Party List

Nyx Alaion (Zoe Fox)

[Shroud] : [Knife]

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Aleister Demian (Jasmine Burch)

[War] : [Ebon]

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Fiona Woods (Evan Woods)

[Plate] : [Aegis]

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Evie Lucian (Cassandra Bailey)

[Soul] : [Radiance]

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Mellody Softsong (Ashton Burch)

[Muse] : [Revel]

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Caoimhe Phadraig (Kieran Moor)

[Slayer] : [Tyrant]

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Firo Strix (Blake Walker)

[Mage] : [Invoker]

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Hibiscus Jade (Marissa Harper)

[Arrow] : [Seeker]

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Zoe

As [Áine] spoke and the cutscene began in earnest, Zoe heard her friends mute and deafen. It took only a moment for the [Dagda's] image to materialize in the water mirror. He looked concerned, but not overly so, which seemed fair to Zoe given they had already pushed back the Fomorians on that side.

"Given that you appear to be in good health and not run ragged, I assume you've been successful on that side as well?" He asked.

"Yes, thanks to our friends here, I was able to get our [Windshred Barrier] activated. We'll likely need to keep it manned near permanently for the foreseeable future, which will cost quite a bit of resources, but we should be safe." [Áine] responded, but the voiceline sounded mildly annoyed, still.

"And?" the [Dagda] prompted.

[Áine] sighed. "I believe the [Seelie Court] has at least a traitor or two in its midst."

Zoe gasped out loud as a joke, despite no one able to hear her.

"I suspect our side does as well. With the [Unseelie Court] involved, I would be surprised if they aren't taking an active role in scouting and spying."

"Agreed. They are simply too good at it not to." [Áine] nodded. "Do you have ways to disable their spells?"

"I'll manage. A few of the original [Aes Sídhe] should have some counterspells, if not artifacts that will deal with it."

"Alright. I can dispel most magic in the palace here easily enough, so as long as they haven't escaped and we don't allow others in easily, it should be alright on our side too." [Áine] said. "In which case, we have our next move for now."

The image of the [Dagda] nodded in agreement. "We need to draw out the enemy spies, remove them, and rebuild. Hopefully your palace is still in a defensible state?"

"They managed to knock out a few walls, but nothing we can't cover with the barrier. How is your city?"

"It will take a little time to rebuild, but nothing unmanageable."

"In which case, I believe we are done here, no?" [Áine] asked. "We each have things to attend to, so there's little point in further discussion."

"True enough. Send our friends this way when they're available. [Scathach] would like to talk to them, apparently."

"Very well. They've heard, and are free to leave whenever they like."

The [Dagda] chuckled. "I haven't seen you treat anyone so openly in some time, [Áine]."

"I haven't had trustworthy allies in some time either, need I remind you." [Áine] said, then waved her hand dismissively, closing the link. She turned to Nyx, who was standing front and center on Zoe's screen. "There you have it. I'm sure we'll have plenty of work to offer you soon, but I have some…cleaning to do."

[Áine's] creepy, too-wide smile that Zoe hadn't seen in a while returned as she spoke, probably in reference to the removal of any spies among her people. While the idea of a few quest lines being focused on tracking down and finding enemy spies hidden with magic sounded really neat to Zoe, it didn't seem like something they would be getting yet.

"For now, you may as well return to the other side and visit with [Scathach]. I don't mind that one…I may have to try to lure her to my side…" [Áine] waved that thought away as well. "In any case, you're on your own. Good luck."

With a quick flourish, the [Queen of the Fae] vanished into a stream of silvery light that zipped out of the room, which also ended the cutscene. Everyone returned to the chat one by one after that.

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"So…now what?"

[Áine's Defense]

[Scenario Cleared]

"Oh." Zoe said, as the message popped up on her screen.

"Looks like we got auto-loot, too." Fiona said. Zoe glanced to the bottom side of her screen where the minimized pop-up was that indicated the party had loot to sort out. She grinned at it and clicked on it to see exactly what they had gotten for the last fight.

[Fae Wing]

[Round Shield]

[Defense : 13]

[Resistance : 18]

[Parry : 20]

[Invested Effect : [Perfect Blocking] magical attacks can trigger [Counters].]

[Rule Breaker]

[Athame]

[Strength : 12]

[Intelligence : 14]

[Accuracy : 22]

[Speed : 19]

[Invested Effect : Grants [Weird] to wielder.]

Zoe was certain that Fiona would be all over the [Round Shield], despite being entirely unsure what its invested effect actually meant. However, all that went right out of the door when she saw that the second weapon available was an [Athame]. Not only was that the preferred weapon type for her favorite secondary [Dedication] - and the one she usually played in PvP - but it was even usable on [Shroud] as a knife-focused [Path].

She quickly moused over [Weird] to see what it did but was disappointed by the information it gave her.

[Weird] : Fae magicks interact with other effects in strange ways. Grants different effects depending on the user's [Path] and [Dedication].

"Guys? Can you all look at 'Weird' and tell me what you make of that?" Zoe asked, accidentally interrupting Fiona's excitement over finally seeing a [Round Shield] drop. "Sorry, Fiona."

"No sweat," he said. "Besides, I'm about to google what the Fae Wing actually does…"

"I don't think I've ever seen anything with an effect like this…" Firo said.

"Me either. Sounds neat, though?" Aleister offered.

"I think I've seen one other weapon with a similar effect, actually." Bisky said. "There's a longsword called…something, I don't remember, that had a different effect based on whether it was wielded by a strength-based Path or an intelligence-based one."

"Oh? I wonder if that'd be good for my Rune…" Firo said thoughtfully. "I currently just have a regular sword on it and don't use the Invested Effect on it, so an upgrade would be nice."

