend. Also, for updates or schedule changes you can also find me on twitter @GrandDragonQM, which I keep as up to date with any scheduling changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUT0uwSLQ3I


<span class="mu-s">SINISTER SCHEMES</span>