"I don't recall the effect being that good, sadly. I think it was just a stat bonus to the main stat. The weapon was just a rare, if I recall." Bisky said.

"Oh, so probably not worth tracking down." Firo sighed.

"Sorry."

"To get us back on topic, Nyx, I'm not sure it really matters what it does to the rest of us. No one but you plays any dagger-focused Paths, so no one is going to fight you for it. Especially since it seems like it would even work on your main Dedication." Cass said.

"I guess that's true." Zoe said.

"Holy shit! Holyshitholyshitholyshit!" Fiona interrupted everyone, with far more excitement than he was speaking with before. "Y'all, the Fae Wing lets me Perfect Block AoEs to proc Counters."

"Say what?"

"Yeah, exactly."

"Bro, if you start standing in actual AoEs to proc Counters, I'm not healing you." Mellody said.

Fiona scoffed. "Mello, I'm not stupid. I won't stand in the big red puddles, but I can Counter raid wides. Or maybe even tank mechanics that are targeted AoEs or something. Holy crap, I need it."

Caoimhe snorted. "Literally no one else plays Aegis, bro. It's all yours."

After that, the conversation was pretty much over. Zoe left with a new knife that she made a mental note to test on her various [Dedications], and Fiona left more than satisfied with a new shield.

"That still leaves us figuring out what to do from here." Firo said. "We could go talk to Scathach, but it's not like it's part of a quest. Apparently."

Zoe noticed that Firo was right. They had been told to go find the [Lady of Shadows], but weren't given a quest for it, and with [Áine] gone, there was no one nearby to give them a quest, either.

For the moment, it truly seemed like the raid quest was finished.

Some part of Zoe let out a deep sigh of relief. Not only had they managed to clear the final fight in the one day that they knew they had, even if they cut it close, but they had done so before they planned to move to focus on a new limited-time event. The pressure to keep up with everything had settled, when she didn't even realize she had felt it.

"Well. We don't have a lot of time left for tonight, do we?" Bisky asked.

"Nope. Not if we hold true to the end time we set up." Mellody said.

"As much as I'd love to push ahead because we cleared, I really need to get going. I can't leave Sam alone with Eli for longer than I already have with a clean conscience." Fiona said.

"That seems fair, yeah." Caoimhe said. "I wouldn't mind calling it here for the night so I can go spend some time with my family, too."

Bisky snickered. "You skipped dinner, didn't you? Has Nat come calling yet?"

"Not yet. I could smell dinner a little while ago, but I had permission to skip it. But I'm pretty sure I'd get a knock on my study door if I took too much longer."

"Then let's wrap it up, I guess?" Cass said.

"I'm in agreement." Firo said. "We did what we set out to do today, and I'm chuffed with that."

"Chuffed?"

"Firo, did you just say chuffed?" Caoimhe laughed.

"...I did. So what?" Firo shot back.

"Just weird word choice, bud." Caoimhe said.

"Anyway," Mellody said to get everyone back on track, "before we all break for the night, did we want to meet up tomorrow like we had for the emergency plan? Just clean up whatever loose ends we have before the new year break?"

"Works for me. I can be here." Zoe said, as agreements came in from everyone.

"I'm good, too. Just a reminder that I have a TTRPG game at 7, so an hour before our normal end time. I'll need to leave around 6:30 for it, since I need to walk." Firo said.

"Okay, so we'll try to run around and prep for the PvP event for an hour and a half? That should be plenty to plan things out and talk shop." Cass said.

"Agreed. So, we'll wait until tomorrow to check in with Scathach, too?" Zoe asked.

"Sure." Bisky said. "We don't know what she wants yet, so there's no reason to rush."

"So…break?" Aleister said.

"Yup." Fiona broke in, speaking quickly. "Night y'all. I gotta run. T-T-Y-L."

As the little jingle played to denote Fiona leaving, Caoimhe chuckled. "Saying 'T-T-Y-L'? Fiona's feeling like a high schooler today, I guess."

There was a chime as Fiona popped back into chat, said "I heard that, fuck off, Caoimhe," and left again, leaving the group chuckling.

After that, everyone trickled out over a few minutes. Zoe hung around, mostly because she wanted to test out exactly what her new dagger did. She wasn't too surprised when Bisky, the last other person in the chat besides Cass, said "See you two later," with a distinctly teasing lilt before disconnecting as well.

"And then there were two." Cass joked.

"You want to hang around while I play with my new toy?" Zoe asked.

"Sure. Let me get us back to the city."

"Sounds good to me."

Cass set Evie to creating the [Fae Circle] to port the two of them from the Fae's palace to [Falias]. "So, what are you hoping that 'weird' does?"

"I really don't know." Zoe said, actually really thinking about it for the first time. "Right now, my first thought is something for Athame, with the PvP event coming up. The issue, of course, being that I play Athame differently, so…"

As the portal snapped into completion, Cass chuckled and stepped through it. "You say that like it makes it unlikely that they'd buff it with a new effect, but if they want to shake up the meta…"

"If they want to shake up the meta, they don't put the effect on a single weapon locked behind the raid." Zoe said as she moved Nyx through the portal.

"We don't know that they didn't get added elsewhere. Maybe 'weird' is a combo skill that is a bunch of effects compiled from easy to get weapons."

"I guess we never did read all the stuff that came in the patch, did we?' Zoe said. "I guess since we've cleared, maybe it's finally time to take a real look through everything."

"I think it is. But let's play with your new toy, first."

"Yay!" Zoe cheered, throwing her hands in the air, although Cass couldn't see them.

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